Once Upon A Muslim

Semi-Chapter 7 | Harun | Just A Friend...

:O Early update! Enjoy!

***

"Yes, Dad, I'm fine," I assure my dad. "I need to go. I'll be late for class." We exchange salaams before I hang up. It still strikes me strange that my dad was checking up on me; my mom usually does that.

I leave my room with my textbooks and papers in my arms. I lock the door of my dorm and head on out of the boys' dormitory. I stifle a yawn. The plane landed around five or so. I was so worn out, and I still am. I decide to get myself a cup of coffee before I proceed to class.

I step out into the cold wintry air. Massachusetts is not that different from Minnesota, in terms of weather.

I see at least a dozen of students walking to campus, heading towards class. I lean on the cold metal railing, waiting for her to get out of her dormitory so we can get going.

"Thanks, Irene! I'm so sorry for the trouble," I hear Maymunah address some girl who nods at her with a smile. In her arms are misplaced papers that are out of binders and the tip of a pen is in her mouth. She almost drops her stuff, but I saunter over to her and give her a hand.

"Let me guess; you bumped into her? Again?" I take the papers and straighten them so they're in a neat pile. She gives me one of her binders and I put them in the pockets.

She rolls her eyes. "Shut up, Harun."

"Why don't you take a bag? All women carry bags with them. Oh, right, you're not a woman." I smile slyly at her while she shakes her head. I hand her back her binder.

"Haha, you're so funny I could die," she says with a bored, sarcastic expression. "Harun, you're hilarious." We start walking across the slightly icy parking lot. As a smile creeps onto my face, she glares at me. "Don't you even dare!" she snaps.

Last year, when it was winter, I accidentally pushed her and she fell on this same icy parking lot. She complained all day about how the ice burned her from how brutally cold it was. She's quite a clumsy person, so I blamed it on her and feigned innocence. And of course, she didn't buy it.

That was how we met. We've happened to be exploring different universities (to see which was our best option) around the same time.

I smirk as I reminisce the memory. "I won't... today."

She pouts at me, obviously still annoyed. "Can you take one of my binders and find my schedule? They've hired new professors and they've selected me and some other students to be in their class for a week; something about self-examination." I furrow my brow at the news. Things like that barely happen, since everything is mostly the same around here.

I comply and search thoroughly through her binder, but don't find it. I shake my head as we enter the university at a side entrance. "It's not in here."

She goes to a nearby table that has two chairs. She orders me to sit while she sifts through the papers I hand back to her. "It's this one you idiot," she mumbles more to herself than me. "Now I have to reorganize everything," she says with a sigh.

"If you weren't so clumsy and disorganized, maybe this wouldn't have happened," I remark.

She raises a thin eyebrow. "As if you aren't?"

I chuckle as I wait for her patiently. We only have five minutes to get to class, but I don't mind being tardy because of Maymunah. If I was with someone else, I'd probably just leave them right then and there. Other students who vary in age walk by our table, paying no attention to a disheveled Maymunah. She mutters some incoherent things to herself before closing her binder. "Let's go," she says.