Page 25 of Reckless Dare

Avoiding certain routes, keeping out of the sports stadiums and changing her meal timings was how she didn’t see Abhiram Simha again. She also found out that Abhiram Simha was an honors student pursuing a dual Bachelor’s degree in both Pharmacy and Business Administration. Luckily, she and her tormentor only had one class together, pharmaceutical sciences and it was on Mondays and Fridays. Which meant she still had a day left before she had to see him again.

I’m just going to ignore him during class.

Pushing away thoughts of him, she focused on the task at hand—to explore options of various extracurricular activities. She was headed to the performance arts and music building.

Simha University was very particular about students being well-rounded when it came to education. They didn’t care if a student was studying to be a doctor, engineering or business major, but they wanted good exposure to extracurricular activities. A part of grades would depend on how well she participated in them.

Drama club appealed to her the most. She didn’t want to pick sports. Although she played tennis and was decent at swimming, it wasn’t at a competitive level. Drama was something she enjoyed. She had been a part of drama clubs in school and had participated in many plays. It was the only time she shed her introvertness and became whatever characters she played.

Opening the interactive campus maps, she checked to see the entrance of the huge performance and arts building. It was on the other side.

She was admiring the architecture of the building while walking to the front side. Even when she reached the front side, she couldn’t take her eyes off the beautiful carvings and sculptures on the top of the building.

But her attention was grabbed away when she heard a familiar deep voice.

“Hey, Harvard. Come here.”

Her back stiffened and her nerves strummed with a strange fear. She pretended not to hear him and continued to look at the building.

Just ignore him!

She considered walking past the building.

“Harvard, I know you can hear me. But I can be louder.” He let out a dark laugh and added, “Grab me the megaphone, Ved.”

Why is he here? And what is he up to?

She saw a few students who were passing by looking at her with interest. Before her tormentor drew unwanted attention to her, she looked towards him. He was standing by the steps with a small group of guys. He was once again wearing his Vipers sports jersey and the rest of the group were also in their sports jerseys.

Why weren’t they all at a sports stadium? What were they doing near performance arts and music building?

“Come here, Harvard.”

She wanted to ignore her tormentor’s command. But she didn’t want him to take it as a challenge. She dragged her feet to where he was and looked at him in silence.

“Why didn’t you come right away?” His voice held authority.

It shocked her once again how different he sounded from when he spoke to her the first time and asked her if she was free over the weekend. His voice was still deep and smooth, but now, it held menace.

“I-I didn’t h-hear you.”

Where did the stutter come from?

She was shocked that her voice was coming out in a stutter. She used to have the problem during childhood. She had overcome it eventually. But it only came back when she was too stressed.

“Liar,” he said. “Don’t ever lie to me. Understood?”

She only nodded, chanting to herself to keep calm. But Abhiram Simha was relentless.

He straightened from the steps and came towards her. He stopped only when he was barely a foot away from her. His musky cologne filled her senses as she took in a shaky breath.

“Didn’t I ask you to leave you the last time? Did you think hiding from me would make me forget about your presence here?”

She remained quiet and didn’t respond.

“Answer me. Use your words,” he demanded.

There was a chuckle. “You need to teach her to use her mouth, Abhi,” one of the guys said from behind him.

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