The Sultans

Chapter Thirteen

As Zain was walking through the hall, Nyla caught Anwar walking past him from the opposite direction.

"Where've you been? Asad was looking for you." Zain exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. I was just going there but first I needed to get something from my room." He said hurrying past Zain towards his bedroom.

He banged his room door open and went inside. Nyla quickly followed him and waited in the doorway.

Anwar came bustling out the door nearly ramming into Nyla who shut her eyes waiting for the impact. Instead, she felt someone tousle her hair and she opened her eyes smiling widely.

"Anwar." She said happily.

"What's up."

"Can I come with you to talk to Asad?" She asked. She had never been to his room when he was working and it was always locked when he wasn't inside.

Anwar hesitated for a moment. "He's working right now but I guess you can come." Anwar answered. "What for though."

"I wanted to ask him something."

Anwar started walking and Nyla followed. "What?" He asked.

"If I can stay afterschool on Friday."

Anwar turned his head to the side to look at her. "Aliyaar and I have football practice that day so sure, we can take you back home."

Nyla's smile faltered for a second. She had totally forgotten that Anwar was also in football. She wondered how he had the time to be involved in so many things at once and still manage to get the best grades. Laila had told her to get permission to come to her house.

"No," she said. "I don't need to get dropped off at home, Laila and I want to go to her house to finish homework."

Anwar looked at her suspiciously. "Didn't you just say you wanted to stay afterschool? Why didn't you say you wanted to go to her house instead?"

Nyla paused for a second. "We were going to do our homework at school and then work on a project together at home. We just needed to go to the library at school to get the right books first." She lied. She felt her ears turn red.

She hadn't lied before and the lie felt so wrong coming out of her mouth. She felt her face heat up and ducked her head hoping Anwar hadn't noticed. He was walking ahead of her so luckily he didn't.

"Yeah, I guess you can ask Asad then." He said pausing at the end of the hallway near a plain, white door. Nyla had ventured down here before, but she had never been inside the room.

Anwar raised his large fist and knocked once. "Come in." Asad called.

Anwar opened the door a crack leaving Nyla outside behind him. "Nyla wants to ask you something." He said.

"No need to take permission, she's family, let her in." Asad said warmly.

Anwar gestured for Nyla to come forward and she did, slowly.

Anwar held the door open for her and she fit perfectly under his arm without having to duck. She gazed around the room in awe. The room was about the same size as her other brother's rooms and slightly smaller than her own. She remembered that Asad had given up his own to her so that she could have her own space away from all her brothers since she was the only girl. She realized what a sacrifice he had made when she looked around the room.

It was very neat, and tidy with lots of books. The entire perimeter of the room contained a shelf filled with books that ran across each wall. One side of the room contained a small twin sized bed. Underneath the bed were pull out drawers and a small cabinet next to them so that there would be no need for a dresser. A tiny closet door was on the other side of the wall which had a mirror attached to it. A tiny nightstand stood next to the bed with a salt lamp and cellphone atop it. The other side of the room was completely different. There was a large desk at which Asad sat shuffling papers. A neat stack of books was a the corner of it with a laptop smack in the middle and a tiny printer on a small square box underneath Asad's desk. A tiny detachable box hung off the side of Asad's desk and he inserted a paper into the lip of it which was immediately pulled down and shredded to pieces. Directly beneath the box was a wastepaper basket that was nearly empty. A small sheepskin rug separated his office from the rest of his room.