"Yes. She is in the hospital and unconscious. I desperately need your help. Please help me."

There was silence from the other side.

"Please Maya," he said, almost pleaded over the phone.

There was a sigh. And then she said, "Alright sir. I'll talk to the other girls too. We'll decide on a time and tell you."

"Thank you so much," John said as he breathed a sigh of relief. 

A few hours later, Maya texted John with the location and time of their meeting. Without wasting any time, John set off to May Flower.

When he had called his office to inform them that he'd be taking another leave of absence, they were a bit reluctant. John had a lot of pending work and the office pressured him to return to the office immediately. But John had only one agenda in his mind. His first priority was his daughter. Apologizing profusely, he promised that he'd definitely make it to work the next day.

The drive to May Flower was a long ride. Travelling back and forth everyday was time and energy consuming. If it wasn't, John would definitely have had Ruby stay at home during her college years. Plus there would be such a large number of bad influences in college, and he didn't want them affecting her studies. But of course he trusted her and he trusted May Flower for the education they provided. Hence, he let her go.

He waited in an almost empty, unknown café hidden in a corner of the town. Maya was the one who had sent the address to this place, but she still hadn't arrived. It was a dull, boring café that John was sure nobody would ever almost choose to come.

A small TV showed local news that nobody listened to, the display held nothing that could work his appetite and the lack of cleanliness had to be taken into notice. The waiter had already approached John twice and had to walk away rather disappointed. From the condition of the café she called John to, it was evident that Maya did not want anyone to know that she was meeting John.

It was almost half an hour past the decided meeting time and John wondered if she would ever show up. That's when the door swung open and walked in Maya. According to John, she did not look all that different from what she had looked like two years ago.

But she wasn't alone. She was followed by two other girls. John recognized them as Hannah, Ruby's other ex-roommate and Sheila.

"Hello girls," he said as they pulled out the chairs and took seats in front of him. The girls gave him a reluctant smile as they sat down, inspecting the seats.

"Would you like something to drink?" Asked John, offering to buy.

Maya immediately turned to the waiter, who was busy watching the news, and said, "Two Caffe Latte please."

"Two? You can order all four. I'll pay," said John.

Maya leaned in a bit and said in a low voice, "It's not for drinking. Nothing is good here. They were caught by health inspectors last year. But you need to order something or they'll kick you out."

Hannah nodded her head knowingly.

"About Ruby... Is it true?" Asked Sheila and John nodded.

"She had an accident a few days ago. Has been unconscious since."

"I'm sorry sir," said Hannah. "But I don't understand how we can help," said Maya.

"I just need to know where she was that night before the accident happened. As her best friends, I wanted to get some details from you about her that would help me."

"Best friends?"

"Which night?"

Hannah and Maya posed questions at the same time. They exchanged glances and then, Maya continued, "Which night was this?"

John watched the interaction between the two, and said, "It was two days back. Saturday night." He hesitated and added, "Her condition has been getting worse."

Nobody spoke for a while. The news anchor spoke in nonstop jibber jabber in the background as the spare waiter continued to stare at her. John got serial killer vibes from him.

How can this cafe afford two waiters with their poor business? John wondered about unimportant things. He did it just to get the image of a hospitalized Ruby out of his head. It kept flashing over and over in his brain, and that made him feel a bit guilty.

"We don't really know where she was that night."

John turned his head at the voice and looked at the person who spoke. Hannah continued, "After the first few months we kind of fell apart. Lost touch."

Eyebrows furrowed, John asked, "Fell apart?" Sheila nodded.

"What happened? What do you mean?" John asked again.

Hannah took a deep breath before she started recollecting her memories...

The sun had set, leaving behind a sky that was a deep blue in shade. It was a clear sky and yet no stars could be seen. Living in the city certainly had its disappointments. The music was loud, booming over everything else. Everyone inside the house screamed at the top of their lungs to make any normal conversation. This is why Ruby, Maya, Hannah, Mary and Sheila remained in the balcony.

Mary was looking around the house, the courtyard, the people, appearing curious about literally everything. She looked like one of those tiny tribal who had visited the city for the very first time. Maya was scrolling through her phone like always and was looking bored, like always. Sheila and Hannah, different from these two, clicked innumerable selfies. They made all sorts of weird faces, tried on different kinds of filters, never reaching a point of satisfaction.

"When are we leaving?" Asked Maya as she shut off her device. She looked worn out.

"We just got here," said Hannah.

"We got here an hour ago," said Maya, as a matter of fact.

"Just a little longer then," Sheila said, still busy, making faces and clicking pictures with Hannah.

"What about you Ruby? Aren't you bored? Don't you want to leave?" Maya turned to Ruby.

Ruby had a habit of agreeing to what everyone around her suggested. Sometimes she would just do what the others decided. She was a very nice girl. In other words, a pushover.

That day, Ruby did indeed look bored. Her limp hand holding her bottle of alcohol, she sat slumped on the deck railing. But instead of being ready to leave, she looked like she was waiting for something exciting to happen.

"A few more minutes please. This is our first time out at a party since college began. Let's stay a bit more?" She requested.

Receiving no support from her friends, Maya groaned with exasperation and took out her phone again.

But then, they heard a change of music. This was followed by a slight commotion from inside the house. The girls exchanged glances, an alarmed look on their face.

"If it's a fight, I'm leaving immediately," said Maya as the girls walked into the house.

"Hey Ted," Ruby waved at a guy who walked by her. Hannah's lip curled. Ruby always paid attention to the boys.

A large number of people were gathered in the living room, huddled around a group of three people, two girls and a guy.

One of the girls had long dark brown hair and wore an expression that screamed of her lack of interest in everybody around her. The second girl had short black hair and a very friendly smile. The guy, Hannah thought, was especially handsome with his tall structure, soft hair, twinkling eyes and dimples!

"Who are they?" Ruby's voice came from behind. "Don't know," Sheila shrugged. Hannah moved forward to get a closer look and she felt Ruby move to her side. Glancing at Ruby, Hannah was amused to see the keen look of interest on her face.

"Sara! You look gorgeous tonight!" Said a guy to the long brown haired girl. She turned her big eyes towards him, a faint expression of recognition on her face as she said, "You don't look that bad yourself." When the guy chuckled, she asked, "What do you want?"

The guy leaned closer to her ear and mumbled something. "Then room upstairs," said Sara as she turned away from him, and the guy immediately left.

Hannah felt that the short haired girl could be far more friendly. And it was a bonus that the cute guy was beside her too.

She wanted to get to know them better, make friends. With full confidence, she approached the short haired girl and said, "Hey, I am Hannah. I'm in my first year."

"And I'm Ruby."

Hannah swerved her head to see Ruby beside her, addressing the guy. She was surprised at Ruby's boldness. This was a Ruby Hannah had never witnessed.

"I'm Lee," replied the guy. "This is Lakshmi. She is an over achiever who is also the Student Body president for our batch," he added.

"And Lee is incapable of loving anything but himself," said Laksh teasing him. She added, "Nice to meet you, Ruby."

Ruby laughed and Hannah joined in. She felt that the short haired girl had a good sense of humour.

Lee was paying complete attention to Ruby as was evident to Hannah. Though Hannah felt a bit taken aback, the girl named Lakshmi chuckled at the scene. She said, "Welcome to an amazing year at May Flower University."