The final school bell rang.
Vash closed his notebook and looked at the clock.
"Finally," he whispered.
Rohan, sitting beside him, immediately stood up. "Come on! If we don't leave now, my mother is going to kill me."
Priya laughed from the desk in front of them. "Your mother says that every day."
"And one day she means it," Rohan replied dramatically.
Vash smiled.
The three of them had been friends for as long as he could remember. They had grown up in the same neighborhood, attended the same school, and walked home together almost every afternoon.
They were not the smartest students in their class.
They weren't the most popular either.
Rohan was usually the one getting into trouble. Priya was the one who somehow managed to get good marks without studying as much as Vash thought was fair.
And Vash?
He was just... Vash.
His grades were average. His teachers never complained about him, but they rarely praised him either.
He was simply an ordinary boy.
That afternoon, the three friends left the school together.
"Did you finish the math homework?" Priya asked.
Vash looked away.
Priya narrowed her eyes.
"Vash."
"What?"
"You didn't finish it, did you?"
"I finished most of it."
"How much is most?"
Vash thought for a moment.
"Three questions."
Rohan burst out laughing.
"Three? There were twenty!"
"I was going to finish the rest."
"When?"
"Tonight."
Priya shook her head. "You say that every day."
They continued walking, laughing and arguing about homework.
The afternoon sun was beginning to disappear behind the buildings. Cars and motorcycles moved along the road beside them.
Rohan was telling a ridiculous story about something that had happened during lunch when Priya suddenly stepped toward the edge of the road.
"Wait," Vash said.
Priya turned around.
"What?"
Vash didn't answer.
Something had caught his attention.
A truck was coming down the road.
It was moving faster than the other vehicles.
Much faster.
Vash looked at the truck.
Then at Priya.
She was standing only a few steps from the road.
The truck's horn suddenly screamed through the air.
BEEEEEEP!
Priya froze.
For a fraction of a second, everything seemed to become strangely quiet.
Vash saw the truck.
He saw Priya.
He understood what was going to happen.
He didn't think about himself.
He didn't think about what might happen next.
He just ran.
"PRIYA!"
Vash slammed into her and pushed her away from the road.
Priya fell onto the pavement.
Then Vash turned.
The truck was right in front of him.
There was no time to move.
No time to run.
No time to think.
CRASH.
The world disappeared into noise.
Rohan screamed.
"VASH!"
Priya looked up from the ground.
For a moment, she couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Then her face went pale.
"Vash...?"
He was lying motionless on the road.
The truck had stopped several meters away.
People began running toward them.
Someone shouted for an ambulance.
Priya crawled toward Vash, tears already filling her eyes.
"Vash! Wake up!"
He didn't move.
"Please!"
Rohan grabbed her shoulder.
"Priya, don't touch him!"
"But he's not waking up!"
Sirens grew louder in the distance.
Vash could hear them.
Or perhaps he only imagined them.
His vision blurred.
The sky above him seemed impossibly bright.
He tried to move his hand.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Then, just before darkness swallowed everything, one thought appeared in his mind.
Priya is safe.
And then—
nothing.
Only darkness with the moving truck.