“I don’t want to get close to him,” Adiya said cynically, as she creased her nose bridge. Her mouth crooked briefly. She stared at the boy who was gleeful and joyous, as he was getting fussy asking each of the gangs formed in the class of MIPA-C and mingled with him doing a wefie. It wasn’t peculiar for Adiya to feel restless and obnoxious from time to time with Tomo’s character whose deep passion to take some pictures as if that’s an ingrained habit. He was doing selfie, wefie, and taking a snapshot of objects from a distance too. Almost every single day.
“Today is our last day in school. The graduation announcement would come off. It could be the last day of our gathering forever. So, yeah. It’s taken for granted that what he has done is a little too much than before, Diya.” Yani added. She was Adiya’s close friend from elementary school up to now in high school. She was tiny and her voice was like a mouse. Yani was usually assigned to be the secretary because of her beautiful handwriting and her exactitude to make data recapitulation at the behest of some teachers or the class leader.
“Anyway, I don’t want to come near him. From the first grade, his syndrome never gets better. Perhaps in this class, just my face doesn’t insert in his mobile memory. I am grateful.” she said, pressing both of her palms together like a Buddha statue pose. Then she glanced over at Yani because Tomo headed toward their table now.
“Hi, Yani!”
“Hi, Tom!” Yani welcomed warmly. She felt fine with Tomo’s presence as a result of her neutrality and so friendly.
“I’d like to take a photo. May I? With Adiya too.”
Adiya knitted her temple by now because the boy had dark brown skin, tall, haggard, and straight hair, but the color was rather ginger, as though always exposed to sunlight. Adiya swayed back and facing the front. She wasn’t bored staring at the whiteboard. Meanwhile, right next to her, Yani and Tomo looked thrilled to do wefie over and over. In Adiya’s mind, they had done it over three times in a row with different poses such as their fingers gesturing a peace sign, thumbs up as a sign of something very good, duck mouth, and many more.
“Adiya, look at the camera! Come on! Snap it up!” hollered Tomo. His jollity was turning up.
“Ew! No!” said Adiya discomfited. She got up as if an electric eel stung her buttock and dashed out of the classroom. Tomo stood startled and speechless. He looked over at Yani, his eyes reflecting lots of question marks. Yani just replied to him with a subtle nod and her eyes transmitted the sagacity. She hoped he would not be offended by what had just happened.
Mrs. Mala as the homeroom teacher went into the classroom. She wore on pointed flat shoes this time, as it’s not used in the normal day that high heels were her favorite, like a top model whose soles sounded sort of rapid as a galloping horse troop.
Adiya smoothed her bangs to the side and tossed her hair back so it fell beautifully on her back. She followed up behind Mrs. Mala, but her pace had scattered out of the shadow from the 35-year-old woman because Adiya should like to stay next to Yani as her seatmate. Adiya’s heart was no longer worried about a maniac photo guy who scampered over his desk at the back.
So shortly after Adiya sat down, Mrs. Mala sat on her oversized bench. She put on her table a yellow clasp envelope that contained white mini envelopes to share with students about their statement of result: Pass or Not Pass.
Tension seized all the student’s hearts so strongly. Their faces turned flat, like most of the Greek god’s statues.
***
“Pat on the back! All of you. You have passed and become the Dasa Global High School graduates,” said Mrs. Mala gleefully.
The entire class clapped simultaneously. They couldn’t hold back on their emotions and some of them were as red as beetroot, but now it turned back normal and relieved after what’d eyes knew the results.
“I do not forget about Adiya Syafarila who is proud of MIPA C as the highest score holder in this class and is the best in school.” Mrs. Mala announced with great pride, which made Adiya feel honored.
Adiya’s cheek blushed. The clapping hands rewarded her until it stopped in a half minute. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to them, because Adiya had a smart brain in science. She was the number one in the Provincial Science Championship two years ago for the Applied Mathematics program. She also prepared to continue her study and looked for the scholarship.
All students got up to leave. Tomo called out Adiya from far on behind. He unyielded to take a selfie with the smartest girl in his school. But Adiya pretended not to hear him, then pulled Yani’s hand to go with her, and sneaked into the toilet. Snapped by Utomo Nugroho’s blitz might be the biggest disgrace moment ever for her.
***
Adiya’s one of the brilliant kids received a fully-funded scholarship to attend Stanford. The best universities in the world that it reached number two among the others such as MIT and Harvard. To get her dream signed, she worked so hard and managed it since the first class. That’s why she got a chair in Architectural Design. Because she’d be an expert whose ideas couldn’t be reckoned with. Eccentric and unique construction style got to be her magnificent signature someday. Dame Zaha Hadid likes her drugs with Great Britain’s former female architect, although she had passed away. But the masterpiece still stood strong to breathe all people away forever. When she wrapped her study up, the dream as it might have truly come true.
Anyway, this day was not as beautiful as the moment, Adiya grabbed to hold up a dream. Big tears fell down her face as she was embraced by Ardian Mulya. He was her boyfriend who was an Indonesian student, and he studied at Stanford as well. He was in the computer science department.
“Don’t cry anymore. We can figure this out together. Take it as a lesson and move on,” said Ardian. He still opened his chest to let her face lay on it. That made his dark blue jeans shirt moistened on that spot.
“She has deceived me! I’m so stupid!” Adiya whined and rested her red cheeks on Ardian’s chest profusely. Both of them sat on the sloping garden of Stanford’s Meyer Courtyard, better known as Meyer’s Green that it’s between the Green Library and the Law School. In spite of that, there were some Adirondack chairs spread all across the garden, they chose to sit with bended knees on the ground. They could raise awareness among some people. By good luck, that’s not as crowded as it used to be.
Olga was a Russian girlfriend, lent some of her money to build up the business of a photography studio in Krasnodar in her hometown. But Olga never returned to Stanford as if she were the meal for a squadron of corpses after Christmas breaks. Then, Adiya’s getting wind of her study broke off.
The women in coercive control behavior had gone away. The communication media lost. Olga’s out of touch. Money saved for their budget wedding was robbed. They’d had to cancel the wedding and save money starting from scratch. They would have to face financial challenges at some point. Most of the financial problems could be solved with some effective planning and strategic preparation as long as they always believed in themselves and held tight the purpose up. But, Adiya’s as smart as bite and her mental wobble is on the brink of collapse.
“Adiya?” A long-haired man, thin mustache, wore a knitted beanie hat, casual pencil pants, and a white round neck t-shirt had jolted the couples. Adiya particularly bemused at a guy with a Canon EOS R camera hanging on his neck for professional photographers. He was one of her classmates. She always dodged him away and a clap of thunder fell on her memory’s vault in the same way. It sued against her arrogance, which was locked up for a long time. It was Utomo Nugroho.
“Tom ... o?” said Adiya timidly. She moved nimbly to wipe her tears as two feet stood up rather unstably. Tomo stuck his hand out first, then Adiya grabbed his hand willingly.
“Why are you crying?” asked Tomo when he ended the pleasantry with Ardian as his new acquaintance. “Er, sorry if I am being insolent. I was taking pictures of Stanford University’s park and garden area for work. And my lens spotted at you, I thought both of you were the sweetest couple in Meyer Green. But just a few seconds after I zoomed in, it confounded me why that girlfriend looked sorrowful? That’s the reason I come by.”
Adiya choked a bit because she could imagine how eerie herself in sorrow was and an encounter with him was so unpredictable. The tear-stained napkin had clenched in a fist and a round of her purple hijab would be mindful to make neat. She committed a promise to God if she went to Stanford, then she would wear a hijab in gratitude.
Tomo pursued his story with unblinking eyes. He’s getting serious. “I feel like I know that crying woman that I was curious on. Come close to both of you. And my intuition wasn’t wrong!”
“What’d happened to you, A-diya?” Tomo is uneasy to ask.
She was stonewalling and squinted at Ardian. Her retina permitted him to unveil the caustic reality. Ardian didn’t intend to tell the fraud case out. Tomo was tilting head as if a puppy mulled over the owner’s lunacy.
“I know how you feel. Your wedding plans are definitely in cancellation,” said Tomo. A sympathy set his expression off. “But if I may do something in this case, I can help you. I am a junior photographer in the event organizer company in California. I’m glad to offer you a commission. No need to worry about the price, you pay it with no concern about the due date. The agreement’s flexible as long as we cooperate. What do you think?”
Adiya looked at her future husband deeply, who had shiny teeth like it used a dental veneer.
***
“You are an angel here,” Ardian flirted while he noticed the same object with his beloved at Meyer Green. Then, Adiya sat cross-legged on the Adirondack chair looking like someone dropped a bombshell. Lucky, her smartphone didn’t leap out of hand because of her focus on the digital invitation’s page by page that got her ready to share the QR codes to some friends and the big family members.
Adiya grimaced. She pinched his veiny arm coyly, it twitched to get off her lobster’s claw. Ardian sobbed overdone, then giggled as his right hand gently stroked her crown. Adiya’s cheek puffed out like full of cottons in her mouth. She’s irked.
It deserved for her to get his praise by any means. One of the pre-wedding photos revealed they were at a location among the verdant trees that looked so fresh out. Adiya wore a full-length white dress with intricate embroidery covering her waist and chest. One layer of her hijab kept hanging down because it could yield the flutter effect by a portable power air circulator to make it animated. The pose of staring up toward the sky turned herself as graceful as the angel whose eyes were like longing for where she came from. She found herself alone on the strange planet, as though impossible to think about head home. Ardian’s figure was hiding behind a giant tree, as if a knight bachelor wanted to find out who was a mysterious woman in white.
The studio used some fascinating lighting effects in two sessions of indoor and one in outdoor. Tomo services worked on the concept so extraordinary. They just picked the photography package out and didn’t take it entirely because they wished too that the wedding party had to be organized in Palembang, which was Adiya’s hometown. The two of Stanford’s students would use their emergency funds to set it up. Both of them yet had agreed to not vex their parents and just drove itself. It’s enough they’re in debt to Tomo and no need to deal that with parents.
She’d like to post a photograph together with Tomo in one frame after the Instagram icon clicked with her spry finger. Adiya acted a weird fool with squinting eyes and a perfect duck face. Next to Tomo stuck out his tongue like the iconic image of Albert Einstein. Right after posting, comments were very abundant on Adiya’s IG post. Users merely rattled on and expressing felt strange. But one comment added an innuendo caught her eyes.
“Someone's been saying that she averse to the oddness of the guy next to her,” Adiya muttered. Her cheek blushed as lower lip’s nibbled.
“Yani, DM me. I want to tell you something.” Adiya murmured again to reply below Yani’s comment bar.
Yani didn't linger to answer with the words ‘OK!’
Back pressed against the chair had left off as she started with a few easy shoulder rolls. She felt the front of her body tighten up and distracted it to gaze over at Ardian who was checking some recent emails from his lecture, and a favorite online game exposed afterward.
Adiya looked back on her smartphone screen. She uncovered stories from the beginning. The memories of old school hit her totally, as if she had captivated with his kindness.
“We never know who someone will mate with, meet with, and help ourselves one day. Life’s full of supposition. We hate each other, then we are in fondness. Once we were inhospitable to everybody, but for a second they could be our angle. And remember, it can rebound toward us because no one knows how our life route to go.” Words full of wisdom chilled her soul out. Adiya read sedately. She thought Yani would have cursed her violently. It’s lucky to have a friend like Yani Hanifah who just prepared for her research assignment in Padjadjaran University that Psychology was the major.
“Thank you so much my love! You’re a best friend beyond time. You’re my diamond.” She said in her mind as the sentences had written to a comment, and she left on Instagram as her head nodded on Ardian’s request to hunt for lunch.
Bio :
I am a man who gets high press blood when some of a wild imagination to threat me pulling their world out into the sheets. They've become more furious when it is put down in my temporal lobe and they will step on my own intelligence's self-esteem. I adjust it to since school.