Epiphany

1:

- Hadia Atif -

"and that's the last customer." Bella said, closing the door to the cafe. I sighed and plopped myself on the chair, "Finally, I've been up since 7 this morning." I said. "yea well its been 12 hours of you working, and girl, you even sacrificed your break for work. He is such a good employee." she added while she took out a mop and bucket. "Well, there was no one else on the counter. Someone had to do it." I said. 

"Yes, yes, we know our good dedicated worker, Hadia." She commented as she started mopping the cafe. I got up stretching, I was exhausted at this point, I couldn't wait to get home and collapse in my bed. "I might not come to work tomorrow." I said out loud, Bella stopped and turned to me, "Is it the interview?" she asked. I nodded, "Tomorrow's the day." I replied. "You'll get it. You're a good employee." she commented. 

"Clearly, my past 12 interviewers didn't see that." I joked. "Just smile. You'll do great." she smiled. "Let me help you so we can lock up quickly." I said, picking up another mop. 

After finishing up, I bid farewell to Bella as I walked home. I started working at Sugar-Cup Café almost a year ago, where I met Isabella. She had such a bubbly personality that we instantly became friends.

After finally reaching home, I walked up to the elevator to get to our apartment. I walked up to the front door, unclocking it and entering.

"Aslamoalkuim api. You're home early?" Aliza asked, waking up to the door. "Yea, I didn't need to do the overnight shift at the pharmacy today." I replied, locking the door.

"Is Ahmad not home yet?" I asked, looking around the house. "No, he said he had to work overtime." Aliza replied. I nodded.

"I'll change, and then we'll have dinner." I said, walking to my room. After changing, I joined Aliza in the kitchen as we ate dinner.

We were eating our dinner when Aliza spoke. "Api." She called out. "Yea?" I said, taking another bite."Tomorrow's the last date." She said. I looked up to her.

I had totally forgotten about Aliza's university fee with everything else happening. "You should have reminded me earlier." I said, trying to think of possible things I could do now.

"It's okay, Api. I was thinking I should take a gap year and work instead." She suggested. "Absolutely not, I- I have money, I'll pay your fee. I promised Mama that I'll make you a pilot, and I'll make sure of that." I said. "But api-," She said, "No buts, it's your dream too, and I'll make sure it comes true. I'll come to your university tomorrow and pay it, don't worry." I said, ending the conversation.

I didn't have any cash on me. The only money I did have was for the rent I have to pay in a week. If we miss the date again, we could get kicked out. I tried not to show Aliza that I was worried and tried concentrating on my food.

'Maybe I could talk to the university to give me a week to sort something out, or I could borrow some amount.' I kept thinking of ways until Aliza snapped me out. "Api, I'm going to sleep, bhai will be home late, so why don't you go to bed too? You have an interview tomorrow." She said. I nodded, "I'll head to bed soon." I replied.

I couldn't sleep. Too many things were going through my head. I was stressed about tomorrow's interview.

I finally passed my first written interview for Ibrahim Industry. They were a successful software and computer company. It was my dream to work here, but after I had to drop out of my first year of computer science in college, the plan ended up somewhere at the back of my mind.

I was pacing in my room, thinking of the questions they could ask me, I felt anxious every second.

I decided to journal my thoughts since that was my solution to dump my mind somewhere else. I picked up the journal and decided to flip through it, I turned it to a year ago. As I skipped through the pages, everything that happened a year ago started coming back.