Healing

03.

𝐻𝑒𝓇𝓈 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

As I pass through the double doors to the Masjid, I see a group of boys standing around in the lobby. My face curls in dismay.

From my short time here, I could already tell, it was the group. You know, the boys known to get into haram relationships, vape, drink, and God knows what else and somehow managed to get away with it.

And for some reason, every Friday night they decided it would be a good idea to loiter around the Masjid as if they had nothing better to do. I sighed and turned back around to go outside.

Maybe I'll wait for Ilaria after all.

But that's when the beginning of my misfortunes started. In the act of turning around I had bumped into him. I could hear the boys behind me laugh.

Stumbling back, I look up to face the man in front of me.

"I'm sorry," I say. If he was anything like the rest of them, he wasn't worth giving an apology to. But you never know, he could be nice and from what I could gauge he was the quietest of the group.

"Might want to check your surroundings next time you bump into someone," he responds. His voice is deep and void of any emotions, and his eyes made me feel as if he was burning holes into me.

"You're about 7 inches taller than I am. That sort of puts you to fault since you could see that I was walking this way. Use that smart brain of yours will you," I say in the most sugary sweet voice I can.

"We have a feisty one," I hear one of the guys behind me say with a laugh.

Surprisingly, there was no response from the man in front of me, but his placid face had turned to one of amusement. "Must be because she's short. All the air down there must be messing with her head." Thier's a slight teasing tone to his voice.

"Says the giraffe," I retort.

Before he can say anything else, I decide to leave as any haya that could have been held in this conversation had left. But then I realize that this man was taking up the entire doorway.

"Move," I say firmly, not seeing any reason to be nice.

"Hmm?"

"You're blocking up the entire doorway. Move," I repeat.

"You can use the other doorway," he responds.

I stare at him, incredulous that people actually acted this way.

"Joking," he says, putting both hands up in the air, after realizing I wouldn't budge and walks over to his friends.

As I walk out, I hear one of the other guys talking to him.

"Ya, I broke up with her. But bro trust me this other girl is so bad-"

I gag.

How can one choose to be so disgusting? Beats me.

I tune out the conversation as I look down at my phone to text Ilaria.

'Girl come quick please a certain group of boys are sitting in the lobby'

'I'll be there in 5 minutes hold tight sis' she texts back.

I sigh and scroll through Instagram when I see an ad for a job.

"And it's at a really cute cafe," I murmur. "Might as well apply since I have nothing else to do right now."

By the time I'm done, I can hear Ilaria's footsteps approaching me.

"I hope you didn't wait long," she says, a little out of breath.

"Not at all," I let out a sigh of relief. "So how are we going to walk in?"

"Ummm," she looks around, as if she's looking for someone. "See that family over there? We can walk in right behind them, so we don't have to go alone."

There were quite a few elderly people in the group, so there was no way they would even dare to make any comments regarding us.

"Girl you are so smart," I say as we join in behind them.

The guy from earlier gives me a weird look before looking back down on his phone.

"What's his problem," Ilaria whispers.

"No idea," I shrug. He was probably slightly hurt from the hit he had taken to his massive ego a few seconds ago.

"Don't get me wrong, some of them are sort of kind of cute. And I understand that the Masjid is a place for everyone, but...they literally scare half the girls here," she says.

"And the other half...." I trail off as I widen my eyes slightly. We laugh as we pass them.

"I really don't get it. Most of the guys here will realize they're attractive and then start losing their faith little by little," Ilaria comments.

I nod in agreement. "It's exhausting just watching them.

"I just want a halal relationship. Marriage before falling in love. All that cute stuff," she says.

"Me too, but our other halves sure are taking their sweet time," I shake my head from side to side.

"Sadly," she responds.

"Let's just focus on the halaqah. Omar Suleiman is giving a lecture," I say excitedly.

In front of us the group had noticed our presence.

"Can you please look over her while we go do Wudu," an elderly woman asks, pointing to a little girl.

"Of course," I responded with a smile.

I loved how loving and safe the Muslim community was. Neither of us knew who this woman was, but she trusted us enough to watch over her granddaughter.

Bending down, Ilaria asks, "What's your name?"

"Dua," she responds in a shy voice.

"That's a really nice name," Ilaria says.

The girl nods her head, "I was named after my mom."

"That's beautiful," I say.

"Thank you. And both of you are really pretty," she says. "You look like princesses."

"And I feel like a princess," Ilaria responds.

"Abayas really are the best," I say to which she nods in agreement.

"Can we go inside the room now? I think my friend is here," Dua says, jumping up and down.

And so, we do, but not before catching the guy from earlier looking at me again with a quizzical look.

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your third reminder to PRESS THE STAR BUTTON thx bae <3

What was your opinion on Omar and Cyra's first encounter?

word count: 940

Date Posted: 02/11/2022