Fasaana

ELEVEN

And baby,
I get mystified by how this city screams
your name.

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

"Finally," Zoya sighed as she finished perfecting her winged eyeliner. After that she put her hair in a loose ponytail. Then she took a small portion of the hair, braided it and wrapped it around the hair band that was holding her hair in the ponytail. Letting out a few strands around her face, she gave herself a final look. Her loose jeans and rust orange shirt was looking perfect on her. She was wearing a watch on her left hand along with a couple of bracelets which were Aarti's. She picked up her tote bag and made sure it had all her important stuff before leaving the room.

Rohit choked on his coffee when he saw Zoya. Coughing a few times, he asked, "Who is this girl? Where is our Zoya?"

Zoya rolled her eyes. "You and your wife are so overdramatic."

Aarti chuckled before saying, "You look beautiful." Zoya blushed.

Malti served breakfast and they all had it together. Zoya also fed Sehrish very small bites of mashed bananas. Then she cleaned her up and gave her a ton of kisses. "Mama will be back very soon. Be a good girl. Okay?"

Then she left her with her toys. Pressing a kiss on Avni's forehead, she said bye to Aarti and Malti before leaving with Rohit. Since it was her first day, he insisted on dropping her, but from the next day, she'd travel on her own.

"Best of luck. And don't forget to have fun." Rohit said as he stopped the car outside the gate of FMS.

Zoya eyed the campus, nervousness oozing out of her. She was also fidgeting with the ends of her shirt. This was her first time wearing anything other than a salwaar suit in public.

"Do you want me to come in with you?"

Zoya shook her head. If she could crack the entrance exam and interview and get admission in the college, she could handle anything. She said bye to Rohit and with her head held high, she walked in.

She looked around as she walked towards the reception. There were students around her, hanging out with their friends, and she realised that she was living her dream. She had wanted to do an MBA since forever and now she was finally here.

At the reception, she was informed about her lecture room and given the time-table. She was early so there weren't many students present in the class. She took a seat near the window and pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket. Slowly the class started to fill up. Two girls entered and sat behind Zoya's bench. They smiled at Zoya, so she smiled back.

"My name is Sanvi, and she is Rhea." One of them spoke.

Zoya introduced herself as well and they did some small talk before a male professor entered the class.

"Good morning and welcome to FMS. My name is Nishant Verma. I am going to be your batch mentor for this semester and I am going to teach you Retail Marketing." He said, "I hope that we all have a great semester and make a lot of memories."

Then he started with the attendance when a voice interrupted the class. "May I come in, sir?"

Nishant looked up at the guy standing at the door. "Are you a student of this batch?"

"Yes," The guy nodded.

"And may I know why you are late?" Nishant asked. Zoya also looked up in curiosity. The guy was dressed in simple blue jeans and white t-shirt. A bag hung on his left shoulder.

"I got confused between this block and the finance block." He scratched his neck.

Nishant huffed and let him in. He scanned the classroom for an empty bench, but almost all the seats were taken. From the corner of her eyes, Zoya saw him walk in her direction and slump on the chair beside her.

The professor continued the attendance. "Kian Shah?" He asked and the guy beside Zoya raised his hand to mark his presence.

Zoya's name was called at the last.

"Zoya Qadri?"

"Yes, sir." Zoya said, and Kian turned his head to look at her.

The professor shut the attendance register and started with the lecture.

"Hi," Kian whispered leaning closer to Zoya, careful not to alert the professor.

Zoya's hands halted while making notes and she looked at him. "Hello." She said and continued writing.

"Do you want to grab something to eat after this lecture?" He asked after a minute.

She checked her time-table. "But we've another lecture after this."

"So?"

"So.." Zoya thought for a second, "I can't miss it."

"Oh God, don't tell me you're one of those nerds." Kian said.

"What if I am one?" Zoya retorted back.

Kian smirked. "Then I am just gonna have to teach you to live a little."

Zoya didn't bother replying. After the lecture ended, Kian got up and said, "Let's go."

"I am not going anywhere." Zoya replied.

"Come on, we have to leave before the other professor comes."

"Listen, Mr..whatever," Zoya couldn't recall his name, "If you want to go, you can go. Why are you forcing me as if I'm your best friend?"

"The name is Kian." He told her, "And friendships gotta start somewhere. Now can we please continue this discussion in the canteen. I am really hungry." On the cue, his stomach growled.

"Then just go and feed yourself." Zoya couldn't believe that she was actually having a conversation of this sort with an absolute stranger.

Before Kian could say anything else, the other professor arrived and he had to slump on his seat while letting out a long sigh. And Zoya didn't know why, but she felt kind of bad for him. He was hungry. But she didn't think she was wrong as well. She was not going to bunk her lecture with a random guy, especially when she hadn't bunked a single class in her life.

While the second lecture went on, she saw him carelessly making notes. She checked the time, there were still fifteen minutes left for the class to be over.

She leaned closer to him and said, "The next period is free. We can go to the canteen then."

She didn't know why she did that. But like he had said, friendships gotta start somewhere. 

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I wish I also had a chirpy person like Kian in my college who'd just become friends with me, because my introverted self isn't capable of starting any conversation.

And I've got a few of my readers complaining that they're not getting the notification when a new chapter is uploaded. I am not getting the comment notifications as well. So I think it'll be a bug in the app. I hope Wattpad fixes it soon.