Laila

New old friends

Autumn was slowly descending on an ever waiting Lahore. The hot summer days were gradually being replaced by chilly autumn ones. The lush green gulmohor trees were losing their green grandeur and shedding their green to give way to dull orange leaves that would soon shed, signifying the arrival of the festive, eagerly awaited Lahore winter.

Laila was sitting with her laptop and literature books strewn across the table in front of her with a steaming cup of coffee in front of the backdrop of the lush, green vast golf courses of the Lahore country club. It was still the early hours of the morning, and the café she was sitting in was empty other than the occasional waiter that would linger outside the verandah to ask if she needed anything.

Her hair was up in a bun, she had her glasses on and was in full study mode. Her midterms were coming up and she needed to prepare. Between everything that was going on with Hassan and Amina and her she had complete neglected her studies. After the two week forceful break from Amina, Laila could finally turn back to her books.

Time passed as morning turned into evening. More than ten hours and four cups of tea later, Laila was finally done with her assignment. Content and a little disoriented to see so much time pass so quickly, Laila finally got up from her seat and stretched out the kinks and coils of her stiff body.

She packed up her laptop and books and with a parting thank you to the waiters who had served her all day, left the café and made her way to the car park where her car was parked.

Halfway there, her phone rang. Tediously she got it out of her back pocket maneuvering her way to her jean pocket amidst the sea of things she was already carrying in her hands. By the time Laila got her phone out of her pocket, it was on its last rings so she picked it up without looking at the screen to see who it was.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver.

"Laila?" she heard a voice she would recognize anywhere say.

Oh no. she should have looked at the caller ID after all.

Of all things, his voice was the last thing she expected to hear today. And she wasn't sure if even after a year, she was ready to hear it.

"Shehryar," she said back to him. To her best friend.

Shehryar had been her and Amina's best friend when the three had been in school together. The three of them had been inseparable, friends since they had all started school some twelve years ago together. That was up until last year....

In the 7th grade, Laila had developed the biggest, pre-teen crush on Sheryar that had stuck with her all throughout the later years. A crush was putting it mildly. Laila had been convinced at that time that she was irrevocably in love with the guy. But all this time, she had been too shy to do anything about her burning love. Amina was the only person who knew about it and that too not because Laila had told her but because nothing concerning Laila ever escaped Amina. All that changed last year in the 12th grade-their last year together in the school.

Right before Shehryar was to go to Kings College London to do his business degree, Laila had confessed her unrelenting love for him, right in the middle of his farewell party.

Unfortunately, he hadn't shared her sentiment and the party prematurely ended with Laila running out of the place a mortified, crying mess.

Needless to say, they hadn't talked since the incident.

Shehryar had tried to talk to Laila a couple of times since then from London but Laila still hadn't been over the heartbreak and embarrassment to talk to him.