Cecily was in awe, as her eyes met the subtle pink shades of sky. She had never seen a sunset this beautiful. It was 6 pm and even though her lab ended at 5 she was glad she stayed an extra hour with Ari to finish the lab work, or else how could she have witnessed this unreal marvel of nature? She finally took out her phone and clicked a few pictures while walking. They were blurred but she smiled at them and kept the phone inside. It's not easy to understand a person suffering from anxiety disorder. You never know what could trigger them and unwanted attention was a trigger for Cecily. Standing in the middle of the road clicking pictures would invite attention towards her, and she was not ready to go down that road.
She finally sat on the train, which apparently comes in every 30 minutes here. Back in her home country, she was used to trains coming every few minutes, so waiting at the station was not something she was used to. She saw people entering the train while she hummed to the tunes of Paul Anka's song 'Put your head on my Shoulder' which was playing on her phone. Finally the train started moving and she realized how refreshing these small train journeys are. Her house was just 7 stops away but she loved looking outside at the people, cars, kids playing in the park, couples sitting together laughing, people eating, a happy girl with her dog and her favourite- the sky. In that moment she felt like she was a protagonist of a beautiful story, and someone was out there staring at her in awe as she admired these little things. Isn't that what they teach us? The movies, the rom-com!
She got off the train and started walking towards her house. It was late and the streets were empty. She was still not used to the eerily quiet and lifeless streets around her house, even in the morning. She lived in a suburb which was away from the lively city life. She walked in peace and skipped and jumped at the beats of the song she was listening to. The empty streets gave her a moment to enjoy her own company without the fear of being seen. Cecily dreaded being alone, but she also couldn't stay around people for long. She wanted to be free, to think less but whenever she was around people, the voice in her head never stayed quiet.
Turning the key a third time and pushing the door back and forth she finally managed to open the door. It was an old house, and Cecily was supposed to stay there for 3 months. The doors were rusty and needed a little extra effort to open. The wooden floor creaked when someone entered and there were no locks in her bedroom door. But she stayed with one more girl and they were not friends so the invasion of privacy was quite out of the picture here. The only thing she was scared of, was spiders. Well Australia is famous for its diverse fauna including spiders. Cecily was batshit scared of spiders and literally possessed the power to fly back to the US if she saw even the tiniest spider crawling in her direction. Well lucky for her, she was yet to encounter one of the creepy crawly creatures.
Exhausted from the lab she threw her bag on the bed and sat on the chair next to her almirah. She checked her phone and saw there were 5 missed calls from her mom and 2 from her dad.
"Hey Mom!", she said on the video call.
"Where were you? We were trying to call you.", her mom's worried voice filled the room.
"I just came home. What are you guys doing?", Cecily missed her family. This was the first time she was staying away from them. Homesickness in her case was inevitable.
"We were just playing with this little devil you left with us.", her mom laughed as she pointed the camera towards Cecily's dog- Kim.
"I miss her!", Cecily smiled at her little fur baby and walked towards the kitchen.
"You are going to make dinner?", her mom asked.
"I am just going to heat it. I already cooked for two days.", she replied as she took out the tiffin and put it in the microwave.
"How was your day?"
"It was interesting. The labs here are really cool. And the professors are very friendly. It was tiring but fun.", Cecily went on and on about her first day.
"If you are tired then you go and sleep. I'll ask Dad to call you tomorrow.", her mom said. She nodded and cut the call. She missed them. Her mom, dad, grandpa, and Kim. But this was her dream and she worked hard to be here.
Keeping the phone aside she finally opened her laptop to see what extra work she needed to do before the next day's class. There were a few unread emails and she opened them. One of them was from Professor Ali thanking all the students for their hard work in the lab today. She smiled and then she remembered Mitch. Mitchell, what a beautiful name. She opened the people's tab in her university account. She wanted to know his full name.
She saw a tab saying faculty and clicked on it. There were more tabs and she clicked on teaching assistants. Scrolling down the list she finally stopped as the name she was looking for came. A smile made its way on her face as she read his name- Mitchell Hawthorne.
"Mitchell Hawthorne", she whispered.
There was no picture or bio explaining his background in academics. There were no contact details, not even his email ID. It was as if he wanted to be invisible. If it were in his hands even his name would not have been there. He was mysterious, in a very attractive way. Cecily enjoyed mysteries, and he was now her new mystery.
She was busy thinking about Ry when someone texted her. She picked up her phone and saw it was a message on her group chat, with her two best friends- Emma and Tracy.
'How was your day?', Em asked.
'It was better than what I expected.', Cecily replied.
'Are the people nice? If not, we will come there and break their bones.'. Tracy wrote making Cecily laugh. They were always protective of her, knowing how sensitive their friend is.
'They are good.', she said.
'Did any guy catch your eye?', Em finally asked. Her friends were looking forward to Cecily finding the guy who treats her right. And they were pretty sure she will find him here, in this new country.
'Maybe yes, maybe no!'. Cecily replied. She never hid anything from her best friends.
'OMG! Tell us everything!', Em was excited.
Cecily finally sent a nice long voice message explaining in detail what all happened.
'Mitchell Hawthorne- what kind of a name is this?', Em was clearly not impressed.
'He sounds smart, but is he good-looking?', Tracy asked.
'She said he was wearing a mask.', Em replied before Cecily could.
'We need a picture!', Em continued.
'I cannot get a picture, guys. And I like his name! What's wrong with Mitchell.', Cecily said and went for a shower ignoring the rest of the texts. She knew they will talk to each other for a while and then get busy with their own life's drama. She loved them but the more she talked to them; the more she missed them.
As the hot water hit her body, she felt the muscles relax. Standing under the shower she couldn't help but think, will she ever find someone who will love her despite all her flaws? Will she ever witness the kind of love she reads about in books? She was a weird person, wired differently, making it impossible to love her. What was the chance she will find the one she could call her soulmate? What if she never crosses paths with that person? What if she never finds love?