Fasaana

TEN

Words, how little they mean
When you're a little too late.

*************

Zoya sat on the chair, stupefied, as the laptop screen in front of her displayed her result. Aarti and Rohit jumped up in excitement.

"I knew it." Aarti screamed in happiness, "I knew you'll crack the hell out of it."

Zoya was still too shocked to reply. She couldn’t believe that she had scored 99.97 percentile.

"Zoya," Rohit shook her by her shoulders. That broke her daze. "Congratulations."

A gasp left Zoya’s lips. "I really got 99.97? Oh my God," She got up as well, "I did it. I did it."

Both the girls hugged each other, and Rohit didn’t delay even a second before joining them. Malti brought sweets and everyone fed each other in happiness. Zoya took a very small bite and made Sehrish eat too. She was almost nine months old now and could eat solid food.

That night, they all went out for dinner to celebrate. Zoya announced that it was her treat, and Rohit and Aarti let her pay without any fuss.

A few days later, Amit called Zoya to inform her that the court hearing date had been finalized for next week. The six months period given to the couple to reconcile had been exhausted. It was time to finalise the divorce. So Rohit and Zoya along with Amit went to Jaipur again. This time, Aarti didn’t come with them because Avni was too young to travel. They took an early morning flight and were going to return the same day at night, so Zoya left behind Sehrish as well. She pumped two bottles of her breastmilk to last Sehrish for the day.

Mahmood was in the court again to be there for his daughter. Zoya didn’t even glance at Rizwan once throughout the entire process. It didn’t take much time. The court issued them a divorce and gave Zoya the custody of Sehrish. Since Rizwan had refused to raise the child, there wasn't much drama about it.

Finally Zoya was legally free from the clutches of her abusive marriage.

Her life was slowly getting better.

________________

Malti was dusting the shelves in the living room, Aarti was seated on the couch and was breastfeeding Avni, Zoya was on her phone, Sehrish was sitting on the floor with her toys, and Rohit was at work. It was a normal Wednesday.

"Can we go shopping tomorrow?" Zoya asked without lifting her eyes from the phone screen.

"Sure," Aarti said, "Anything specific?"

"Yeah, college supplies and new clothes." Zoya replied with a sly smile.

Aarti's head snapped towards Zoya, and so did Malti's.

"What..? Did you..?" Aarti fumbled.

Zoya turned her phone screen towards her and showed her the congratulations mail she had just received from the college Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi. Aarti read the mail and a huge smile broke out on her face.

After the result of the CAT came, Zoya got a call from a lot of universities for a personal interview, a few IIMs being in the list as well. But her focus was only on the colleges in Delhi, and FMS was one of the best business schools in the city. And the best part of it was that its fees was only about 1.9 lakhs, which Zoya could afford. She had a little more than that in her account after selling her jewelry. And her father was also sending her money every month.

Aarti and Malti congratulated Zoya with long hugs. Sehrish watched the elders with curious eyes as they all giggled in happiness. Seeing them, she let out a loud laugh herself and then for the first time, she crawled. She crawled on the floor to get to her mother, and Zoya gasped at that.

"Sehru," Zoya was overwhelmed at her baby growing up so fast.

Sehrish reached her mother’s feet and gestured to her to pick her up. Zoya immediately picked her in her arms and showered her face with kisses. It was indeed a happy day.

The next day, Aarti, Zoya and Malti along with the kids got ready to go shopping. First they went to a stationary shop near their home to buy all the stationary stuff Zoya would need. Then they drove to the mall.

"What kind of suits do you want? I think straight pants with kurtis would look great in college. You can pair it with scarves." Aarti said as they entered the mall. Avni and Sehrish both were in their respective strollers.

"Yeah," Zoya agreed and then slowly added, "And maybe we can also look for some jeans."

Aarti's step halted. She turned to look at Zoya and raised an eyebrow in shock. "Did you just say jeans?"

"Yeah." Zoya fidgeted with her dupatta.

"For you?" Aarti confirmed.

Zoya rolled her eyes. "Who else?"

"Okay, who are you and what have you done to my best friend?"

"Come on, it's not a big deal." Zoya shrugged it off and dragged Aarti with her.

They went to the brand showroom where Aarti mostly bought her jeans from. Aarti picked out almost a dozen pairs for Zoya to try. She also picked out some tops. Zoya slipped her legs inside the plain blue jeans and buttoned it up. Then she wore a plain black tee on top. Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt confident like never before.

When she came out of the dressing room, Aarti had her jaw on the floor. "I don't think you've ever looked this hot before."

Malti nodded her head. "Yes. You look like a different person altogether."

Zoya tried all other jeans and selected three of them. One light blue, skinny fit and was ripped from the left knee and right thigh, but didn't show too much skin. The second one was dark blue in color, and was baggy. The third one was black bell bottoms. Then they bought tops and t-shirts to pair with those jeans. It included printed cotton tops, loose tees, and casual shirts. Aarti also insisted on some sleeveless and off-shoulder tops, but Zoya refused. She would not be comfortable in them. Aarti also bought a couple of them for herself. Then Zoya also picked out a few sets of kurtas and pants. And they also forced Malti to select some sarees for herself. They also bought a pair of white sneakers for Zoya.

Then they went to the salon where Zoya just got her hair trimmed since she absolutely loved her waist length hair.

They ended the day by having dinner in their favorite chinese restaurant where Rohit joined them after office.

Zoya's classes were going to start from next week and she was more than ready for it.

▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️

Are we ready for Zoya's first day in college??

Also, everyone waiting for our hero, ruko zara, sabr karo.

Vote up.