The Change

I whipped my head up, convinced I'd heard somebody calling my name, but I was mistaken. There was nobody there. Just teenagers excited about finally going home from school at the end of the day. I was pretty exhausted myself; a class XII Physics practical exam with a complimentary viva is draining. I scanned the crowd for any face turned towards me, but all I saw was... a boy my age, with his head bowed, his feet a little apart, his arms tightly folded across his chest, standing inside the elevator apparently deep in thought.A moment later the elevator doors shut him out of my sight and carried him to the upper floors of the school building. It was the end of the school day, and yet he was going back up. The look on his face was resigned, sad, even. Like a cloud had passed over his features since I last saw him. He looked older, stranger, and somehow more vulnerable.

I knew him.

Once upon a time he could make an entire class roar with laughter, and the teacher crack a smile by simply giving her one of his impish looks.

I thought I knew him.

But that was when he was free.

His wings are clipped now.