His Obsession, Her Choice

The first Encounter

ABEER:

Fumbling for the alarm clock on my bedside table, I finally had to open my eyes because it seemed to be nowhere but through my partially opened eyes, I succeeded in picking it up from the far end of my bedside table and looking at its digital readout, my eyes opened wide. It was 8:30 and I had to leave by 9:00 to be at the University on time.

"Your alarm is so annoying", Aamna who stood before the mirror said applying liner in her eyes.

"Hadn't it been so annoying I would have missed University today", I said bounding out of the bed and grabbing my towel to go and have a shower.

The next twenty minutes were a mixture of haste and blur. While drying my hair, I munched on an apple for my breakfast and hurried to my own room. Putting my bucket bag on my shoulder and grabbing the thin pile of my official documents from the study table, I came out asking Aamna if she was ready to leave. I was standing  in the doorway. She turned around and eyed me up and down.

"What?", I asked.

"Don't you have any other trendy dress or makeup?", she said and I looked at her questioningly.

"Looking pretty can keep the seniors from making you a bullying target", she said picking up her bright pink bag.

"Seriously? ", I raised my eyebrow.

"We are not going to a fashion show....", I said looking at my watch.

"And if we are not leaving now, then there's no doubt that we'd miss our subway", I said and she just shrugged her shoulders.

Both of us almost ran to the subway station and after boarding, I finally sat on a seat and looked at Aamna who sat with her pocket mirror in her hand, brushing her fingers through her hair. I smiled and started to look out of the window. Two days ago, I had arrived at Boston from Lahore and since then I had been working continuously like a machine.
Aamna had helped me a lot too, otherwise I don't know what I would have done. She had helped me to move in her apartment and to go through all the legal formalities. Just one thing was left now. I had to submit my admission and scholarship documents in the admissions department to formally begin classes at Harvard.

The subway came to a halt and we stepped out. It was early fall. After a few minutes of walk, I stood before the entrance of the place where I had always dreamt to be, The Harvard University. For a few seconds I just stared at the beautiful building before me and then stepped in through the metallic patterned gates. Aamna walked casually. She had been there for a whole year and was my best friend's elder sister. I tried to keep my pace with her.

There was quite hustle bustle. All around milled anxious groups of new comers, silent groups of nerds, "lovebirds" who were almost unaware of their surroundings and then there were those who baffled about how expensive their vacation or holiday cruise had been but there was nothing like ragging or bullying. I was just about to mention that to Aamna but suddenly a male voice behind us called her name. We both turned around and he, who stood with one of his hands jammed in his jeans' pocket walked towards us.

"Hey, what's up?", he asked from Aamna, stopping only a foot away.

"I'm good..... What about you?", Ssmna asked and the surprise on her face didn't remain hidden from me.

"Couldn't be better",he said with a smile that only lifted one corner of his lips and looked at me.

"Is your friend new here? I haven't seen her around before", he said.

"Yes....she just took admission", Aamna said.

"So a fresher then. Come on, I'll show you around", he turned towards me so suddenly and with such frankness that for a while, I was speechless.