Loving a Princess

4. It's so nice to meet you, Aliyah.

I stood before the tall building, with butterflies in my stomach. I read the board on the side saying: 'SOUTHEAST STUDENTS' HALLS OF RESIDENCE'. This was the hostel where all the students of all three universities, who required dorms, in the southeast area of the town stayed. I was so jetlagged, and I had to find the Girls' dorms. Hauling my two huge suitcases, I asked one of the watchmen to tell me where to go.

Standing in the elevator after entering the Girls' section of the hostel, I was bursting with excitement and nervousness, both at the same time. Who would my roommate be? How would she be? Would we get along? I just hoped all would go well. As for the hostel, it was a very nice and elegant place, and I was sure I would be comfortable living there.

After finally reaching the 12th floor, I stepped out and walked to room number 1205. That was my room number. Upon reaching the door, I pulled out the keycard and inserted it into the keycard lock on the door. I then pushed open the door and entered inside the room. It was a cozy-looking and spacious room, although around five of these rooms could fit into the one I had back home. There were two nice beds against the walls, across each other. There were two decent-sized study tables, a minibar, a microwave oven, a tiny cooker, two chest drawers, four closets, and a door leading to a bathroom. After checking out my surroundings, my eyes landed on a hijabi girl sitting on a chair in the corner. I didn't actually notice her initially but as soon as I did, she got up immediately and came to greet me.

"Assalamualaykum!" She said, warmly. She stuck out her hand for me to shake.

I shook her hand whilst replying, "Wa'alaykumsalaam. My name is Aliyah, what about you?"

"I'm Umniyah," she replied. "Come in, have a seat!" She gestured to the bed which I assumed was for me. I sat down and she sat across me on the other bed.

"So," I began. "How long have you stayed here?"

"Oh, I came here yesterday from home. My second year of uni begins next week. In this hostel, once you're allocated a room, it remains yours till your course finishes. So I've been staying here since last year. My previous roommate just finished her final year and left. Basically, I was just with her for one year," Umniyah replied. She seemed talkative, just like me. Great! We would click, In sha Allah.

"Wow! So which course are you doing? Which uni?" I asked, curious.

"Medicine. Got four more years to go to be done with bachelors, In sha Allah! I'm at USC. What about you?" she answered.

"I'm going for engineering at GVU. I got accepted to USC also, but I chose GVU. The course itself is four years, for me to get masters!" I replied, enthusiastically.

"Wow! That's nice! My brother is also at GVU and is also doing engineering. He's going to commence his second year of engineering over there, In sha Allah, but we got accepted into different universities," she said, her enthusiasm matching mine.

"Oh, that's nice! Wait, if you're both in your second years, then are you like, twins?" I asked, suspiciously.

Umniyah laughed and shook her head. "No. I'm older than him by a year. But my mother didn't let me leave our town alone for my first year of uni. So I had to take a gap year while I waited for my bro to finish his A levels so we could leave together," she explained.

"Right! That makes sense. Actually, I have two younger brothers and they're twins so I get these kind of suspicions quite often! So are you from abroad? Because I am!" I asked.

"Nope. We stay in this country, but just in a different town. My mother is a widow and she didn't want us to go to a different country, because she's quite lonely. But yeah, I have two younger siblings to keep her company," Umniyah said.