So this was a story prompt that we got in school as a choice between a bunch of essay topics and even though I wrote an essay, I really wanted to write this story so here we are.

The prompt was "When Prateek opened the door to the garage..."

Alright guys, here we go. I have no story planned. I'm just going to go with the flow.
(Hehe, that rhymes)

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When Prateek opened the door to the garage the last thing that he had expected to see was his former best friend lying on the roof of his car, one knee folded with a bottle of tequila in his hand, that swung by the car door.

The other thing that he hadn't expected was for him to raise his head up a bit and say " 'sup".

To make it even weirder, rather than addressing the elephant in the room, which was, where the afformentioned friend had been for the past two years or how he had entered the garage, Prateek responded with, "get off the car, I got it serviced yesterday."

Listening to this, Arjun sat up, still on the car roof and raised his bottle, Leonardo DiCaprio meme style. "Want some? There still might be a few drops in there."

A confused laugh erupted from Prateek's throat. "Get off the car you idiot."

Arjun jumped off the roof, stumbling a little under his own weight and trying to regain his balance, "woah! this is some hard stuff, my brain hurts." He started falling towards the floor and Prateek caught him just in time before he fell and cracked his head on the hard floor. "Dude, what's wrong with you? Get up. Up, up."

He pushed Arjun back to his feet fighting against the body weight that the man had placed on him. When he got Arjun to stand up straight, he dusted his clothes and looked back up to see his friend trying to find something on the car roof. He seemed to have found what he was looking for and pulled it down. It was a ukelele. What was Arjun doing with a ukelele? He did not know. According to Prateek, he had quit playing the instrument five years ago, three years before he had randomly disappeared.

Arjun sat on the floor, legs crossed and started strumming a tune. If that wasn't enough, he started singing as well. Arjun had always had a nice voice but right now it was a bit hoarse.

♪♪"Let's fall in love fall in love for the night
and forget in the morning.
Play me a song that you like
You can bet I'll know every line.
'cause I'm the boy that your boy hoped that you would avoid
don't waste your-"♪♪

He was interrupted by a suggestive cough from Prateek.

He looked up at the man and smiled. "Oh hi, didn't see you there. When did you get here?"

"Idiot", said Prateek and sat down next to the man.

The twenty seven year old with the ukelele looked around for his bottle but couldn't find it. He turned to look at Prateek and frowned looking at the man holding his bottle."

"Gimme it"
"No"
"I will whine if you don't"
"I don't care"

Arjun did not whine, instead he placed his instrument on the side, fell face first into Prateek's lap and groaned. He felt a hand on his head running through his hair.

"Get up Arjun, I need to get you some water."
"No, I want to lie here"
"It will make you feel better. Trust me."

After a few more rounds of convincing, Arjun removed his head and Prateek got him a glass of water.

The man sat there drinking water, clutching into the glass with both hands as his friend rubbed a hand on his back.

"Now, can I know how you managed to enter my garage?"

"Shhh... It's a secret. I'm a fast learner and I have learnt alot in these years."

Prateek shook his head, "ok, but how did you escape the security alarms? They should have been blaring when you tried to enter."

"That's another secret. I cut the wires." Prateek laughed at his friend's idiocy.

"Hmm... I see. You look lovely by the way." Arjun pouted at a laughing Prateek. He knew he felt like shit so he looked like it too, but nonetheless, he flipped his imaginary long hair, "I know right".

"What happened to you?", said Prateek, seriousness returning to his voice. He remembered the day two years ago, when he found out that Arjun had run away. He had tried contacting his friend but no one picked up his calls. The others assumed he was dead but Prateek still had hope.

"Time Prateek, time happened and alot of other shit. Time changes all just as-"
"Shut up with your philosophical talk you idiot."

"You still love calling me an idiot", Arjun noted.

"Of course, but what I meant was, what made the oh-so-nice saint, Arjun Sinha turn to alcohol?"

"You really want me to answer?"
"I asked you so I would appreciate an answer."
"Time Prateek, time happened and alot of other shit. Time changes..."

Prateek zoned out of the conversation, laughing to himself. This man had left two years ago 'learnt' alot in the time he was away but was still the idiot that Prateek had become friends with when they were nineteen and in college.

Prateek didn't want to bombard Arjun with questions, especially since he was currently having a hangover, buthe wanted to keep the conversation going. So he put off the question of his disappearance for later and instead asked, "is this the first time you're drinking?"

"Yeah"
"Wait what?! A whole bottle of tequila on your first time? Shit. Are you crazy? What made you think you should do that?"
So much for not asking questions

Arjun shrugged, "I asked for the strongest they had, he gave me this, I took it."

Prateek mentally face palmed at his idiotic best friend. "Come here", he opened his arms. Arjun stared at him but then placed his head on Prateek's shoulder and hugged his torso. Prateek wrapped his arms around his big baby of a friend and hugged him tightly. It had been long since he had done that and he would be lying if he said he didn't miss it. Arjun's grip tightened as well, both men sitting there, hugging eachother.

When they pulled back, Prateek's eyes were glistening with tears and Arjun's cheeks were wet.

There was a comfortable silence. Both of them knew that the other had been crying when they were hugging but none of them said a word.

Arjun broke the silence first. "I missed you. I missed you so so much."

"I missed you too"

At this, both boys jumped at eachother and met into an even tighter hug, this time, crying without holding back their sobs. Their hiccups and interrupted breaths echoed through the garage as they held onto each other for dear life.

They were still in a hug when Prateek started speaking, "I want to know everything that happened, but first we need to get you back to normal, get you cleaned and sober."

Arjun hummed in response into Prateek's shoulder and they stayed there for a few more minutes before getting up. Prateek picked up Arjun, supporting his weight as they walked out of the garage and into the house to reconnect with one another.

All that mattered was that he was right to not lose hope. Arjun was alive and he was with Prateek. He finally had finally found his best friend.

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So, what do you guys think? How did it go?

Comment here if you liked the story and you think I should try doing something like this again sometime.

You guys can try it as well. Just take a prompt and write without a story, see where it goes.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you
✨Aster out✨