Lost ✔️

Chapter 11

"Hey Steph!", Chris called out to her for the zillionth time that day.

Stephanie had been ignoring him and everyone else the entire day and he could not get a hold of her at all.She had even been ignoring Marilene too. When Chris asked Marilene, he actually found her calm and poised as if this had happened before. He did not understand the duo at all.

Chris was confused and hurt. After all this time, he thought they could be friends. One true friend. He did understand that they had in fact just met. Ever since his dad had passed away he had gotten very lonely.

His friends had left his side when he stopped having parties at his former house and wept too much. What is wrong with grieving over someone who died, he had always thought. However boys still followed him like rats do a pied piper. They did as they were told and never stood against him. All because they favored him for his  wealth and influence. 

Only that is exactly what broke him up. He didn't want people to come to him because of money. He didn't want to be used. So he had moved out of his family mansion into a small apartment with his brother and mother. So that he could be at ease. So that he would not have to come home to the wretched wealth that made people use, like and fear him in a multiple ways.

Now seeing Stephanie run away from him, he felt like a lost dog. She was the one he was looking for. The one he thought would accept him without even knowing about how rich he would be. She never asked or pointed their small house even when she lived in big mansion. He felt they were alike. Like they could connect.

There was nothing he could do now so he turned away. As he did so he recalled Stephanie's frail body covered with bruises and her calling out 'MOM' in her sleep. Of course he lied that he didn't undress her. Steve had ordered him to do so because he was scared their mother would call the ambulance. The wounds on her body looked old and repeated. He even remembered the long gash on her cheek.

Something is wrong.

Just like him, Stephanie might be hiding her emotions. 

He remembered what it felt like to be abandoned by people because they wouldn't try harder to reach out to you even if you pushed them away a little. His heart ached at the thought of her struggling. Even though he never really spoke to her, he always paid attention to every small detail of hers. 

Quiet, half-dead eyes and rarely smiling wholeheartedly. She was someone with whom he wished to gain some closure. Even before, when he had held her up close that night, she had  pleaded to not call the ambulance or the police. As if she was scared.

He wanted to eradicate that fear. 

And for that he needed to know what happens to her every night. And the only one way to find that out was......

"Marilene", he whispered.

He searched around. Students rushed past him to their classes. In the midst, he saw a short girl with wavy orange face thrusting her face onto people and asking them about Stephanie. He pushed past the passers-by as he rushed to her.

She looked up at him and started to say something but Chris pulled her into an empty classroom. 

"What on Earth was that you yellow-bellied whiny wanker!", she shouted. Her voice was quite feminine. High-pitched but rather on the sweeter side than on the irritating.

Chris didn't even bother decrypting what she said. He had never heard anything like that.

 "Tell me all about Stephanie", Chris demanded. 

"What? Is she some food who's recipe you wanna know?", Marilene scoffed.

Chris banged the desk impatiently. He looked straight into her scared eyes.

"Don't kid me....please!" There was an urgency in his voice.

She continued to maintain the defiant silence. Just to remain loyal to her friend. Even though she was frightened.

He respected that.

He ran his hand up his hair. When he spoke next there was a softness to his tone and expression.

"Look I mean no harm to Stephanie. She is in trouble and I want to know about her. To help her overcome her lifeless self. She has a wilful request to be noticed in those eyes and I can't just unsee them. Please! I know her parents died but there are some nasty rumours around and I don't believe them at all. So if you......"

"Why not ask her ?"

Chris shook his head.

"She would beat up my ass to death and then tell me her story in my grave. She has a scary personality and to top it off she has been ignoring me all day."

Marilene nodded in thought. 

"True that", she said.

"And so I think it's best to hear it from her best friend. I know we just met but that's what you call an attachment. Please........I- I beg you!"

Marilene's eyes widened a bit from shock at the last three last words. It's not something you hear from the reputed guy everyday. 

"I hope you don't confuse pity and sympathy for friendship. They are two different things. It's just as different as sun is from moon and poison is from medicine.", she said with a powerful demeanor. Chris nodded his head so fast he cricked his neck. 

It was all Marilene could do to not laugh. Chris narrowed his eyes at her and suddenly she didn't feel like laughing anymore. She mentally apologised to Stephanie. 

She took in a deep breath.

"Stephanie.......Stephanie was a brilliant child. Always smiling and happy. She literally emitted sun rays whenever she spoke. She was like a beautiful rose growing in a garden full of thorns. Her brightness and glow was contagious but......"

Marilene trailed off looking down at her feet.

"But ?", Chris provoked her to go on.

Marilene looked up with moisture gathering in her eyes.

"But even roses droop and wilt at the end of the day."

*****

A/N :

A background check on Stephanie's past. WOOHOO!!