The Bewitched Knights

Chapter 14

It has been three months since I have been friend with Veronica. We three including me, Veronica and Jung and sometimes, Reyansh has been enjoying the bond of friendship, hanging out with each other, studying together and all other things that other normal people do in their friends group. Reyansh even made a friends group in messenger application for four of us and I would occasionally help them out if they had any doubts in maths or any other subject. But, there was something that always bugged me. It was Veronica. Whenever she smiled, I would feel something off.

As if she really wasn’t that happy how she shows us to be. I don’t really feel anything or sense anything whenever she laughs. You know that feeling when you smile, seeing other people smile? But in this case, I don’t really feel anything whenever she smiles. There was something in her eyes. All these months, I have been completely focussing upon her and it makes question myself if I was getting attracted to her. But then, I was only a fifteen year old kid, what really do i know about life or love?

Her eyes were always empty. She was hiding something behind that smile and that made me stay away from her. I had never really liked secrets nor do I have any intentions on knowing what she is hiding, but still I don’t know why, I feel weird. to see that there was indeed something that was disturbing her and restrained her from being happy.

But whatever it was, I really liked what was going on. Honestly, I had never really had many friends and I didn't really like to socialise but now it was good to have some friends with whom I could hang out.

"What are you reading?" I asked looking down at Veronica who seemed to be reading a book but her eyes were not really trained on the book. She seemed to be lost in deep thoughts but feigned as if she was reading the book. "Nothing," she whispered as closed the book and placed some notebooks over it, as if trying to hide it from me. But, I removed the notebooks and grabbed the book while she gasped and tried to take it from me.

"Business Economics?" bewildered by her choice of book, for being a science student who had physics exam in less than ten days. "Don't you think that you should read physics books instead of this?" I asked as I took a seat before her and kept the book down.

"Oh yeah! I wasn't really reading that book. I will bring the physics book and return this one, back" she said and got off and literally snatched the book and before I could say anything she walked away. What's wrong with this girl?'

"Hey, where is Veronica?" Rey asked as I kept my food plate on the table. I shrugged at him, because the last time I saw her was back in the library and since then I had not really had the time to find her or even see if she was nearby.

"She didn't even attend the computer science class today," Jung told us which made me look at him. "Really?" I asked upset by the fact that she was again missing her classes even after being warned by the teachers. "What's gotten into her these days?" I asked and they exchanged looks as they looked back at me.

Like other days, the canteen was moderately filled students as the juniors were having exams. "Ace, have you ever marked something weird about her?" Jung said all of a sudden and as I was about to eat my burger, I kept it down and looked at him. "What do you mean?" I questioned.

"She misses classes almost every day. I don't know why I feel there is something off about her," Reyansh said out and I couldn't help agree to him but I chose stay quiet wanting to listen what they had in their mind.

"The girl is really intelligent. She rarely studies, but still gets to score good marks in every exam. What do you think about this? Do you think she has hired a personal tutor for herself for whom, she has been avoiding classes?" Jung asked and that made me scoff.

"The only tutor she has is me. I'm the only one who clears her doubt and she comes to me whenever she is in a problem. I don't really think that is the case," I said and I saw Rey nodding his head.

"But I -" Jung was going to say something but stopped mid sentence and I furrowed my eyebrows at his behavior when he slammed his fork down and quickly picked up his stuffs.

"Guys, Elliot is on his way. Let's hurry and get out of here. I do not wish to face the damn ill mannered boy," Jung said and that made me look up and Elliot was certainly making his way towards the Canteen. We saw him walking through the hallway from the glass window, I was already packing my stuffs and held my burger in my hand and three of us literally jogged out of the canteen, avoiding Elliot and his gang.

All of huffed out loud on exertion because of that mini marathon, we ran across the canteen and the hallway wanting to avoid the fiery redhead, Elliot. "Damn! we were so close," Rey uttered and I nodded as we held our stuff and thought of eating our food in the lawn.

"Guys, I have been wanting to tell you this, but never really got the chance to speak," Rey said as he finished his sandwich and stuffed the tissue in the small sandwich box. "About what?" Jung questioned seeming interested to know what Rey wanted to speak.

"About Veronica," he exclaimed and that had my attention as I looked at me while I ate my burger.

"What about her?" Jung questioned and Rey exhaled out a breath before gulping down water from his bottle. It was sunny outside and we chose to sat down the London plane tree as we ate our lunch.

"A girl in my class had told me that Veronica was weird and very fierce. She threw her roommate out of her hostel not wanting to share room with her because according to her, her roommate was inspecting through her things while she was not in her room and when she got back Veronica caught her red handed touching her stuffs and she was beyond pissed," Rey revealed and while Jung gasped at the fact I scowled at him.

"So? What wrong did she did on not wanting to live with her roommate. It was her roommate's fault in the beginning for touching her things," I said and Rey nodded. "I know, what her roommate did was bad but the fact that Veronica beat the s**t out of her is bad," he said and Jung gasped even louder than before.

"What?" I asked in exasperation.

"Yes, her roommate had complained against her that she beat her mercilessly and even showed the authorities the scratches and bruises she had gotten because of Veronica,"

"Then?" I asked wanting to know more about it.

"But due to lack of evidence that Veronica really did abuse her, the authorities let Veronica slip and changed her roommates building, avoiding anymore nuisance from both of them. Not only this, but the girl in my class told me that Veronica had no girl friends and the girls in the hostel were scared of her and even avoided meeting her gaze," he said and I sighed as I kept my burger down and got off from my place.

"Where are you going?" Jung asked and I showed him my lunch box. "To throw it in the dustbin," I told him and it was when he handed me his empty sandwich box wanting me to throw it in the dustbin for him. I excused myself and walked back into the school building and threw the boxes into the dustbin and made my way towards the water purifier machine to have some water.

But there was something that caught my attention and I stopped in the middle of the hallway and changed my trance as I walked towards the direction of the dean's chamber and there she was. Veronica, came out of the room quietly and closed the door behind her and ran towards the other direction, missing my presence.

"What is she doing here?" I said out to myself as I walked to the dean's chamber and opened the door thinking she came there to meet the dean but was surprised to find no one inside.

That made me look back at the direction where Veronica had just left. This girl is seriously weird.