She rubbed her lips together and stared at the food on front of her. It wasn’t long before her stomach began to growl. The only food which she had eaten that day was the bread which Richard had surprised her with that morning.Even when she was seated at the cafeteria with her close friends in school, she did not touch the tray of food which she bought. Instead, she left it the same way and went to class. Now, she was beginning to get hungry.As she waited for her mother to join her in the kitchen, her wandered away slowly. She was thinking about the announcement that one of her course lecturers had given in class earlier that day. The lecturer had announced that they had to carry out group projects for his course and he grouped them all into threes. Richard had gotten paired with Judy, his casual friend from school who never skipped a chance to greet him at school, and the new exchange student that had just joined their Department.The course had been an extra difficult one for Elise
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
. He did not have to guess who the intruder at the door was because the intruder spoke again and he immediately knew who it was..“Elise!” The intruder at the door bellowed “Get out of here right now!”Elise picked herself up and duster off her gown, then she left the basket ball court.A sly smile formed on David ‘sl lips and he turned around to face Richard.“I must commend your new found level of confidence and audacity these days.” He mocked.Richard ignored his statement and said, “If I ever see you as close as one inch close to Elise, I’ll show you why some people don’t get to live long on earth. Trust me” Richard said and left the doorway as he went after Elise.David was left in an astonished state after Richard stormed away. He didn’t know what to make of Richard’s new found attitude to challenge him without any iota of fear. What even disturbed him the most was how Richard was so quick to stand up Elise and defend her almost every time he tried to get at her. David stood alo
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
Stacy laughed as she read Elise’s reply. Sometimes, the things that Elise did really surprised her. It was recently that Elise had opened up to she and Juliet that the tall creepy guy from their Department who usually followed her about was her bodyguard. It took lot of convincing before either if them could believe that Elise had an idea who Richard was all along but she kept pretending as though she was surprised whenever they noticed him around them at different locations.That evening, around 4pm, Elise texted Stacy after she had gotten home. She was seated at her favorite spot which was at the back of her house.She explained to Stacy that she felt angry over something and she still did not understand why she felt that way. That was when Stacy encouraged her to open up about her feelings so they could talk things out.Some minutes later, Elise sent a five minute long voice note to her. Elise told her that she was unhappy that she told Judy, her project partner, to carry out her
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
The next few days were hard for Richard because he didn’t hear anything from Elise and had no idea how she was faring. His first thought was to call her mother and plead with her to talk to Elise but, he immediately kicked against it because he was not in Elise’s mother’s good books.Elise’s mother was aware of the growing friendship between him and her daughter and she would do anything to curb it.Besides, Richard reasoned that it was wrong for him to use Elise’s mother as a tool to get to him. He told himself that he would have to wait around till when Elise was ready to see him. Soon, it was already a week since the incidence between Judy and Elise.At this point, Richard could not hold himself back from finding a way to talk to Elise. He felt that Judy should be the one to apologize to Elise because it was she who had created the whole mess.That afternoon, he was seated in a lecture hall in school, it was shortly after the lecturer had just walked out and students were still hav
James was lounged on a big revolving chair that was at the corner of the room. He had earlier tied a clean, white towel around his head. His upper body was shirtless and he wore just a pair of red shorts.A cold glass of whine was between his left hand while the other hand held on to a wrap of cigarettes.James had always been a light smoker. Sometimes, it took him as long as three weeks to finish up a packet of just 12 sticks other times, it took him longer. But, ever since he moved to the new country on the business trip, he found himself smoking more frequently and heavily too.It helped him to deal with the stress that came from the unending meetings. Twice he has called his daughter, Elise but both calls went to voicemails. That morning, he decoded to give it a try and call Elise again.As his feet dangled from the rocking seat, he could feel the cold breeze from the window caress his legs. His hotel room had a back door that opened up to the ocean behind. The hotel was built ve