RIWAAYAT ( HIATUS)

♡LAMHA♡

♡

Naaz had never felt so weird doing her makeup before.

She was quite proud of her makeup skills actually; a ton of people have praised the speed at which she could do a perfect contour. Naaz was the official makeup artist for all the women in her family during every function. She has, after all, learned from the best of the best- Aunt Maryam, a diva of her generation, a true fashionista in the soul and one day, Naaz will become just like her.

But why, oh why, was it that the man sitting next to her looked at her as if she was performing some sort of witchcraft?

This morning, Aunt Zainaab was more than adamant to send Naaz off to university with her new fiance stating how it will foster familiarity between them. As if both of them hadn't practically known each other their whole lives. As if Naaz and Shehryrar can go on a half-hour drive without having to push each other's buttons.

Foster familiarity, my pedicured feet!

Her over-enthusiastic Aunt had done the exact same thing to Saaba and Adaan during the initial days of their engagement. Naaz had laughed at her back then with the rest of their cousins. If she knew that one day the gun will be pointed towards her, she would have never made fun of Saaba that much.

It was humiliating when all of them continued to watch them get into the car from the balcony. At this point, her situation was worse than a zoo attraction. Anytime she and Shehryar were in the same room, the teasing would be non-stop until even her granite fiance looked embarrassed.

She almost felt bad for him when he was forced to sit through her aunts fawning over him and her cousins' asking the most mortifying questions. Almost.

At present however, Shehryar was ticking her off by glancing at her weirdly from time to time, while she tries to conceal the bags under her eyes with makeup. Naaz cannot tell if he was actually curious or just wanted to start a fight. It was getting on her nerves.

"If you are that curious about how to use color correctors, you can search for some tutorials on YouTube." She gritted out through her teeth.

He looked startled for a moment. Only for a second. And then his stone-like visage was back into its perfect neutral form. As if he hadn't shown any surprise at all.

Sometimes she felt that Shehryar was like a beautiful statue. Looked like everything but felt like nothing. He was- how should she put it?- he was like Galatae, a perfect sculpture; breathtaking and lovely but only a stone at the end. With no Goddess to give it life, Naaz hoped she would fair better than Pygmalion.

"I wasn't curious about you or your crayons." He looked ahead as his veiny hands moved around masterfully on the wheel, the car took a turn. Naaz forced herself not to ogle at them. Men who roll up their shirt sleeves know exactly what they are doing. Well, except for Shehryar maybe. He probably had some serious reasoning like keeping his body at optimum relaxation to focus on work.

"They are color correctors, silly!" Naaz explained in the most condescending voice she could manage. "You should try them too."

"I do not need your "Colour Correctors." Imitating her, he pronounced each word carefully like a kindergarten teacher explaining things to a class of five-year-olds. She wanted to push him out of the car. But doing so will kill her too.

"You are right. You need a personality corrector. Unfortunately, makeup brands are yet to produce them." She gave him a beaming smile. Just as the saying goes- Kill them with kindness. Or in her case, spite disguised as Kindness. It was all the same to her. "I will be sure to inform you as soon as they get launched!"