"Niti, can you please meet me near the traffic light of your school. I need to talk to you about something. It's important." Nitya's best friend Shikar texted her.

She saw the text and replied instantly.

'Okay Shik, what time?'

After few minutes, his text came.

'Around 11 A.M.'

She asked, 'is everything okay?'

He answered instantly. 'Yeah! Don't worry. It's just some important issue I wanna discuss with you.'

She didn't reply back as she didn't have much balance in her phone.

Nitya is 21 years old and she has a sixteen years old brother. She loves him more than anything. For her, he is still her nine years old Anurag! Her family is middle-classed economically. Her father is a social worker and her mother is a housewife. She doesn't have many friends, actually, only one - Shikar. He has been her friend since the diaper days, and they were very close. Their parents had secretly arranged their marriage. She obviously saw him as a great friend. As soon as she reached the age of 20, many marriage proposals started coming for her, but she said no to everyone, in spite of her parent's request. Her parents were concerned about her. They thought she was stressing herself too much about the family responsibilities, which was partly true. Firstly, her family was average and she had to pay the house rent on time, always. And secondly, she always wanted to marry a person whom she loves. She believed marriage to be very auspicious, and this was one of the many reasons, why she denied all the proposals. She is the only one who earns in the family. She has two jobs. The morning job was from 7 am to 2 pm as a primary school teacher, and the night job was as a singer for various ceremonies.

She hated or rather feared violence, just like any other common citizen. And she was thankful that she lived in a country whose defense force was strong enough to keep its citizens safe. But she was aware of some criminal or mafia groups still hanging around without fear. She wished they all get caught, whenever she heard the news about them killing innocent people. But, as far as her life was concerned, it was simple and hard. She had to work hard to satisfy her family's requirements. Her major tension was her brother's education. She was aware of the fact that she didn't have enough money to pay his enormous fees. So, she had taken debt from a lot of people. Every night, she always wished to god, for a miracle to happen, which will take all her worries and make her life as normal as other girls'.

Shikar was her childhood friend. They used to go to the same school. He worked as an accountant in the hotel where she worked at night. Their houses were not very far, just two blocks away. Due to this, he always drops her off at night, to her home - safely. He was good-looking as well as had a good character. He had a soft corner for Nitya right from childhood days. He knew that she couldn't sleep alone at night and that seemed to make him smile sometimes. They were very good friends and shared everything. But, he never crossed his line, and Nitya was grateful about that. He was aware of the fact that she was never been touched by any stranger intimately, let alone a man, and so he kept his distance so as not to make her uncomfortable.

.

.

After an hour:

Nitya reached the place where Shikar had asked her to meet. It was near the traffic signal. She went to the footpath and waited for him. Few minutes passed and he was nowhere to be seen.

'Phew Shikar! Where are you?' She thought as she was getting bored all by herself.

She saw a street dog sitting few meters away from her. She whistled and the dog's ear perked up. He looked towards her and she called him again. He came towards her waving his tail. She had always been in love with dogs, but couldn't own them because she couldn't afford one. She patted his head and then his back. Seeing that, other dogs came up too. Now there were around six dogs around her. They all started snuggling her legs. She played with all of them and gave them biscuits, which she actually was carrying for herself.

She heard a prolonged car horn and she wondered who has gone mad. She looked towards the road and saw a sleek black car with tinted windows standing straight in front of her. She wondered why the driver wasn't moving. She looked towards the signal and could see that the signal was green. The horn rang again, and she noticed that it was coming from the car, behind the black one. She looked at the black car once more and then gazed back towards the dogs. She saw the black car moving after few seconds, due to the constant noise produced by the following car.

After a minute or so, Shikar came.

"Care to tell me why you called me...here? " She asked.

"I know I am sorry. Actually, I want your help."

"Okay! But why here Shik?"

"I was near this place and this area seemed quick enough to meet."

"Fine! What kind of help do you need?" She asked.

"I don't know how to put this!" He tried to say but couldn't come up with words.

Nitya waited for a while and then asked.

"How much?" She asked.

"What?" He became confused.

"How much cash do you want Shikar. You don't have to feel shy about it. When I can ask you for cash without hesitation, shamelessly, why do you feel shy?"

He sighed and replied. "It's actually Ananya. She is getting into the new college and the fee is 1.5 lakh. I have arranged 1 lakh but..."

"50K right. I'll withdraw the amount. Do you want it right now?" She asked.

"Yup! That's why I called you here or else I would have come to your workplace."

She entered the nearest ATM and withdrew the said amount.

"Okay, here it is. But make sure to give it back as soon as possible." She winked and gave him the cash.

"Yeah! I'll return it to you in around three months."

"Relax! I was just kidding. Take your time but don't take forever." She said with a smile.

"I hope I didn't disturb you from your work."

"Nah! I had 2 free hours." She lied.

"So, I'll go now. Thanks so much, dear. I love you." He said. Even though the latter part of his sentence was taken as a sarcastic comment by Nitya; he was serious about it. He had always loved her but never had the strength to confess it to her. He knew she was not ready for any relationship due to her family responsibilities. So he just waited for the right time.