Open Heart {Under Revision}

Chapter 15- Credenda

(Caution - This chapter contains scenes which could be traumatic for some readers. If you are uncomfortable in reading about 'shutting down', abuse and assault, please skip the chapter)

Eight Years Ago......

The moment I stepped into the premises of Emory University, the first thing I noticed was people. So many people all around. Students. Parents. Faculties. Staff. They were everywhere, like everywhere and my mind warned me to not go further inside and beg my mother to continue my college from home.

I was completely unprepared to manage this. Manage meeting so many people.

So many eyes. So many voices. So many faces...happy, excited, crying and even irritated.

I gulped, feeling sweat dripping inside my full-sleeved blouson tops. And maybe even down through my loose black pants. I felt small, so small compared to everyone here. I had just turned fourteen a couple of months ago and everyone here was perhaps already eighteen, having license to drive. Party. Mingle. Drink. Okay...maybe not drink because that was bad. Students shouldn't drink. Drinking was really, really, really nightmarish.

Someone bumped me and my steps automatically took me through spacious college grounds. A lot of students were from different states and they were to live in hostels and other residencies. No one was unlucky like me who mother's gigantic villa was on outskirts of Atlanta city and she was well-known by almost everyone in the country. I prayed people didn't start asking me about her because I didn't know much what she did...or how she was...or what she was. Two years had passed when we parted, I went to Manchester and she steered for Atlanta—both of us, out of San Diego. I thought she would come with me. Or keep me with her. No such things happened. My dreams were just dreams, fading like mist on water.

With shaky steps, I checked in from office where the woman behind desk was kinder and she provided me with everything and then called for a girl so that she could take me to class. The girl who came, tall as ever could be was a chatty sophomore—alright but a bit boisterous so I just mumbled along my path with her. I felt eyes frowning at me, mostly directed at my diminutive frame and frightened eyes. I was thin, and looked unhealthy. Like a sick person.

"That's your room for the day." The girl, Erica told me, "Here's my number. Call me maybe?"

I smiled at her, "I will. Thank you so much."

"A couple of us girls are hitting cafe today after class." She said, fitting her number in my phone, "There's gonna be a huge ass interview on Fox News. They managed to finally get Ethan Ramsey up for their show."

The name was familiar but I couldn't place. So I just simply asked, "Ethan Ramsey? I think I heard him...?"

Erica grinned, "After listening to him, you'll never forget him. That man is phenomenal. In all departments."

"What is the interview about?"

"He just completed his residency from Edenbrook Hospital. He is the last recipient of a fat grant they used to offer after which they stripped it away for others." Erica informed, her eyes delighted, "His grad papers are used by practitioners, consultants and even senior physicians all over the world. That man has been making his name very quietly and fast in medical circuit. Dr. Naveen Banerji has even called him his prodigy. I think Ethan is going to present some paper today. He's just...my god, you'll see."

Erica was so immersed about this single person? We have a fangirl here. But then, hearing Dr. Banerji's name brought a nameless angst to me so I just kept quiet. In order to not offend her, I accepted her invitation and then ducked inside the classroom and took front seat so that I couldn't see anyone. But I felt questioning gazes at me all the time, asking why the heck I was even here.