EDITED 9th August 2016

"Come on...come on...," she mumbled, pressing her cellphone to her ear while biting her pale lips and fearing the worst. 

 No one was answering her call from the other end which caused her heart to beat louder and louder in despair every passing second. While still on the phone, she refreshed her Google Mail page once more but ended up looking dreadfully at her laptop screen again.

What is wrong?? Am I just....dumped???

And then, it happened.

Just at that precise moment, she heard a voice from the other end which made her heart leap in nervousness.

"Good evening...this is Diana Martinez...I provide my freelancing services to this firm..." she rushed through her introduction over the phone. "I had sent my article to your email address some time back but I haven't received any reply....Usually I receive the notification of approval within fifteen minutes of mailing it but this time around, twenty-three minutes have passed but there's no reply from your end...I know I didn't receive an approval because my write-up wasn't up to the mark. I-I didn't like it either, trust me. I know it wasn't what was being expected but-but please don't fire me...please don't hire someone else. I assure you I'll write a better article on the subject and mail it to you by tonight...!!!"

Silence.

Diana couldn't breathe even though she was breathless after babbling all that in one breath. She was drowning in a pool of anxiety waiting for an answer.

"We definitely loved your article like always, Ms. Diana," the male voice from the other end spoke in amusement. "We'll reply to your mail once our servers stop acting funny."

Diana's mouth hung open, her eyes almost popping out of her blank face as she gulped what she heard. That's it? She's...not getting dumped?

"Ohh..." she mumbled, feeling silly and immediately disconnected the call. 

Diana Martinez sighed, rose to her feet from her bed and walked over to the full length mirror in the room. A brown hazel eyed girl with a tired face wearing an old fashioned grey pleated skirt and checked blouse with her auburn hair pulled back into a messy pony stared back at her.

 Diana  looked gloomily at her reflection in the mirror. Why does she always have to end up embarrassed in front of people...even on the fucking phone?

The only thing that assured her was that she wasn't losing the freelancing job. She couldn't afford to. She needed those extra credit points in college. The firm was a reputed one. They paid her quite well, actually more than she thought they would.

Right then her phone beeped. It was a message from her friend and roommate, Ruth asking her to come over to this fancy restaurant near their college for which she had two dinner coupons.

Diana combed her straight her into a neat pony, fetched her purse from the closet that she shared with Ruth and stepped out of the house. It was sundown and the cool breeze felt soothing against her skin. In no time she reached the restaurant but Ruth wasn't there yet. So Diana sat at a table and waited for her.

Diana Martinez hardly had any friends. It wouldn't be wrong to say that she had zero social life. Ever since high school, she found it extremely difficult to talk to people and to mingle with them without being awkward. Until middle school, she cared a damn about friendship and friends 'cause she didn't mind being alone. But as she moved on to higher grades, finding herself lonely and not having a friend circle like everyone else caused her to feel insecure.

When everybody else enjoyed late night parties and sleepovers, Diana holed up in her room either reading a romantic novel or studying.

The first year of college was no different. Diana had no friends or, as she puts it, she got people easily disinterested in her. Now in the second year, since she was late in registering for a room in the college dorm and Ruth wanted to have an off campus accommodation, they found a rented apartment to share. And now, from the last three months, there were friends...or atleast, that's what Diana would like to believe.

"Heyy!! Sorry for being late."

That chirpy voice broke Diana's train of thoughts and she looked up to see that Ruth had arrived. She was holding two big shopping bags in each hand.

"Got caught up in a shitload of traffic!" said Ruth as she sat down at the table, placing the two bags on the spare chair. "Did you order?"

"No. I thought---"

"Today was such a terrific day!" exclaimed Ruth excitedly. "This was easily one of the best days of my life! Spent the afternoon at the beach partying with friends and then went shopping with my girl gang. Do you wanna see the pics? We clicked lots!"

Diana had just opened her mouth to reply---

"I'll show you," said Ruth, grabbing her iPhone out of her purse.

And the next thing Diana knew, Ruth was showing her countless selfies that she had clicked with her girl gang in the mall. They had all done such amazing make-up, thought Diana, and they were looking so beautiful...unlike her... 

Diana never clicked photos of herself 'cause her photos were never good. Never ever.

"I even have photos that we clicked at the beach," said Ruth as the next set of pictures appeared on the iPhone screen.

There were fourteen of them including Ruth posing for the camera. Eight good looking boys in shorts and six girls in great bikinis stood huddled together  with small beach waves splashing around their feet and breeze blowing around them.

Boys.

Ruth had boys in her friend circle.

Diana was downright pathetic when it came to making conversation with boys. She always felt awkward and ended up stammering or doing something ridiculously stupid in front of the other gender. Thus, whenever she saw girls of her age talking to boys of her age like buddies, she felt so low about herself....

"Did you like the pics?" Ruth chirped.

"Yeah, I did. Those were very nice..." smiled Diana.

"How was your day?" her roommate asked.

"It was good," she replied, still putting up a smile. If mulling over an article the entire afternoon and then getting yourself embarrassed over the phone for it could be called good. Then yes, she had a really good afternoon.

Then they ordered food. And while waiting for their dinner to arrive, Ruth got busy on her phone, probably texting her boyfriend.

Diana felt gloomier after seeing the photos. She felt so low and so bad about herself that she failed to find a way out of her hopelessness.

Her gazes randomly wavered to the entrance of the restaurant and then, all of a sudden, her eyes grew wide and dazed, her breaths faltered and her heart hammered in her chest seeing one of the three boys who had just walked in.

The boy in question who got Diana's heart racing was none other than Zac Clayton. The most handsome boy in the university. His luscious black hair was such that any girl would want to caress, dark black eyes that could deeply intoxicate any woman, his perfect nose, well defined jawline and the irresistible curve of his lips. 

Zac Clayton had worn black denim and a white shirt with the first two buttons left open that gave a sneak-peak of his well toned body.

He was Hot. He was Charming.

Girls swooned over him. Including Diana.

So just like most of the girls in college were crazy for him, Diana too was hopelessly crushing on him. But the problem was, neither Zac nor the population of the world had the slightest clue about her attraction towards him.

(So yeah, Short Term Girlfriend is back with a bigger and better plot. Super excited for this one! Do let me know your views about the first chapter :) )