The Virgin Bride

Part 7 - When Evil Strikes...

Juliet had a tough time managing herself that day. When she reached home, she was giggling unusually. At the dinner table too, she kept jabbering something or the other. Everyone was wondering what was wrong with her. Grace was an innocent little thing, so she was feeling happy to see Juliet happy and smiling. 

Juliet tossed and turned for over an hour before she fell asleep. The stuff she had sniffed in the day, was a potent drug, but she was unaware. She messaged one of the boys that she would like to experience the same feeling of ecstasy the next day, again, the boy messaged that she would have to pay immediately for it. Juliet asked if she could pay sometime next week, but he refused outright, and Juliet slept with a grudge. The next day, she skipped breakfast, citing the reason as an important lecture, and rushed to see the boys. They were at the same spot where Juliet met them the previous day, before going to meet the others. She requested them to bring her the nose candy, as they called it. The boys laughed cruelly. One of them said, "Julie, you are desperate for it, eh?" Juliet smiled, and nodded. The other boy said, "We need money for it. Sorry, babe!" They quickly made way, and got away from Juliet. She was very irritated with that. She attended classes, but her mind was wandering. She quickly had an idea. She had saved quite a lot of money for her own birthday dress, approaching next month, she decided to use that. 

Grace and her friends attended classes, and one of the boys from their class, Bobby, asked two minutes of Grace's time, at the end of the day. She was surprised because she asked him a few times what it was, but he would not answer. At the end of the classes, Avanti and Ridaa waited while Grace spoke to Bobby. Bobby was a friend, but today, he was behaving strangely. 

Bobby said, "Grace, can I say something honestly?" Grace said, irritated, "Yes, please!" "Grace, I a tired of being just a friend! We have known each other for over six years now. But I have always liked you. And now, now that we are grown ups, and in college, can we please drop the friends tag and carry our friendship a little ahead?"He was straightforward. Bobby and Grace had known each other since their sixth grade, when Bobby had moved in with his family, owing to his father's job transfer. Ever since then, he and Grace, along with Ridaa and Avanti had been good friends. But all the three girls were always with each other, and most of the times, all guys, including Bobby, kept away because they felt uncomfortable. 

Grace was stunned because neither did she expect this, nor she was comfortable with it. Given her recent bitter experience, she was even more averse to any sort of relationships. She said, "No, Bobby! You are a friend, and I have never seen you that way. And I am not sure I would like to get into all this. Its messy." She looked away. She was a little sad, because after all these days, she was yet again taken back to those awful memories of the stranger named Steve! Just as she was trying to shake those memories away, Bobby said, "I know about your Steve!" Grace was flabbergasted as she heard the name, from Bobby's mouth. "Bobby, you...err, how do you..." she was struggling to come to terms with her shock. Not many knew about Steve. She was trying to recollect if she ever mentioned about him to anyone other than Ridaa and Avanti. Bobby said, "I know, you must be wondering how I know. Well, Grace... you know, when we are happy, we are loud, we don't care who is listening to us. That's how I know about you getting involved with this person. Because, you told about him to Avi and Ridz, at the garden, and I have heard it. And when you are sad, you are so lost in your misery, that you don't know who is watching you. When you broke down that morning, I had seen you. I don't know what went wrong in your relationship with that person, but your tears said it all. And I felt so miserable because I could do nothing about it." Bobby looked sad. Grace was hurt as well as shocked at how foolish she had been to not have checked her surroundings. She looked away, now, because she could not face Bobby. He knew she had been in a relationship, but thankfully, he knew nothing about the minute details of her time with that man. She said nothing. She did not even stop where her girlfriends waited. She just walked away, with tears in her eyes.