The Golden Girl

14. Left No Crumbs

There was an immediate cry of outrage from the boy's family. Imran's parents refused to believe the story. Malika watched with anger and helplessness as he denied every accusation. His parents stood by his claims and pleaded his innocence.

Imran looked almost smug when he said, "You don't have any proof I posted the photos." However, the look didn't last very long as the lady principal responded with a strict, "we have an IT team that can easily track down the location of the account and the device it operated from."

Malika came into the room with walls up and her defenses in place, however, the principal's surprising neutral stance immediately softened her.

Imran's parents did everything to save their son. Malika knew it probably would have worked. His parents were wealthy and they had a lot of influence in the community. He could have just walked away with a mere suspension.

However, Neela Bashir didn't back down without a fight. Malika knew her mother was fierce, but she never knew just how much. Neela pulled every resource and her father's influence from his days as a prominent politician of the country. She threatened to involve the police if the school didn't take appropriate actions.

The fight ensued for weeks. Neela Bashir's political connections snubbed the opposing team. At the end, Imran was expelled. The photos, and the groups they were posted in, were taken down. The school announced a public announcement during Homeroom that if anyone was caught even speaking about those pictures they would face legal consequences. Malika was forced to have sessions with the school counselor.

The newly implemented rules, once again, allowed her to walk through the corridors of her school without being harassed - something she never thought she would be able to do again.

Malika knew that despite the measures, the photos would still exist in some corner of some pervert's phone. This is the consequence she had to live with. However, once people learned they were fake and edited, the photos lost their power and people soon lost interest in them.

She faced harassment for the better half of the year and it took only a few weeks for it to almost completely go away. Malika couldn't believe it.

Once everything unfolded, Malika expected Neela to cut her into pieces and turn her into a smoothie. Instead, her mother was just upset that Malika kept secrets of this scale. Malika cried and threw a tantrum that she couldn't feel like she could talk to Neela because she was never there for her. The mother argued it wasn't true.

The fight reached its peak. Once the anger and grudges were bared and out of their systems, they were both able to be more compassionate. Neela promised to be more present. Malika realized perhaps she was too harsh on her mother, and at times, could be a brat. Neela was there to support and fight for her when she needed it the most, always, and Malika didn't take it for granted .

Despite the heart to heart, Malika was still grounded till the end of time.

Malika did very little other than go to school and help her mom with the store. Students ceased to harass her and she could attend classes fairly peacefully, except for a few odd stares here and there. On top of everything, their A'Levels were looming ahead, so the class eleven and twelve students were too occupied revising for the mock tests to care about the pictures.

It was a pleasant afternoon when Malika sat in the storage room of her mom's store, flipping through the book in her hands. Neela was in the midst of opening a second store, focusing on bridal. The carpeted floor was covered with threads, laces and pieces of clothing on every inch. Busy bodies could be heard shuffling from the front of the store as the sewing machines spun at all hours of the day.