Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 34.

June, Karachi.

'Hi Aaron,
I hope you're not mad at me for always replying to your messages after almost a week. But it's not that I don't want to, I just don't always want to open it fast enough because it will be over in a second, and I don't like to wait for a new message everyday. And I'm also kind of busy with classes and work. Just so you know.
The answer to your question is that, yes it's completely weird for me to go to school here, but I always wanted this and I don't regret it, you know? Plus, I can do whatever I want now. And they have classes that help me with my writing. How cool is that?
Okay. So my question to you is that how has my neighbourhood changed? I know you go there, so tell me. Is it the same? Or is it any cleaner now?
P.S: tell Hailey to stop whining. I'll call her soon.
Write soon. And make it long!
Sam'.

Aaron's POV:-

If I had to pick a least favourite month out of all the crappy months there are in an year, it would be June.
Not because there's anything special about it, but because even though it's extremely hot here all year round, and if a gust of wind passes by, we automatically assume it's winter; June is still surprisingly the hottest month of the year.
And it just makes everything much more worse.

I'm sitting in my last class of the day, Advanced Physics, with my textbook open infront of me on the desk, with a green highlighter kept in between like a bookmark. It's open, and I'm sure it will soon dry up due to neglect, because I haven't even started studying for the upcoming exams that are next week, and I'm not sure when I'm going to.

The professor is rambling non-stop about something, and I haven't been paying enough attention to worry about it. All of my attention is directed towards my cellphone, and I'm trying to read Sam's message. I could've just waited until the class was over, which it would be in the next fifteen minutes, but I couldn't wait until then. And I figured it doesn't matter anyways, because I still wouldn't be able to understand whatever the teacher was talking about.

I knew Dash was smirking at me, and was probably going to grill me about it later, but I didn't care. It was just something about this-her messages-that could lift me up and put me back down to Earth in a second. And I revelled in that feeling. And I always took my time, because I knew it would be over soon. It's the same thing that happens when I turn off a really good movie-one that I lost myself to-which is that I'll be thrown back to my own reality and something hollow will settle in my chest. And ever since she started talking to me, and to Dash and Hailey, it was like we lived inside her world, and much less in our own. I was happy in that world.

There were still millions of questions that I had, but I didn't want to push her in to telling me. I was still in shock over the fact that she was doing well, and was going to college like us, and majoring in English, and not gearing up for medical school like her parents wanted. She hadn't talked to her parents, and always avoided that topic, and I had considered telling them myself, but knowing them, they'd kick me out of the house and probably Sam would never speak to me again. So I let it be.

The worst part for me was when I asked her where she was, and she replied 'NEW YORK! Can you believe it?', with so much enthusiasm that it almost ripped me apart. It was more than a fucking disappointment to know that I was a serious fuck-up. And after that, I felt such shame that I had begged Dash and Hailey to never let her know of my failed attempt for finding her, and coming back from New York empty handed.

For now, this was enough. It was enough to just hear from her every week, sometimes twice a week if I was really lucky. After spending and dragging myself in to absolute shit for months, this was just fine.