The Addiction of Love

I

Exactly at 7:30am, the alarm clock went off, breaking Zara's peaceful sleep.

"Ugh," She muttered with her eyes closed and pulled the pillow from under her head to cover her ears.

Anjali, Zara's roommate, snoozed the alarm.

"Zee, wake up!" Anjali said while applying kohl in her eyes.

"Anju, just 10 minutes more." Zara pleaded in a slumbery voice and dozed off again.

Anjali rolled her eyes and continued with her makeup. Ten minutes later, the alarm rang again, and again Zara gave another '10 minutes' excuse.

Anjali and Zara had been roommates for more than four years now, and Anjali had gotten used to Zara's love for sleeping. Everyday she used to set the alarm for an hour and half before her first lecture was scheduled, and everyday she used to get late. By now, Anjali had given up on her.

"Zee, it is 8:30. I am leaving. You better get up in five minutes if you don't want to be late yet again and get scolded by Professor Ashish." Anjali said while taking her bag.

Zara showed a thumbs up to her but made no movement to leave her darling bed. Anjali sighed in frustration and left the room with a bang.

Just like everyday, Zara entered her lecture fifteen minutes late. She couldn't leave her bed any sooner than 8:45, then she took a quick shower while cursing herself for not waking up early, got dressed and ran to the college. Thankfully her hostel was inside the college campus and it took hardly a few minutes on foot to reach the college building.

"And there is my star student, Ms Zara Ibrahim!" Professor Ashish exclaimed as soon as he saw her standing at the door. "How come you're only fifteen minutes late? I was not expecting you this soon?" Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

Zara just looked down and waited for his taunts to get over. She had never been good at waking up early, and her teachers had always had complaints. She had gotten immune to these scoldings and taunts.

After the professor was done, he asked her to come in and sit down, and continued with his class. Zara was glad that even though he scolded her everyday, he never denied her attending the lecture. Otherwise her attendance in his class would definitely have been zero.

Three consecutive lectures later, it was finally break time. Zara and her friends; Nitya, Avni and Shivaansh, left for their favourite place in the entire campus, the canteen.

"Chotu, our usual." Shivaansh spoke to the worker of the canteen and the group took their usual place.

"We have our semester exams starting in two weeks." Avni commented.

"Ugh, don't remind me." Shivaansh said, scrolling his phone.

Chotu came and placed four samosas, and four cups of chai. The group had similar taste in food. It was one of the many things those four bonded over.

"How about we go for a trip after the exams?" Nitya excitedly asked.

"Oh please! Our trips never happen. And moreover, it isn't like we're going to be free after our exams. We'd have the last semester left and companies would start coming for placements as well." Avni said.

They all were in their last year of MBA.

Zara held out her hand to pick up a samosa, when a girl came and stood in front of her. Zara looked up and groaned. It was Sandhya, a person who got on Zara's nerves like no one else. Zara didn't hate her, she pitied her.

"Hello, Sandy!" Zara gave her a fake smile.

"Hey!" Sandy eyed the samosa. "You shouldn't be eating such oily stuff, you know."

Zara took a deep breath. It was nothing new with Sandy, she was always like this. She had a perfect figure, a beautiful face, rich parents, every luxury one could think of. She was also good at sports and studies as well. It was just her behavior that made her presence unbearable.

From the first day of college, Sandy, for some reason, had a problem with Zara. She kept finding faults in her and reasons to pick up fights with her.

"Why are you here?" Zara asked and took a huge bite of the samosa just to irk her.

Sandy made a face at her and rolled her eyes. "I'm just here to tell you that in the coming exams, I'm going to score more than you."

Zara had always been a star student and topped in every exam, and it used to make Sandy extremely envious. She couldn't see Zara doing better than her.

Shivaansh chuckled. "You say that before every exam and still end up coming second to Zee."

"Well, it doesn't take long for time to change." Sandy gave him her best glare and padded away.

Zara shook her head. "I don't know what her problem is."

"She's just a bitch." Shivaansh said and changed the topic.

______________

A few days later, Zara reached college late, as usual. But to her surprise, the class was empty except for a few students.

"Where is everyone?" She asked them.

"Sir was not here so everyone left!" One of them replied.

That was weird. Professor Ashish never took off. In fact he was famous in the college for being the professor for 100% attendance.

She took out her phone and called Avni. They were in the garden inside the campus, so Zara went there.

"Where is Ashish sir?" Was the first question she asked her friends.

"I heard some professors say that he got into an accident." Nitya said.

"What?" Zara was shocked. "Is he fine?"

"Don't know."

The professor didn't show up for the next couple of days and then another professor informed them that he had suffered severe injuries and is on complete bed rest.

The semester exams started soon after that, and by the time it ended, it was confirmed that Professor Ashish was not joining back. He was 62 years old and had decided to retire and a new professor would be joining soon in his replacement. Since Professor Ashish was Zara's batch's mentor, it would mean that the new professor would take over that job too.

When Zara heard this, she just prayed for the new professor to not be strict, and let her get away with the fact that she comes late to class everyday. She only had six months left of college and she wanted it to end calmly.

If only she knew.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

This chapter was to give you an insight of Zara's character.

Are you guys ready to welcome our Shayaan in the next one?

If yes, Vote!!

If no, you don't really have a choice. We're welcoming him anyway ;)