TRAGIC BUT BEAUTIFUL

Chapter Twenty Eight

I went blank.

I never thought that I would find myself in this situation. Since I had been nine, I had self taught myself to not trust people easily because my mom was the only person I thought I could ever trust. Now that she wasn't here, putting my faith in other people had always been a difficult task. But I guess I had started to trust my new family and friends. The gang was great, they genuinely cared for me while Ms.Singh had meant no harm till now and she had provided the best of the facilities a teenager could dream of. They really were nice people and it didn't took me very long to come to this conclusion.

Varun too wasn't a bad person, he just happened to find himself in bad situations I guess. The only thing which I disliked about him was, that he never did any efforts to pull himself out of that situation. He let himself be the bad guy. 

Well now in this situation, all I could do was to assume that there was a story behind this. But my heart, my conscience was yelling out.

Stop assuming things! He wanted to go to a party and he went. He didn't owe me anything and I shouldn't be bothered about it!

So, I tucked not just my phone but all the signs of anguish in my pocket and trudged down for dinner. Everyone sat at their usual places, no one commented about Varun's absence, partly because they all probably knew where he was. Not in any mood to receive sympathetic words or glances from anyone I decided to stay in my bubble and be quiet. I wondered that why hadn't Ms.Singh asked about him yet? She didn't even give them an earful about the suspension and the night when we all had gone to the party, she was so chill about it. Why?

Either she was really cool and thought that we all were responsible or she just let us be, even if that was a wrong thing then. I knew that I wasn't in any position to judge her because I had known her only through  very brief conversations and a part of me was glad that she had so much trust in us. It was probably fair enough because the gang didn't seem to go down on a wrong path, a few pranks here and there were okay but their heart seemed to be in a good place.

"Ananya", I was startled by the voice. I looked around to see that the table was vacant except for Ms.Singh and I.

Did they seriously eat so fast? They vanished in thin air!

"huh?", I replied still confused.

"You seemed lost, dear. You didn't even eat",she bluntly stated while I just lowered my gaze, intimidated by her sudden scrutiny.

"Hey", she placed her hand on mine and gave it a slight squeeze which made me look at her.

"I know I have been super busy since you came here and we didn't get much time to sit down and have a chat but you need to know that I have always had your back and I will continue to do so. I know that you were not taken care of, your life wasn't the best before and I guess that has been a little better now even though all I seemed to do was to provide you with some of the materialistic things",she spoke the last part as if she was ashamed of it. I got it that she was indeed a busy person and couldn't be around us a lot but that was totally fine. I couldn't want more than what she had already provided me with.

"You have done a great job so far Ms.Si--Mom",I quickly covered my mouth with my hands. I seemed to be doing a pretty bad job at comforting her.

Wow Ananya, now she would really feel bad.

To my surprise she started laughing and I looked at her, more confused than anything.

"It's okay if you don't call me Mom. The rest of the gang has been here since a long time so they are habituated to it. You met me  just a few days ago Ananya, I really don't expect you to address me as your Mom. I could be your friend, elder sister or just an acquaintance", she finished with a condensing smile.