The next day was one more in mint condition to me. I wasn't even ambiguous of my taking on the hard work and heartache obviously ahead. Did he receive my offering? When in doubt..mumble! I made my mind up to bump onto him at Café. Turn out, Sheilah and Salini were just going to call for me to go in with them. We three went to the Cafe and at hand was my Shooting Star standing- witty, sensitive and vivacious as ever. To my amazement, I could not even be indebted to God that Prince expressed thanks to me for the gifts. He nodded a general Hi. Closely at the rear, I could spot Sid sort of mortified getting a glimpse of me. He drew me at corner and apologized for mislaying my gifts from his locker. I was intensely brought down. One was sure; it was not easy to wait till next year. What a huge dose of mishap. As days outstripped, girls broke off going to Aunty's café, Salini switched on going around on her own and Sheilah had rude crush with gym master, in any way that meant. I looked in on Aunty's Café often but no! There was no Prince. Why would he? He might had been washed-out expecting us and felt bad to do all the chasings. I thought I remained hushed while he wanted me to speak and he pulled back. At that point, I considered, well! He was far gone from my life. I was adrift. I decided to chance on him at Mayo's building the very followed by day. Whole night all I did was to simply let everything go and move on, gather courage together and choose a direction that carries me toward a new dawn. So I packed up my troubles and took a step forward - the process of change can be tough, but I thought about all the excitement ahead if I could be stalwart enough! With that notion, I had good night sleep. Then crack of dawn, I woke up early on and was preparing for my vital day. Salini had gone down the stairs as she got phone call from her family members. As I was just going to head off the room, I saw Salini scared stiff and numb as if she just confronted trouble, big trouble and yet worst trouble - that seemed to have beaten its horror simply from being told so often. Sheilah and myself raised her spirits to speak out. Her father had departed forever. "Yesterday is history; tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift; that's why we call it 'the present'." How precisely quoted. We held Salini close to our heart for not being timely to set eyes on him at the end—perhaps many unresolved issues, unanswered questions, and guilt that went along with her grieving then. We both kept on with her the entire day. Looked as if whole Mayo came up to placate her. She very nearly felt "will you all clear up now?" It was 11 PM mid night. Sheilah, and myself were striving to make Salini have forty winks. Then we heard a name knocking at the window. "I 'll get it" Sheilah got a move on. From nowhere, there was Prince, shooting up the wall and running the risk of slipping in from behind the window. Sheilah helped him to get in and sprinted to lock the door to make sure none of us would be in snag. Prince came forth and ran on the spur of the moment towards Salini. He hung on to her and embraced her cozily and buried her face against his chest. My shock wave and discomfort delimited and throttled me as I tried to have a handle on what I heard him saying just as casually after that. " You will be all right. I will shield you warm and in safe hands. To say I’m sorry seems so cliché. I understand age is not consoling fact in any death, to loose someone you love is the focus. But Precious, you and I as one can get beyond it. Have down pat on how you and I kept words on my birthday about how we would curl in each other's arms and begin living all the dreams we'd missed rest of our life. I'm here for you Precious. I Love you. I will always do". The wavelets rippled with hundreds of shocking strands inside me. I lost balance and left the room excusing myself. Every past moment started haunting me in some capacity, their memories clinging to my being like lint to a black sweater, my sentiments befouled, my self-esteem? I was fuming because I wanted Her back-the overly confident, happy girl that just wanted to love and be loved was gone, and what were left were her unbelievably crushed dreams. (Contd.)