The Past

I wanted to let this truth out. And let him know me, the real me. So I started.

"It happened one fateful evening when 12th standard began."

I recounted the events as they began flooding my mind. The day was bright as ever. The evening was beautiful. My best friend who I knew since childhood came to my home. Shelly was a stunning girl. Every boy's dream girl in our school. She was my neighbour since I remembered. Our friendship turned rocky when she made a boyfriend. I disliked her boyfriend, of course, I had the intuition that he was a bad boy. He was from our school. Just joined in standard 9th and got in trouble many times. He was rich and annoyingly good looking. He swept off my best friend's heart away.

I was always the girl quiet in a corner. She, my best friend polar opposite to me. Her choice was also opposite of mine. Maybe we weren't really best friends as we considered but still maintaining the so-called friendship in the name of our childhood memories. We often fought when she mentioned her boyfriend, Rohit's deeds. She distanced herself a lot but we talked on a regular basis until we avoided that topic.

Their love and relationship grew toxic. I don't know what it was, but he hurt her in the worst possible ways and knew somehow she will never leave him. Whether it would be drinking or drugs he did it all. Moreover, in the coming days of 11th standard, he had successfully created a gang of his kind. His bullying increased and was expelled from school at the beginning of standard 12th. He did that solely because a boy tried to talk to Shelly about some project. He beat up that boy so bad that he had to get admitted in the hospital. Shelly was infuriated. She fought with him that day. In the evening, when she went to his apartment she saw him with another girl. And he wasn't even ashamed to be in such state nor was he sorry at all.

My friend was devastated. She had broken up and made up with him many times. But this time it was horrible. Shelly had no friends left except me. She came to my home with red and swollen eyes. I consoled her and told the same things that I already said a bazillion times already.

She agreed to end the relationship with him for good. I felt relieved when she washed up and decided to sleep in my room. I already informed her parents that we are having a sleepover. While I was going to sleep I saw Shelly's phone vibrating. That jerk of a boyfriend was calling her. There were many missed calls. I decided not to disturb her. And turned her phone to silent mode and went to sleep.

Next morning continued as usual. Shelly saw the missed calls and asked me about them. She wanted to talk to him. I considered this and told her to call him, just to end it cleanly. When she tried to call him he didn't pick up. She then saw his text messages. There were many of them all saying "I'm really sorry" and "I love you", "I can't live without you"

Then the threats started.

"Please come baby, or I'll jump off the balcony.", " if you don't come I'll come to look for you." Etc etc.

I glanced at them and felt pity for my friend. Why did she throw herself in such a mess?

I went to school as usual. During lunch, Shelly came to me crying and angry all of a sudden. She came and slapped me.

"Why did you do that you me?"

"Tell me, Manya. I considered you my best friend. Why didn't you let me answer?"

Then she turned to the shocked crowd and said

"Everyone see she is the one who didn't let me answer his calls yesterday. If only I answered he would be alive today." She broke down with pitiful wails.

"Manya, I loved him so much if only you gave his phone call on time he would be alive now," Shelly said.

I was stunned would be an understatement. What the hell happened?

Many glances and several voices cornered me. Wherever I went they talked about me. I got involved in this mess. I now got to know that Rohit really jumped off the balcony. Police contacted Shelly as she was the last one he was talking to.

Shelly was the school princess, ultimate queen. And I managed to offend her. And he died. I was the hated villain of their love story.

The bullying started then. Writing mean things on my desk, pushing me or tripping me in the classroom, calling me murderer etc. To avoid contact and gossips I went early to school and went back after everyone went out.

Three days after the incident I was walking back to my home when five boys started following me. I increased my pace and they did too. I heard them talking

"She is the one, isn't she?"

They weren't that far behind me.

"Stop you b*tch. Where are you running off? Everybody knows what you did."

I started running but they overtook me

And one of them grabbed my wrist. I tried to break free and runoff. I was so scared that every voice became muffled.

I kicked the one who held my hand and tried to escape but was yanked on the ground. They then started telling something I managed to grasp some words and their faces. Amidst the fear, my brain registered their faces. Recognition came to me that they were members of Rohit's gang. At first, they asked me something but I couldn't hear and shouted for help. When I didn't answer one of them slapped me so hard that I fell to the other side. Fresh blood dripped from the corner of my mouth. I tried to calm down.

"It's because of you that Bhaiya died. Why do you look unscathed?" The one who slapped me said.

I was scared, angry and very disgusted.

"Boys say what should we do with her?" He asked. And all of them laughed. I saw they were distracted so I threw my heavy bag on one of them and kicked the one in front of me on his groin with my knee and once again ran for my life. I didn't get far but shouted on my highest pitch. I was again yanked back and got two slaps and 1 kick in my stomach as a result. It was awfully painful. The cells in my body burned. They looked at me with fire in their eyes and that truly scared me.

"There is only one way to take revenge and tame you." The one who got kicked by me said.

I tried to resist but couldn't so I shouted a lot. I was losing hopes. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I begged them to leave me. I kept resisting so I earned another agonizing slap on my other cheek. Then I heard the word

"STOP"

From somewhere. The boys stopped. I saw my school English teacher. He said

"What are you guys doing?" He shouted and came over.

The boys were scared and ran off. I struggled to stand up. My teacher tried to help me but I avoided his touch. He understood and called someone. A few minutes later female teachers from school came running towards me. They helped me to stand and took me back to school. I was still dazed. Since the struggle was over and the adrenaline was washed off I felt pains all over. My cheeks hurt terribly. My back, my hips throbbed of the fall twice. My hands were red by their hold. My parents were called. The authorities talked. The FIR was filed. The boys had to pay fine and fill in the sheets of paper in writing. I don't know what that is called and I don't want to know. They were expelled too.

I was still dazed. My cheeks still hurt the next day. My parents got to know everything. I got some holidays to recuperate. I sat quietly in the day and cried at night. There was not a day when my tears didn't soak my pillow. My mother stayed with me all the time. The first week was difficult, I had continuous nightmares. I met the psychiatrist. I wanted to talk to someone who didn't know what actually happened. I told her everything. She told me that my friend was blaming herself too. But we human need someone to push our blames. And that we don't care about the truth, we BELIEVE what we want to BELIEVE. She gave me recommendations to read books about self-discovery. "Veronica decides to die" was the first one. I told her that I have read it already but she insisted on reading it again.

I opened up quite a lot later. Distancing myself from school I concentrated more in my studies and got good marks. I got to know Shelly left the school too. I lived a quiet life after that.

I told him everything. I kept my head down the entire time. When I stopped I kept waiting for his words but he didn't say anything but his protective arms engulfed me. I was surprised first but then accepted. Maybe my story left him dumbfounded.

********

Vihaan's POV

I don't know what to say. This girl in front of me suffered so much. I never thought someone suffered such injustice. I felt so many emotions but first was to protect her. She became a target uselessly. I am happy she has matured so much. That's why I held her in my arms to show that words don't matter action does. She was right, this really changed her opinion in my mind. I now believed she is a very strong girl.