Stranger

Two weeks later

It's 8:00 AM in the morning

The bright sun rays entered Ziyi's room. She pulled her quilt upside covering her face to sleep a little longer.

Out of a sudden, Ziyi's mobile started ringing loud. Feeling irritated, in half sleep, she picked the call and answered, " Hello !!"

"Icey Darling !! Good Morning", AJ replied softly.

"A very bad morning for you !!!", Icey replied coldly.

"Icey...you are such a genius..How do you know that my morning was bad ?", AJ responded feeling surprised.

"Tell me the matter", Ziyi replied lazily

"Make a guess "

Ziyi frowned in half sleep and her expression turned dark listening to his response. "AJ !! Do you want to die by my hands ?? First and foremost, you disturbed my precious sleep and second, you are expecting me to play some stupid guessing game in the morning"

"Okay, okay darling...sorry..sorry...I need a small help from you", AJ asked in a requesting tone.

"Tell me", Ziyi replied short.

"I am currently in library"

"So ?"

"I stayed all night in the library ?"

"So?"

"I have an assignment deadline today"

"Soooooooooo....???", Icey gave a long pause.

"Stop it Icey...Listen to me", AJ almost cried out.

"You are the one who is telling one sentence at a time.. Without dragging it any further, tell me what's the matter ?", Ziyi answered.

"Icey...I have a manufacturing production systems assignment submission due today. I really forgot about this and wasted whole day yesterday. So far, I finished only 800 words and need to submit it before 5 PM. Could you please come to the library and help me with the assignment..I will do anything for you !!", AJ pleaded.

"AJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ", Icey shouted .

"Icey you can kick me...kill me..or do whatever you want..But, for now, please help me with the assignment. I don't want to fail in David's module. I will die if I need to repeat his module", AJ almost cried.

"Trust me AJ..If I end up dying early, remember that your laziness and Angela's super imagination are the reason for it", Ziyi whined.

"That means you are coming right ... ?", AJ's voice sounded beaming with happiness.

"Do I have any other option ?", Ziyi answered with a deep sigh.

"Thanks darling...I know that my Icey is the best !! Don't forget to bring some breakfast for me..Also bring some juice as well". Saying his words, he instantly cut the call, else he knew that Ziyi would kill him for ordering.

looked at her clock. It was just 8:10 AM. "Sorry my dear sleep..I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer after murdering AJ. For now, just forgive me", She took a long breath thinking about the long day ahead.

Ziyi got up from her bed and rushed to get ready cursing AJ. She took her macbook and classnotes and left the house. On the way,she purchased two sandwiches along with an apple juice from Tesco store. By the time, she reached library, it was almost 9:30 AM. Hardley's library is considered as one of the oldest libraries in England. The university offers more than 700 courses, thus making the total number of books to more than 10 million. Level 8-12 floors are exclusively meant for Engineering and Management courses. For the past 4 years, their friends group always sit in the 12th floor. So, She went directly to level 12 and looked for AJ. She found him sitting in a corner booth and typing something on his laptop.

She walked straight upto him and said, "There you go !!" and pushed a sandwich and apple juice to him. AJ lifted his head and looked at Ziyi. His tired look was dissipated in a second and instantly a smile popped up.

"Thank you dear ... Just have a look at the question meanwhile, I will finish my breakfast", AJ Replied.

"Hmm..Let me look into it. We need to windup before 3:45 PM because , I have a lecture at 4 PM.", Ziyi replied in a low voice.

" Do you think we can finish it??" AJ questioned in a dilemma.

"100%", Ziyi replied with a confident smile on her face.

Hours went by ...and by 3:00 PM ,both of them finished nearly 90% of the assignment. Feeling tired, Ziyi took the empty water bottle and said, " Let me refill the bottle.Along with that, I will bring some food from level 4 also. Feeling tired by sitting all the day".

AJ nodded his head and Ziyi left the desk. She walked down the stairs and went straight to the level 4 cafe. She took two meal deal offers which included one avocado and chickpea sandwich+ Mixed fruit+passion fruit drink and the other, a falafel wrap with halluomi+mango fruit+ grape juice.As Ziyi was in queue to make the payment, suddenly she realized that she dropped her student card somewhere. She told the counter lady, that she missed her card and left the food at the counter. She went back to the food aisles searching for her ID card.

"Stupid Ziyi ...Stupid Ziyi....How could you lose your card again ?? This is the 5th card this year. By now, even the student administration office remembers you well for always losing the card..", she cried inwardly.After searching for another 10 minutes and confirmed that she lost the card, Ziyi sighed and went back to the counter.

She smiled and said, "Sorry..I lost my HU card. Is it possible to pay using apple pay ?". Though Ziyi is familiar that in Hardley university Library Cafe, contactless payments are not permitted, she still questioned with a little hope.

The store assistant smiled and said, " Sorry Student, we don't accept applepay. But earlier, someone paid for your food and left. I was just waiting for you to come."

Ziyi scratched her head for a second and said, " May I ask, who was that person??"

The assistant said, "Sorry dear!! I don't know. He said that he would pay for yours as well and will see you in the class."

Feeling surprised, Ziyi thanked the lady and took the food and rushed back to the 12th floor forgetting about that stranger.