Healing

21.

I walk back downstairs to be met with the laughter of my mom and Dua.

"Hi Dua," I interrupt them. "I'm going to have to steal her for now."

My mom shoots my a dirty look. I send her a nice smile. Kill them with kindness right?

"Cyra." We both turn to look at her. "Omar says that soon we'll become sisters."

She looks at me with her innocent eyes as I turn to look at my mother. She smiles at me and I turn around.

She did not.

Yes I would become her sister-in-law. Why exactly was this embarrassing for me?

I turn back around to face Dua. "Hopefully we will be."

"And then I'll be your second mom," my Ma cuts in.

They keep on talking and I'm quickly excluded from the conversation again.

Well, that's that.

I walk into the kitchen to grab a little snack and am surprised to see my brother. "You don't have work today?"

"Nope," he says simply and tries to walk past me but I stop him. "What now."

"You're mad at me." I say this as more of a statement than a question. He had been avoiding me the last few days and he seemed slightly distance. "What did I do this time."

He puts down the bowl he had in his hand and crosses his arms. "Nothing really. It's not even your fault."

"So you're mad at me for something I didn't do?" I take a piece of fruit from his bowl as he tries to swat my hand away.

"You're basically engaged Cyra, what else is there to say. I'm your older brother so it sort of hurts seeing it happen so fast. I mean, he's a good guy. He really is. It's just, I don't want to let you go this soon."

Okay, now that was actually so sweet. "Ahmed, it's not going to happen for a while. You still have me right now."

He nods and picks up his fruit bowl again. "I know, but it's going to have sooner or later and I can't not dislike him for it," he says bitterly.

"I'll miss you too." I hug him as he pretends to not want to hug me back. He was like a big teddy bear if you thought about it. "Do you want to talk to Dua?"

"His sister right?" He looks in the direction of the living room.

"Yup."

"I sort of have to be nice to her." He sighs and we walk into the living room where I introduce him.

Dua takes an immediate liking to him, and Ahmed surprisingly does too.

Everything was going great. Our families assimilated nicely. And I hoped I could say the same for when I met his father.

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Dua was finally asleep, so I sneak downstairs to meet up with Ilaria and Razan.

I plop down onto the couch they were sitting on and they both simultaneously look at me.

"Are we going to know what this mysterious piece of information you called us here for is." Razan waves her hand around to emphasize the "mysteriousness" which causes us to laugh.

"But for real, I'm going crazy just wondering what it is," Ilaria huffs.

"Sabr ladies," I say as I sip my chai.

They both look at me incredulously as if to say 'you're really doing this right now?'

"Okay. Fine. I'll tell you." I put my cup onto the table and look at them. "So, we all know Omar." They both nod simultaneously. "Well, the other day he sort of came by my house and asked if my brother could be present while he talked to me and then said that he wanted me to wait for him so that we could get married." I let out a long needed breath and look up.

Both of them were staring at me as if I had spawned another head.

"What? I mean I know it sounds crazy but why are you two looking at me like that. I feel self conscious."

Another second of silence passes. They look at each other before both of them squeal and wrap their arms around me.

"I thought you were pulling some kind of prank on us," Ilaria laughs.

"It sounds so—wow I don't even know what to say," Razan agrees.

They both gush on about it for a little before we turn to the topic of actually planning it.

"I want a nikkah, close friends and family only. And then a nice little reception afterwards with extended people."

They nod and get their laptops out. "To Pinterest we go," Ilaria mutters.

"You said simple right?" asks Razan. She was tapping away at her computer, the whiz that she was.

"Just because I said small wedding doesn't mean I don't want it to be glamorous," I explain.

"That sounds like something you would say," she laugh.

We all work together to find some general themes I wanted for both events. I definitely wanted the traditional red at the reception, but I was stuck on what I wanted to wear to the nikkah.

"Cyra," Ahmed calls from behind me. I turn around and I see his eyes are on Razan. They both look for a few seconds, a bit too long if you ask me, before they look away. "I'm going out to get food. Do you want anything?"

"Boba," I say immediately. "I haven't had some in a week. The withdrawal symptoms are kicking in." This causes him to roll his eyes.

"Make that 3. I think we're all feeling the withdrawals," ilaria agrees.

"See? It's normal," I smile.

"Whatever," he deadpans and walks out.

Razan had stayed quiet during the remainder of our interaction, her face buried behind her computer and my brother hadn't looked her way again.

That's suspicious.

I decide to ignore it and go back to writing down the different foods and decorations I wanted on my big day.

There was no need to push into their personal bubbles. If anything was going on, I'm sure they would tell us in due time.

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A.N do we see something happening between Razan and Ahmed or could the state mean something else...

Word count: 754

Date Posted: 02/22/2022