No, not that question! Anything but that! That night, when she fell unconscious in that cab, when a stranger took her to some unknown place, where she was... she was... sniff...
"Ms Billings?" Keith prompted.
She stared at the floor. Tears started to spill from her eyes and she began trembling. She gripped her elbows.
"Ms Billings, what happened?" Keith asked rather callously.
What!? Could he not see these tears? These were the genuine stuff! Gloria was hurting here!
"Ah ha!" came a cry from the back of the class. A slim golden-haired girl was there at the back door writing in her notebook with a pencil. "Keith McDowell makes little girls cry! This is so going into the news!"
"What!? No!" Keith protested, "This is not what it is, Sally!" He chased after the girl, who had disappeared out the door.
Finally, a taste of his own medicine!
Gloria was too distraught to gloat over it though. None of the few classmates present would offer any comfort. So she wiped her tears with a tissue from her white handbag and pulled out her lunch box. She should get some food in her while there was still time.
But she could not. A fresh set of tears flowed and she buried her face in her hands, sobbing. How could anyone have done what that man did to her? How could anyone do that to a defenseless little girl?
"Annie?"
Gloria peeked out between her fingers. Sabine was there kneeling beside her.
"I was worried," Sabine said, "What happened?"
"Bad memories," Gloria replied with a shaky voice.
"Sorry I left you alone with him," Sabine apologized.
"It's okay." Gloria wiped her face with the tissue. "As long as you're okay." She straightened herself.
The other classmates had been avoiding Sabine since her return. Even Reese. Sabine was vulnerable at the moment. The plump girl would not be able to bear Keith's interrogation.
"Annie, why are you doing all this for me?" Sabine asked.
Gloria sniffed and wiped her nose. "Because we're friends."
"Friends?"
"Yes." Gloria nodded. "I know I haven't been good to you in the past." Actually, that was Annie who was mean. "But I'd like to leave that behind. I'd rather be good friends with you."
"Even after what I did to you?"
"Don't forget that I was mean to you first." Annie was, not her.
Sabine looked aside.
"Remember the good times we had? Remember the time we spent studying and the fun time we had at my house?" Gloria smiled weakly. "I want us to be able to do that again."
Sabine smiled back. "All right, let's do it again."
***
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