The Grey Patch (BWWM)

Part 3- Chasing Dreams

"What happened in your life these past few months?" he asked stoically.

"Um—I had a—a health issue, and it prevented me from being able to..."

"What was the health issue?"

"With all due respect sir...that's private"

"Fine. Did you submit a medical report? Or a letter at least, informing me of your intended-leave as a result of the said health issue?"

"I was going to sir, but it all happened so suddenly, I didn't have enough time"

"Hmm..." was all that came out his mouth as he sat in his chair, swirling back and forth within an angle of 45 degrees. Everyone in college who knew him knew he only got into that position when he was about to issue a death sentence to whomever those intimidating grey eyes of his pierced through at that moment.

"You know Maldives, at your age, you're at a stage where every single action you take, could be the defining factor in your future and as such, you shouldn't afford to make such silly mistakes"

"I know that sir, and for that I'm truly sorry"

"The world isn't as simple as 'sorry'. 'Sorry' doesnt fix everything, that's something you should learn. I've learned that for the young people of this generation, it's become sort of the ordeal to do things without having to feel sorry for them, but here's a piece of advice, coming from a man who's seen more than fifty decades; in life, instead of doing things without having to feel sorry, try doing things in a way that prevents you from needing to sorry in the end, there's a clear difference you know. What I'm trying to say is, as humans, we are prone to make mistakes, but we should always as much as we can to get it right the first time, cause in life, there aren't a lot of second chances, but that's that. Now, you do know you're one of my favorite students, and I know the hard work you've put into having your 4.7, so I wouldnt want all that going to waste. You have one more week to bring in the project, all-good, no errors, no room for second-chances, or third in your case and we'll see if we can pick it up from there"

"Oh my God! Thank you so much sir! I promise you I won't ever let you down again!"

"I hope not. Now get to working and go make me proud"

"Yes sir! Good bye sir!" she thanked him as she raced out his office, so overjoyed that finally, life had at least shown her some kindness in a long while.

She face-timed Brenda and Christian to tell them about the good news. They talked for a while on phone and when they were done, Maldives headed straight home to get back to her project.

~~~~~

"Son, please call us when you get this, your father and I are worried sick about you, we miss you, so does Faura. We called Faury and he said that he hadn't seen you since you moved over there. We're your family you know, and we want you to know we're always here for you!"

That was the second replay of the voice mail sent to him by his mother, on his home cell. For some reason, it had kept him pondering over all the incidents that had transpired in his life over the past few months and receiving that mail from his mother, only reopened old wounds, wounds he had been trying so hard to cover, and heal from.

In all honesty, he had never actually felt like he had had a lot of success with either, considering how mean he knew his relationship with the people in his new neighborhood was (evident from the fact that he had not managed to make even a single friend in the whole of NYC), which was why he was more than grateful that his childhood best friend, Nico, was coming over in a months' time on a business trip to NYC and he couldn't wait to have him over before he wrecked of boredom.