Page 49 of Reckless Dare

Did he change his mind?

When the light fell on her, the bike began slowing down. Just when she thought her tormentor must have finally felt some pity on her, she saw that the biker wasn’t him. It was some other guy.

She sat shivering when a guy in an Eagles jersey came towards her. He took out his helmet.

“Hey, are you okay?” the guy asked. Although he belonged to the same home team as her, she hadn’t seen the guy before. He looked quite young.

Her shivering got worse. “I-I got lost. M-my… phone isn’t… with me.” It was in Neeraj’s car where she left it since she didn’t want it to get wet or get lost in the sand.

The guy didn’t look surprised. “I see. Come on, I’ll give you a ride back to the campus.”

Her eyes filled with tears at the offer. She didn’t think any help would come until it was too late.

“T-thank you.”

The guy took out a jacket from the space inside the bike seat and handed it to her. “Put this on.”

She put on the jacket with trembling hands. But it didn’t stop her shivers.

“It’s an hour ride from here. Will you be okay to sit behind that long?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.

He sat on the bike and kick started it. “Get on,” he said.

She trembled when the guy’s voice sounded very similar to her tormentor’s. Even the words were the same. But the tone was very different. Unlike her tormentor’s cruel tone, this guy sounded kind.

She sat behind him and held on. He was much leaner than her tormentor too.

The bike took off. But instead of feeling relief, all she felt was intense sadness.

She was going to give up her dream. She was leaving Simha University and returning home.

*****

It was well past midnight when Ava finally shut her bedroom door and leaned her back against it. The tears she had been holding back finally trailed down from her eyes. When her teeth began chattering once again due to the shock of what happened, she walked to her bathroom with trembling legs and turned on the shower.

The steaming hot water couldn’t stop her shivers or her tears. She sat on the bathroom floor crying. She felt broken. Abhiram Simha finally got what he wanted. She couldn’t bear the mental torture or intimidation anymore.

She didn’t know how long she sat on the bathroom floor crying with hot water falling on her. Finally, when her skin began to prune and her shivers stopped, she got up and turned off the water. Shedding her wet clothes, she dried herself.

It was only an hour after midnight. She would have to finish packing her things and book a flight back to San Francisco.

Ma will be happy but Papa is going to be disappointed.

Her heart ached at the thought of seeing her father’s disappointed face. But pushing the image away, she dressed up and began arrangements to return home. She would have to apply for an emergency holiday to get a flight back from the Simha airport.

Not that I would be returning.

A fresh wave of tears began at the thought. Blinking them away, she pulled out her suitcase. She began to pack all of her clothes. When everything except for her uniforms was cleared from her closet, she began to pack the rest of her belongings.

She would have to call Nitya and Neeraj later to tell them she was going home for an emergency.

A fresh pang of guilt pierced her at the reminder that Neeraj would have been worried about her. Leaving her suitcase, she went to the landline and looked up his name in the directory before calling him. It went to the voicemail.

“Hello, Neeraj. This is Ava. Sorry I had to leave the party early due to a family emergency. I-I’ll talk to you once I reach home.”

She ended the call with that brief message and resumed her packing with a fresh wave of tears.

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