The Marriage Agreement (completed)

chapter twelve

SADIQ

My head was pounding so hard, I thought I may had banged my head to death, but I was almost sure I wasn’t dead, I just couldn’t move. My eyes were shut tightly and when I tried to move my body, it felt like I had been chained. I could feel a weight on my chest, something like a body. Had I drank too much again? Was the body Aaliyah’s or some other woman’s? I thought and hoped it was the former. Maybe I really was dead, I thought. I began to struggle and panic from the inside, on the outside, I could feel myself sweating.

‘’Sadiq,’’ I head a female voice, it rang in my head so it wasn’t clear, and my eyes flew wide open. I was able to move some parts of my body slightly, but when I tried to lift my head up, it felt like a hammer had been hit on my head.

‘’Sadiq,’’ the voice was becoming clearer. ‘’are you okay,’’ she said again this time the voice clearer than before. She palmed my face and brought her face close, the image of the body was a little blurry but I knew exactly who it was.

‘’Raina,’’ I whispered, my voice sounding foreign even to myself.

‘’Baby,’’ she said. A thousand questions rang in my head, the first being what the hell she was doing in my room.

I suddenly found strength and managed to pull myself up, ignoring the pain and fatigue I felt, I tried to stand up, but my knees felt weak.

‘’Aaliyah,’’ I tried to call out, but the words ended up coming out I a whisper.

‘’she left,’’ Raina said from behind me.

‘’what are you doing here?’’ I asked calmer than I wanted to sound.

‘’you don’t remember?’’ she crawled towards me, letting go of the blanket and exposing her naked body.

In a heartbeat, I was out of the room and away from her, my steps faltering and stumbling a few times, before I reached the living room.

I called Aaliyah’s name a few times but they was no reply then I found my phone laying on the table.

It was ten am. I remembered Aaliyah asking me not to be late to her graduation, or was it a dream? I thought but it seemed too clear to be a dream. October second was her graduation, I remembered that too, so I checked the calendar on my phone, it was the third of October, something was seriously wrong.

I checked my call log and they were a lot of missed calls from Aaliyah. My heart skipped a beat and they was an uncomfortable tightness in my chest as I dialled her number. My chest became tighter when I heard the voice of the service provider say that the number was switched off.

‘’she’s gone,’’ I heard Raina say from behind me. I turned sharply, slipping my phone into my pocket. She wore a grey robe that reached her knee and her hair hung on her shoulder.

‘’where is she?’’ I asked, my hands slowly balling up into a fist.

‘’I don’t know, hopefully far away,’’ she said nonchalantly playing with her fingers as she rested her body on the wall, ‘’I mean you don’t expect her to say after walking in on us. On bed. Chest to chest. Lip on lip,’’ she caressed her body and bit her lip befor breaking into an ear piercing laughter.

She was playing with my mind, I was convinced and that was the only reason why I could keep calm a little.

‘’what did you do? How did..’’ I was becoming more confused.

‘’of course you don’t remember. Rohypnol has that effect’’

‘’Rohypnol?’’

She moved closer to me in a slow seductive manner.

‘’baby, I’m sorry,’’ her shoulder slumped and her eyes became teary. She brought her hands up to palm my face, I would have moved away, but I was too shocked to move, ‘’I had to do it,’’ she continued, ‘’it was for our sake. You had been bewitched by that witch, but it’s all over now.’’ She pressed her body to mine and buried her face in my neck, all the while I felt stiff.

All the pieces started coming together in my head. I understood it all and that was the moment I realised that things were seriously messed up. Raina needed help, and so did i.

I grabbed her arm and moved her away, slowly and firmly, and then I sliped my phone out.

‘’what are you doing?’’ she asked, a little panic in her voice.

‘’you need help,’’ I simply stated as I dialled.

‘’I don’t need help, I need you,’’ she whisper yelled. ‘’please don’t,’’ she started pacing back and forth, scratching her head. How hadn’t I seen it all the while. She was clearly psychotic and I should have known because I had met a lot of psychotic persons.

I turned to go make the call. I walked two steps when I heard her yell something, a sharp pain followed and then everything went blank.

AALIYAH

I was definitely cursed, maybe I wasn’t meant to be happy. Had I not done enough? Was this my destiny? How could I only realise how deeply I had fallen in love with him, until I had been broken? I loved him and I couldn’t deny it anymore. Had he not seen it in my eyes? Had he not felt anything for me? Not even pity? I couldn’t even think about Raina, I didn’t want to think about it. Someone, somewhere once said loving someone was nothing but delayed pain, and I guess he was right. I was foolish to fall in love with Sadiq. I knew he would never love me, and I knew we were going to go our separate ways, but sleeping with my best friend was only the worst possible way of realising it. I wiped my tears off as I tried to listen to what faridah was saying.

‘’maybe I shouldn’t be here faridah. Jamal is after all Sadiq’s friend.’’

‘’nonsense,’’ she interrupted, wiping my tears off with the back of her palm. I was thankful that she wasn’t insisting to know what had happened between Sadiq and i. I was thankful to her for trying to comfort me in such a difficult time. Khadija and Jamal had been nothing but extra good to me since I had fallen on their porch the night before.

‘’Aaliyah,’’ Jamal said as he entered the room in a rush. His voice was filled with panic and worry. I knew something was wrong, but I knew my life couldn’t get more tragic than it already was.

‘’Naám,’’ I answered, sitting up.

‘’it’s Sadiq.’’

Hearing his name, my heart crumbled to pieces over again. I could feel tears fighting and struggling to break free, I wondered if the tears weren’t tired of falling and if they would ever dry up.

‘’what about Sadiq,’’ my voice came out in a shaky tone.

‘’something happened and he’s in a coma.’’