The Last Visit

His Touch

It all started with a casual hug. I was very upset about going to boarding school. I didn't want to leave him. We were sitting in my room, for he'd come to help me pack my stuff. We were on my bed and my head was being slowly patted in his lap.
"Don't worry. I'll come visit you everyday." He was trying to soothe me.
"How can I go? All my life I've been here with you and now all of a sudden I've to leave my whole life behind without my consent." I was getting furious. Papa was literally forcing me to go to boarding school in another city. I told him I didn't want to go but he wanted me to focus on my studies as I was flunking Maths. I'm not such a brilliant student.
"Will you miss me Laila?"
He was looking down at me with a concerned expression. I suddenly felt something moving in my belly.
"Why you ask? Do you think I'll make new friends and forget about you?" I frowned at the thought of it.
"I don't wanna lose you." He touched my cheek with his finger. I felt a huge volt of current in my belly and it was real. I tried to get up but suddenly every bone, every muscle in my body was frozen. My cheeks turned red by his touch. He was staring at me with the same concerned expression. After looking at him like a fool for a while, I finally managed to stammer, "N-neither do I."
He smiled warmly. I was feeling so strange. Why am I acting weird? I thought. We know each other since birth. I never felt so shy in front of him before.
"Arham?"
"Yeah?" He was moving his finger slowly from my cheeks to jaw and back from jaw to cheeks. In his half sleeves black t-shirt, his muscular arms were hard to ignore. I was going completely insane. It wasn't even right to think like that.
A light knock on the door made me jump. I quickly got up from the bed gladly yet disappointingly. It was my young sister Shumayil. She was only nine at that time, such a cute little princess she was with rosy cheeks.
"Arham bhai your mum is calling you."
Arham's sister Faryal was Shumayil's best friend. Shumayil was at their place playing with her and on her way back home, his mum must've asked her to tell Arham to come home. It happens all the time.
"Okay, I must get going now." Arham stood up and looked at me with such intensity that I quickly lowered my gaze. With Shumayil standing there, I only nodded my head in approval. He went out of the room with Shumayil and I stood there like idiots, looking at the doorway for quite a long time.