Choosing Him

Chapter 3

Areesha was sprawled on her bed with an arm draped over her eyes to block out the sunlight rays that were coming through the curtains.

She didn't feel like waking up yet. She had been up till late last night. As if on cue, her alarm started blaring. She despised mornings. Her phone was on the bedside table too far away from her reach. So she let it ring and went back to sleep.

After a while, she was woken up by another alarm. She had multiple alarms on her phone as she never woke up to a single one. Groggily, she threw the blanket off her and scrounged for her phone with half open eyes as her mind still hazy from sleep. She had to do a puzzle for the alarm to stop ringing otherwise it would keep ringing till the battery drained. She resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room and quickly did the puzzle lazily as she stifled a yawn. Her eyes were threatening to shut as if they weighed like boulders.

Before the waves of sleep could seduce her in its charm, it dawned upon her that it was the first day of her job today. Her eyes flew open with a start and she blinked rapidly, as her eyes adjusted to the rays of the sun that seeped through the gaps between the curtains and bathed the room in their glory.

"Sh*t!" An involuntary groan left her mouth.

Panic engulfed her and she was spurred into movement. She rummaged through her wardrobe and quickly grabbing the first dress she found, she hurried to the washroom to shower and change.

She didn't wash her hair as they would stay wet. Grabbing a brush, she quickly piled her hair high on her head and secured them with a band in messy bun.

Grabbing her purse, phone and heels in her hands she skipped down the stairs two at a time. She went to the living room and found her mother was still sleeping. She quickly scribbled that she was leaving for work on a post-it and pasted it on the fridge. Yesterday, after a long time, her mother had been happy with her and she was determined to make her proud.

There was no time for making breakfast as she was already getting late, she took her car keys from the key stand and hurried out of the apartment after locking it.

She took the lift to the ground floor and dashed out of her apartment building running like a mad person as fast as her heels could allow.

 She slumped down in the driving seat of her car, taking a second to catch her breath.

Slipping her sunglasses on to protect her eyes from the sun that was glaring stridently at her, she started her car, reversing recklessly out of the parking lot of her apartment building.

It was a hot, muggy, humid summer day. The air was very thick and it was hard to breathe. Heat could be seen radiating off of the scorching hot road. The grass outside of the road had turned brown from the sun, and the colors of the leaves on the trees were very dull and turning brown around the edges.

Her car was in the middle of a three lane road, with concrete barriers along the edges and in the middle of the road. She impatiently drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and willed the traffic light to turn green. If the traffic didn't start shifting soon she would be very, very late and might even get fired on her very first day. She felt a twinge of regret at not waking up on the first alarm as she thought of he mother's disappointment.

A multitude of sounds filled the air; the beeping of horns, squeaking of metal, and the rolling of tires across the uneven pavement. They were just giving her a headache and on top of everything she was sleep deprived too.

A honk from the car behind her, snapped her out of her pessimistic thoughts of being fired, and she looked to find the signal had turned green.

The cars around her continued to inch forward, as she pushed lightly on the gas pedal and then on the brakes. This routine went on and on, and it felt like it would never end, like a pendulum moving back and forth.