ALIN

I closed the door behind me and without even listening to what my mother was saying went upstairs into my room. Once inside in the safety of my loneliness, I let myself go weak and with a thud sat on the floor. What the hell just happened? Sebian dropped me home, not only that, now I have to see him regularly for a whole month. I know it’s not mine or his fault that any of this was happening but it does not mean that I will go unnoticed by anyone, everyone. No one will say anything to him but they will start picking on me, especially Natalie. She will never tolerate that her boyfriend talk with someone like, she is going to make my life hell. Thinking about all the upcoming consequences gave me a headache and because my legs felt like jelly, I couldn’t get up anymore. So, I kept seated on the floor for a long time.

“Is everything okay in college Aly?” my mother asked and that brought me out of my thoughts. “Yeah, everything’s good.” “Then why are you not eating anything kiddo?” it was my father this time. “Nothing daddy, I was just thinking about a project that I have to complete in a month, that’s it.” “You don’t have to worry about anything kiddo, I know you’ll do great so don’t take stress.” I smiled and got back to finishing my dinner.

I sat in my room working on my homework. After this I am thinking about working on the project and dividing the parts between me and Sebian so that we can finish it without having to meet each other very often. I am pretty sure he does not like to talk to me either but has no choice about it. Of course, he wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation in front of his friends or anybody else for that matter by talking to me. It was well after midnight when I completed dividing the topics for both of us. I will give him the chart tomorrow and then we won’t have any reason to meet.

I was feeling fresh and a little happy this morning. I have found the way to stay away from Sebian and still work together on this project. On my way I saw his car pass by me containing the usual crew of his friends. Good, now that his girlfriend is back he won’t have time for me anyways. I breathed a sigh of relief and entered the college gate with the enthusiasm of a kid about to get a sweet treat.

I wanted to give him the documents in the class but he was absent again. Why doesn’t he come and sit in the class if he comes to the college? If nothing else he can at least spend more time with his girlfriend. Anyways, the least he shows up the better for me. I saw him during lunch at their usual table but I have a problem now. It was okay if I passed him the papers while in class or any non-crowded place or with least number of people but here at the cafeteria everybody was present and I didn’t had the guts to get up and go talk to him while everyone was watching. It will be a disaster and I will become an outcast in seconds. Finally my fear got hold of me and I remained seated there with my lunch while the five of them got up and went out of the cafeteria.

This is not good, not good at all. What am I supposed to do now? Where do I find him to give the documents? I should have gathered my courage and did it earlier when he was in the cafeteria. Idiot! I started to get depressed. Tomorrow I will try and give it to him during lunch. No, tomorrow I definitely will give it to him.

I got out of the college thinking about all this when I saw him in his car. This was my chance. I can give it to him now when none of his friends were around. I went to his car and held out my hand holding the papers towards him. “Here,” his face turned towards me. His brown eyes looking at me through the blonde bangs had confusion in them. He took the papers from my hand asking, “What’s this?” “I have segregated the topics and divided them among both of us. We can work on them separately and then join them together before the submission. You might be busy so this way we can finish up the work and not bother each other much.” He seemed to think over it a bit and then spoke, “I am not that busy, we can meet up and work together. You can come to my place or I can go to yours, it’s not a problem. Actually, you can come now, we can start working.”

This was not going how I wanted it to. “I can’t come right now; I have some work to do. You go home and see the topics; if there is any problem we can discuss it later.” Saying this and leaving him in a puzzled state I rapidly turned and went on the route heading to Poppy’s Mart. I hope no one saw me talking with him or I will be in news tomorrow.