High in love

Phone rings.

Sasha pulls her head up from the pillow, slowly rubbing her eyes that were blinded by the cold sun rays that enlightened her face which looked rather irritated. She looks at the phone tilting her neck and her eyes are wide open now all at once.

“Oh, Brian’s calling. So early in the morning? What time is it?” she had all these questions popping in her head, just then the phone stopped ringing.

“Darn it, what took me so long to answer, come on Sasha” she held her face in her hands, and just then she heard the phone ringing again. This time she picked up the phone, not wasting even a second.

“Hey, Bri” she was stopped by a loud voice.

“Whoaaa! you picked up my phone in a second that’s absolutely not like you Sasha.”

To her disappointment, it was her best friend Emily.

“It’s you, Emily...”

“Who were you expecting to get a call from then, Brian?” she said mockingly.

“What’s your business girl,” Sasha said smiling.

“Waking you up to get to school early you remember today we are going on a research trip. You haven’t forgotten right?” Emily questioned.

“I completely forgot,” she said getting out of her bed in a hurry and looking around. “I haven’t prepared anything for the trip and also I am running so late.” Sasha sat down on her couch. “I feel like not going, Emily. Yes, I am not going. You guys have fun.”

“What? Are you crazy? Wait, you know Brian is coming too?” Emily knew how to make Sasha come with them.

“You must be kidding. He’s such a bookworm and is not into trips and all. You are just making it up, right?”

“It’s a research trip, Sasha. He’s coming. Tell me are you coming?” Emily asked, curiously.

“I mean, don’t you know my answer already.” Sasha hung up and was moving around her room like some tornado preparing her stuff for the trip.

“Is everyone here?” Mr.Stephen said.

“Ahh! Sasha is on her way, Professor”, Emily said.

“Oh! Is she coming? I thought she was not.” Brian said coming towards Emily. Emily was surprised at Brian’s question and was smiling thinking about telling this to Sasha and looking at her jump in joy.

Brian took her out of her thoughts by waving at her, “Hey, I’m talking to you.” Emily was about to answer when she saw Sasha running towards them.

“Here she is”, she said. Sasha had her hair straightened and tied up in a neat ponytail. Wore a cute lavender top and white skirt with beige heels.

“A sight to look at”, Jay, a total playboy of their class, remarked.

“Thanks, Jay, Sorry Professor, I forgot to set my alarm last night,” Sasha said gasping.

“It’s okay Sasha, Hurry up everybody, we have to go a bit far so we must not waste any further time.”

“Mr.Stephen is so kind. Did I make you people wait long?”

“No, not that much. But you took all your time to get dressed up, you look so nice by the way.” Emily remarked winking at her. “I have something to tell you that would make you jump in joy”, Emily continued.

“What? Tell me now. You know how bad my curiosity issues are. Come on Emily.”

“Take your seat girls. It is a long way you can chat in the way. Please hurry.” Both sat on the seats rather embarrassed by the Professor’s statement.

As soon as they sat Emily noticed Sasha was looking at her with these piercing eyes and raised eyebrows.

“Okay! Okay! I'll tell, you’re such a despo. So, when we were waiting for you to come Brian came to me and asked if you were coming or not.”

“He called me this morning just before you did but I couldn’t pick up. This day is making me stand on my toes. Do you think I can handle two Brian events in a day?”

“Lower your voice, Sasha, you’ll embarrass yourself.”

Both Emily and Sasha turned back their heads and looked at Brian who was sitting rather carefree looking out of the window. Both let go a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, Emily, for reminding me I’m on a bus.”

“My pleasure always, you crazy”, Emily said laughing.

The bus was driving past a road covered by trees on both sides. It was autumn so it looked like some scene from a movie. Leaves falling in slow motion. Everything was so dramatic already and thinking about Brian made it even more of a fairytale for Sasha. She was a heroine kind of girl who had extreme emotions of both happiness and sorrow, and who found drama in every circumstance she was facing, and this time she was looking at the leaves fall imagining Brian sitting next to her smiling at her looking at her face lit by the sun rays falling on her face. Imagining that she turned to the other side and saw Emily slightly snoring. That sight made her laugh all at once. As she noticed she was loud again she looked back again at Brian and to her surprise, he was looking at her smiling with his bright face. She smiled back and turned her face promptly. Even the sight of him made her blush.

The bus stopped at a point somewhere between the woods with a stream and hills surrounding them. Students came out one by one stretching and yawning tired after a long drive. Professor guided them to set their camps up before they went to take samples of water, sand, plants that were far away from the city to compare them with the ones that are affected rather polluted by humans. They had this project of environmental science class.

After some work, all of the students came back to their camps to rest as they were done for the day. By the time they came back, Professor had set up ready for a BBQ. The sight of the fire and the meat grilling made all their annoyance go away. The meat-flavored smoke they inhaled made them crave the grilling meat. Everyone picked their food and sat down. Sasha wanted to sit next to Brian and looked around for him and to her surprise, he was not there. But she saw Madrid parking his car just by their bus. She took a deep breath and tapped Emily’s shoulder, “Your prince charming just can’t leave you alone for even a day. He’s here.”

Emily stood up and ran towards him.

“Who’s he,” Jay asked. “Emily’s boyfriend. They had been together for 4 years now”, Sasha replied.

“You’re left all alone again senorita,” Jay said. Which kind of made Sasha cringe but she rather gave him a smirk and moved into her camp.

She was just about to slide in her bean bag when Emily peeked and told her that she was sneaking out of Professor’s sight to go stargazing with Madrid, and left. Leaving Sasha to sit still for a while, she was not jealous but rather wanted someone to be by her side too. Brian crossed her mind all of a sudden. Without thinking she called him. Maybe because she was going through her extreme emotional stage.

“Hey, Sasha. What’s up.” He picked up.

“Ahh you called me in the morning, I just called back to ask if something you wanted to talk about”, she said in the girliest voice she could make.

“Oh, that! Your name was on the list of the students coming to the trip, and you hadn’t confirmed if you were coming, so Professor wanted me to call and ask if you were coming, as I was the one who created that list.”

“Oh! Because I did not confirm. And Professor told you to call.” “Yeah,” he said.

She was quiet for a moment thinking that she was a fool making all those fantasies in her head. The silence was awkward so Brian added

“Is that all you wanted to ask?”

“Yeah, that was it.” She said rather numbly.

“Okay! I’ll hang up then”.

This made her even sad. She was thinking about her being excited the whole day about him calling her and then asking about her from Emily. “It was all in my head.” She sighed and closed her eyes.