Civil Blood

Chapter 10

Haider didn’t waste any time at all. The very next day, when Awra had already left to head home, he followed Lena down the street and up to her apartment. Lena squeezed the door open, praying that she wouldn’t have to face her parents straight away, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found the room empty.

Despite Lena wanting to talk to her parents herself about staying over at Haider’s, he had insisted on dealing with it. There was a knot of dread in Lena’s stomach at the thought of her father squaring off with Haider, and she hadn’t been able to sleep properly the night before, just worrying about it.

She ushered him into the living room, steering him to the sagging sofa, and went to get him a drink. It took her an age to make the tea as her shaking fingers fumbled with the mug. Little splashes of tea jumped over the rim when Haider accepted the scalding mug with ease.

Lena went to fall back into the sofa when the door opened and her parents walked in, her father before her mother. The look of scorn her father aimed toward Haider panicked Lena, and she leapt up, babbling about Haider wanting to come and thank them for their hospitality. Haider leisurely placed his mug down and stood up in a single fluid motion. He placed his hand on Lena’s shoulder and gestured toward the bedroom door.

“Why don’t you wait in there, while I sort this out with your parents?” Lena opened her mouth to object, but a firm push startled her and she tripped over to the door. She glanced back, ready to argue her case but Haider’s gaze was firm and unrelenting. It felt wrong to leave them there, and have no say, but what was she to do? Haider wanted her to stay out. She opened the door and shut it behind her smoothly, not bothering to switch on the lights. The power had been off for weeks anyway.

A shiver ran down her spine as Lena leaned against the door. She had given in so easily – it was unlike her. But her mother had always been telling her to be more obedient so maybe this was a good thing. In fact, she was sure it was. Why then, did she feel so sick?

The noise of voices quickly rose up, and Lena strained to hear what was being said, but to no avail. After several minutes with her ear at the wall, she gave up and instead flopped on the bed with a groan. She yearned to find out what was happening in there. The voices went quiet once more, but when Lena thought it might be over, a huge thud could be heard and her father shouted loud enough for her to hear.

“This is my house and my daughter! I will not have some boy fighter try to intimidate me!” Lena jumped at the sound of his fist hitting the table once more and leapt up. She was dying to go sort things out but curiosity held her back. She tried listening at the wall once again, but the voices had dropped back down, and she could not discern what was being said.

Her patience gave way, so she yanked open the door and saw a peculiar scene before her. Had the situation not been so serious she might have laughed, but that would definitely go down like a lead balloon with all this tension.

Beetroot red and frozen mid-rant, her father glared up at her from his position hunched over the table, while Mrs Sarraf clutched at a dust cloth she had evidently forgotten she held, as far away from her husband as possible. Directly across the room, Haider watched Lena’s movements with a hint of a smile, like it was a surprise test that she was passing.

“Haider, Baba, what is going on here?” She looked at both her boyfriend and father in turns, using the all too familiar chastising tone her mother had perfected over the years. It did nothing to calm down her father though – if anything, he was even redder than before.

“We were just discussing the idea Lena. Your parents were not entirely in agreement with us, but that has been worked out, hasn’t it Mr Sarraf?”