“What the hell is happening with my life?” she questions herself as she looks outside the bus window. “Why am I like this? Maybe it has something to do with the death of my mom… or the way my dad lived. Why has he sent me here all of a sudden? Am I such a burden to him? He knows that he is the only one I have left; he knows the side effects of being alone, then why? Why is he doing this?” with these questions, doubt running on her mind she reaches her stop and gets off. From the window she sees a familiar face; aunt Yasmin. As soon as she gets out of the bus she greets her with a warm hug and a genuinely reassuring smile “look Aasha I know that you have a lot of question about your dad. In time I will answer all of those questions, but for now let’s get you settled.” “Okay. Let’s go then.” they get into another bus and get off at the out skirts of the city. She then shows Aasha her room as soon as they reach their home.
Aasha has a lot to adjust to. The first thing is of course living with an aunt whom she barely knows; the other thing is to adjust to the environment that she has just arrived in. After all, she is just a normal teenager with a bad past. Her mother passed away when she was about 10 years old. Her father never married again, for he loved his wife and their daughter. After her death he dove in the deep sea of alcohol and work. Aasha could do nothing but watch as her father cried in pain. She too felt the pain and cried; sometimes they cuddled and cried together, at other times they cried alone. As soon as she finished elementary school he sent her here. Leaving her elementary school and her community didn’t bother her for she had no close friends. The only thing that bothered her was how suddenly this happened.
For the next two days she locks herself in her room leaving only to go to toilet and eat. She spends the entire day listening to music. The third day she helps her aunt setup the café. That night she suddenly misses her parents a lot, more than before. So after Yasmin sleeps she goes to the café silently and makes herself a dark coffee, with equal amount of sugar and coffee powder and turns on soft music but the music only amplifies the pain of memories. Trying to be brave she holds on her tears but soon it gets too much for her and she bursts out crying. “Dad, it’s only been 3 days here and I already miss you.” She says these words as she looks on to their picture on her laptop. Tears just roll down her eyes and she sobs silently. After a while she hears a knock on the door. “Who the heck is knocking at this time of night?” her sadness suddenly turns into irritation. Grumbling these words she stands up and walks towards the door. Being cautious she opens the door slowly but sees no one. All that is there is a note saying “Hey! Welcome to LP. Sorry for eavesdropping but I kina heard your sobbing. Lighten up dude.–your neighbor, Outcasted Phantom”. “Outcasted phantom, what kind of name is that?” then she remembers that she too has a fake name, an alias, called ‘Obscure Hope’ meaning ‘hidden hope’. Since the death of her mother she has been seeking peace in words, so she writes poems under her alias. “Guess I ain’t the only one who has such a strange alias but who is…” It was just a note left by some stranger saying ‘chill up’. She smiles, a smile that has been hidden from her lips for a long time. The feeling that she wasn’t the only one with a weird alias was kind of a warm feeling somehow.
Gulping down her coffee in one giant gulp she sits down and browses up the web. Who wouldn’t do that if you have got free Wi-Fi with sufficient network? Throughout the night she watches the videos on how to cook different kinds of bakery items and how to maintain a café. At around 5am she goes inside to freshen up. She brushes her teeth and washes her face, which takes about 15 minutes and she rushes back to the café. When she reaches the café, the café is open and there is an empty cup. “Wow that was fast” she says as she looks at her aunt “well looks like we got our first customer” and she tries to put on a smile. Yasmin however replies with a sigh “stop trying to put up fake smiles in front of me. Your father couldn’t do it, your mother couldn’t do it and I’m sure as hell that you can’t do it.” “Tell me, why did he send me here?” that catches Yasmin by surprise but she pulls out all the courage that she has and says “because he didn’t want you to suffer along with him…because he couldn’t see you suffering”. A silence, and then Aasha questions her again “how well did you know them?” “Well, before I moved here we used to be 3 amigos. You were very young when I moved here I’m guessing about 4. Back then we were the typical hippies. They were in love of course but so was I but with another man. Your father was in every way like an elder brother to me.” She stopped as she saw the tears emerging in Aasha’s eye.
Aasha was somehow grateful for her aunt now. So they try bonding. She spends the entire day trying to teach Yasmin the art of baking. Soon the night arrives. They eat in silence and Yasmin was off to sleep. She does however tuck Aasha in before she goes to bed. Aasha gets out of the bed soon after that and follows the same routine as yesterday. One dark coffee and a lot of memories was enough to make her cry again. After a while she hears a knock. This time she slightly opens her window curtain. She sees a boy, at around her age, with a hood disappearing into the darkness. This street lamp was out. In the house in front of her, she sees a boy slowly walking in the house and eating something. “Is that the hooded guy?” thinking this she walks up to the door and opens it only to find another note. “Hey dude. It’s me again. You look like you could really use a friend. Call me at 98********. I just can’t hear you crying every night, it’s been two days straight, and at least try to sleep because I saw your shadow all night long.-your neighbor, Outcasted Phantom” “who the heck is this person?”
The routine was fixed. During day she taught her aunt how to bake and her aunt taught her how to manage the café and during night she would look at the videos of how to cook beautifully. Two weeks passes in this process. During these weeks she doesn’t bother ask any more questions about her dad. Throughout the week, all she thinks of is the guy in the hood and the note, so much that she even sees the guy. “Could he have left the note?” It’s possible. She finally decides to give that number a text. He sounds friendly enough and what the hell he, if that person is a male, hasn’t seen her yet. So she sends him a text “Hello Outcasted Phantom. It’s the girl from the café. You can call me ‘Obscure Hope’. Thanks for the notes. You made me realize that hope can come from anywhere.” His notes had somehow brought hope to her that she isn’t gonna be alone there “I first saw you about two weeks ago while you were going away from the café and all I saw was a guy with a hood. I saw you a few times after that, I think, and still all I saw was a guy with the hood. Seriously, though I still haven’t seen your face. I wanna get to know you but I’m afraid of knowing you as I’ve lost everyone I ever had. My mom died when I was 10 and my dad’s all messed up and I am here alone. Still don’t know why he sent me here though. Having an aunty doesn’t make it much easier. Physically yes but psychologically not much. I’m glad that I have such a good neighbor.” For some weird reason she actually trusts this person and she opens up her heart and pours it down in her text. The reply shocks her “uh… I think that’s me. We can just stay text friends. You don’t have to know me. And about your being alone situation, all I can say is that I’ve been there and felt that. To be honest I’m still trying to deal with all my messed up emotions. And I’m glad that you finally decided to reach me out. I was getting alone myself. :D. Good night. And at least try to sleep tonight. I know that you haven’t slept ever since you came here.” He seems sweet and seems to know what she is going through so she sends him another text “thanks for the concern. And good night to you too but from the sound of that it seems that you haven’t been sleeping either. Let’s sleep today eh?” he replies back “Okay then. Smell ya later.” “Smell ya. She feels happy for she has finally made a friend, even though he is faceless and voiceless, he is a friend. “SHIT! I’ve got to go to high school from Sunday and I’m already two weeks late.” She slaps her forehead in an expression called the ‘face palm’. The next day was a Saturday so she prepares for her first day as a fresher.
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