The morning's sun rays welcome Aariz into the new day. He had slept on the study table with the lamp open. He sees the time. It's 7 am. He pulls his wavy black hair and gets up to stretch his aching body. He has officially missed fajr. As he walks into the lounge he sees Harun being fed by his dad and his mom pressing his clothes. They are running late. And Harun still dares to make a stir a commotion over the breakfast about how much craves paratha for the breakfast while having a bowel of his favorite coco pops. 

Aariz almost pushes the bathroom door open but the dripping of water in the shower stops him. He walks into the one without a shower. After praying salat ul qada he starts his day by reading research on PubMed, "Diabetes mellitus: The epidemic of the century by Akram T Kharroubi and Hisham M Darwish''

Knowing his father is diabetic he is even more interested in knowing more about it. Too much of something is not good. He recalls her replying to one of his texts. The words he can't remember. Just like too much glucose leads to diabetic foot, too much positivity can cut you off from growth.

He pauses and looks up. Too much positivity? Make peace. He nods as he links the hints together. He now knows how to begin his speech. He can feel words flowing within him. He can see himself on the stage for the first time.

The notification on his Gmail makes him smile. His application has been accepted. He keeps away his mobile and continues his breakfast in peace.

After an hour of helping his Ammi around the house, he gets back to his study table which is now Nuha's. His sticky notes of physics formulas have been replaced by Nuha's dress designs.

He holds a pen in his hand and spins the chair he is sitting on. When he is done collecting his thoughts he puts his pen on the paper and when he starts writing he cannot come to stop. 5 minutes of speech. He flips the page and continues. And when he lifts his pen he has written two pages worth of words.

The sun rays fall on the white sheet of paper as he picks it up. His eyes trace the words silently reading what he has written. In the beginning, he feels satisfied with his work proudly reading it to himself but as he dives in deep his expressions become sterner. The eyebrows furrow in anger than in sadness.  A silent teardrop makes its way out of his eye.

"Damn... How can I have come so far after all this?", he mumbles as he continues to read. He smiles at the part where he talks about his acceptance letter mail and feels proud recalling the white coat ceremony. How the tailor had taken his measurements! How when he wore it the first time and glanced at his reflection in the mirror. That day he truly felt accomplished.

In the end, he crosses out some extra details and unnecessary sentences from the speech. He sniffs and realizes there are big blotches of tears soaking the paper. This has been the first time he cried ever since everything that happened. The hate, the comparison, the metaphoric use of his name as a bad example - every word people spoke about him had slowly killed him from inside.

The tapping of keyboard keys rhythmically in the peaceful silence makes him smile. He revises his speech and makes a word document and prints it. His to-do list alarm rings to remind him of the meeting. All the participants will have to explain to them a few rules regarding the various school policies. It's already 2 pm. He dashes into the shower with a pair of loose-fit jeans and a white full sleeves shirt.

Make peace. Maybe he finally has and he is ready to tell the world about how far he has come.

Selena and Yelin use each other as a muse in physiology practicals. Their speeches have been approved by the event organizer, Dr. Sabila, so they won't be rehearsing the speeches at the zoom meeting. Despite knowing they have a meeting with Dr. Sabila at 5 pm they do not hurry.  In fact, when they tried taking the measurements for the first time Selena kept on pumping the air in the cuff well above 200mmHg with Yelin grimacing in pain. When Yelin tries it, she forgets to remove the air out of the cuff before raising the pressure in it.

Selena properly ties the cuff around Yelin's arm. Her fingers shake as she stares at the mercury scale. She closes the valve and pumps it with one hand and another hand on the stethoscope diaphragm against the brachial artery. As the mercury reaches 120 and tries to open the valve slowly. However, it is too hard to open and when she finally does the mercury just slips too rapidly to zero.

After a few tries, they both learn to open the valve slowly enough that the mercury trickles down each digit so that they can hear the dying thumps of the turbulent flow of blood as the collapsed brachial artery opens. Korotkoff sounds.

After physiology, she dashes to the anatomy lab afraid that it might close anytime since the college timings are over. But luckily she finds the doctor in the resource room. She huffs as she places a hand on the plastic heart model. The doctor smiles and directs her to the lab manager to register her name.

Aariz opens the apartment door to see Nuha standing in her a champagne pink over sized coat and pants with white crew neck t shirt and matching white loafers. Her bag slings on her shoulder and her hands busy adjust flowers in a bouquet.

Aariz's jaw drops to the flower when Nuha looks up in his eyes blushing. "Someone did not just-"

"Yes, he gave me flowers". She pushes herself into the aoartment. " I think..." She turns around to see Aariz still frozen by the door. "He likes me".

"Well, good luck with Ammi". He nods and leaves for the library.

Aariz parks his car in the parking lot. He glances at the digital clock in the car above the air conditioning system. It's 4.00 pm he walks towards the library, his head on his phone messaging RTA the number plate, area code, and time duration. As he reaches the library gate he pauses and changes his plan to go to the café.

The university's bus drops Selena at the library around 4 pm. She is aware of the people turning heads as she walks towards the café with a heart model in her hand. She carefully places a hand over the opening in the ventricle that shows the inside of it.

The door rings as Selena opens it and almost crashes into the tissue paper guy from yesterday. She holds the heart close to her chest like a mother protecting her baby from being snatched.

"Hey...", he holds his DSLR close to his chest. He has a small jasmine flower in his hand. They both move out of the doorway.

"Hey...", she glances at the DSLR, "Didn't know you were a photographer!"

"This? Oh, it's just a hobby. I am doing bachelors in English literature.", he offers her the flower. A radiant smile spreads across her face behind the mask. She lowers her mask to smell the freshness of white jasmine.

"My mom has it too. It's so sad, they bloom to wilt. Not surviving a single day on the branches."

"That's the thing I love about them. They are the heroes who die at the peak of fame not living to see the happiness they brought. And it's sad how we present the dead bodies to people to express our undying love. A beautiful dead thing is still dead.", he slings the cameras around his neck and motions to take the heart from her.

"You have... Ugh!", she smiles, "I love it!", she gets excited. The poetic words always electrify her spirit. They burn her till she is ash. She falls in love with words not faces and maybe his words are one of them. She hands him the heart.

He opens the ventricle to see the rubbers stretched between two parts, "Rubberband?"

"Oh, that chordae tendineae. They hold your heart valves. Prevent heart failure. Congestion. Hypertension. Death.", in short, she narrated the entire pathogenesis of heart failure bobbing her head.

"Can I take a picture of this heart?" he asks as he leads her to a booth after a careful analysis of sunlight. She nods.

"How about this?", she pulls out her pathology handout and opens Teach Me Anatomy on her mobile. Anatomy of the heart. He places the heart on the pathology handout while anatomy of the heart of the mobile. Selena plants the jasmine beside the heart.

They both look at each other and smile, "Faux heart, dead love.", she remarks.

---

So how's the chapter?

Please, vote and comment if you liked.

- Lauren from PH