That Winter You Came (Completed)

season 2: Episode 1

Rayan POV

_"How do you love a girl?" Imad once asked.
I gave his question a bit of thinking, and then i answered:
_" i don't know, i just know that Nadia Hamidi has been like a necktie strangling me for a very long time"
And that was the most truthful description i could ever give to my love for Nadia.
Sometimes i hate her more than loving her, especially when i catch her talking to other boys .. And she still lie shamelessly to my face and say "she didn't".
I always knew she loved someone else.. Salim.
In my second year in college we came to an agreement.
"I would come back for her when i'm ready"
Which meant.. I'll come back for her when Salim is officially out of the picture. And that of course meant when he marries someone else.
I always hated being an alternative for her, i even tried to walk out on countless occasions. But i still came by her like a brainless,
Even when she looked like the ugliest person i knew in my eyes i still came to her. Something i never had control over.
I met her so many years ago. my father slapped me  in front of her.. That's when i first met her. She gave me a look without a hint of sympathy, i knew right at that moment that she held the strength i wished to have, and the cold heart that will make me suffer for so long.
It wasn't a love at first sight .. Loving her was the kind that grows incessantly with time, and one morning i woke up realising that i reached the point of no turning back.
We went out for 2 years, in two years i forgave all what she did without complaint. I had ups and downs with her, and i finally had the decency to ask for a break up.
But like always.. I came back again. And like always.. She didn't mind putting me on her wait list.
Funny.
Meeting her again was in February 2013. A meeting i didn't plan for.
i remember i was working on my project that night, Walid, Mehdi and I were working on the model for 6 hours straight. At that point of time only one idea kept us going on like unstoppable engines. " the deadline was the following day". All was going on according to the plan when Mehdi suddenly slammed the small hummer to the wall in front of us and left the room to smoke.
Walid looked at me displeased and uttered:
_" look at him acting like a @$%& child, i should have never chosen him in my group"
I just shook my head and continued putting those small tiles carefully although the pain in my wrist was killing me.
All was back to normal when we suddenly heard someone screaming in the hall outside our room in the dormitory.
We rushed out only to find Mehdi lying on the floor screaming of pain. The bottle of the detergent that the cleaning stuff left at the end of that hall was lying beside him.
_" call an ambulance!" Someone shouted right away.
And before i even got time to get what was going on around me i found my self dragged to that ambulance with Walid to accompany Mahdi to the hospital.
Mehdi and I were never on good terms. He's been the guy to lie on the bed beside mine and snore like an ogre for 3 years.
On rare occasions he would open a chat with me and Walid, about "cleanliness and stuff".
So when the aid in the ambulance decided to take the role of a psychiatric and asked:
_" is he stressed lately? Do you know any reason that would make him commit suicide?"
I gave him a cold face and shouted:
_" just do your job man! Tell the driver to go faster with this thing!"
Mehdi kept screaming the whole way to the hospital, the aid kept asking us what kind of liquid he drunk.
We had no idea of course, it's not like i was a cleaning expert. I just knew it was burning him. And that's about it.
Arriving at the hospital we were considered of no use so much that no one informed us of what was going on for so long.
Walid kept knocking on the examination room's door repeatedly but no answer came.
I was trying to calm him down when suddenly i saw Nadia again.
Not in a thousand years i imagined her walking out of that examination room's door.
She was wearing that white long sleeved blouse i always wanted to see her in ever since i heard she decided to be a nurse. A pink scarf that made her honey eyes sparkle even from that distance.
She looked beautiful.. Like she always did.
Nadia always had that kind of beauty to keep a guy regret letting her go.
When people usually turn more simple and pale to the eyes, she on the other hand becomes more beautiful every time i meet her.
And of course.. More rotten.
There she was standing with a new man, just one look at him you'd know he's a playboy. But she didn't care. She never cared anyways as long as he was from "male" gender.
Once her eyes fell on me she froze.
I wanted to say:
_"i caught you red handed again you cheater"
But i didn't.
It was Walid who broke the silence. He shouted:
_"how is he? .. How bad is he? Is he going to survive?"
I tried to ignore her, i hated her so much at that moment that i chose to pretend i didn't even know her.
But she was shameless like always, she smiled like if it was the most natural thing to do and said:
_" it's been a long time .. How are you?"
A year and a half of not seeing her, how do i end up finding her with a new man every single time?
I tried to smile back, i answered her question.
And while she started explaining the situation i couldn't but notice how that male nurse kept staring at her full lips moving. Her lipstick shining like a freaking sun and making even my stupid friend Walid thoughts divert from the poor Mehdi to "god forgive us".
So, at that moment i had to choose one of two options:
"Either wipe clean those lips" or "declare my ownership of them".
When that male Nurse finally asked how Nadia and I knew each other, it was only natural that i say:
_"she was my serious girlfriend"
With that being said, that nurse soon took her away.
Serves them right.
_" are you serious? .. That beauty was your girl?" Walid asked surprised right after they went far.
_" what? Do you think i lack masculinity?" I answered displeased.
_" no man .. It's just that half the girls in our college are after you and you kept just pushing them off, i was surprised to finally see you running after a girl"
I just turned around .. And took a seat.
Looking at Walid still watching me i couldn't say a thing. Because " i'm surprised with my self too" would seem strange.
I took a deep breath.. And then i suggested:
_" let's just work on the draft while waiting"
With that being said, Walid turned into the serious version of him self and we kept discussing the project until we were surprised with Nadia walking in the hallway again.
I checked my clock right away.
It was 02:14 am.
For a moment i felt enraged because my girl was alone in a hospital at such time in night. But then i remembered the night shift thing.
Walid walked towards her somewhat embarrassed because we forgot about Mehdi and asked about him.
She looked so concerned and promised to come back with news right away.
Once she left Walid looked at me again and said:
_" she seems like a nice girl"
I laughed, and said:
_" she is"
She was always nice.
I remember in high school she once picked me up under her umbrella when it was raining even before she and i knew each other properly.
I swear she regretted that right away because she walked and acted so nervously after that, but still she made sure no drop of water wet me until we reached our class.
When we used to eat lunch together in class our classmates used to write stuff on the board on purpose before the history lesson.
She used to clean the board right before the lesson starts and say:
_" they do it on purpose every time because they know that the teacher is short and can't reach the top of the board. They want to laugh at her when she tries to wipe it clean and starts jumping"
She always did such nice things like they were the most natural thing to do.
That's why i always wondered.. Ever since she saw how bad my family was, was i her charity case?
Nadia came back right away and reassured us that Mehdi was doing fine and there was no need for us to stay any longer.
Once she finished explaining the situation she left coldly. Looking at her back i felt angry again.
For a thousand's time maybe.
_" let's go" i sighed.
Walid not wanting to get burned with my flames walked obediently in front of me.
We reached the big entrance of the hospital when i decidedly yelled to him:
_" you wait for me here.. I need to talk to her for a bit"
And i walked back to the emergency ward.
I wanted to know whether something serious was going on between her and that playful nurse.
I was about to inter the room .. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my self, but then i was surprised to see her walking to the waiting room again before i did.
I saw her through the glass..
It was one cold night of February .. The waiting room only had me and Walid inside of it for long minutes.
She came back there knowing that.
Looking at the girl who searched everywhere around her nervously, i felt warm to the heart knowing for sure she was looking for "me".
So i decided to punish her a bit by not showing up.
She went back to some room at the east side.
And i walked back towards the gate feeling like if i won a 100 years war.