Page 64 of Storm
‘Zee, I need to ask you something important.’
‘Yeah, I'm perfectly alright. How about you?’
‘Zee!’
‘You didn’t ask. So I thought I’ll let you know I'm fine.’
‘Zee, I'm serious right now!’
He sighed heavily,
‘All right...tell me what is it?’
‘You remember we met your friend Aariz in that party? Well, now in my college...’ before I could complete, Zee interrupted, ‘Aariz teaches in your college now. I know.’
What the hell?
Zee went on,
‘It’s a good thing. He will take care of you. And if you face any problems in the college, let him know. I'm sure he’ll help.’
I was beyond shocked,
‘What? Don't tell me you have asked him to keep an eye on me! And what do you mean by ‘he will help me?’ I'm not a child who has gone to the college for the first time! He is new. I'm not. It’s my final year Zee!’
‘Hold your horses Miss. I did not ask him to keep a watch on you or anything. I'm just saying that if you ever face problems with college administration, you can ask him for help. If you don't want his help, then don't ask. Simple! I just said he would take care of you because he is a nice guy. Why are you getting mad at me?’
‘Aariz and nice? Hah!’ I scoffed rolling my eyes at the statement.
‘Of course! That is why he is such a close friend of mine. Anyway, you wanted to say something important, didn’t you? So tell me.’ Zee sighed patiently.
Zee's confidence, his words of praise about Aariz as a person and his unhinging trust on him made me rethink and doubt if I was the wrong one here. Now I did not knew what to ask him.
‘Nothing important...I just called for a chat. Okay...Bye.’ I abruptly disconnected the phone without giving Zee a chance to answer.
Am I the only one misunderstanding Aariz? Maybe I am thinking too much...Trying to read things, which are not there in the first place. Then why did I still feel warm ignition, where he caressed my face?
I kept wondering to myself what was the deal with this Aariz guy, when my phone chimed with an incoming text.
I saw it was from Aariz.
Reading it, I felt bewildered and stunned to the core, as to why my heart just broke. Why did it feel like something suffered a little death inside me? Why did I feel sad all of a sudden?
I was thoughtful and confused before. Now I felt broken. His text punched me a little...Had knocked the wind out of me, to be blunt. As his text clarified, it was just me thinking too much. He never felt anything towards me unlike what my heart had been whispering to me all this while.
But the other day, when in that affectionate way he had said, ‘my love...’ Was that tone not a way to warm my heart? Was my heart playing tricks on me? Did my heart lie to me?
I kept thinking from all the possible angles until almost half the night had passed. I came up with nothing.
I told myself in a strict tone to forget about it and not be a sour loser. I had a misunderstanding and it had cleared now. He does not feel anything for me. There was nothing going on. Nothing at all, that I had envisioned, felt...
Aariz
A few hours ago-
I literally banged my head on the wall, as I stood by the window staring at the sparkling lights around the city, yet at nothing in particular. I couldn’t shake off the worst fear inside of me that, my one mistake pushed Sani away from me. Farther from, what she already had been...
She would have been hell scared thinking that me, her Professor, and just a day old friend, was calling her Saanu, which not even her friends or family call her!
