Seventeen

Chapter 21

(Ishan's)

It took us a while to calm Jiggy down. Then Arjun, Adithi and I sat and listened to him... And what he told us, sent us in a shock too. I had anticipated that he might mess up, but I had not expected it to be this bad.

"She was pregnant?" Arjun asked.

Jiggy nodded, looking like he might explode.

"And you didn't have any idea," Arjun said. "Jeez, Jiggs you should have paid more attention to protection..."

"I did. We were careful. I don't know when..."

"Protections don't give a 100% guarantee. Anything can go wrong..." I said. I was angry and nervous, "if this goes wrong, you could probably join Farhan."

Adithi gasped. "How?" She asked.

"Being the cause for suicide is a crime. Plus the girl was pregnant so...It gets complicated." I told her. "If the police take charge against him..." I looked at Jiggy.

"Jiggy..." Adithi looked at him with worry.

He looked scared. He was shaking...

But he said. "I...I just want to see her," he was still crying. "I want to see her."

We all looked at him sympathetically. I put my hand on his shoulder. "For now... can we just calm down and pray for her safe recovery?" I asked. "The most important thing now is that she should not die."

"She won't die." Jiggy jumped to me, "Don't say the word 'die'."

I could totally relate to him. I was reminded of the time Adithi was in the hospital fighting for her death. If anyone had mentioned the word 'die' and Adithi in the same sentence, I could have killed the person.

"It's all because of me." Jiggy clutched his head and started crying hard again.

"Why did you say so mean things about her anyway?" Adithi asked angrily. "How could you?"

Jiggy cried...

"Why did you date her and sleep with her if you thought of her in that way?" Adithi asked, "you are the worst, Jiggy."

He cried harder.

"Any girl would be hurt if the guy she loves talks in that way." She said. "More than hurt... She will feel bad about herself. No wonder the poor girl tried to kill herself... As she even had got pregnant with the baby of you... I just can't imagine. She was coming to you to tell about the baby, she must have been already freaked out and she heard you talk about her in that way..."

"Adithi, you are not helping," Arjun said, as Jiggy was getting worse.

"Why did you?" Asked Adithi. "Why did you hurt her?"

I got up and took Adithi by her hand and lead her a bit away from Jiggy. Arjun moved to console Jiggy. I took Adithi a safe distance away and turned to her,

"You are making him feel worse. I know that you are angry with what he did, and what he did was actually really wrong. But... if you talk that way, I am worried if he will also do something extremely out of the guilt."

Adithi just looked sad.

"We should help Jiggy to feel better..." I told her.

"I know," she said. "But it's so sad. What that girl had to go through. I can't even imagine her pain..."

I agreed with that.

We walked back to Jiggy. And stayed with him and let him cry... After crying for three hours he was able to find his voice to talk again...