When Richard got up to Elise’s room, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was not easy on his part to be calm despite the anger and bitterness that he felt towards David. Richard stood by the door of Elise’s bedroom trying to steady his breath.His t-shirt had gotten considerably dry and on his way to Elise room, he had dropped the wet hoodie in the laundry room that was along the hallway. The laundry room had most of the unwashed clothes of the members of the residence. Every morning, the staff in charge of laundry would come in and take care of the dirty clothes.Richard knocked on the door of Elise’s bedroom. It was gentle at first, he had a slight fear that, perhaps, Elise was still in bed and he did not want to wake her up yet.After waiting for a few moments of placing his ears close to the door so he could pick up sounds of Elise walking across the room to open up the door, he could hear nothing. It meant one of two things; it was either she was still asleep, not aware that it was

Richard had no idea what she was talking about because of how he was engrossed in his thoughts. He waited for her to continue but she seemed to have finished talking.Elise watched him from the corner of her eyes, “Are you okay?”He nodded.“Okay” She said. “Let’s go then. I presume that the driver is outside waiting for us.” She started walking towards the entrance of the living room. Richard waited for her to go out before he went out too.It was late noon and the three girls were at their favorite table In the school’s cafeteria. There were trays of food and drinks in front of them but instead of eating, they were having an heated conversation. It was about Elise’s relationship with David that had just ended.“Are you saying that you won’t take him back ?” Stacy said as she sipped from her can of juice before she reached out to pick up the little glass jar of candy from where it was at the middle of the table.She sighed. “Your relationship had always been the perfect one. It was w

He shared a look with Judy who was smiling at him.“I’m sorry, Elise. We should go in now” He said.Both girls agreed and they all went into the library together.Over the next few days, Elise and her project partners—Richard and Judy—spent an hour every evening in the local library.They rented one of the study rooms exclusively for themselves. Elise had offered to pay the rent fee as she assumed that she was the wealthiest amongst the three of them but Judy and Richard immediately kicked against it and they all contributed equal amount to rent the study room for three weeks.During their sessions, Richard would always teach the two ladies and ensure that they managed to cover a good part of their target outline for the project.It was during the prep sessions at the library that Judy started to develop a certain fondness for Richard. At first, she assumed that it was mere infatuation but over the days, she realized that it was something stronger. Something she couldn’t explain seem

Her eyes were still closed when she heard Richard’s voice. It was deep and husky. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked at him.Richard folded his arms on his chest and he smiled at her awkwardly. “Did you hear what I said?”She shook her head. How could she hear him when she was too scared to listen. Rather, she was thinking of the thousand things that could go wrong if Richard decided to end their friendship in anger.But, he wasn’t angry, was he?There was a strange look on his face. She smiled back at him and clenched the pen in her hand tightly.Richard was quiet for some minutes. He had his eyes on her and she wasn’t saying anything either. Then, she broke the silence. “What did you say? I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening” She said.He sat up on the chair and leaned close to the study table. Then, he placed his two hands on the table.“Judy” He Called “I never expected this from you. I mean, you are a very attractive young lady and every reasonable man will be proud of having you in

She only noticed that he was lost in thoughts.Richard, on the other hand, was thinking about Judy’s behavior on their date the previous night .she had announced to the waitress that served them at the restaurant they went to that Richard was her boyfriendAnd, also , when one of her friends from school ran into them that night just as they were leaving, Judy clung close to him, wrapping her arms around him as she announced with a wide smile and an insane level of confidence that she was his girlfriend. Richard, as usual, played along to avoid hurting her feelings but he saw that she was fast becoming attached to him.After Elise’s driver dropped both of them in school, Richard told Elise to go ahead to the lecture theatre for their first class of the day and he gave an excuse that he wanted to see one of their lecturers in his office.Elise noticed how unconvincing he sounded and ran up to him after he had walked a few meters away from her. They were both standing outside the medica