Never Say Goodbye or A Love Story in Hellos

One.

It is loud. The auditorium is filled to the brink with students, laughing, talking, unpacking bags and clicking pens. Sasha makes her way through the mass of people. She is not late for this particular Monday class but it looks like almost all the seats are taken already.

Sasha tightens the grip on her backpack. No way she can just sit down amid a few vacant seats now and wait for the class to begin. Maybe she has better luck towards the back of the room. Not as easy to read the slides there but better than fighting her way through an already occupied row, to get a seat in the middle. No. She climbs up the stairs to the last rows, looking left and right trying to find an empty seat.

Finally. A free seat directly next to the aisle. That means no shuffling between the tables. Good. Sasha strides the last meters to the chair. She has just about dropped her backpack on it already when she notices the other girl sitting on the next seat over. She is writing something. Her eyes are squinted in concentration. Her bag is lying on the floor between the two chairs. She is probably waiting for someone.

Sasha stands there for a few seconds. She does not want to be rude and sit on an occupied seat. The skin on her neck prickles. So she pushes her backpack up her shoulder and ruffles through the short hair on the back of her head. Opens her mouth. “Uh.”

The girl looks up. She is pretty. And smiling. Sasha smiles back instinctively. “Hello. I was wondering- Is this seat taken?” The girl looks down on the chair next to her and then back up at Sasha. She shakes her head. “No, no. Please!” she says, still smiling. She gestures to the seat and shoves her own bag under her table with her foot.

Green chucks.

The girl goes back to writing. Sasha drops onto the chair, relieved. She takes her notebook and her pencil case out of her backpack. Grabs her water bottle, takes a drag and puts her backpack between her feet. She takes a breath.

Before she can take out her phone to keep her hands busy, the girl in the other seat clicks her pen audibly and shoves it back into her pencil case. Then she turns to Sasha, holds out a hand and introduces herself. “I´m Nia by the way.” Sasha hesitates for a second before she takes the offered hand and shakes it once.

“Sasha,” she says.