A dull Friday morning. Even though it had rained heavily last night, the grey clouds were still in the pale blue sky, just like an arts & crafts table with waste cotton lying on it after an hour of a kid’s hardwork.
It was going to be a busy day for her. One class in Cincinnati downtown, one on campus, book reading assignment for another one, part-time job, tidying her room, cooking dinner for friends, and a concert to go, if and only if she manages to finish her 2 week laundry, about which she had sworn to herself. She had so many clothes to choose from, but she decided on her usual worn out jeans and a creasy black top, and she left to catch a bus to downtown.
The class was O.K. She didn’t agree when the professor passed his male-dominated opinion on women in business, but she didn’t say anything because she was used to it by now, and he won’t budge after their constant tiring arguments. She is gonna talk to her besties about it tonight at the concert, she thought in her mind.
She had a rule about books. Either read them in a park, where the fresh air can accentuate the happy moments from the book and her almost relatable life, or read them all snuggled up in her bed and warm comforter, so that she can hold a pillow close to her chest when she is about to cry. She chose the park today. She had made an exception to her rule only once in her life (about which she swears on her life too), when she was in a boring bus traveling to another city, the ride was long, and there was no one to talk to (actually her phone died and she couldn’t listen to music anymore..).
She liked Rihanna, and although she had tried Eminem for sometime, and she still practices rap in loud voices when no one is around, she is not making much progress and always gets distracted by some random movie on Netflix.
She talked to her parents after bookmarking page number 143 in the book. She had missed them, and after her mom scolded her for not calling for past 1 week, she took a relaxed breath that everything is normal now.
Her boss always liked her, she was so quick at her work! She was like a daughter to him, and he could sense when she was sad. He looked at her and she smiled back, eyes glowing, so he went back to his newspaper and started swinging in his usual mocha-brown rocking chair. ‘She talked to her parents today!’, he guessed.
It had started drizzling again. The rains have always made her happy, and she decided to take the 30 min walk back to campus. She stopped to watch children naughtily playing in the water. ‘I should adopt a kid one day!’, she decided. It was getting late for her dinner party, so she went to a restroom on her way and changed into her backup skirt, that usually stays in her backpack. She discovered some wall murals, that she had never noticed before, on her way back.
At 8.30 pm, she threw her clothes randomly in the drawers, which were lying on her bed. The things that went into the dustbin in the next 2 minutes were a pizza box, some low-fat ice-cream cups, empty conditioner bottles, and a ball of fallen hairs from the bathtub. In the next 10 minutes she had cooked some original, un-Americanized, Italian styled pasta, the recipe for which she had knicked off the internet this past week, with some half cut onion, bell peppers, and the boiled zucchini she found lying in her refrigerator since last weekend. The dish was all gone within next 15 minutes, when both of her best friends had attacked the same bowl of saucy pasta with 3 forks. Her friends were good, no-Great at convincing, and she can always do her laundry sometime during next week, so they were at the concert by 9.30 pm.
They could hear her ranting about the professor even with all the noise. ‘Chill.’, said Anang. ‘He has a small weiner!’, said Emily. She looked towards them and smiled foolishly. She raised her head. The clouds were gone, the sky had cleared up, and she saw the first star of that night. She directed her attention back towards the stage, and joined her friends in shouting, and cheering the hot DJ.
She had made a good life for herself in the new city. An urban girl, she was now.
