Hadi, for the first time, was a little early for the class and sat there on their table waiting for Mirha.
He thought about Rohina, something he'd been doing for the past two days. He'd understood later that day when the news had spread that Rohina Jawwad left without completing her final year, and that was why she'd seemed so out of control and furious than he'd ever seen her. If she hadn't been in that state, she would never even have thought about slapping him. Of course, she hated him even more, now that after the incident she lost most of what she cared about, while he remained unscathed. Not that he was feeling sorry or anything, it was just pity he now regarded Rohina with. Leila was right, poor girl. And Sasha was right as well, good riddance.
The noise of a chair being scraped pulled him out of his reverie and he looked up to find Mirha, settling down as he kept her bag on the table. Taking out her own textbook from her bag, she noticed that Hadi hadn't taken the spare one from the shelf. Without giving him a single glance and not even bothering to greet him, like she usually did, Hadi noticed, she stood up and went to get the book.
After a moment, as Mirha came back and sat down, siding the book towards him on the table, he not noticed that she was dressed quite strangely, yet surprisingly appealing today: a scarf of bright red on her head, a yellow knee length kameez, and violet trousers with contrastingly different socks, all the colors that didn't even match.
"What are you wearing?" He asked, eyebrows raised, eyes filled with amusement, as he gazed at Mirha looking down at her wringing hands and worrying her lower lip, waiting for him to start with the lecture.
"Unusual Day." She muttered, still without bothering to look at him.
Hadi gave a soft laugh. "And you decided on wearing a rainbow?"
Mirha raised her gaze at Hadi, offended by the comment. It was her younger sister's idea, when she'd called home asking for suggestions for unusual day's dressing. She liked it pretty much and immediately settled on the one. "It's not a rainbow," she said in clipped tones. Who does he think he is, kissing some girls and making fun of the others? "It's a really nice idea of wearing contrastingly different colors."
Hadi simply stared at her, while Mirha fidgeted in her seat, dropping her gaze somewhat uncomfortable by his stern regard.
"What's with the attitude?" He asked after a pause.
"What?" She looked up, bemused by his tone and worried whether she was too obvious in expressing her distaste for his kiss he was being scandalized for.
"What's.with.the.attitude?" He repeated, emphasizing every word.
Shaking her head, she said quietly. "Nothing."
Hadi arched an eyebrow. "Mirha I want you to speak up."
She heaved a breath, trying to calm her racing heart at the mention of her name for the first time. She hesitated before she finally said, "My roommate showed me your picture with - with the girl, that's been circling around the university on Facebook."
"And?"
"Do you really go around doing it with random girls?" She rushed before she could have stopped herself from uttering. Her father was right when he said she should consider before saying anything to anyone.
"And you care because?"
Mirha shrugged. "I didn't take you as a guy like that. You know it's not a good thing to-"
"Fuck!" Hadi laughed, to which Mirha gasped. "You sound so ridiculous."
"You said the word!" Her eyes almost popped out. She had never ever heard anyone say that word before, that too with such blatant disregard of moral ethics.
"I never asked for your opinion on what you think about how I should be living my life." He said coldly and then and stood up. "Stay out of it." He said before marching off, leaving Mirha in complete astonishment.
---
He wasn't there on Friday. Mirha waited for an hour before finally deciding to go look for him and apologize. She knew now she shouldn't have said what she said, realising that it really shouldn't matter to her what he did in his life, as long as he helped her with her studies. But she just couldn't stop wondering how he could kiss someone like that. It was wrong to even so much as touch a girl one isn't related to, hence her reaction to that Bilal guy.
Whatever though. She must not think too much about it. All she should care about is to convince Hadi to start giving her lectures again. Nothing more, nothing less. Plus it wasn't like he was trying to make a wrong move on her.
Walking through the entire department, searching for him in every room she could take a peep in, Mirha finally took a breather in the garden and looked around in the burning sun through squinted eyes. Sighing she started towards the admin block as a final attempt after which she'd finally give up.
Just as she took a step and entered into the building, her eyes landed on the tall figure in brown button down and black pants standing in front of the reception desk, speaking in urgent tones.
She approached him, and even though he saw her, he carried on with the receptionist who was a middle aged man in round spectacles. Mirha waited patiently until he was done. But to her surprise, he simply walked away.
"Wait!" She ran after him. "Please Hadi."
He only stopped by the front hall and slowly turned around to face her. It was something in her voice, or maybe the way she said his name - in a desperate tone and as if she was committing some kind of wrong by stepping out of the respect ethics - that had urged him to stop.
He could say he was looking forward to seeing her again embraced by her quirkiness and all, or maybe he was simply waiting to see when she'd come up to provide an excuse for her earlier outburst, for he knew she definitely would.
The stupid girl kept running into him. And kept making him do things he otherwise didn't mean to. First the signature, now the notes, then stc, a small part of him feared he might have to change his mind about the promise he made to Bilal.
Because God, was that girl diligent, in an annoying yet strangely appealing – the I-want-to-see-how-it-goes – way.
"Yes?" He had to feign annoyance, to his surprise, as he said that, raising an eyebrow as he did.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly, staring at the floor. "I didn't mean to offend you. it's just-" she sighed and looked up, "Its just I have this habit of blurting out whatever's in my mind." She grinned. "My father always said I should have a filter because it's really annoying and I sometimes should keep my mouth shut. I honestly try, I swear!"
"Fine." He muttered sighing in exasperation.
"Really?" She said, even though she didn't sound even the least bit surprised, as if she knew he wouldn't refuse.
Hadi was honestly pleasantly surprised and maybe a little amused. "Yeah." His tone softened considerably.
"Thank you so much." Mirha gushed. "You have no idea how important these four years are to me. I have to look after a family of six once I graduate." She explained sounding not at all worried about the great responsibility she just mentioned. "Can we start now? Please, we have an hour."
Trying to recall if he was supposed to be somewhere at the time, but when no such commitment came to his mind, he agreed. " 'Course. C'mon." He said and moved forth.
"Thank you." She breathed again following after him as they came out of the admin block. "Anyways, you know what?"
Without waiting to know if he did or not she carried on. "Once when I was in school Mrs. MNA came for a session. We were all gathered in the auditorium when it occurred to me if she did not know about his husband and that he really didn't fulfill the promises he made to us, as she praised him and made further promises on his behalf. I didn't even realize I'd said it out loud when everyone stared at me stunned." Mirha chuckled. "Principal suspended me for three days. God, my father was so angry he said one needs to keep one's mouth shut when time requires."
Hadi was amused. The girl did have guts, he thought, though no wonder he fully agreed with her father and silently added 'And hands in control' thinking to himself about the incident with Bilal. "No surprise there. Again." He commented.
Mirha laughed, trying to keep up with his pace as they strode towards their department. "I couldn't help it."
Silence stretched between them as they came up on the path moving through the group of students as they strolled away from or ran to get the class.
"Do you have siblings?" Mirha perked up, not able to keep quiet for long.
He replied, "Just an elder brother."
"Is he married?"
"What?"
"Is he?" She pressed.
"No." He said, eyebrows raised. "Why do you ask?"
"It's really fun when there's a wedding you can participate in. My cousin got married a couple of years ago. And you know, my brother was just six years old and seeing that she was getting all the attention and the gifts he actually cried that he wanted to get married too." Mirha giggled and placed a hand on her mouth.
"That’s actually quite amusing."
"I know! Since then everyone has been making fun, not letting any opportunity go to waste."
She didn't stop talking even when they had settled down on their table. Indulging him in conversations about vast topics, from professors to upcoming modules, from her family at home to her roommate, asking him about his own studies and where he lives and what he does and what he doesn't. Surprisingly though, she wasn't irritating and paused when she thought he wasn't paying attention and was beginning to get annoyed and then she would start off again hardly after a minute or two.
Amusement seeping in again, Hadi would listen to her with renewed fervor.
Just as Mirha opened the book something occurred to her, for she bent down over her bag and took out a box covered in a glittering sheet of thin foil, which he immediately guessed it to be a box of sweets.
"Guess what?" She said, raising her eyebrows.
"It's a sweet box." He rolled his eyes.
"No." She chuckled. "Guess what happened?"
"What?"
"I got the job." She grinned. "I told you about it right?"
"Yeah." Hadi said leaning forward on the table and, absentmindedly took the pen lying on the book. "So what did they ask you?"
"Exactly what you said." Sliding the box towards him, she added, "Here it's for you. I got one for Professor Shariq on Monday because I told him about it too. He's my biology teacher by the way and is really nice. In fact both of you have been the nicest to me. You know I brought one for you on Monday too, but," she shrugged, "didn't end up giving it to you so I ate it myself. But look I got you another one. Because you helped me." A smile stretched up across her face, illuminating the glint further in her eyes.
He glanced from Mirha to the box of sweets and said after a pause. "Thank you." He shrugged. "For the tea that day as well."
"Oh." She said with her excited voice lowering a notch. "I didn't even remember that." Adding with a sheepish smile, Mirha pulled the book closer she'd slid away without realising, her cheeks turning a faint shade of red. For some reason she always felt embarrassed whenever someone thanked her for something she never even considered as a favor.
She could still feel his eyes on her and shifted in her seat. "What's your mother's name?" She asked as a desperate attempt to divert his attention.
"What?"
---