The next day Ric got up and still had this feeling that he had to talk to Ria, Ria was a puzzle to him, he hardly remembered talking to her once in the past 3 months that they were in the same class which is a 1st for Ric was a girl has not spoken to him, especially a girl who is in the same class, for that matter Marice didn't come over very often either, Vicky was very interested in her but she had snubbed him a couple of times so Vicky had backed off and then both the girls had kind of gone out of his orbit.

As he reached class Vicky joined him, "Hey! how is Anny doing and your sis?" asked Vicky running to catch up."They are doing good" said Ric distracted in his attempt to spot Ria or Marice who seemed to be joint at the hip." How long are they going to be in town? can we have dinner tonight? I didn't get a chance to play with Anny yesterday," said Vicky waving to his new crush ( he had a new crush every two days) and winking at another girl at the same time, when Ric did not reply Vicky turned around to see why but saw Ric was on his way out of the class, he ran to follow Ric but his path was blocked by the professor entering the class and he had to go back to his seat wondering what has got into Ric today.

Ric was looking around as he walked away from class, he looked down at the ground and up the stairs to the cafeteria but couldn't spot the girls in the sea of students coming and going to different classes. "Where could they be, why are they not in class?" asked Ric to no one in particular, he was more surprised by his actions today than anything else he was not a curious guy by any length he never went looking for answers and never bunked classes since he liked to maintain his good reputation with the professors, but today nothing mattered other than talking to Ria and that meant finding both of them, he had no idea what he wanted to talk but he will figure that out once he found her and thanked her for yesterday he convinced himself still looking around.

While Ric was looking for them the girls were headed to the Dean's office on the other side of the campus, they had received a message from the Dean to come to his office 1st thing in the morning and were following through, as they entered the Dean stood up and walked over with a big smile, "girls, girls, girls, come in, you are the saviors of this school, let me know what I can do to reward you for your service towards the school?" he asked ushering them to the sofa at the other end of the room, " Coffee? Tea?", he asked waving to the goodies ladened table, "all this is for you to enjoy, as they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day" said the Dean still smiling impossibly widely, the girls thanked him and dug in, Marice was talking a mile a minute and Ria just smiled and ate. Once the formalities were done, Dean again offered to do them a favor if ever needed and the girls thanked him for it and bowed out to breathe a sigh of relief once they were out in the corridor. "that man is nuts said Marice looking around to make sure no one heard" and they headed to class glad that they remembered to get a note of excuse from the Dean.

Ric was leaning against a pillar browsing his phone not sure if he should head back to class or head back to the dorm when he saw the girls walking down the corridor towards him, they both were typing away at their phones and didn't realize that Ric was standing in front of them until it was almost too late, glancing up in the nick of time Ria pulled Marice back before she could collide into Ric. " What the..." cursed Marice and tried to walk around Ric who held a hand out to block their path, sorry I didn't mean to startle you but I was looking to talk to you said Ric all the while looking at Ria, "why?" asked Marice, " I wanted to thank you for yesterday," he said still looking at Ria, who had stopped looking at him and was typing furiously on her phone, "She has to be in class, we have to be in class" sorry said Marice dragging Ria away by bending under Ric's still outstretched arm. " Hey! wait up" said Ric, holding on to Ria's other hand which was closest to him, and jerking the girls to a stop. Ria turned furious and stared at Ric and down at his hand that was still holding on to her arm a little too tightly, " Oops!!, sorry I didn't mean to" said Ric taking his hands away and raising them as though surrendering. Ria rubbed her arm and Marice walked up to Ric's face and went on her pointy toes to glare him full in the face, what do you mean by doing that."Hey, hey hold on I just wanted to thank her for yesterday and chat that is all, ok?" Said Ric backing away, Marice might be short at 5.1 but she was scared when she wanted to be and fearlessly protective of her friend.

"Sorry we seemed to have got off on the wrong foot here", said Ric backing up a little more, I didn't mean any of it said Ric a little more alarmed as the girls went back to furiously typing on the phone, " Marice was about to go after him again when Ria smiled at Ric as if to reassure him and pulled Marice away and towards class, Leaving Ric to stare is surprised at what had happened as Ria continued to Pull Marice away who was audibly cursing him. Ric just stood in the middle of the hall still confused at what had happened and not sure what he had done wrong, " I mean I shouldn't have pulled her arm but that was more a reaction to them walking away than meaning to hurt her right?" he asked himself loudly." Whose arm did you pull?" asked Vicky coming up to Ric with a big smile, Ric had not realized that the class bell had rung and that he was surrounded by students half of whom were congregating in the hall away just to stand close to him. "We have to move this to the open grounds for safety reasons", said Vicky guiding a confused and dazed Ric out of the hallway and towards the ground.

"so whose hand did you pull? and why are you pulling hands instead of attending the class? this is so unlike you," asked Vicky looking at Ric with his hands on his hip, he was a little furious at Ric for not involving him in the hand pulling which was Vicky's area of expertise anyway."Ria's" said Ric shaking his head as though he did believe that he did that, he was a strong believer of personal space and respect for women, he didn't like crossing the line even if a girl threw herself on him and today..." Crap!!" he said punching his right hand with his left, "How could I have done that? what was I thinking, she must hate me now." Vicky went from furious to worrying at Ric about what was happening to his friend the cool and calm friend who doesn't react even if the whole world was on fire and was throwing a tantrum in the middle of the basketball court. "It's ok you can just apologize I guess," he said trying to cool Ric down. "Yes, I need to apologize immediately," said Ric starting to look around again. " This time can you come with me? so I don't do anything stupid?" He couldn't believe he was asking Vicky to come along to keep him from doing anything usually it was the other way around where Ric had to go and help Vicky out of sticky situations.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

After looking around they find the girls sitting on a bench near the end of the marathon park, they both were typing away on their phones and MArice from time to time looked up at her friend and said "come on!" for which Ria looked up and smiled and shrugged her shoulder.

"Hey girls!" said Vicky after realizing Ric was just going to stand there and stare, "What are you up to?" he asked to which Marice, got up angry still remembering what had done a short while ago but before she could curse Ria covered her mouth, Marice turned around to her friend and " Come on! he pulled your arm, you cannot forgive him," she said angrily."Ric had not spoken yet he was just standing there staring at Ria who was shaking her head no making her short hair jump around a small heart shape face, she was just a centimeter taller than Marice at 5'2" so she looked up at Vicky who had moved closer and Marice turned around when Vicky said" It was an accident, he didn't mean to do that, did you Ric?" he asked allowing Ric to apologize, Ric broke his trance like stare and bowed down while saying " Sorry, I know I was wrong, I just meant to stop you to talk to you not to hurt you by pulling your arm." Ria shrugged her shoulder like it was no big deal but Marice was not done, but Ria covered her mouth again and was pulling her away to keep her friend from using any of her choice curse words, only fault Marice had was a fierce protectiveness of Ria. "I still want to talk to you," said Ric, which made Ria stop she pulled her phone out and handed the unlocked phone to Ric, "You want my number?" Ric was surprised but not entirely girls were always looking to get his number, he hated phones for this reason. " I would prefer to talk face to face," he said, to which she again pointed her phone at him, he took it and entered his number, "Ok message me sometime when we can talk face to face", he said, and handed her phone back, meanwhile Marice was standing by chewing on her nails and looking at Ria with concern, " He will not eat her", said Vicky trying to calm her down, when he realized that she was worried for Ria. Marice didn't reply and pulled Ria away with her.

After they went a little while away they each took out their phones and started typing furiously, "kids nowadays, they cannot talk to each other face to face", said Vicky shaking his head as though he was an old man, trying to cheer up Ric, "But what has gotten into you man, your acting like a lovesick puppy, only a wagging tail was missing," "I am not sure something seems off" said Ric looking at his phone realizing he doesn't have her number, so he has to wait for her to reach back out. " I am going back to the dorm, I am not in the mood for classes"' said Ric as he turned away, " What? bunking not one class but a whole day? you must be seriously sick," said Vicky looking worried.

Ric went back to his dorm and changed into his hoodie and jumped into his bed, every vibration of his phone he had checked and each time was disappointed that it was not her....he was never on this side of having to wait for a girl to call him, he was always the one doing the calling or waking the girl wait...now he felt sorry for those girls who he didn't call back...shaking his head he connected his phone to the charger and decided to play a game on his phone, after an hour when he was bored of the game he closed it to realize he had accidentally set the phone in gaming mode which turned off all alerts and frantically open to see if he had any missed calls, he had several but some from other girls he knew and some spam, but then he saw a "Hi" from an unknown number in his messages list,

Ric: Hi, Ric here can I know who this is?

Ria: Hi, sorry for everything, my friend is a little overprotective :-)

Ric: I can understand, it was my bad for being impulsive, sorry, can we meet and talk?

Ria: we are talking right? I am busy we can talk on the phone.

Ric: I hate phones I would prefer to see a person's face when I talk to them, plz just 30mins? I can come over

Ria: even if you come over we will be chatting on the phone only so why trouble yourself?

Ric: why can we not talk, I would love to treat you for helping with Anny, and also was looking to ask for a favor.

Ria: oh no treat needed, I was glad to help she was cute, is she your kid?

Ric: WHAT...NO she is my niece

Ria: Sorry :-P she looked like you so asked sorry, she is cute anyway was happily talking to her, btw what was a favor you wanted? happy to help.

Ric: I can I ask when we meet? I wanted to explain and talk about it more.

Ria: we are talking only now?

Ric: I wanted to talk to you not chat (Ric was getting angry as she kept snubbing her) If you don't like to meet me or talk to me we can forget it and stop here.

Ria: confused " But it's not like I don't want to talk to you right? I can't

Ric: why cannot you talk, do you hate me or something?

Ria: Hate? no why will I hate you, I just cannot talk

Ric: come on now you are just playing hard to get, it?

Ria: no I CANNOT TALK

Ric: ok ok cool down...I will ask you out some other day when you are not so angry, then we can talk more.

Ria: I am D.U.M.B I cannot talk, I lost my voice, I have aphonia or loss of voice.... can I be any clearer?????

Ric was shocked to read this message, dumb, he didn't realize he never heard her talk, how did he not realize? how can he be so stupid, she didn't want to talk to him because she couldn't and he kept bugging her to talk to him...he put his head in his arms and wondered how much worse can he behave towards her today, he was sure she will never even look at him after this.

Ric: I am sorry