The storm I expected never came my way. Shezaad left wordlessly. And the pink woman followed him a minute later without so much as a glance in my direction. I couldn't read that quite well

This was a first.

I was too preoccupied in my own sad bubble to notice anyway. I drifted from class to class. I paid attention and then I didn't. Sometimes I thought of my mom. Sometimes I thought of Shezaad. And sometimes I just went blank.

I made a mental note to recheck my period calendar. This state of emotion kills my drive.

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We were just dismissed from Civil class when the announcement came.

"Attention everybody

An official student body meeting will be held today in the last period. Please prepare to stay longer if required. Presence is compulsory for every student.

Repeating".

I felt like that last line was personally delivered for me.

"An official student body meeting will be held today in the last period. Please prepare to stay longer if required. Presence is compulsory for every student.

Thank you".

Okay I'm totally not missing this. I will attend this religiously, I thought as I gathered my books away and walked towards my next class.

"Zoya!!!"

That's me right?

"Zoyaaa!!"

I turned to see a boy out of his breath running after me. He came to halt inches from me or else we would have both be a fallen mess on the hallway floor.

I could not recall the dude's name. But he was in one of my classes. That I was certain.

I gave him a moment to catch his breath.

"The Dean wants to see you at his office".

Dean??? That was the last thing I expected to hear.

"The Dean?"

"Yeah him. He told you to come straight away. You are already excused from your next class".

Damn. That meant it was serious. And that it was going to take long.

"Okay. Thank you so much for the message", I said absently, still puzzled.

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I really like the Dean but I have to say this.

He has ants in his pants.

Shhhhhh!!!! It's a secret.

After I walked all the way to the front corner of the office and taking three flights of steps, the receptionist remembered to tell me that the Dean had to leave urgently and that he would see me in the last period.

Fuck it!!!

Fuck it because the elevator went on vacation and I had to take three stair ways for no absolute fucking reason!

Fuck it because I gotta repeat it to go down and repeat it to come up in the last period and repeat it to go home!

Fuck it because I might miss the student body meeting!

And finally fuck it again that now I have to go in search of the blue brat to inform him, or else he'd have my head on a blue platter.

But where do I find him?

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Seven hundred and fifty thousand years plus 2 buildings, 5 flights of steps and 7 wooden wrong doors later, here I am standing before an ominous looking ugly blue door.

How very incredulous.

I wanted to bang it open against the wall. But it would put me in no favour with the blue Lord. So I gritted my teeth and arranged my face into what would seem a pleasant smile and knocked. Very wanky and watery, but still pleasant.

Five knocks later Parker peaked out. At the sight of me he looked befuddled.

"Zoya?"

Who else can pull of this look with a resting bitch face you dork?

"Hi. I want to talk to Shezaad. Is he here?"

"Yes he is".

Why does he seem in pain?

"Oh cool", and I tried to take like one single step inside when he let out a horrific shriek as if I had an atom bomb hidden somewhere.

"Wait!!! Wait wait. Just a moment". And he shut the door in my face.

Yes

The bastard actually shut the fucking door IN.MY.FACE!!!

I swallowed the bile that rose up my throat and forced it back down.

Patience Zoya!!! Patience!!!!!

I started to count, count and count!!

After a decade later Parker didn't come out. But his head did.

"Shezaad said he...that he...", Parker, the poor human stuttered. I didn't quite understand why. Finally he cringed and spat it out.

"Shezaad said that he didn't want to see you".

I...

What.....

Just..

I mean......

Wait....

I don't how long a moment it was. But I felt like coherence left me for while. When I snapped back into reality, I saw apology dripping in Parker's eyes.

"Okay", my voice was a whisper.

The door closed and I spent another two minutes staring at the blue hue. I don't know what I felt. But I never ever ever expected it to be hurt.

I have no reason to feel hurt. He didn't want to see me. What was wrong with it. He doesn't have to see me. He doesn't have a reason to.

I ground my teeth.

To hell with Shezaad Ahmed Sheroff. This I shall remember to pay back!!

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If you are on your toes wondering how the student body meeting went, please stand on your whole sole. Don't bother wasting your energy.

Why?

Cause I have no fucking clue!!!

Just like how I thought it would be.

I'll give you three guesses to what happened.

No Shezaad didn't sue me or grill me alive.

Yet!!!

And I highly doubt he'd toss it in 'fuck it' bucket and move on either. I highly doubted it. I didn't see any of the kids when I left college.

Well not my fault. He didn't crawl outta that door to see me. I had no reason to get worried.

Now, at home, at the twenty first hour of the day, I replayed the whole day in my mind. Again and again.

To be honest my mind went wild trying to come up with the possibilities that could have caused this invitation from the Dean only to observe great disapointment.

Had I done something? Why call me up there? Detention? Suspension? Or worse.........suspicion?

With a racing heart I had knocked on the Dean's door. And guess what waited for me? No never mind. Don't guess. You won't get right.

A cup of tea!!

Yeah that's right. A cup of steamy, milky, creamy, sugary tea.

Well,he had an entire potful. Not just a cup. I was free to pour myself as much as I wanted.

Thanks. But no thanks.

Empire was such a funny neighbourhood. First there was this rich brat and his henchman who went around bending people to their will and secondly the Dean enjoys my company over tea.

"He invited you over for tea?"

Of course when Tharique blurted it, that too in his sarcasm-dripping, astounded-sounding voice, it was even more ridiculous than it actually was. I knew that there was something behind the gesture. I hadn't missed him watching me like a hawk the whole evening. The Dean I mean. Not Tharique. I had to pay attention to every word I said. People were like falcons and I trusted nobody.

My dull mood from morning hadn't wavered the whole day.

Well except for that small moment when you laid eyes on that certain someone who was an eyeful.

Do you know a way to shut your inner voices. Pray tell me. I'd be delighted to be entertained.

Eyesore!!!

Yeah eyesore. Eyesore. A word I kept repeating for a greater part of the evening.

Eyesore.

I curled into a ball on the couch and stared particularly at nowhere.

Winnie and Shohrd went somewhere and wasn't back. I was glad. Today wasn't one of those days where I could tolerate her crap. Sometimes as a bestfriend, she was a total failure.

Sometimes.

Like when she can't distinguish between sympathizing and empathizing.

She did say where they were going but I couldn't remember. I didn't worry about her because she was with Shohrd. I did however worry about Shohrd. A lot.

Time ran and Tharique's patience rant out. However before he could kick a tantrum, his ringing phone interupted him.

"Hello?"

I only heard his part of the conversation. I wasn't paying it a lot of attention.

"Assalamu alaikum momma".

He held the phone away from his ear with closed eyes. Apparently it wasn't going well.

"I am too tired to come by now. I'll be there tomorrow".

He held the phone further away.

"She already cut it. Open your eyes", I said. Any other time it would have been funny. Now wasn't any other time.

He opened his eyes to sigh in relief. Then rolled his eyes and switched off his phone. I blinked at him a few times.

"Why did you lie to her?"

"She is a pain".

"That doesn't answer my question you know". I was snappy. But unfortunately my snobby and snappy self did little to annoy Tharique. It did however give him a lot of entertainment.

"And should I have told her the truth then?"

He did have a point. So I kept mouth shut and returned to curling into a ball and staring at the wall.

It took me sometime to realize that he was looking at me. No. Not looking. Scrutinizing. I tried to ignore him with no apparent success.

It was red puffy eyes kind of a today. I had felt like that in the morning and the rest of the day picked up that mood.

I was sad that Winnie didn't take me with her, glad that I wasn't invited. Mad that Shohrd didn't bother to tell me about the whole thing himself, confused about Dean's little tea stunt, comforted that Tharique was here and I wasn't totally abandoned, guilty that I wasn't being very hospitable, frustrated about feeling all these.

And angry at a certain pair of midnight blue eyes.

SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was having a typical emotional roller coaster and I wasn't even having monthly issues. How can a woman digest such an emotional cocktail?????

Ya Allah!!!!!!!!! Help me!!!

"Do you want to go to the beach? I'll buy you ice cream".

I didn't even get to say Aameen and here, my prayer has been answered. Tharique, as I always thought of him, was a god-sent. My own personal gift from the heavens.

I beamed at him.

"Change. I'll get the car".

"Two minutes". I pecked him on the cheek and ran upstairs.

It didn't take me long. It was midnight, so people won't be there. I put on my black jacket with the hoodie down. I didn't bother to cover my hair. We weren't going somewhere crowded. With shoes on I went out.

I locked the doors behind me. Winnie had a spare key. And I got into the car and then we were off.

I looked at Tharique gratefully as he drove. A surge of warmth spread through me. I felt my lips twitch.

"What?" He asked in a self-conscious tone. His eyes still on the road. His lips were pulled upto my favourite lopsided grin. I gave me a swift look before focussing on the road again.

Thank you. Thank you for being there