His Favourite Book

Chapter 62 - Better to End

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"If... none of you mind... that is..." Abeer clarified. He had asked Aashna about her and Girisha's relationship with Dhruv.

After Girisha had left to meet Gauri, both Aashna and Abeer had settled on the staircase in front of them, to continue their conversation.

Aashna shook her head. "No, that's fine. Nothing much, actually. After both of us passed our 10th grade, we used up all our vacation before starting another soul-sucking academic year. We would play with a lot of friends from ours and the neighbouring societies. Not only that, we were a bit too active online as well. Watching all kinds of series, chatting with strangers and befriending them... all of that. Dhruv was one of our friends. We figured he used to like Girisha. Nope, he used to crave Girisha, with all his lust accumulated in his mad punchable body. We decided to ignore it. I mean, what else could we do, right?"

Abeer was beginning to understand where that was going. "Maybe you could—"

"Nope. Nothing could have worked. We were kids. His family was very ignorant and his elder brother would do anything in his power to ruin your life."

"Oh, that I know. A little too well." Abeer muttered to himself.

"Anyway, I was talking about our holiday period. Midway through it, Girisha realised how much liked being around girls. That time we thought her feelings were platonic. But she grew to realise that she wouldn't mind being much closer to a girl she genuinely loves, than just being friends with her. She wouldn't mind any of... it. If I remember right, she had developed a deep crush on our 11th-grade's topper girl. Honestly, yes, that girl was everything one would die for. She was a topper, well-behaved, knew her worth, would help everyone in need... and so on. And Girisha was always like this. She loved being responsible, mature, and dependable. Obviously, the topper girl attracted Girisha's heart and mind and everything Girisha was ready to sacrifice for her."

"Man! That's cute!" Abeer was smiling.

"Yeah. For a few months, that's it." Aashna nodded and noticed Abeer's smile dropping drastically.

She continued, "By the time we completed our 11th grade, Dhruv realised whatever was going on in our batch. He dragged me to the backside of our school and commanded me to reveal the truth about Girisha. I refused, obviously. He, being at the peak of his anger, began hitting me. He was always a quick one to raise his hands at the most minor of inconveniences. I hit him back and our fight took an aggressive turn. We were full of wounds that day. Girisha somehow came running to us and had to intervene. I did not know what he had in mind when he fled the scene with a smug look on his face. All of it made sense soon after that. Since that day, he would always shame Girisha in front of the class, for liking girls. Constant insults, comments on her body, organs... everything. All, for over a year. Girisha isolated herself the whole year of our 12th grade. I was there for her but there wasn't much that I could do. Even our batchmates were starting to pass mean comments about her. That was the worst year for her."

Aashna paused to read Abeer's expression. He seemed benevolent. He was. She picked up again, "On our farewell of grade 12th, Dhruv blackmailed some juniors to let him deliver a speech on stage. The moment he took up the mic, both of us were scared that he would again scream all kinds of demeaning things to her in front of practically the whole school. Surprisingly, he didn't. All he did was apologise and bawl his eyes out in whatever guilt he was going through. He said that Girisha was a nice person and he would do anything to become her friend once again. I still laugh at those words. What guilt, yo? He just wanted to get intimate with her one last time and explore her body only to trumpet it later in front of everyone we knew. That wasn't very difficult for us to figure out. I mean, that was pretty obvious. Well, since that day, he had been going all around her, trying his best to fake his tears and apologise to her just for the sake of it. So much so that Girisha was beginning to believe his tears. I hated it. Good thing we shifted here this year. The past few months she was there with her grandparents, she had turned a bit soft towards him, thanks to his constant efforts. Efforts that were full of lusty intentions. The other night, I think he lost all his patience and attacked Girisha there... involving Gauri Di, too..."