Till The Count Of Five ✓

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

You're angry, you're shaken and you hate her. Still, you'd help her, for there are people who have been choking her.

Vee

14th May 2019, Tuesday
16:00

The laptop turned on and my hands shook as I plugged in the pen drive that Junior gave me without any hesitation, her eyes away from mine.

"Didn't you say the school had a hand in it?" I had asked.

She had shrugged, placed it in my hand and driven away on her scooter without saying anything else. That was exactly how she would have felt all this time when I ignored her. I sighed and closed the window, not really in the mood of going through this. Something about how she had averted her eyes, how her lips had moved in an almost audible sound, I felt she had wanted to say what she knew, or at least thought.

"Who do you think did this?" Nidhi Ma'am had asked.

I never bothered to answer her. There was a reason I never liked the woman. She had a stretched smile all the time for an adult who spent half the time of her job catering needs of CEOs, Directors, Principals and the sort of people who'd fit in this category, and the rest of the time managing a group of teenagers. I rarely saw her out of her house, always cooped in, away from people's eyes.

But what perturbed me was her tone when she had asked the question, challenging Junior's gaze that was fixated on the ground. It was better to leave Junior away for some time. Her hands had stayed wrapped up around her neck, a little too tight that it made me flinch.

You're pushing another person again because you think she needs it.

I groaned and opened the folder again to finally get done with it. There were number of sub-folders, few named after Ashiamma. I clicked on the one that had the name R. It was there, the picture, but it wasn't what I initially saw in the school.

"It's the school uniform," she had said. It wasn't so in this picture. I reached for my phone and tried Rishab's numbers again, all of them. No response. So I texted him instead: It is about you. Need to talk asap. I hardly believed that he'd reply but it did not hurt to hope. I smiled sardonically at my reflection in the screen of the laptop. Hope. As laughable as all of this.

His parents knew he had gone out of town to clear his head but they still were wary of everything that was happening. I bet they didn't even know half of this everything.

The door opened and Mahi Uncle walked in. "You done?"

I nodded, closed the folders and unplugged the pen drive. "How is Shay?"

He glanced at me. "Why don't you go and see yourself?"

"Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?" I narrowed my eyes. He stared at me with Kiara's frown and silence of the photograph I had just seen.

"Neutral," I concluded. "She isn't getting any better, is she?"

"She's not even getting worse. So, I'd say, it's a good thing, a great thing actually, considering she has a head injury, broken leg and for sure, a messed up mind."

"Why would she do that?" I asked. Almost immediately, I shook my head. "Don't answer that." I checked my watch. "I think I should be going now."

"Check on her," he said as I passed him on the way out.

And see how she should have been standing instead of laying down? No, thank you but I'd survive. At least this way I could convince my mind she was fine, better than reality.