Chapter 2

"I have to go, my boyfriend is waiting for me." She waved at someone and walked towards him not even giving me a chance to ask her name nor thank her properly for her generosity. I glanced towards the direction where she walked but even before I get the chance to spot her, a voice interrupted me. "Miss. Kader." I turned around and saw a middle-aged man standing there holding a board in his hand, which read 'Riya Kader' a.k.a me. "Hello, Mr....." I trailed off not knowing his name. "Call me William.” He smiled at my perplexity and stretched out his hand for a handshake. "Hello, William! Nice to meet you." I greeted him and shook his outstretched hand with a generous smile. "Shall we proceed?" he asked and I nodded my head in permission. He carried my luggage ignoring my protests and put them in the trunk of his car. He even opened the door for me. I mumbled a quiet 'thank you' before settling inside the car. I carefully put Sweety, who was still sleeping all through this, on my lap and enjoyed the view of New York City. "Mommy, it's beautiful." A tiny voice spoke snapping me out of my own trance. "Sweety you are awake!" I exclaimed and kissed her cheek. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the slumber. She was fully awake now. We both savoured the sight of the busy little city and I didn't notice William parking the car in front of a huge building which I assumed is our apartment block. It was so huge. I reckon this building had at least 40 to 50 floors. We both hopped out of the car. William finished all the formalities and hand me the apartment key. "I have to go to Miss. Kader." He excused himself. I thanked him politely for his kind help before he walked away towards the parking lot. I pressed the button the read '12' once I entered the elevator and patiently waited for the doors to open. "Wow!!! It's so beautiful." Sweety shrieked in surreality. "Mommy are we going to stay here? I like this place very much." She jumped up and down while holding her favourite soft toy 'Honey bee'. "Yes, baby! This is our new home. We are going to live here from now on." I pecked her lips and she returned it. "Mom, will I make new friends here?" She asked in fear of rejection and isolation. "Of course baby, you will make a lot of good friends. After all, you'll start going to your school tomorrow. You will find lots of friends to talk to there." I assured her. She cheekily smiled at me and sprinted off to explore the rest of the house. This apartment was too huge for both of us. I felt exhausted the moment I bought all the luggage in the room. Thank God I met that kind girl at the airport otherwise I wouldn't know what to do. Bless her. Shit! I didn't even ask her for her number. Nowadays, finding good people in this vicious world is very rare. I mentally facepalmed. It took me five hours to arrange all the things in their respective place, especially the sharp objects as they were ought to be kept out of Sweety's sight. I still remember that one time when she accidentally cut her finger with a knife while I was chopping vegetables. She tried to copy me chopping onions but ended up cutting her finger instead. Later the night, I read Sweety a bedtime story. Her eyelids started to drop and soon she drifted off into her dreamland I let out an exhausted sigh. My baby's gonna start going to school tomorrow onwards. I felt like until yesterday she was trying to learn to walk slowly and continuously stumbled on her little feet. Time flew so fast. I kissed Sweety's forehead and cuddled up with her as sleep slowly overtook me. ~~~Past Wind~~~ "Gotta say this girl, you've got a lot of guts in your spine." Claire teased me as I was trying to put the ball into the court but alas! Failed once again to do so, because my stupid best friend was distracting me and not letting me concentrate. If only she stopped talking for once. We are currently playing basketball and she wouldn't shut up about today's god damn incident with Kayish. "For fuck's sake can you please just shut your mouth and let me focus on the game for once?" I scolded her as I caught the ball my teammates passed on to me. "Okay! But I better get an explanation later," She yelled before leaving the basketball court and finally giving me a chance to breathe. Though I have to admit, I was kinda hurt by her reaction towards the incident. Ever since that episode happened, she kept on asking me to give her all the juicy details regarding it and I already told her that there's nothing between us. She thinks that Kayish and I were engaged in a so-called 'secret relationship' together and ended up fighting, so he came there to seek my forgiveness and gave me a breathtaking kiss. But I was still mad at him and apparently slapped him. That's how she narrated the story to everyone and by 'everyone' I mean literally everyone in the college. And after spilling all that bullshit, she finally comes to me and says that she's proud of me for my guts? What kind of a person is she? Silly girl! I came out of my notion and paid attention to the game. I love to play basketball. Whenever we get free time, I come to the ground and play basketball with my friends. Isn't it a distraction? My seniors would sometimes challenge me to play with them. Most of the time it's me who prevails the match. Some people take this fact positively and are okay with the fact that I ace at it but some take it contradictory and create grudges just because of a little basketball match. It all depends on their conceit. I have many friends here. They all are very close to me and they all know me very well.