Before You Loved Me

05

I have had many crushes throughout my life, like the average person.

However, I do believe that there are different types of crushes that one could possibly have, categorized by the degrees of the intensity of the crush

The intensity level for the crush I had on Isa was off the charts

Like all the crushes before him it engulfed me for a time being until I moved onto the next victim, yet with Isa no matter how many crushes I had after him, the memory of him never strayed too far behind

We met when I was 6 years old at Madrasah. Like many of the Muslim kids I knew, we were obligated to go to afterschool Madrasah. Where after secular school we would rush home and change into our Madrasah attire, which was a black Abaya and headscarf for girls and boys pretty much anything their parents sent them to Madrasah in

I don't know how to say this without coming across as boastful, - but I was really good at Madrasah, it might have been the only thing I was very good at in my life

Whenever I would walk down the corridors to my classroom kids from other classes would wave and greet me, and when I sat down in my seat kids would fight as to who would occupy the seat next to mine

All because while many of the kids were still familiarizing themselves with the letters of the Arabic alphabet so that they would be able to read the Quran, I had already memorized three chapters of the Quran, which was 90, pages that I knew like the back of my hand

Teachers would ask me to recite on the microphone whenever the Madrasah had guests over, and I was also the one who stood in the front row in every classroom picture

I used to hear teachers speaking in the teachers' lounge about how they thought I was going to be a Haafitha – someone who memorized the entire Quran when I was a little older, and how I recited beautifully and that I was a sweet, humble, and kind kid

I guess it would be easy for any kid to become full of themselves because of the attention they were receiving, yet I hadn't, and I didn't think this made me a martyr for not reveling in the attention

Because I didn't think the praise I was receiving was entirely due because unlike the other kids who had started to learn how to read the Quran at madrasah, my dad had recited for me from the Quran every night right before bed that the words had begun to flow pretty easily from me

I could read the Quran before I could read the Arabic alphabet. However, with the Arabic alphabet mom helped me with

I had had a head start; - It did not seem fair to be soaking up the praises for this exact reason

Regardless the teachers, students, and staff were not the only people who knew who I was

One day I was exiting the mosque where our classes were held and that's when I saw Layla for the first time. She was laughing at something her dad said when he took her school bag from her so that he could put it on his back

Layla spotted me and then her gaze shifted to her mom where in turn she tugged her mom's sleeve trying to get her attention. Once her mom looked down at Layla, Layla pointed a finger in my direction and said something in her mom's ear that I couldn't really hear

I finally spotted my ride, and I began walking in the direction of my mom's beat up Toyota, where my mom was standing outside the car talking to another parent.

Upon making my way over to mom, I heard my name being called

It was Layla

I turned around to face Layla and looked straight into Laylah's smiling face before looking up into her mothers and fathers smiling faces as well. Layla's mom greeted me first and I greeted back in turn