GO TO HELL, CAPTAIN (Preview)

3: MISCHIEVOUS MRS. AL-HAFIZ

If she were any lesser person, she would've been more than intimidated by those sable gates but she got used to it along the way. She's been there more times than she could count. To collect assignments, work in group with Fatima and just hang out or sleepovers. So many amazing memories there.

She entered inside, looked around the long acres of land she is going to walk through and sighed. Not getting to the estate, the journey to the main parts of the estate is the real plague. Changing the song she's been listening to, she braced herself for another long journey of more than ten minutes. She loves walking, running and any form of exercise so this won't be a problem just that she cannot wait to see Zayd and yell out her pent up petulance. She's been meaning to do that since the day before, had a restless night.

She continued traipsing the long sidewalk, avoiding the coal tarred curb. She heard the sound of a car passing but then it yawed back around and honked at her. Rolling her eyes at whoever it is, she raised her head to descry Aslam's face seasoned with a large smile that is always there for her. Confused, Layla bent down a bit to look at him more clearly before letting out a shriek. It really is Aslam Rashid Babagana in all his handsome well-proportioned sublimity.

"When did you come back?" She questioned in an piqued tone, her smile not dimming even a little bit.

Aslam Rashid Babagana has been her best friend since the first time she met him. He graduated from the same high school she went to a year before she was admitted. She met him through Fatima, his immediate younger sister, when they were working on a physics project then. He was this aggravating handsome tall guy that is way taller than she is. It's hard finding people that are taller than her but he was an inch or two taller so she was amazed and ecstatic at the same time. They click it right off, talking endlessly whilst forgetting about the reason she was there in their house. Fatima had to drag her to her room and lock the door.

Good ole days, it was fun.

Aslam let out an stupefied chuckle, as if he couldn't believe what he is seeing. "Why on earth are you looking more beautiful? Tell me the secret but first, do come in. I know you are going inside?"

Layla rounded the car and sat down on the passenger seat, placed her old model Tecno back inside her sweatshirt's pocket along with the earpiece. "Now, start telling me why you didn't bother calling or texting me to tell me you are back."

He made a u-turn, smiled at her then continue to drive. A gentle move that never seize to make her flip within, he makes everything look effortless and cursive. For example, the way he lifts his cup from saucer. Or maybe she is the weird one that loves everything mundane and keep eyes on things that are really trifling and frivolous. She cannot help it, lack of other things to do.

"I came back just yesterday. I wanted to come surprise you later but well...you've just ruined it like always. I don't know how you manage to sabotage all my surprises." He yawed his thoughtful eyes on her before looking back at the buildings in front of him. "Are you sure you are human?"

Layla laughed, shook her head at his tactics but that's true. Whenever he tried surprising her, she always manage to annihilate it. "Who knows? I won't be an Angel though. Maybe Lucifer in disguise?"

He let out a full blown laugh, shook his head from side to side then murmured, "I missed you."

Layla could only smile back at him, not able to utter a word. They've been friends for quite long but that doesn't mean she is comfortable saying sensitive stuff to him just like she isn't with her other girl friends. Whatever it is Layla feels about you, she will show it to you no matter who you are, she can never fake her expression. If she dislikes you, it will be written all over her face. That is what she believes in after all. There is no one in the entire world that she will ever use facade for, that person is yet to be born, she says.