She has dozed off on your bed. You have only been friends for three weeks, but she discarded the pillow, clearly a sucker for propriety. Clad in an ash coloured woolly bathing robe and grey pyjamas trousers, her bare chest is pressed against your bed. And she is gone into the land of dreams.

Yet, three weeks ago wasn't the first time you set your eyes on her. You'd seen her long before that. Years long— three to be precise. That time when you were a freshman thinking of how to make your parents proud and how not to disappoint yourself. That time when you had many things to prove such as that you could rise above the weakness of failing maths, the only subject that had the power to deface an otherwise perfect academic result from you. Maths pulled you down and while you were so bothered by it, her existence at the corner sphere of your eyes provided an unexpected but welcome distraction.

She had always struck you. Not as odd, but as interesting.  That time when with her phone and earpiece, she would traipse down the hostel corridors, the jewellery of her nipple and navel piercings glinting against the lights. A certain graceful carelessness. A well earned pride. You found her aura relatable. She seemed to possess a fountain of self validation within. And you thought maybe that was just what you needed. To be content with who you were. You weren't the best, but you weren't the worst either. She made you realize that without saying a word to you. Without ever knowing that you were aware of her.

After you made your closure with maths, you never saw her again. You are ashamed to confess that you forgot about her. She crossed your thoughts once in a while; a fleeting memory of her cocky night pacings.

Of course you wouldn't see her again, you told yourself. You got promoted. You changed your hostel, your department, your faculty. You even switched campuses. You could never be more far from her. Little did you know then that you could actually never be more nearer. Nearer enough that one day, she would be inches away from you, asleep on your bed.

Three years later, you saw her again. You learnt that she was in your major all this while. In your level, your department, your faculty, your campus. You were coursemates! Everything youd  changed had been to meet her. How the hell did that happen? You dug deep into people you're interested in but how did you miss this crucial information? Why was she suddenly around for you to see again, giving you a second chance to know her like you never imagined you could? She talked to your brother and his friends? How was she already close to them and not to you? She started telling you hi because she was friends with your brother and his friends, but not with you. All of a sudden, she seemed to be everywhere. In the faculty wearing the same uniform you were wearing. In the shops,  patronizing your vendors. In the walkways, talking to her cute boyfriend who she was almost always with. In the class, several seats behind. In your hostel. On your floor.

A few rooms away from yours. Three to be precise…

You couldn't take it anymore.

"What's your name?" You suddenly asked her one day before you could pass each other on the stairs after the customary 'hi's. She told you her name. It sounded as interesting as she was. You asked her to spell it, just to be sure. Just to make the conversation last longer. 

You told her your name. Even though she knew it already from your brother and his friends. Just to be cordial. Just to make the conversation last longer.

Your bed is cluttered. Your sweater on the ground. Your blanket unfolded. Your bag, your bra, the clothes you wore last night, your books, your phone charger. And finally, the discarded pillow. All shoved to one side as she slumbers away. Just like that, you know she is comfortable around you. This friendship has to last. You won't be the one to break it. God help you, you won't.