Strings Attached

~Chapter 16~ (Contd.)

"He also tried pushing my contact number out of me." More than her last word, it feels like a last nail in the coffin to me. My coffin, of course.

"Is that true, Daniyal?" the Headmistress asks me in a grave tone. And the next second, I fly off the handle.

"Well, yes. It is. But if she tried showing this much of courage then that she's showing now, I wouldn't have had to force my way with her at all!" I connect my thumb and forefinger to indicate a pinch of that said courage.

"No need to shout, young man!" the HM sounds me but I turn a deaf ear to her reprimand.

"If she wasn't adamant to keep me at an arm's length, I'd never have behaved like that, alright? But I was at my wit's end! Another mistake and you'd have expelled me! What do you think was I supposed to do?" I ask her rhetorically and she purses her lips at me.

"Still, that was no way to behave, Hasan," she tells me firmly. Yeah, of course, you'd side with her. After all, she looks like a miserable, lonely, little girl who never got the candy she was promised. F**king dramatics, all of it.

Nevertheless, instead of giving the HM a piece of my mind (which I'm itching to do, by the way), I take a deep and long breath and begin at the beginning to set matters aright. Prolonging it is only threatening my precious peace and my enrollment in this school, anyway.

"Look, Ms. Cindy. To tell you the truth, I was never in the wrong, in the first place.

Here, I raise my hand to keep her quiet, seeing as she wants to protest my statement. "Let me finish, would you? I was... having a rough time that morning. And I got late, due to that. So I had to run to class. And I can swear by anything you want me to that I never saw this girl huddled in the doorway. I just ran and crashed into her. And by some ill-fated turn of events, she ran into the table while I was able to steady myself in time.

"And I f**king never realized she was bleeding, alright?!" This time, I'm unable to keep myself from shouting as I remember all the accusing stares of people and the things they said to me.

"When you place a f**king timer on top of my head and wait for me to put one toe out of line so that you can throw me out, how am I supposed to remain calm? Why the hell wouldn't I have an outburst?" I question the woman sitting high and mighty in front of me, like judge passing orders and punishments fast and quick. I hate her with every fiber of my being.

She only acts like she's looking out for me because she wants whatever comes out of my father's pockets.

"Alright," she says a while later, releasing a breath after she's done scrutinizing me with her hard and bespectacled grey eyes. It's a miracle she heard my tirade quite quietly.

"It was a mistake on your part. I concede it this once and let you go. But I'd suggest you improve your language, young man. That foul mouth of yours won't get you anywhere, you hear me? Nowhere! Work upon your manners too. I don't want heathens passing out of this school. I want a civilized bunch of students who look like they have had an education, instead of looking like some street hoodlums, am I clear!?" she asks me in a stern voice and I nod my head, without voicing my thoughts.