essence

#2 (part 1)

A strong masculine smell hit her.
And she felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
He was entering.
It was as if she knew when he was around.
Asmi always sat on the first bench close to the entrance.
She lifted her head up from her notebook to see him, but his gaze was directed to his feet. As always.
She gave a long sigh before casting one last painful glance at him and then retiring to her work as she knew very well that he would walk straight to his seat in the farthest corner of class.
But that day she felt him standing there longer than usual, with a heavy heart she raised her eyes to see and to her utmost shock, she saw him looking back at her. A restrained glance. The world, time, all noises stopped for her. Even her heartbeat sounded as distant as possible.

Then he just walked away.
Walked away shattering her heart into unmendable shards.

She wished she could run out of the class. It was so painful hiding her feelings from everyone else.
Not even her best friend, sana, knew that she had a very strong crush on the total nerdy boy saim.

Unshed tears pricked her eyes.
She had never felt so much of pain in her life.
But she was strong. Good at hiding her emotions. Wiping away a lone tear, she tried to be normal.
'Its just another month, then we'll have finals and then its all gonna be over' she thought to herself. And it was only biology class that she shared with him.
Sometimes she did not want to come to college only because of this.

The teacher came into the class. And the day went as usual. Except sana. She was absent. 'What was up with her??'
Atleast her company would soothe her wounds.

After lunch break, asmi considered going back to home and bunk the remaining classes. But fired her plan once she saw sana appearing her table with the widest smile ever.

What was up???

'Hey asmi' she said extra cheerfully.

"Wa alaikumassalam to you too" whats up? Asmi said rolling her eyes at her friend.

"I... umm.. ugh. I got engaged" she said in a daze. She was never the one to beat around the bush.

The burger in her hand (and also her mouth) fell as she opened her mouth in shock. Sana was also, never the one to lie. Not even in jest.
When the news finally registered in her mind, she jumped up from her seat and ran to sana and hugged the life out of her.

Asmi was happy. Very.
And she was mad. Very.

Coz, asmi was not told of any proposal sana got before hand.
What? She was her bestie and had every right to know.

After shouting at her for an hour (jk), she asked her for all the details. And thus she began telling me...

"Day before yesterday, mom got a call. A lady spoke and she asked if my name was sana and when mom said yes, she said 'my son and your daughter go to the same college and my son is interested in your daughter and because he does not want to have a forbidden relationship, he somehow managed to get your number and asked for me to ask your daughter's hand in marriage. If you people are ready and willing, both our families can meet tomorrow to talk further."

"What? Same college? Who is it???" Asmi asked, her heart racing. She was overjoyed, excited and strangely nervous.

"i wont tell you who it is, i will tell you how i suddenly got engaged and how i can even get married soon. And you have to guess who it is. Trust me, it was totally unexpected"