She walked to her bed and lay on it. She was extremely exhausted for the first time in her life.
Her thoughts wondered to Aya, but no, she shook her head slightly. She wasn't going to let her add to her tiredness.
She was closing her eyes in sleep when it flew open again.
Someone was coming and she had the feeling it wasn't for good.
There was a knock on the door and she just pressed the door open. She couldn't talk because of the lump in her throat.
Two ladies came in. Their eyes were cast down, but she could see the pity and helplessness in them.
"It's time, My Lady." Her voice was small and sounded loose.
Jasmine hated the pity she was hearing, but she knew they weren't wrong in pitying her. She pitied herself a lot, too, so she knew she was being a hypocrite.
With a tough look on her face, she got up and followed them.
Not like she had a choice anyway.
*****
"She looks like a ghost." Abigail whispered to Briana and Christine despite knowing that Dara could hear them.
Dara did look bad. She hadn't slept the night before. She had been busy thinking about the lady and her beautiful voice and what it said.
She hadn't realized what she meant when she said, it started when Jasmine came along.
But now, she realized it was true.
If Briana had not seen Jasmine, she wouldn't have told them about her in the first place, which was the cause of all the craziness and temper being flared.
What use was there being mad at her friends? Her rational side was telling her it wasn't their fault.
But she didn't want to get involved with Briana now. She had something else for her and they just had an argument last night, was she going to forget that so easily?
She didn't think so.
Christine and Abigail seemed fine to her, even if they were the ones that lashed out on her, she could tolerate them more.
They were open, they said things more easily.
She preferred noisier people. They often had free minds and said whatever they thought.
But the quiet ones?
Briana wasn't very quiet, she agreed, but compared to Abigail and Christine, she was.
The quiet ones could be slow poisons. You could never really guess because they didn't say much and had a much lesser rate of spilling things.
Especially their dislikes.
She could remember one day she was talking to Briana, one of the first times they talked; she mostly talked to Christine and Abigail, but Briana didn't seem to be listening. She was mostly on her phone or searching her bag and Dara wasn't used to being ignored. She snapped at Briana and asked her why she was so snobbish, but Briana told her she was not.
To be sure, she asked her to say what she had said. And Briana did. When she got to the last part, she repeated her exact words.
That was when she realized the things said about quiet people were true.
And she caught another glimpse of it yesterday night.
But the others were alright and besides, she hadn't made other serious friends.
With that, she exhaled heavily and walked to them, but she was a bit wary of Briana.
"Hey." She said with a bright smile and looked at Christine, then Abigail and her gaze just passed over Briana.
The three of them looked at each other with a frozen, amused smile.
What was going on?
Christine looked at her first and her smile melted into a natural one.
"I wanted to greet you a Good Morning, but it seems like you didn't have one." She told her and Dara loved the fact they were being honest with her. It showed they didn't detest her or bear a grudge. She felt grateful.
"Yes." She answered and stretched, but she wasn't going to tell them the reason for her sleepless night. It was just too awkward and embarrassing.
"Why?" Abigail asked her this time.
Just what she was dreading. But she thought about it and made up her mind quickly.
"Let's say, I was missing you guys." She said with a laugh at the end.
Abigail giggled with her. "You're lucky I'm in a better mood. I was going to tear you into pieces for what you did yesterday. Thanks to Briana, you're alive."
Dara remembered just then and she felt bad. But she didn't feel bad about Briana. She looked at her and she wanted to laugh. Was she supposed to thank her or something?
Well, she didn't see it coming.
"What are you guys doing sitting around?" She changed the topic. There was a fun Festival going on and they were inside here?
She got up and grabbed her bag. "Lift your butts, Babes!"
She didn't know if she got it, but Briana was excluded.
-----
"Where is she?" Hazel asked Anthony. She had come to visit Jasmine. It was ten in the morning and she was supposed to be awake by then, but Anthony told her she hadn't come down from her room since morning.
Wasn't she going to the company?
Oh, she wasn't. There was a holiday for two weeks. But even though, she wasn't the type to wake up late.
"I'll go check on her." She told Anthony and tried to get past him, but he stopped her unwillingly.
"Ma'am doesn't like to be disturbed." He explained.
"Even by her Mother?" Hazel was surprised. Who would stop even her family from disturbing them? She was a tough nut to crack.
She just sighed and picked up her bag. "Fine, I'll leave then. When she wakes up, tell her I came."
Anthony felt guilty. It was as if he was chasing her from her own daughter's house. But he nodded with a tight face.
When he was sure she was out of the vicinity, he turned to all the servants. They had lined up and had their heads bowed.
"Find her. Immediately!" His voice boomed in the quiet room and the servants scampered away.
No one had seen her leave the house, where could she have gone? He tore at his hair. He knew she wasn't anywhere around, so where could she possibly go to?