Amanda is a class younger than me but from how close we are and how much we talk during any particular day nobody would ever be able to guess that we belong to completely different classes of my university. I never really noticed Amanda before I got to know her. I had seen her walking around college but she never grasped my attention, although she is somewhat of a head turner.
We're pretty close friends now, however our friendship happened by chance. When I was going to States in 2009, she happened to be on the same flight as me. But she would be with me till my stop in UK. She had to change airports for her next flight. I didn't even spot her at the airport. It was actually the first time ever I would be going air anywhere so I was excited and nervous all at the same time. Also I was traveling alone, which made me even more cautious about the things going around me and not so much about what others are doing. She spotted me quite early on but approached me when I was sitting in the waiting lounge. I'm kind of shy around new people but fortunately for us, she's quite a talkative person. By the time we were boarding, we were chattering like we had known each other since quite some time. "Can I sit next to you? I don't want to get stuck with someone I can't talk to!" she asked me excitedly.
"I don't mind but I don't think that's possible! Our seat numbers are entirely different!", I told her disappointingly. Even I would have loved it if we were together.
"I'll just ask who ever is sitting next to you, or you can ask who ever is sitting next to me! People are generally nice and don't mind exchanging seats! Nobody really cares, unless they have a window seat!" she chirped away. I really didn't know how to respond to it, but she asked this big tall dude if he would be willing to swap seats with her - with a smile. He didn't mind!
"I'm sitting by the window but you can have it!", I told her politely.
"Oh no! You're traveling by air the very first time so you deserve a window seat. Now sit!"
I'll admit I did want a window seat but had to be gentleman, so I asked her. "Did you know that I used to have red hair?", she asked me sometime during the flight.
"I just started to get to know you about an hour ago, how would I know?!", I told her as a matter of fact.
"Oh yeah! Anyhow my family forced me to dye them black so that I won't stand out in a crowd!", she told me playing with her hair.
"You still stand out in a crowd!" I told her making a reference to her height. She's freakishly tall for a girl. She's 5'10. Girls rarely go above 5'7 or at least the girls I generally hang around with. Next to them, she's like an amazon.
"Well yeah, but they really could not do anything about my height. Thank Heavens! I would hate to be short!", she complained.
"Thanks for the morale boost!", I spat back.
"Aww no! You're cute!" she complimented. I think I must have turned all shades of pink on spot. The only girls who had openly complimented me on anything were from my family, so this was a completely new territory for me. Our flight to Bahrain was of 2 hours, but we stayed up talking about just about everything. I don't remember how exactly but our chemistry rapidly grew when we started talking about Ugly Betty. We shared a mutual love for Amanda and Marc, but then most Ugly Betty watchers feel exactly the same.
In Bahrain, though we were staying at the same hotel during our 18 hour stop but we were in separate rooms. We had lunch and dinner together, and watched TV for a while in her room when she called me up. I was extremely nervous in her room, I felt like I was doing something so extremely wrong. But after a few minutes I calmed myself down because there is really nothing weird going on. We're just friends!
Our flight to UK was much longer than the one to Bahrain, so we slept through. But when I saw she was up, I went up to her. This flight was so frigg'in empty that there was no need to ask anybody to exchange seats. It was cool. When we split in UK, we exchanged email addresses and kept in touch. I came back to Pakistan much later than her, but when we met in college it was like we had never really split from the Heathrow Airport. Our friendship has definitely blossomed since then as I have guided her through a few tough times by listening and offering my advice when I felt I had any.
Now I feel that we have more of a brother-sister bond than simple friendship. It was the feeling of this bond that pushed me to do something I have been planning to since 2011 started. If you haven't guessed it yet, then I came out to her just today and it went extremely well.
Shocker, no?
Details about Amanda and the coming out episode in the next few posts!
We're pretty close friends now, however our friendship happened by chance. When I was going to States in 2009, she happened to be on the same flight as me. But she would be with me till my stop in UK. She had to change airports for her next flight. I didn't even spot her at the airport. It was actually the first time ever I would be going air anywhere so I was excited and nervous all at the same time. Also I was traveling alone, which made me even more cautious about the things going around me and not so much about what others are doing. She spotted me quite early on but approached me when I was sitting in the waiting lounge. I'm kind of shy around new people but fortunately for us, she's quite a talkative person. By the time we were boarding, we were chattering like we had known each other since quite some time. "Can I sit next to you? I don't want to get stuck with someone I can't talk to!" she asked me excitedly.
"I don't mind but I don't think that's possible! Our seat numbers are entirely different!", I told her disappointingly. Even I would have loved it if we were together.
"I'll just ask who ever is sitting next to you, or you can ask who ever is sitting next to me! People are generally nice and don't mind exchanging seats! Nobody really cares, unless they have a window seat!" she chirped away. I really didn't know how to respond to it, but she asked this big tall dude if he would be willing to swap seats with her - with a smile. He didn't mind!
"I'm sitting by the window but you can have it!", I told her politely.
"Oh no! You're traveling by air the very first time so you deserve a window seat. Now sit!"
I'll admit I did want a window seat but had to be gentleman, so I asked her. "Did you know that I used to have red hair?", she asked me sometime during the flight.
"I just started to get to know you about an hour ago, how would I know?!", I told her as a matter of fact.
"Oh yeah! Anyhow my family forced me to dye them black so that I won't stand out in a crowd!", she told me playing with her hair.
"You still stand out in a crowd!" I told her making a reference to her height. She's freakishly tall for a girl. She's 5'10. Girls rarely go above 5'7 or at least the girls I generally hang around with. Next to them, she's like an amazon.
"Well yeah, but they really could not do anything about my height. Thank Heavens! I would hate to be short!", she complained.
"Thanks for the morale boost!", I spat back.
"Aww no! You're cute!" she complimented. I think I must have turned all shades of pink on spot. The only girls who had openly complimented me on anything were from my family, so this was a completely new territory for me. Our flight to Bahrain was of 2 hours, but we stayed up talking about just about everything. I don't remember how exactly but our chemistry rapidly grew when we started talking about Ugly Betty. We shared a mutual love for Amanda and Marc, but then most Ugly Betty watchers feel exactly the same.
In Bahrain, though we were staying at the same hotel during our 18 hour stop but we were in separate rooms. We had lunch and dinner together, and watched TV for a while in her room when she called me up. I was extremely nervous in her room, I felt like I was doing something so extremely wrong. But after a few minutes I calmed myself down because there is really nothing weird going on. We're just friends!
Our flight to UK was much longer than the one to Bahrain, so we slept through. But when I saw she was up, I went up to her. This flight was so frigg'in empty that there was no need to ask anybody to exchange seats. It was cool. When we split in UK, we exchanged email addresses and kept in touch. I came back to Pakistan much later than her, but when we met in college it was like we had never really split from the Heathrow Airport. Our friendship has definitely blossomed since then as I have guided her through a few tough times by listening and offering my advice when I felt I had any.
Now I feel that we have more of a brother-sister bond than simple friendship. It was the feeling of this bond that pushed me to do something I have been planning to since 2011 started. If you haven't guessed it yet, then I came out to her just today and it went extremely well.
Shocker, no?
Details about Amanda and the coming out episode in the next few posts!
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