The two computers connected—opening up the mysteries the two anonymous callers beheld for all this time.

Michael Adams found himself looking at pale blue coloured walls, a mostly empty bookshelf and a small study table. But that was not what caught his attention right away.

In front of all the background was a pretty looking girl, who wore a beautiful smile on her face. Her eyes matched the color of her shoulder length hair —caramel brown. Though he found it rather distracting that she bit her pink lips often, he was overwhelmed to finally see her.

"Hey.." The words hardly came out, as he was busy taking in what the screen had to show.

"Hi..Adams," her voice sounded shaky and small as well.

"You look good, Britney," he said as he smiled with his lips pressed. "Just that you bite your lips too often."

"Oh that's a bad habit. Annabel never stops complaining!" She smiled, her eyes looking down. He observed her eyelashes were long, it defined her eyes better.

"You don't look bad as well," she said.  Then she wondered aloud, "You must be a smart kid."

"Smart?" He chuckled.

"Don't get me stupid, but you have this sharp look around you. Your eyes kinda glint—spark, you know."

"Oh. That I am being told for the first time."

"You just need to take care more about yourself. You look tired."

"I always am tired. Of many things," he said morosely but changed the topic soon. "So can we skip this awkward conversation part and talk about something else?"

"I don't know what to say.."

"We usually talk a lot, you know."

"Umm.." She thought for sometime. She looked cute when she was trying to think.

"I never heard about your college. Tell me about it. I'm leaving for Seattle in a week and I don't even have any cousin to tell me stories of college," she whined as he laughed.

"There's nothing different about college. It takes time to adjust though. If you can get accustomed, fine. Or it gets little hard," he explained. "But I know you'll manage."

"You have many friends?"

"Told you, I have just one. Antonio. He's a nice buddy."

"So when are you returning to college after vacation?"

His jaw clenched, breath became erratic, and he found himself at a loss of words. When he gained enough control, he stated, "It... It starts. Soon..I mean, yeah. And your college? What subject you taking up?"

"I'm taking Biology. University of Washington has really good science programs, you know. And I am pretty excited!" She rambled on with dreamy eyes. How innocent she looked as she excitedly told him all that she had known about her college.

That was the moment he felt what a terrible mistake he was doing by letting her come close. What had she ever done to suffer all these? A guy had brutally used her, and she forgave him. Silently, without that guy even pleading to her. Now he was coming in her way, just to perish her and make her fall to the ground once again.

As she kept talking and he continued nodding and grinning to her words, he felt that this girl was different—than many, so many others. She had the power to forgive. And here, he could not forgive his own father for letting his mom go that day. Heck, he could not even forgive himself. Since forgiving is not about one saying sorry and there other saying 'it's okay'. It has to come from the deepest part of heart, for both the person, to forgive and be forgiven. You need to be strong to forgive. And if one thing he knew, it was that he was not strong.

As the events of the day from almost an year now started flashing in front of his eyes, he felt his world closing in. Even with Brittney talking right in front of him, who had started to mean a lot more than almost everyone else he knew in real life.

Brittney had become a name for whom he felt there was a reason for even someone like him to be alive, though he clearly knew that was not possible. Though he knew he was fragile, he was about to break completely. And the only thing he was sure of was that he did not want her to get involved. Anyhow.

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