Page 99 - Musings 2021

6

The Sleepover
Akshay Nair
2019A3PS0175P

Hearing his mom’s car drive away from the entry gate of the apartment complex, Nathan
turned around and gazed upon the tall building in front of him. Despite this being his usual
weekend routine, the bells of happiness and warmth rang every time, for they knew the night
of fun and excitement that was to ensue. He quickly made his way up to his friend, Joseph’s
flat, usually pondering about the flat number for a minute whilst waiting for the elevator to
arrive. It was quite confusing to remember since his friend had recently changed flats from
7A to 11A. But he clicked on the right floor instinctively every time. His suspicions would go
away once he recognised the usual footwear that lay outside his friend’s flat.

He rang the bell out of courtesy, but he knew he did not need to because of how often he
frequented the place. His friend’s mom greeted him with a heartfelt smile followed by a
cheeky question about how the exams had gone for him. He evaded the question politely yet
cautiously since he had come here to escape from the pressures of school and parents which
he experiences daily at home. He ran to his friends’ room so as to avoid bumping into any
other family members with similar enquiries. Opening the door, the gust of cold air that
gushed out was always accompanied by a warm hug and enthusiasm which felt nothing short
of a second home. The next agenda was to gossip about all the crazy incidents that had

happened that week in school followed by a game plan on how to maximise fun during that

night.
The sleepover started much like any other 13-year-old boys’ sleepover; however, some things
were about to change the pre-planned events of that night. Being only thirteen, what good
could these boys have been up to? The plan for that night had been to play Clash of Clans and
cause mayhem in the random clans. Now, this included verbal abuses, name-calling, trolling
and trickery all in the name of fun. It was 2013 and these boys did not know any better. They
considered it to be harmless fun seeing as how they had met similar people online who
treated them the same way. But this was all going to change.
Nate had been jumping from clan to clan, to find gullible prey. He came across a certain
individual using the account Russell_1001 in a certain clan and started to chat with him. Let
us call this person Russell since we do not know his real name. Russell was not like the other
ruthless players who used to tease and abuse everyone else. It was quite the ruthless
community. He was well-mannered, polite, and quite frankly, a good guy who was happy to
help. Russell soon became acquaintances with both Nate and Joseph quickly since they were
of the same age. This was followed by follow requests being sent across on Instagram to
solidify the friendship with proof of actual existence. Everything was going well that night
until Russel began to open up about some problems that he had been facing.

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