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A Day of Dread, Delight & Exam Results

Story Published 20 Mar, 2023 · 590 Words

A weirdly true story. I awoke on a dreary Sunday (28th Aug 2022) morning in my aunt's apartment in Colombo, feeling the aftermath of a night of heavy drinking. My stomach churned, and my head pounded with a headache still reeling from the alcohol-induced haze of the night before. This wasn't the first time I had experienced such agony in this very place, but this time I had company - my mother. She had tagged along with me on my usual weekly visit to my aunt's place after successfully convincing me to attend a concert that featured a band I had never even heard of. As expected, the night's experience didn't live up to my expectations. But little did I know that my hangover would be the least of my worries that day. As I lay in bed trying to sleep off the headache, my phone began to ring incessantly. An unknown number flashed on the screen, but I was in no mood to answer. But the calls persisted. When it rang again, I saw that it was a school friend, but I couldn't muster the energy to pick it up. Thinking it wasn't important, I started to drift off when the phone rang yet again, and this time, I answered it out of sheer frustration and anger. The voice on the other end was strained and desperate. "Dude, I failed the exam," he said. Confused, I asked, "An exam? You did an exam without telling me?" My heart sank as I realized what he was talking about - did he mean THE exam? the one that could make or break our futures. Before I could even ask for details, he said his goodbyes and hung up. It took me a few minutes to process what was happening. Did he just say he failed? I heard that correctly, right? As the morning dragged on, more calls followed. All with the same devastating news. My closest friends, my study buddies, had all failed the exam. As the anxiety set in, I couldn't help but feel like my future was slipping away from me. As much as I pretended not to care about the outcome from the outside, there was always a part of my mind that dreaded it. Panic set in as I realized that I didn't even remember my exam ID, the key to checking my own results online, and I was nowhere near my home. The reality that I could be facing the same fate as my friends, coupled with the fact that I didn't even remember my ID, sent my mind into a spiral of despair. All I could think of was how to cheaply and quickly acquire a rope strong enough to support a person. In a haze of desperation, I called my father, hoping he could help me check my ID from the exam schedule sheet I may or may not have left on my desk. As he read the six-digit number, I read it aloud as well. While my mom was staring at me, my aunt, who had been sitting next to me, calmly entered it into her phone. And then came the moment of truth. "You passed," she said, her voice quiet but steady. "Wait, no can't be. You sure that's me? You entered the right number, right? Does it have my name? Impossible". I was in disbelief. I couldn't believe that I had scraped by, despite being convinced that I had failed. The relief and shock washed over me, causing tears to well up in my eyes. I had made it.

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