Mikaal

9: Mikaal

Dalia crouched over her dark brown, wooden desk and tried to focus on the words in the paragraph that she had previously highlighted, but she found herself re-reading the same black print surrounded by fluorescent pink for the third time. There was just something about trying to study at home - no matter how hard she tried to remove all distractions, it was like she just couldn't get herself in the right mood.

Ding! Her phone buzzed and flashed awake from the corner of her eye, singing its familiar sound when she received a Facebook notification. Her right hand that was closest to her phone began to twitch, curious to know what the alert was about. She fought the urge at first, but remembering her study date with Mikaal on Monday, she gave in, pressing the home button to read the preview of the alert.

After seeing that it was just another 'like' of a picture she had shared of the pretty sunset she had arrived home to after dropping off Simon, she grumbled, disappointed in herself. She put her iPhone down and tried to refocus on the sentence she had gotten up to that detailed the requirements for handling hazardous substances. It was such a dry, boring topic, so it was no wonder she struggled with this particular subject out of all the rest. She had always been the type who preferred doing calculations over needing to memorise facts and figures.

Ding! Her iPhone lit up again with a different sound, this time from a new email. Dalia began to feel quite frustrated over the constant disruptions, so she picked up her phone, swiped up from the bottom edge, before tapping a crescent moon symbol that turned on a feature called 'Do Not Disturb'.

She had learnt about the feature by accident one time many months ago, mistakenly thinking her phone was broken when she stopped hearing alerts although they were coming through, and when friends and family started complaining that when they tried to call her, they were taken straight to voicemail. To rectify the issue, she visited the local Apple Store's 'Genius Bar' - a fancy Apple term to describe the place where their technicians, known as 'Geniuses', could assist from behind a long, rectangular, Fetzer maple table set up like a 'bar'. She felt a bit embarrassed to learn that she had by chance simply turned on the setting, its purpose being to allow people to sleep in peace without being constantly awoken by their phone's buzzes and sounds, nor from unsolicited phone-calls in the middle of the night. Yet incredibly, she was told that the feature still allowed calls to come through if the caller attempted to ring a second time within a few minutes, assuming it might be an emergency!

Her phone now silenced, Dalia held on to the hope that she could at least get through this topic in her aspirations to get a head start on studying for her Chemistry exam... She hoped too soon.

This time, Simon's perplexing words barged into her head.

"Be careful around Mikaal."

"No!" she said aloud with a groan, her eyes pinched shut, clutching her head in both hands as if trying to block out the unwelcome recollection. This was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about, but she just couldn't help wondering what would spark him to say such a thing? She did trust Simon - they had been friends since the first day of uni almost two and a half years ago when they happened to sit next to each other in Maths, but it was when they paired up for a Maths assignment that they started to become close. Then there was the 'Save the Children' Uni Club they joined together...

So she knew he had her best interests at heart, but what could be the meaning behind his warning? Was it because Mikaal was quite a charming guy, so perhaps he was a bit of a 'player' and Simon feared Dalia would get hurt? And yet, was she even considering Mikaal more than a... study partner? Classmate? Friend?

But Simon was friends with Mikaal at one stage, so Mikaal can't be all that bad of a person. Or could it be about their falling out?

"Should I cancel Monday?" Dalia asked herself.

'No!' a voice in her head replied in protest.

Dalia frowned, feeling torn inside, conflicted about whether she should listen to Simon and her mind's voice of 'reason', or her... She wasn't actually sure what the other part of her was that was clearly in favour of Mikaal. Was it her gut? Was it her... heart?

And then there was the fact that Simon had started to behave a little strangely since the lecture earlier that day, being more nervous than usual, in particular when he invited her to catch up. Her heart thumped louder, remembering the shift in the atmosphere from the light and easygoing feeling she usually experienced around him, to one signalling a change in maybe how he saw her? Could he really have started liking... No, she just didn't want to go there, not when she had her first and most dreaded exam coming up in only a week! The last thing she needed was a new distraction...

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Hi guys

I hope you've had an awesome week. My week's been pretty fantastic - I have been working on writing more of the Mikaal story, which is a lot of fun.

If you can't already tell, yes, I am a bit of an Apple fanatic :P Are you also an Apple iPhone user? I'd love to hear from you!

If you continue to love the story, please add my book to your reading list and vote for it with the star ⭐️ symbol. Thank you for your continued support!

-Noelle