17 Chapter 17- Go home

One glance and all the students melted away. James took away Abby for treatment. Only Adrian and Jennifer were left. Very conscientiously, Adrian led Jennifer to do open school ground. The sky was clear, cloudless. Wind almost stagnant. Jennifer was too unstable to say something. Adrian understood this. Adrian placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer to warm her up. Even in a weather like this, Jennifer was cold as stone.

This showed how much Winston and Abby had affected her. "You know, you can talk to me." Adrian slowly said, trying to make Jennifer release her bottled up emotions. "I know." Jennifer said "but I don't want to. I can handle this myself. It's not like I'm gonna die. It's not like I feel like my world is collapsing and it's definitely not like I am some lonely, worthless girl who recently had a severe heartbreak." Adrian felt Jennifer go weak under his arm. Jennifer slopped down on the ground. Her legs couldn't support her anymore. Her face couldn't keep up the smile anymore and her eyes definitely couldn't resist the tears anymore.

Adrian let out a sigh before settling next to Jennifer on the ground. He faced Jennifer only to see hot, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Adrian knew it was important for Jennifer to cry, if she bottled up all her emotions right now, she would fall sick. She had to open up. Moreover, she was safe right now. Her feelings, her emotion were all safe with him. Adrian mentally promised himself to protect Jennifer from all the worries. After a few minutes of crying and mumbling all sorts of love story crap, Jennifer suddenly snapped back to her senses. "No, I shouldn't be crying, they are not worth my tears." She thought to herself.

On seeing Jennifer stop abruptly, Adrian faced Jennifer and slid his hands behind her, hugging her protectively, truly determined to keep off all the evil and worries from this pure, innocent soul between his arms. He hugged her lovingly like a protective cage that felt like home. When Adrian was sure Jennifer couldn't see his face, his eyes dripped a few tears behind her back but he rubbed them at the moment, facing Jennifer and said "You don't feel so well. Go home. I shall talk to the teacher." Jennifer flatly declined.

"My parents our home today. I shall never face them when I am such a mess."

"What if your parents don't get to know about anything at all? What if when you go home, they are not there?" Adrian said while a smile was plastered on his face. Adrian typed a text to some unknown number and within a few minutes, Jennifer received a call from her father. "Hello baby. Sorry to disturb you in school but I and your mom have a urgent meeting with Rains Association. We won't be home today. Please don't wait for us. Goodbye." Jennifer's dad hung up without even listening to Jennifer's reply.

"Guess he was in too much hurry." Adrian chuckled. Jennifer's jaw dropped in confusion. How come he could make her parents leave so early? "Now, go home back and rest. I'll take care of everything." Adrian said while wiping of the trail of semi – dried tears from Jennifer's cheeks. Jennifer only nodded.

She got up, collected her bag and left the school. After walking for about ten minutes, Jennifer starts feeling weak and cold. It wasn't actually cold. The weather was pretty pleasant but Jennifer's heart and emotions were cold. She crossed her hands and rubbed her arms, rubbing them as she kept on sobbing all the way. She was hurt, very hurt. Everything has limits. Her body shiver due to the coldness, she looked down at the road, knowing she had to go home but didn't bother about that right now, all she had was 'hurt'.

As soon as she reached home, she stormed inside her room, ignoring the greeting from the butler as well as the maids. She thought it would be better if she took a hot water bath. She ordered the maids to prepare her lunch till the time she bathed because she was starving. She had, barely had her lunch when Abby butted in, single handedly to ruin the leftover of their star crossed friendship. Jennifer came inside her room but did not care to lock it as she was home alone. When the water came in contact with Jennifer's strained muscles, her eyes released a few tears. Her mind traces back to when they were five.