Miles Away

Chapter 8-Miss Bagel

Sarah woke up feeling happier than last night. She wasn't a morning person so waking up by 11am was not  a surprise to her.

Relieved that the room was empty, she jumped out of bed to take her bath as soon as she remembered that hot water stopped running by 12pm.

Excited about exploring the university, Sarah hurriedly wore her dark blue jeans and one of her regular Harley Quinn crop top. She imagined Noah and Kyle throwing insults at her outfit as she took a final review of how she looked in the mirror.

Two minutes into trying to apply makeup on her face, her phone started ringing. It was Anton.

"Hello?" He said.  The familiarity of his sweet voice made her miss him like crazy.
"Hey Anton!" She replied cheerfully.
"Miss me already huh?" Anton asked.
"Yeah! I wish you were here. I'm going on a little tour around the university and doing it alone sucks." Sarah whined.
"That's sad. Well don't worry. I'll visit next weekend. You can show me all the nice places you've discovered."
"Really? You'll do that?" She asked excitedly.
"Yup! Anything for my little bird." He replied.

Sarah imagined him smirking knowing that he might have pulled a plug.
"I thought we've gone past this little birdie thing." Sarah groaned. She could hear him guffawing through the phone.
"Not really. That's revenge for leaving me behind. I've got to go. See you next weekend." Anton replied.
"Okay. Bye!" She exclaimed with a sigh as the call ended.

She picked up her campus map and folded it inside the small pocket of her backpack. She looked out the large window of her room and was happy with the view it gave. She quickly did a double check around her bed space to make sure she didn't leave anything behind.

Forgetting about breakfast, she left the room making sure she switched off all the electrical appliances. The hallway was crowdier than she expected. To avoid unnecessary attention from passers by, she wore her headphone without turning on the music. That was one trick she'd learnt to listen to people's conversation privately and also stop people from starting a conversation with her.

After a thirty minutes walk around campus, she sighted the campus library. She'd heard stories about it having an underground compartment despite its towering structure and private reading rooms. Outside the library was a large lawn with students sitting on the soft grass reading books and browsing through their mobile devices and laptops . Lectures hadn't even started, yet it seemed like they were all seriously studying or maybe just resting, she thought.

At the corner of the stairs leading to the entrance of the library was a young man selling coffee and bagels. The sweet smell of coffee and toasted bagels reminded her of how hungry she was.

She was indecisive on whether to buy breakfast before entering or after coming out of the library. She knew that if she bought it now, she'll have to eat outside. The thought of eating outside with a lot of people staring at her made her decide on buying breakfast after leaving the library.

She greeted the security man standing by the library and showed him her school ID card so he would let her in.
"You're a new bee huh?" The security man asked with a smile.
"Yeah" She replied with a polite smile.
"I saw you staring at the bagels, food is allowed in the library. You seem hungry."He said with concern.
"Oh thank you."She replied feeling relieved as she walked to the Bagel seller.

"One Bagel and a cup of coffee please," She ordered from the stall owner. After receiving her order, she paid the stall owner and walked into the library with her coffee and Bagel.

She was greeted with a smile from the librarian as she walked into the library reception. The atrium at the first floor was already bubbling with students so Sarah opted for the last floor, since she loved heights and hated crowd.

The last floor of the library had large glass walls that allowed natural day light to lighten up the large reading area. The bookshelves were arranged parallelly, each having its own unique color.

Behind the last bookshelf was a glass door leading to an opened balcony where students can read, enjoy natural air and also enjoy beautiful views.

As she passed through each of the shelves with the coffee on her left hand , she kept stacking her bent elbow with books that caught her interest. Feeling too engrossed by the view from the balcony, she took her final turn around the last shelf unaware of the young man walking hurriedly towards her.

Before she could avert her eyes from the balcony, all the books she held were already flying through the air. To stop herself from falling, she grabbed onto the young man she slammed into spilling all her coffee on his shirt in the process.

Sarah gaped as she observed the young mans' sharp jaw and angular cheekbones. His brown skin going well with his blazing angry dark eyes. He looked down at her in anger and horror as he saw the large coffee stain on his white buttoned up shirt.

"What the hell!" He exclaimed, drawing attention to them. "You should watch where you're going." He scolded. Realization hit her as he pulled her off of him.

"I'm terribly sorry." Sarah said still feeling really confused as she tried to clean off the coffee stain with her right hand which was already stained with chocolate from the bagel.

"For goodness sake stop! You're only making it worse." He said already feeling frustrated.
"I'm so sorry." Sarah apologized.
"It's okay." The young man said as he saw the glimpse of tears in Sarah's eyes. Maybe he was too rude to her, he thought. To make her feel better, he bent over and started picking all the books that was scattered on the floor.

"Biotechnology major?" He asked as he handed the books to Sarah.
"Er... yeah." She stammered.
"I guess I'll be seeing you later." He said with a smile before turning to leave.

Sarah was still in a haze after he left. She would have apologized more, or maybe offered to clean his shirt she thought already feeling guilty. She knew spilling coffee on him was totally her fault.

The beauty of the library no longer caught her attention. The coffee incident kept playing in her mind. She was still hungry but didn't think she'll have the appetite to eat anything.

Sarah arrived at her room having a pressing need for cereal to calm her nerves and clear her head of a riot of thoughts. He said he'll see her later, does that mean he'll come for revenge? She thought as she dropped the books she'd borrowed from the library on her bed with a thud.

She dashed into the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. Glad that her roommates weren't back, she comfortably consumed three bowls of her cereal while going through the pages of some of the books she borrowed.

~~~
The sun had already started to set once Sarah left the dorm. She was already getting late for departmental orientation. Locating the departmental hall where the orientation was to take place wasn't an easy task.

The path her campus map showed where empty alleys which she knew would look scary at night. There wasn't even a single student at sight. After walking for about thirty minutes, she finally found the departmental hall.

"Finally, I'll love to introduce to you Mr Khalil Zaid our departmental president" Sarah heard a female host saying on the stage as soon as she entered the hall.

All the students rose up from their seats, cheering and clapping as the tall young man she recognized walked to the podium.