Healing The Void

Chapter 3 - Needs

Consent. You don't know the power of your consent. No one has the power to intimidate you without your consent. If your mind tells you, this is wrong... listen to it. It knows better. Stand up and explode.

Can a moment of madness make up for an age of consent? - Basil Bunting.

Shreya hurried inside the alleyway and volumed up the music. She was listening to 'I'm fine' by the korean boy band BTS. She really liked this song because of the immense amount of positivity it exuded. People lacked positivity these days, and this band of seven boys was like an oasis in a desert. Their music uplifts and they really helped her at the time of stress.

Like currently, she was so nervous as it was too late. She and Ashwin were so engrossed in chatting that she actually forgot to check the time and when she did, it was already late. Ashwin dropped her at the high road but she had to cross this cobbled road to reach her house.

Trishna would be worried she knew, but at this point she couldn't do much but to feel apprehensive about her near future that awaited for her in silence, just like the silence of this dark street. The streetlight broke a long time ago, but no one repaired it. Even the corporation didn't repair it. So it had been this way since she passed out of her school.

As she adjusted the strips of her bag that slipped from her shoulder, she got abruptly pulled to the side by someone. She panicked and about to scream for help when the person clasped a hand over her mouth and whispered, "It's me. Don't shout."

Naveen! What was he doing here and at this time? Shreya knitted her brows in a frown and plucked his hand off of her mouth.

"What the hell Naveen? What are you doing here?"

Although Naveen's and her houses were just two blocks away from each other, they rarely talked inside their locality. If they talked, that would give the middle class minded people who made the eighty percent population of their locality more content to gossip on. So, they always met outside or talk only on the phone. Naveen was a software engineer, and since she started her caregiver's course, she observed he was extra attentive towards her. Although he never confessed that he loved her face to face, he made it very clear that he wanted her.

In the beginning, she was reluctant to form any kind of relationship with him. But when he started showing support for her choice of career and dream, her heart softened for him. The emotional unfulfillment that she suffered being with her family, Naveen provided her with that, and she fell for it. They got intimate without any promises and without crossing the line. They had done everything except sex. It was much like, she needed mental support which he gave to her, and in return she gave him the intimate satisfaction which he needed.

He pulled her hastily and pushed her against the boundary wall of the house beside which they were standing. His cologne whipped over her nose as he leaned forward and pressed his lip on the crook of her neck. "I wanted to see you."

Shreya's breath hitched at the suddenness of his action. She never expected him to behave like this inside their locality. "How come you know I'd be returning at this time?"

He kissed her again as his hands slid down her arms leaving tingles all over. He pressed himself against her and breathed on her bare skin. "I've been waiting here for the past one hour. Where were you?"

She moaned when his nose grazed along her neck, reaching to her ear as he lightly bit on her earlobe.

"I went to an interview... kind of."

He pressed a kiss on her earlobe and asked, "Very good. Who was with you?"

"Ashwin." Her breath caught in her throat when he pulled both of hands together and held them behind her back while his free hand grabbed one of her breasts and gave it a squeeze. "What are you doing?"