~*~*~ Unadulterated Bliss ~*~*~

Ch. 8

What did it mean, 'come meet me'? Did it mean now?? Tomorrow? Who was it from? With brows knitted, she settled against her pillows. Her mind reeled with all the people she saw that day. It could be any of them. Still flicking images of people through her head, her mind stopped at one-Ryan.

Oh God, could he still be after her, after what had happened? She'd seen him around the corridors; but she was always able to avoid him. She'd had no classes with him. It seemed impossible...

She usually blocked all thoughts of Ryan from her mind; but now that she began, a torrent of memories were played in front of her eyes: her weakness to him, her inability to fight back. She hated herself for not being able to fight him. Yet she could never forget how his touch repulsed her, how she could never really feel clean again. The scene played in front of her again, and again, and again...just to torture her...

In the back of her mind, she heard the soft thumping of footsteps approaching. "Hey Ginny, I've got your truckload of foooo-oood!!" Upon reaching the foot of the bed, she saw Ginny's dazed look. "What's wrong?" Looking at the scrap of parchment in her hands, she craned her neck around to read it. "Merlin! You're gonna be asked to the ball!!!" Misreading her friends facial expression, she hugged her hard, and started laughing.

Ginny, who 'woke up' after her friend started throttling her, all the while gushing about dresses, and the like tried to explain what was really going on. "No, you don't understand. It's from Ryan" She then proceeded to tell her the entire story.

About an hour and a lot of emptied Kleenex boxes later, Cassie who felt extremely sorry for her friend, but still wasn't clear as to why Ginny was so adamant about the note being from Ryan. "Ginny, it could've been from Draco. Or someone else who likes you, but was too shy to sign his name."

She shook her head, "No, I've been thinking it over; and it has to be him. I've been thinking about it, and he must be still mad at me, and what happened. So he's planning a type of revenge. I don't know what he'll do, but I don't want to risk it."

"Well, how about if I go with you? You can go down there, and if you're gone for too long, or if you let out some kind of squeak I'll come around the corner, and check on you. Ok?"

"Well,"

"A-and, this way, if it IS Draco, then you wouldn't have stood him up, and would be able to thank him by going with him to the ball!"

"Alright," she reluctantly agreed. "Let's go."