I Thought You Were My Answer

The idea of going to Skardu started pretty normally.

My brother and I had been talking about taking a trip somewhere, and eventually we decided on the north. Skardu sounded perfect. Mountains, lakes, cold weather, long roads, and, obviously, enough scenery to fill up my camera roll.

Once everything was decided, we joined a tour group.

The trip was going to start from Islamabad, so we had to get there first.

A few days before leaving, I did what I always do when I'm going somewhere with people I don't know.

I looked them up.

I found the travel company's Instagram and started scrolling through it. I wanted to know what kind of trips they did, what the group usually looked like, and, mostly, who was actually going to be taking us.

That's how I came across him.

He was the person running the company, and he was going to be our tour guide.

I looked through his Instagram for a while.

Nothing serious.

I wasn't attracted to him.

I wasn't imagining conversations with him.

I wasn't thinking about him at all, really.

I just thought he seemed interesting.

Then I closed Instagram and went back to my life.

A few days later, we were in Islamabad.

The trip was supposed to leave at around midnight.

It was raining.

I remember the weather more than anything else from that evening. The roads were wet, the air smelled like rain, and everyone seemed to be busy getting ready to leave.

There were bags everywhere.

People were moving around, talking, checking things, making sure they had everything they needed.

I was excited.

I had been looking forward to this trip for days.

I didn't know what the next ten days were going to look like, but I was ready for them.

At some point, while everyone was getting organized, I saw him.

I recognized him from Instagram.

He had curly hair and glasses.

His hair was wet because of the rain.

He was wearing a T-shirt, and when I saw the back of it, I noticed Messi written across it.

For some reason, that was one of the first things I noticed about him.

I looked at him.

Just for a moment.

There was something about seeing a person in real life after only seeing them on a screen. Even though I didn't know him, I suddenly had a real image of him in my head.

Curly hair.

Glasses.

Wet hair.

Messi shirt.

That was him.

I looked away and continued with whatever I was doing.

Nothing happened.

No conversation.

No introduction that I can remember.

Nothing that would have made me think this was going to be anything other than a normal trip.

The rain continued.

Everyone eventually got settled.

And around midnight, we left Islamabad.

I sat back as the vehicle started moving.

The city lights passed by the windows, slowly becoming fewer and farther apart.

I looked outside for a while.

The trip had finally started.

I had no idea what the next few days would bring.

At that point, he was just the person leading our trip.

And I was just another girl going to Skardu.

That was all.

At least, that's all I knew that night.