The whole day Ric spent on his phone and laptop looking up sign language and hand symbols trying to decipher what she had said, he had almost concluded that it was a curse word but couldn't find the exact signs she had used, or a better way to put it was he couldn't remember all of it, it was too fast for him to register well.

He was disappointed in himself, and couldn't face the fact that what she said in the morning might be true they might be too different to be friends. All the while Vicky was watching his friend and seeing his expression going from curiosity to frustration to disappointment to sadness, he had never seen Ric behave this way, and that to because of a girl, a lot of girls had approached Ric and thrown themselves all over him but Ric would treat them like an acquaintance, Ric liked the attention but didn't believe in love or crush or anything like that existed, so to see him be this way made Vicky be quiet and think, two things that Vicky never did, (Vicky was a doer, he was spontaneous and deeply loyal...but never a thinker) Ric didn't seem to notice that his behavior was causing this marked change in his friend.

Meanwhile, Ria having had a bad start to the day was having worse luck, as she was walking down the main stairs to the football field a group of girls from class descended on her, right when Marice was called away to report to a professor, Ria tried to avoid the group, but they were determined to find out how she had managed to seduce Ric and if she had been successful.

"Hey! shitface, where do you think you are going?" said a pretty girl who seemed to be the self-proclaimed leader of this misfit group, "We want to know what you spoke to Ric about?" continued the girl whose name Ria could not recall, the group was getting closer and closer encircling her, Ria was pissed but seeing that she was not replying the pretty girl came close to her face," I said we want to know what you told him? why is he talking to a nobody, shitface," she said almost spitting into Ria's face, Ria moved back to be pushed forward again by the group. She wanted to scream "stop" but she, of course, couldn't and the girls in the group started cursing her using more choice bad words than the pretty girl, frustration was making Ria tear up, and she tried forcing her way out of the group but there were too many of them.

Just when she thought she was going to burst, a hand pulled her hand and she looked up to see, Vicky, might she have expected it to be Ric because she was taken aback when she saw it was Vicky who pushed his way through, screaming, "What the heck are you all doing?" when the girls saw that it was Vicky who they thought was in the library with Ric, they scattered leaving a tearful and frustrated Ria standing there and Vicky holding her arm, " Why did you not curse back?" he asked looking at her angrily, "why are you taking that shit silently?" "If you let them walk all over you they will not stop, it will only get worse" he said getting angrier with each word. Ria looked at him with her tear-filled eyes wanting to say "shut up" and " that she was not standing there to take their shit or his either" since the incident with her voice there were very few occasions when she hated the world and hated everything for the way she was, very few times she had asked " Why me?"....but this time it was too much, just too much and she let out a silent scream and freed her arm from his hand and ran down the rest of the stairs. But Vicky was not done, being a track athlete meant he was faster than anyone in the whole university so Ria didn't stand a chance of running away from him, he caught up and stopped her again by grabbing her hand, He had come looking for answers that he was not getting from Ric and the scene had just raised more questions and he was determined to find answers today, the way Ric was behaving and the way the other girls were behaving meant he had to get this sorted sooner than later even if he had to be mean to a girl who was just bullied.

"You cannot just run away, that will solve nothing," he said a little softer now, realizing that he was one of those bullies, She turned tears were streaming down her face, "Come, on it is not a tough question, what is there between you and Ric? if there is nothing then we just have to shout that out in the class and all your problems will disappear, right?" he said still softer, seeing that she didn't take this easy way out and claim that nothing is going on Vicky continued " Ok, so let's say, let's just say, it was love at first sight or something like that, you just have to make it clear and if both of you declare it in class no one can challenge that right?" not replying Ria tried to free her arm, which was bruised, since yesterday people have been manhandling her arm to try to get her to stop to reply.... seeing her wince Vicky let go of her arm and Ria started walking away. Vicky was about to follow when he heard a loud scream from behind " what is wrong with everyone in this university? are they all on drugs, why do you keep grabbing her as though she is a rag doll" Vicky turned to see Marice running down the last few stairs and charging at him, if she was a gladiator this was the time she would be pulling out her sword to strike down the foe, lucky for Vicky she was not a gladiator and neither had a sword for she was mad enough and running fast enough to have cut him in half with a single stroke. As she reached Vicky, she punched him in the face, and was about to follow through with another when Ria who had run back to them stopped her and waved Vicky away with a sense of urgency that Vicky didn't have to be told twice, he sprinted heading back to the library.

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Once Vicky was well out of sight Ria let go of Marice and started typing on her phone, after Marice had understood what had happened, she kept switching from being angry at the girls in her class and being mad at herself for punching Vicky who had saved her friend when she was not around. Then she suddenly got up and turned around to Ria "I am going to apologize and thank him, come with me" Not waiting for Ria's response she headed towards the cafeteria to grab some snacks and drinks to apologize with.

Vicky having reached the library had just sat down, when Ric looked up and gasped "what the hell happened to your face?" he asked getting up from his seat to come over to Vicky, "did you get into a fight with someone, do you want me to beat them up? why didn't you call me?" he asked in a rush, but before could catch his breath and answer Vicky's phone started ringing, picking it up Vicky was surprised to see Marice calling (off-course he had saved the phone number of all the girls in his class for exactly this kind of situation) he wanted to hang up but picked the call instead, "Can you come down, its melting" said Marice hanging up the call, Vicky sat staring at the phone and then looked outside the library window, Marice and Ria were standing outside with stuff in their hand, he got up still not answering Ric's question went down to meet them.

Ric had not seen outside the window so was not sure what had happened to his friend, but since things like this were commonplace with Vicky he didn't give it a second thought. Meanwhile Vicky and Marice where in a standoff, neither moving forward, teh ice pack in Marice hand was melting and dripping down her hand but she couldn't bring herself to say sorry, Ria nudged her in the ribs, " Sorry i miss-understood and punched you in the face, thank you for helping my friend, her you are, thank you, bye", said Marice in one go while shoving the snacks, drinks and ice pack into his hands and walking away."Hey, wait up" said Vicky struggling to keep everything from falling, he set all the stuff on a bench and followed them with just hte ice pack held against his face, "One minute i need to ask you something he said again", Marice stopped and turned around " I already apologized, do you want me to take you to hospital too?" she asked getting fursious again Vicky backed away" Oow!Oow! hold on, i accept you apology it was not about that i just wanted to talk to you about your friend" he said Ria had meanwhile walked on ahead letting Vicky and Marice sort it out, not that she could have added anything to the conversation if she had stayed."What about her?" asked Marice "Is she ok?" Vicky asked looking at Ria who was sitting on a faraway bench, " those girls were being mean" he said with a worried look on his face, seeing his concern for her friend Marice's attitude towards Vicky changed "she is tougher than she looks" said Marice also looking at Ria who was now browsing her phone." That is good, college is not a fun place to be if you cannot stand up for yourself, she should not have taken all that silently, she should have spoken back, given them a piece of her mind" he said still not looking at Marice, who was looking at him with moist eyes, "yes she should have, she is so witty, if she had, they wouldn't have had any come back" she said with a catch in her voice that made him turn and look at her. In front of him stood a girl who looked so hurt that he couldn't believe that it was the same girl who just moments ago looked like a gladiator general set out to behead him, seeing her like this he almost wanted to take her into his arms and protect her from the world, "What's wrong?, I am sorry I didn't mean to hurt you or your friend" he said concerned reaching out to pat her back, "No sorry, it is not your fault it is all my fault" she said brushing away a tear that had escaped from her eyes " Come on nothing happened why are you so sad?" he asked "No no nothing, I will talk to you later, I am sorry this happened" she said pointing to his red and blue eye, "I will take you out for coffee sometime to apologize properly I have to go" she said and left in a hurry, he looked after her in worry, he had to solve this thing quickly too many people were getting hurt. "Coffee, she said coffee right?" he asked himself loudly "what does that mean ? date? can we be friends? or Can I be more than friends?..." he asked himself laughing happily at the thought which made him wince due to his black eye.