They had been exchanging text messages, but it wasn’t the same thing as sharing a meal and lying in each other’s arms talking about everything and anything. He had texted her saying it would be a couple more days since his father wanted him to look at something in business.
She let out a sigh. Two more days wasn’t long and she hoped to distract herself with other things. She hung out with a few classmates with whom she studied as a group. Although she enjoyed being with them, the moment she returned to her housing unit, she began sorely missing her tormentor.
“Bye, Ava. See you tomorrow in class.”
Ava smiled and waved to the small group with whom she had gone out for dinner. “Bye!”
She began walking back to her housing unit, hoping to catch up on the texts sent by Abhi.
Her face heated. Some of his texts had been so dirty that she couldn’t react or reply while there was company around.
She was smiling and had almost reached her housing unit when someone blocked her way.
“Hello, Ava.”
It was Neeraj.
Ava was annoyed that Neeraj was once again trying to talk to her even though she had made it clear she didn’t want to talk to him.
Without returning his greeting, she tried to step around him.
“Ava, stop. I’m here to tell you something very important.”
“I’m not interested. I already told you I don’t want to talk to you.”
His eyes flashed angrily. “You will change your mind once you discover the truth.”
Annoyance turned into anger. “I don’t care about what you have to say. Get that into your mind once and for all.”
She stepped around him and began walking away. But she frowned when she heard something.
It was an audio of a group of guys talking. She recognized those voices.
“You know, bro. You claim to hate her guts, and yet you sent Kritin to pick her up from the beach. I don’t think you have it in you to drive her away from Simha.”
“No. I want her gone. And I know she must be packing up to leave.”
Ava froze because the voices were of the Simha cousins. The first one was of Ved’s and the second was Abhi’s.
“A thousand bucks says she might not leave.” That was Rana Simha.
“Yup,” said Ved Simha. “Harvard definitely has a fighter spirit inside that sweet and meek exterior.”
There was momentary silence.
“She will be gone one way or the other. I don’t want to see anything related to that man at Simha.”
Ava’s heart thudded. She knew Abhi was talking about her father.
“Fine. Then how about a dare? How about you teach that man a lesson by breaking the heart of his daughter’s the way he broke our aunt’s?”
There was a long pause.
“Well? Are you in for the dare?”
Ava’s heart nearly burst out of her chest and tears pricked her eyes. Before she completely broke down, she ran into the housing unit.
She didn’t know how she reached her room. But as soon as she shut the door, she broke down.