Tale of Silent Longing

15 |Mariah is Up to Something Strange

"Not at all. I just wanted to ask you something personally. That is why I brought you here. Do you know Mariah well?" Professor Anna asked her suddenly.

"No, Miss Anna. We are not that close but since the last few days, we have been going to lectures and practicals together. Why do you ask? Is everything alright?" She replied with a question.

"Yeah, I have just noticed that from the past few days, Mariah seems a bit upset. Even her grades have lowered suddenly and to a huge extent. I don't know about other professors, but it took me a lot of effort to make her pass the test. Initially, she seemed to be a very intelligent student. I don't know what has happened to her suddenly. I thought you might know something as you sit with her on most days" Professor Anna replied.

Tanya spoke up, "Yes, something is fishy here. That black car and the weird guy with tattoos."

"What do you mean?" Professor Anna enquired and asked her to tell her in detail.

"Miss Anna, the way you have noticed something is wrong with Mariah, I too have felt the same way. She looks very frightened and is always lost in thoughts. One evening, I saw her going somewhere in a black car and she came back very late at night and in the same car. After that incident, I spotted the car many times, almost every day. I have seen a strange man in the car. Initially, I could not see his face but I noticed a tattoo on his arm. However, One day, at a hotel, I saw a guy with the same tattoo in the same car. He headed to room number 204. At first, I thought I might be overthinking but today, Mariah received a message on her phone while we were in the lab. It was from an unknown number and the text read, "Room no. 204. On reading the text, Mariah hurried out of the lab within seconds. Apart from this, I don't know anything else but I think that weird guy is quite dangerous," Tanya  shared everything with Anna. She also told her about the encounter she had with the guy on the terrace.

On hearing everything, Anna's face turned pale. Initially, she thought it
might be something mundane but on hearing her, she realized things were way more complicated than they se- emed to be. She thought for a while and then spoke, "I think Mariah is in deep trouble. You should be careful too. You don't know who that guy is but he has seen you. So, you should not tell anyone about this, especially until and unless the entire truth comes out."

Tanya agreed to not say a word about this to anyone. Professor Anna asked her to take care of Mariah in college and told her she would always help her. Tanya  headed back to her classroom and started discussing tests with Jordan  and Illahi .

At that time, there was no professor in the classroom. So, the three sat on the first bench and started discussing academics. They were marking the important questions in the book and just then, Reeva  walked up to them and said, "All of you must come to the prom night. After all, I will be awarded in front of the entire college. I am sure you guys will be so jealous and that would make me happier."

"What are you being awarded for? For wasting time in college?" Illahi  chuckled.

"Ah! I don't want to talk to dimwits like you. 1 participated in a contest and represented our college. I won that contest, and now, the college could do the bare minimum of presenting me with an award at least. By the way, none other than Jahaan's dad is going to give me the award. He is going to be the guest of honor that evening," Reeva  smirked.

Reeva's words reeked of arrogance and ego. She was unaware of the fact that Tanya  too was going to get an award for her academic brilliance. Hence, she continued to attempt at making her jealous.

Tanya , on the other hand, was least interested to respond to Reeva 's talks.

After the love letter incident, Tanya  had decided to never talk to Reeva  and her friends. However, Jordan  could not take it any longer and he spoke, "Reeva , it's been so many years. You have grown up so much yet your mind has still not evolved yet. Now you see for yourself, if you had any brains, you would have known that the people whom you are trying to make jealous, two out of them are going to be awarded the same night and before you." Reeva  could not make sense of what Jordan  just said.

Then, he first pointed at Tanya  and then at himself as he finally spoke, "She is the
second-highest and I am the third-highest scorer in the class."

"What? How could she be the second-highest scorer? How could that be?" Reeva  glared at Tanya  and asked.

"When you were busy wooing Jahaan , that is when I scored high" Tanya  spoke as she gathered her books and left.

The three of them stepped out with utmost peace and then broke into laughter. "Damn! Her face was a sight to behold!" Illahi  said with a giggle.

Just then, Tanya  stopped laughing and asked, "Hold on, what did she say? Who is going to be the guest of honor?"

" Jahaan's dad. He is the main trusty of the college," Jordan  replied.

"Oh no, not again. That day at your sister's wedding, I got all prepped up to meet him. I was saved somehow that day but this time, I guess we are going to meet finally"

Tanya spoke while patting her forehead.

"Why? Why are you so scared to meet my dad?" someone spoke from behind. The three of them turned around to find Jahaan  walking up to them.

"Of course she'd be scared. She will meet her father-in..." before Illahi  could complete her sentence, Tanya  spoke in the middle with a loud voice, "I will meet the main trusty of the college for the first time. I will be nervous, right Illahi ?"

Illahi realized she was about to spill the tea. So, to cover up, she muttered, "Right right. He anyway is such a huge business tycoon. He is such a famous personality. It is obviously going to make her nervous. What's say, Jordan ?"

Jordan nodded in approval and chimed in, "Yeah, true that. And this is going to be the first time for Tanya  to get an award. That is adding to her nervousness. She suffers from stage fear."

"Stage fear? Looking at her, it does not seem she'll be fearful of anything," Jahaan  thought for a while and looked at her.

"Alright," he said and left.

Once he was gone, Tanya  pulled illahi's  ear and said, "Great going girl! Tell him everything at once. You should think twice before opening your mouth."

"Aah! I am sorry. I am sorry. That happened by mistake. I promise I won't do it again" Illahi  said while rubbing her ear. Jordan was looking at the two girls and laughing.

The next two days slipped away like grains of sand. Everyone was stressed because of the upcoming test and nobody was excited for the prom night. After they were done with the last test and were stepping out of the college, Jordan  spoke, "Ok so I will get going now. I haven't slept well in the last two nights. I will go home and crash. Let's meet at the prom tomorrow". Without waiting for a response, he left.

Tanya was back to feeling anxious again to meet Jahaan's dad for the first time. "What if things go wrong," she kept wondering. This was the biggest problem of Tanya. she could never do things the right way. She always ended up in a mess. Some of the other things would always go wrong. She was about to spend the entire night cribbing to Illahi  about what she should wear the next evening.

It was 11.30 at night when Tanya  put on a face sheet and started waiting for it to dry. "Ah stop it Tanya . You haven't slept well in the last two nights. If we keep staying up so late, we will go crazy by tomorrow. Don't forget that you need to look your best tomorrow. If you do not sleep tonight, Jahaan 's dad would look at your dark circles and not you" chided Illahi . "Excuse me, it's Jahaan 's dad that you are talking about. Show some respect. Don't just take his name randomly" Tanya  turned around and answered her.

"Yeah , yeah . Your father-in-law. He would want to see your beauty tomorrow. So it's better if you get to bed now and have your beauty sleep" Illahi  teased her.

The prom night was to begin at 7 pm the next day. Before that, the students needed to go to college for their usual lectures. The next morning, Tanya  got ready and was about to step outside when she got a call from an unknown number. "Hello, Professor Anna, is that you?" Tanya  inquired.

Professor Anna asked her to meet her at a nearby café and told her to come there alone. Tanya  sensed the urgency and After telling Illahi  to reach the college on time, Tanya walked out of the dorm and headed to the café to meet the professor.

Conpensating for being late with updates .🎀
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