The Scars They Hide

Chapter Twenty-Eight - And so it Begins

Chapter Twenty-Eight - And so it Begins

Sara was over the moon about it and screamed, "Called iiiiit!" for ten seconds straight  before running out of breath and laughing her head off. Riyaad managed to send his salutations somewhere in between.

Randy was so excited she begged to be a bridesmaid, claiming to have no dignity in the matter and was severely disappointed that Islamic weddings didn't have such things. Lutfiyah pacified her by saying, "But you have to sit on the main table with me if we have one. That's basically the same thing."

She seemed happy with that.

May didn't understand exactly what was going on but she understood enough to know that they would be living with her Uncle Jaafi soon and it made her so excited that it was all she spoke about.

Like any good gossip, it spread like wildfire and soon the entire building was popping in to congratulate her, Mrs Mason so overwhelmed with happiness she cried for the first five minutes of her greeting.

It was, in fact, so amazing to see how happy everyone was for her. Lutfiyah didn't think that she had such a place in that many people's lives.

Two days after she gave her answer, she came home from work and had to massage her aching jaw as she walked, she was so sore with smiling. But in a good way. No matter how much she tried to stop, it would pop on again and she didn't think she'd been so happy in her entire life. The only two times she'd say equaled this was when her parents had agreed to send her overseas for studying and the first time she'd held May.

In the former, she'd yelled and screamed with joy, and in the latter, her soul had glowed with happiness and love more than anything. With this, she felt like the excitement was bubbling out of her and she couldn't keep it in.

It was only in the moments when she remembered what Jaafar didn't know yet, that her smile dipped and her soul dimmed. She couldn't keep it quiet forever.

The guilt of the secret sometimes had her frozen.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

Her head snapped up at the sound of Jaafar's voice and she hurriedly smiled in greeting.

"You okay?"

She nodded quickly and smiled wider, hoping he'd let it go.

He shrugged. "You've just been standing there by your door without entering for awhile now. Are you sure everything is okay?"

She felt her throat close up but she swallowed it down and nodded again. "Yeah, just thinking."

He grinned mischievously. "Not about me, I hope, because I really wish to bring a better expression on your face than that."

That brought a laugh out of her and she mentally shook herself. She would tell him soon. It just didn't have to be right now.

"Uhm, do you want to come in? I guess Jane hasn't come back with May yet."

He slid his hands into his trouser pockets and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. "I may or may not have asked Jane to keep her a little longer today."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Is that going to be a daily occurence?"

He grinned. "No, I uh, I just wanted to spend a little bit of time-

"Uh uhm."

They both whipped around as her door was pulled open, her father standing and glaring at them from inside the flat before his expression turned innocent and serene.