War of Hearts

1. Doğa 🍃

It was exhausting.

Doğa looked up from her book. It had been exactly two weeks since she'd started college and she was already feeling the pile of academic work slowly stressing her out. It was somewhat surprising to her- she was used to working hard, always pushing herself to her limit and testing her boundaries, but college proved to be even more difficult than she'd imagined. Also, she still wasn't used to the freedom, the college life allowed- no more getting up at early in the morning to catch the shuttle, no more getting home by 3.00 pm to help set the table...

"What are you thinking with that look on your face?"

The sun caught the gleam of long red curls in her peripheral vision and Doğa turned to smile at the owner of the said red curls. Yeliz and her had met in the college cafeteria in Doğa's very first day here and they instantly hit it off. She was also on full scholarship at the college and her bubbly personality and ready smiles immediately made her likable to her peers.

"Nothing..." Doğa closed the book with a sigh. "I was wondering if we should take a break today and do something fun for a change ..."

"What?" Yeliz nearly screamed. "You want to do something fun?" She leaned in to press the back of her hand over her forehead. "Çanim, are you feeling alright?"

Doğa swatted her hand away. "What? I'm pretty fun..."

"Your idea of fun is putting on sweats and locking yourself up in your room to watch rom- coms," Yeliz dodged her hand again. "I'm not watching another romcom with you- I can't digest all the lovey-dovey scenes. Today we're doing something else."

"What?"

"You'll see..."

************************************

"A pool party?"

Yeliz had a sheepish look on her face. Doğa squinted. She should have guessed- Yeliz had retouched her makeup and somehow tamed her unruly hair into a stylish bun.

"Oh my God," she mouthed. "You didn't drag me here because of a guy, did you?"

Yeliz coughed.

"You did!" She exclaimed. "I thought WE were supposed to have fun!"

"We are going to!" Yeliz tried to defend herself. "It's just, he's the one who invited me. I didn't want to come alone ..."

"So I'm just your wingman?" Doğa rolled her eyes before brushing off Yeliz's protests. "It's fine, but you owe me big time. So who's the guy?"

It was gratifying to see her friend's cheeks turn into the same colour as her hair. She turned to the edge of the pool area where a few people were swaying to the beat of the electronic music coming from the DJ booth.

"See the guy with the afro?" She said. "That's Murat. He's a senior! Isn't is great? Come on, I'll introduce you"

Sighing, Doğa followed her down the paved path, grabbing a drink on the way. She'd never been a heavy drinker and the smell of the watered down beer suddenly made her want to hurl for some reason. After taking a measley sip, she left it on a nearby table. She never needed liquor to have a good time, anyway...

Murat turned out to be a tall, outgoing young man, almost as bubbly as Yeliz. He seemed thoroughly heedless of the fact that the others were sticking beer caps into his great bushy hair. Doğa had to admit that they made a cute couple and after a while, it also became apparent that she was being a third wheel. So making a vague excuse she trailed away from the couple and made her way towards the snacks table.

Everywhere, people were huddled in groups, either dancing or talking among themselves. Even though it had been only a few weeks since the academic year had started, already the kids seemed to know each other very well. When had they find the time to do all this meet and greet stuff? She barely had time to keep up with her work...

Taking out her phone, she dialled Çimen's number and pressed her hand over her free ear to block out the pounding music. After a few rings, the call was picked up and she could hear her sister moving around in her room.

"What's up?" Çimen asked. "Don't tell me you've chosen to call me instead of having fun at that party. When will anne give you permission to go to another party anyway?"

Kivilçim had been adamant that Doğa should be home before midnight. She knew that she had to be thankful that even though her mother was strict, she'd never tried to restrict her life. She treated her like an adult and let her make her own decisions. Maybe she'd finally noticed that Doğa was stressed from all the work...

No, that was unlikely. To Kivilçim, academic work was never a cause for stress.

"The party is great!" Doğa said. It was great- only she didn't quite feel like a part of all this merriment. "I was feeling sorry for you. What are you doing?"

"Homework. Did you forget, I'm following Miss Kivilçim's foolproof schedule ". Sarcasm dripped from Çimen's voice. Then there was a pause. "Hey, do you think mom will loosen up her ways once I'm in college? Because I'm not like you, abla. I need my space and time for my social life".

It was doubtful but Doğa didn't want to burst Çimen's bubble.

"Maybe," she said. "So is your homework done? Do you need any help?"

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't ask that," Çimen said. "Now hang up and go have fun. When I'm out of here you bet I'll be going to a ton of parties and have the time of my life. You guys won't be able to reach me without getting an appointment first..."

"Is that so?" Doğa laughed. "Okay, okay. I'm hanging up. Finish all your homework before going to sleep."

Çimen snorted. "Come on. Go get drunk and make out with a guy. You're twenty only once. Live a little!"

Before Doğa could come up with a snarky reply, she hung up, giggling.

Slipping the phone into her pocket, Doğa grabbed a paper plate of what looked like cheese curds and moved out of the way. She noticed a couple of guys looking her way and whispering to each other. They probably thought that she was a weird loner who hung around snack tables.

Someone cleared their throat next to her and Doğa started, almost dropping the plate.

"Sorry," a low voice said. "Did I scare you?"

Doğa looked up.

And that was the first time she saw him...

❤️

Swipe down to see what Fatih thinks. If you liked the story, give a vote and drop a comment ✨

-nocturnal4ever