Theme: Location
When the Walls have ears and jumping into conclusions result in awkwardness.
Eyes staring intently at the movement of the minute hand, following its slow progress across the clock face, the noise level subsided and increased as the minute hand approached the much-anticipated place.
It was time.
The chair scraped in protest as Emily stood up abruptly. Shouldering her red backpack, she gulped down the remaining amount of water, and nudging the chair back underneath the table with her knee, she headed for the door of freedom.
Emily threw the empty bottle into the dustbin carelessly as she swept through the door without a backward glance.
“Beep” and a loud click indicated the door was, once again, locked.
It was unusual for Emily to be in a hurry, but it was an undeniable fact that she was feeling uncomfortably tense for some reason. She adjusted the weight of her bag and proceeded down the long corridor in moderate haste, turning into the first corner without a second thought instead of going the usual route.
She pushed open the grey door bearing the correct symbol carefully, only to find the room beyond empty. There was a slight odor of cheap perfume that tickled Emily’s nose as she fought hard not to breathe too deeply. At least, the place was relatively dry and there were no signs of litter on the ground.
She chose the cleanest stall and went in, enclosing herself within 4 walls again.
A distant platter of footsteps could be heard coming nearer at an alarming rate, within a few seconds, Emily heard the grey door being pushed open again, and a click indicating someone had followed her example.
“What are your plans?” An unfamiliar voice belonging to the shadow that stood in front of her door.
‘She’s not talking to me right,’ Emily thought as she went about her business.
The uncomfortable bloated feeling drained away slowly, and the tension too, seemed to slip away.
“Home. Lots of assignments, “ Someone spoke from Emily’s right, “Project mates ain’t doing their…”
“Shh!”
‘Smart move,’ Emily grinned wryly. One would never know who is listening, that is why they say walls have ears. Never gossip in an unsecured place such as this.
The two unknown persons resumed their idle chat as Emily finished up. She shivered a little due to the sudden loss of heat (in liquid form), as her left hand automatically reached for the roll of paper.
There was none!
She reached for the outside pocket of her bag, intending to take out her packet of tissue paper.
“Bzzztup!”
“Hey, hey, do you need to change it* so loudly?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“Oh,…”
*What? Oh, this is a female thing.
Emily adjusted her clothing and flushed, stepping out of her cubicle and into the awkward silence. She looked unabashedly at the mirror, and noticed from the corner of her eyes that the girl was looking at her.
First years.
Emily ignored her, and started washing her hands, being careful not to splash too much water outside the basin.
“Mil, do you have tissue? There’s no toilet paper in here!”
“Eh? I don’t have any…” The girl standing beside Emily said as she rumbled about in her bag.
Without a word, Emily opened the front pocket again, the velcro unstuck with a loud “Bzzztup”. She took out a new pack of tissue paper and handed it over to the girl with a slight smile.
Mil gave a quick bow of her head and a sheepish grin, apologizing silently about the rudeness earlier. Emily acknowledged it with a nod, adjusted her bag and left the stuffy toilet.
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