Don't hurt me, I'm a virgin.

Chapter 21

I enter the café again the next morning and Mitch takes his usual seat at the corner while I head for the changing room.

I find Julie there, grasping what looks like a newspaper. The fact that she doesn't see me shows how heavily engrossed she is in the paper.

"Morning, Julie." I greet her and she barely lifts her head to acknowledge me.

"What's that?" I ask as I change from my casual clothes to cafe uniform.

"Hmm?"

I frown and once I finish dressing, I move over to her to see what it is that has her so intrigued.

I see an image of Devon on the front page, with a caption saying, "Drug smuggler/dealer/Prostitution associate gets jailed". What's more shocking is how there's a lot of pictures on the front page of him doing all of the accused illegal activities in the caption. It's those pictures alone that lead me to think that somehow he has been known by the police for a while.

Julie finishes reading the last chapter and then with a grave face, hands me the paper.

I begin reading.

Apparently, the cops have had tabs on him for a while, with an undercover questioning anyone who knew him. They all said the same thing. "Getting involved with Devon, is like offering your life on a plate to him".

The undercover was able to take photos of him doing all those illegal dealings and it was with those evidence that he was brought to justice.

There's a lot of unidentified people having word against him but most improtantly, "Savannah Samuels, 27, who recently been hospitalised due to "anxiety attack", has managed to spill every tad bit of evidence against him." Once I finish reading, I try to swallow the bile in my throat.

So that's it then. I won't be seeing either of them from now on. I think, with relief flooding my system.

I look over at Julie who's pressing eyes haven't left me since I began reading.

"Leyla please, please, tell me you weren't involved with him?"

"What, no. No." I tell her horrified at the thought.

"Then how exactly did you know them?" She asks.

I sigh as I sit myself next to her on the bench.

It's about time I tell her. I mean it's not like it's gonna kill anyone. I considered Julie as one of my great friends. She deserved to know the truth.

It's with that final thought that I begin to tell her everything. Starting with being at the lowest point of my life, to meeting Greta and having to deal with her demands. I also tell her how I met Sav along with Monica and Devon the same night I met Jeremy. I tell her why Sav was here yesterday trying to blackmail me, and then my suspicious of Devon being the one that coerced her into it.

I also tell her how despite all the bad things that have happened in my life Jeremy is the only one that has made me see that there is truly a silver lining behind every dark cloud.

When I finish, Julie looks at me with a new emotion. I see tears brimming in her eyes and she takes my hands and squeezes them.

"Gosh and you say Hilly is strong." She comments.

I snort but smile anyhow. "I'm not strong." I protest.

"Oh Ley, you are. After all you've been through." A lone tear escapes from her eye.

"Julie," I wipe the tear which is now making my own tears come. "Don't cry for me. It's all in the past."

"I can't help it. I wish I'd met you sooner, maybe I could have prevented some things."