Vincent caught a sight of Rita heading towards her classroom immediately after they were done with assembly and decided to walk over to her.

"Rita!" he called as he got closer to her, and she stopped on her tracks and turned to look at him.

"Hey Vincent. Good morning," she said with a calm voice.

"Good morning. You don't sound like your usual self. Is anything wrong?"

"I told Rachael about everything that I told you yesterday," Rita replied.

"So what did she say? Hope she took your warning?" Vincent asked.

"No she didn't. She practically called me a liar. She said I was trying to frame Diane and her friends since I never liked her company with them," Rita told Vincent.

"She actually said all that to you?" Vincent asked in disbelief.

"Yes she did. I really don't know what has come over her. She is changing and it's definitely not a good one," Rita said.

"I need to talk to her," said Vincent.

"I don't think she would listen to you. She has already taken sides. Did you see the video that Diane posted on her YouTube channel?" Rita asked.

Vincent shook his head. "What video is that? I don't think I have seen it."

"The one she apparently made a day before Rachael's birthday," Rita said.

"Can you show it to me?" Vincent asked.

"Sure," Rita said and opened her phone to play the video which was just about five minutes long.

"I'm okay with the dancing and all but the drinking of alcohol part, I don't support it at all," Vincent said, immediately the video had ended. He had seen the bottle of the drink Diane was holding and had recognized it.

"You mean the drink they were taking at is alcoholic?" Rita asked in shock. The Rachael she knew would never advocate for that.

"Yes, I know that because we sell it at the shop."

"Okay," Rita sadly said.

"Let's go to the classroom. Our teachers might probably be in the classroom already," Vincent suggested to Rita. "What are you having for first period?"

"Literature-in-English. How about you?"

"I'm having Physics," Vincent replied as they started walking to their classroom.

Vincent didn't have the time to talk to Rachael about the video before their Physics teacher walked into the classroom, so he decided to wait until it was time for break.

In a couple of hours, they were done with the classes for the morning session and the bell was rung for break time.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go and eat," Rachael said to Vincent when she noticed that he was not getting ready to leave as usual.

"I saw the video Rachael. I actually thought it was totally okay for you to make new friends but I didn't know it was not really a good idea," Vincent said to her with a stern look.

"Oh, you mean the one Diane made?" Rachael asked.

"Yes that one, and to think that you would join them to drink an alcoholic wine. That's not you Rachael," Vincent said, looking straight into Rachael's eyes.

"You too? What is wrong with you and Rita? What do you even have against Diane?" Rachael asked with a raised voice, gaining the attention of the few students that were still in the classroom.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. You hanging out with Diane is not the issue right now. You own yourself and can be friends with whosoever you want to be friends with, but I'm afraid they are beginning to influence you badly," Vincent said with so much concern.

"Is it about the drink? If it's about that then don't worry about it because I didn't even take too much of it. Besides the alcohol content in it is almost unnoticeable," Rachael calmly said.

"You need to rethink on what you really want. I don't think your dad nor your mum would be happy with you if they ever come across that video," Vincent said in a final note.

"Don't even talk about my mum! She never cared!" Rita said with pure distaste.

"So I'm guessing all these is about her. You want to forget that she ever exist right? You want to see her hurt because you think she is hurting you. Nobody is perfect Rachael and your mum is not too," Vincent replied.

"And I'm also not perfect okay!" Rita angrily replied before barging out of the classroom.

Vincent later walked to the cafeteria alone, where he met up with Rita, and sat next to her at their usual spot.

"She is not listening," he said with a sigh the moment he sat down.

"I told you. The best thing for us to do right now is to let her be," Rita said and took a sip of her yoghurt, and just then, Rachael walked in along with Diane, Lisa and Sophia. They ordered for their food and went to sit down together at a table while Vincent and Rita silently watched on.

"I just hope it's not too late before she realizes that she is on the wrong path," Vincent sadly said.

"Me too," Rita added and they continued with eating their food.

They all went back to their classroom after the break was over and still, no words were exchanged between Vincent and Rachael although Vincent and Rita's words kept replaying in Rachael's head even right there on her seat in the classroom.

She decided that she needed to talk to someone but definitely not Vincent nor Rita. Someone who would listen to her and tell her she was right. When the closing bell was rung, she quickly picked up her phone to call her driver and inform him not to bother about picking her up, after which she dialed Cyril's number.

"Hi Cyril. Are you still at Diane's place?" she asked when Cyril picked up.

"No dear, I went back home. You want to visit? I don't live too far from your school," Cyril said from the other end.

"Can you send me the address?" Rachael asked.

"I would do that just now," Cyril replied.

"Okay then. Bye for now," Rachael said before hanging up. In about a minute's time, she got a message with Cyril's address on it.

She walked out of the school gates before getting on an Uber to take her to the address Cyril had sent.

True to Cyril's words, where he lived was not so far from Rachael's school so she was there in about fifteen minutes time.

The estate where he lived was not as fancy as Rachael's or as Diane's but it looked nice.
Rachael finally located his house and knocked on the door. She waited for about a minute before the door was opened by Cyril who was putting on a blue jersey.

"Hey! Welcome to my place dear. Please come in," he said to Rachael as soon as he saw her at his doorstep.

"Thank you," Rachael said and walked into the house.

"Over here please." Cyril motioned towards his room. Rachael was a bit hesitant to go with him but changed her mind when he said,    "Come on, I don't bite."

His room was not so big but it did look comfortable and warm with basically a bed that was covered in white sheets and a reading table.

"You can sit over here." Cyril pointed at the plastic chair that was next to his reading table.

"Thank you," Rachael said and sat down on the chair while Cyril went over to sit on his bed.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Cyril politely asked.

"No thank you, I'm okay," Rachael said, nervously looking around the room. "Your parents are not around?" she asked.

"They are both at their work places," Cyril replied.

"Okay. How about your siblings?" Rachael asked.

"I'm the only child," Cyril replied.

"Really? I am too," Rachael said, getting more comfortable.

"Good. Another thing that we have in common," Cyril said.

"Yeah."

"So you wanted to talk?" asked Cyril.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to someone. I've been having a lot of disagreement with my friends lately," Rachael started.

"You mean the ones I met at your birthday party? Vincent and Rachael?" Cyril asked.

"Yeah. We've been really good friends you know, but I feel they don't understand me. They keep making up things about Diane and also you just recently," Rachael told him.

Cyril let out a short laugh before saying, "You don't need anyone to tell you what to do you know. You're big enough to decide what you want for yourself," he finished and stood up from the bed. "You know what? Let's do something to make you forget about all your worries," he suggested.

"Something like what?" Rachael asked, staring at his advancing figure.

"I would be in charge. You just have to do as I say," Cyril said in a low voice.

"Okay," Rachael said, wondering what he was up to.

"Stand up and close your eyes," Cyril requested and Rachael stood up before asking, "Do I really have to close my eyes?"

"Yeah," Cyril said in a calm voice and she closed her eyes while he started taking more steps closer to her.

Rachael could feel the little gap between them closing up while her heartbeat became faster at each step he took. She felt his breathe near her face and at the same time his hands landed on her waist, that gave her a clue that he wanted to kiss her so she bent her head to her left and his kiss fell on her neck.

"Cyril stop! What are you trying to do?" she asked as she quickly pushed his hands away from her waist, but he didn't bulge.

"Hey relax, I'm just trying to help you out with your depression," he spoke in between placing kisses on Rachael's neck and tightening his grip on her waist.

"I never told you I was!" Rachael screamed before searching the table which she was pressed onto for something she could use to ward off Cyril who was still continuing with his assault.

She brought the first thing her hands got hold of to her face and discovered that it was only a sheet of paper. Just as she was about throwing it away, concluding that I wouldn't be of much help to her, her eyes got a glimpse of the content of the paper.

Recognizing the much familiar paper, she summoned enough strength to forcefully push Cyril away from her. Still holding the paper in her hands, she pointed it to Cyril who had lost his balance and was now on the floor.

"What is the meaning of this!" Rachael's eyes shot darts at Cyril.

"What does it look like?" Cyril replied, completely undisturbed.

"What is this even doing with you?" Rachael asked, already tearing up. Taking a good look at the paper again, she saw two familiar circled words in it and just couldn't believe her eyes.