The Bridge

The months passed by and it was a blur of colors when we graduated from Columbia University. Towards the end it was just a mixture of studying, all nighters, and heaps of caffeine. I recalled throwing up after my 8th cup of iced tea a week prior to my last exam.  After emptying the contents of my stomach I laughed. A lot. As Astur yelled at me.

Daneen was nearing her due date day by day and she was getting scarier and scarier. I felt bad for Azaan but then again, not really, since he did this to her.

With my internship starting in just 2 weeks, I decided to head back home and reconcile with friends and just breathe for once because only God knows that was no longer a common occurrence in my life.

My apartment had been cleared for a week now as Astur and I had either packed up our things or sold them for some hefty money (what can we say, we're good negotiators). I was packing the last of my things, mainly toiletries that I had just used as it was the morning, and the clothes I had worn to bed last night. It was 6 o clock in the morning and Ismael was going to pick me up so that we could head to the airport together.

I was standing near the door by the time he arrived and I think he almost had a heart attack when he saw my ugly face standing right at the door but it's ok because I'm a 100% sure that he was't fully awake by then and I was not about to get into a car with a sleepy Ismael.

We stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts and grabbed some diabetes inducing food and then proceeded to the airport, this time a little fearfully since our little escapade for breakfast had taken longer than usual after my fight with the cashier who worked there.

It was totally my fault. But I pretended otherwise. No one needs to know.

By the time we reached our local airport my neck had a cramp in it because Ismael had pushed me into my seat since I was taking too long shoving my bag into the overhead compartment. Classic Ismael.

We ended up needing more caffeine because there was no way our hyperactive brains, yet tired bodies, wanted to sleep at 3 in the afternoon.

In fact, who even takes naps anymore unless it's Ramadan and your body is literally begging you to.

Although we weren't prepared to get jumped by Mihirmah and Safaa, at least it wasn't gang members. You can't even reason with them, they just go ahead and boom, you're dead.

After rejoicing for a while and going on a joyride, because that's what Mihirmah's driving really is like, we reached my house since we had planned to meet there initially. We had a tiny tea party with god knows how many flavors of assorted tea.

The night wore on as we recounted funny stories and mutual enemies, (which we happened to have a lot of).

And if I look back at it, it would be one of the last times I'd meet peace in my life for quite a while.

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"If I never see you again, I will always carry you, inside, outside on my fingertips and brain edges and in center, centers of what I am, of what remains."-Charles Bukowski