I hope you're enjoying reading my story...

Don't forget to vote and comment! :)

"Zuki beta...Zuki.."

Zuki beta? I drew my eyebrows together to listen attentively this time. To make sure I was listening correctly or it was just a dream. My eyes were still closed. I was half awake by this time. 

"Zuki beta get up" Mum called again. Why is she calling me with so much endearment today I couldn't understand. Maybe I will have to open my eyes to check what's going on in reality. 

"Zuki are you up or not?" Mum's voice drew closer as she came into the room to check on me. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. Still scrunching my eyes as I looked up at her. 

"How are you feeling now? I made some soup for you" and that's when I realised why she was calling me with love dripping in her tone. Honestly speaking sometimes I like being sick because of all the attention and pampering I get which I don't get normally.

She kept the bowl on the side table and then placed the back of her hand on my forehead. A thing parents do to check the temperature of fever. "I am going to go for a walk now. Do you want to come along? The sun hasn't risen fully yet. Fresh air will make you feel good." She patted on my shoulder as I sat upright. 

"Yeah sure" I shrugged. I was already feeling better from the past two days that I was sick from a viral fever so I brushed my teeth, washed my face, drank the soup and headed to the common park in our area with mum. 

As soon as we entered the park. Mum met the aunties in the colony. It felt like they joined together in the park to complain about their husbands or their in laws as they had no better job to do. After greeting them, I headed to carry on with my own walk. 

Five minutes into walking, my shoe laces started to get in my way. I made my way into a corner to tie them but before I could kneel a boy started to tie them. 

"Um...hello? excuse me?" I tried to jerk my leg away but he held my ankle and didn't leave till he was done tying. 

Only when the boy rose to his feet, I realised that it was none other than Yazan. "Hellooo. Long time no see" He began as he was extremely happy with our encounter. 

I looked around to see where Mum was and without answering him. I turned away and resumed my walking session. He came jogging beside me and turned around as if he was walking backwards beside me. 

"You should at least have some manners to thank me for tying your laces you know"

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Thank you" I said plainly. 

"By the way how are you? I haven't been seeing you in school from past..."

"Two days. I had fever." I said interrupting him. 

"God. If you don't wanna talk just say it to me on my face rather than giving me these plain answers" 

I turned to look at him. He looked genuinely irritated from my behavior. "Do you come here daily or today is something special?" I asked him instead of answering his previous question.

"I come here for a daily jog. We live in the same area if you remember and there's only one park in this area so, trust me, meeting you here is truly a coincidence"

"I see" I nodded. I looked around again. "My mum is here somewhere, she comes her daily for walk too and I don't want her to see me talking to you. She will think that I came to the park just to talk to you"

"But she permitted you to study with me at my home why will she have a problem now?"

"That's because she thinks your mother teaches both of us. She is not aware that both of us are anything close to friends. Now can you please walk properly"

He nodded and moved ahead. He was walking ahead of me and I was behind and we walked together like that for some time. 

"How did you find me here in this park?" I asked. 

"It was a piece of cake. I come here everyday and I don't see any girl struggling to tie her laces here everyday so, it was obvious who it could be" 

I laughed. "I hate you"

He shook his head. I guessed he was smiling too. "I know. I know" He looked down at his wrist watch. "By the way the sun will rise in a few minutes, want to see it with me?"

"For sure but how?"

He stopped walking for a few seconds and began thinking of an excuse to tell my mom. 

"Just say your mom you are going home and come along with me" He shrugged.

"Dude. There are already so many aunties here. If they see me walking away with some guy they will make sure I don't step out of my house ever again. Not even for school"

We resumed walking. 

"How about we just disappear? Your mom would think you went home and when you reach home and she asks you where you were you could say you went to buy some bread or juice or something"

I thought for a while. "Okay. That seems doable. How are you gonna make me disappear from here?"

He turned his head sideways as he gave his all time signature smirk. "Wait and watch Miss"

"Okay I am gonna walk out of the park so nobody will know that you and me are together. But you have to walk to the corner of the park where the fence is broken. You go from there and walk towards the hill. I will meet you there. Done?"

"Got it" I started jogging to leave him behind. I didn't even turn to look if he left the park or not. Just to be careful in case any one was keeping an eye on us. 

We met at the hill as planned. The sun was about to rise. The tinge of white light piercing its way through the purple-blue sky was mesmerizing. He was standing beside me clicking photos of the scenery in front of us. It felt like I was at the top of the world. 

"This is so beautiful" I whispered.

"I know right" He turned towards me. His hair falling over his forehead. His eyes reflecting the first rays of the sunrise. His smile curved in its best form. 

"Wish I had a phone right now. I would click pictures too" 

"It's okay Zukroofie. You don't necessarily have to capture a moment into a photograph in order to remember it. You tell me" He inched closer towards me. "Sneaking out of the park, standing here all alone at the top of the hill. Nobody around except the two of us to witness this happening right this moment. Will you be able to forget this sunrise?"

My eyes were locked with his as he kept speaking. It was a warm and cozy feeling. It didn't make my heart race or flutter. It made me want to hug him but I didn't. 

I shook my head to say no. For some reason that moment wanted us to remain quiet. He stood beside me. My shoulder touching his arm. Maybe at some point our fingers brushed each other. But I didn't notice. We were too busy watching the sun take its full form. We were too occupied with the morning breeze kissing our faces and embracing us in its charm. We were too busy to make full use of this comfortable silence that surrounded us before both of us could head home to continue with our lives. 

When the sun fully rose and we had to scrunch our eyes in order to look at it. We turned towards each other. "Are you coming school tomorrow?"

"I guess yeah. Last classes. I gotta attend some"

"Tomorrow. I meant to the farewell party" He laughed.

"Oh yes. I totally forgot about that. And yeah I am coming" I smiled. 

There was a moment of silence. I don't know how does you automatically know somehow when there is a moment of silence. You just know whether it is awkward silence or a comfortable one.

And this was one awkward silence. 

"So none of your friends know about your crush on Nouman?"

First of all it was getting awkward then he had to explicitly ask about my crush on Nouman about whom I have never spoken to anyone. 

I didn't look up to meet his eyes as I answered, "No"

"How come?"

I scoffed. "You know the kind of person I am. My friends believe what I show them. They see me as a tomboy who can never have such feelings. All of them, they know they can come up to me and speak about anything yet they won't speak about boys or you know...their relationships because they think I am not that 'type' of girl. Plus no guy has ever been interested in me as they have been for other girls in the class. I am a girl but I live like a dude in the school so I don't know how you could figure out but yeah...nobody has any clue."

There was awkward silence again. It was my turn to ask him that question that I have been wanting to ask but never got the right moment to bring it up.

"That day...in the office when we were doing school work. You remember you told me that he likes me too...What did you mean by that? and how do you know?"

"We are boys. What do we do? We talk about girls. And Nouman brings you up quite often so you know..it's not rocket science to understand when a person likes someone"

That probably made my heart skip a beat.

"Okay...umm...so what does he say about me?" 

Our eyes met and I had to look away to hide the blush creeping over my cheeks. He laughed. "He causally brings you up in a conversation saying you are so cool as a girl. Daring and bold. You know...all that stuff that you are. He seems to like you exactly for the 'type' of girl you are"

He emphasized on the last sentence referring to what I had previously mentioned. I looked down as I smiled bleakly. "I...I don't know man. Deep inside I am still a girl with all those feelings. And...I...I do like Nouman but you know...now that we are leaving school and nothing has happened till now so I guess nothing is ever gonna happen between us"

"Nothing has happened yet. Yet. Zukroof"

"But what can even happen?" I asked, taken aback by his confidence.

He smirked. "A lot can happen in a matter of just few days. A lot"