Qurbat

|21|

"Nobody really knows, he was found unconscious by the trails. He wouldn't tell anyone." As things unraveled in front of her, she was told that a month after his incident they found out about the school bullies and how they lit up a fire in the garage but nobody really knew how he ended up with a cut that could have severed his veins.

Huzaifa grew up with Ahsan– Fayd's older brother as they maneuvered new things in life. And having grown up with Ahsan, Huzaifa got accustomed to having his younger brother around. The warm boy who used to show up at the doorway with a bar of chocolate or two was then gone. Huzaifa would mostly be over at his place but he rarely ever got to see him. That little boy had curled into a shell to protect himself from further humiliation and sufferings. And for the first time he saw Fayd after two years, a cut the length of his hand had crawled onto his skin. His heart shuddered– his fifteen years old heart broke. And it wasn't because of love a teenager broke his heart for, it was because of the transition he had witnessed. An thirteen years old boy giving up good things in life and being locked away in his room for two years.

And then came the time when Fayd's parents sent him out for university– to attend a med school but it didn't last a year and he returned home leaving Salaar alone to rot in there. He fought with his parents. He went against everyone to allow him to go to Pakistan. Huzaifa remembered the day– the visions of that day were so vivid that he would never forget. He saw him angry and livid for the first time. He saw him fuming in fury. He shattered glasses and ceramics to vent his anger and that was when he realized that the day his anger surfaced, the world would already have been reduced to ashes. That there was always a monster laying low under the calm facade.

"Ah!" The silent shriek had Ayat jump in her place, making her turn to her left and find Sayrah standing with an excited smile.

"What are you doing here?"

Sayrah waited for a while to come up with a well versed answer so she wouldn't be interrogated for not telling about Fayd's disappearance to her before. They all knew and they all lied, "We found out Fayd sir came back to America." Sayrah replied, ducking her head down and pretending to crease her dress out. Nonetheless, Ayat saw through her excuses but chose to say nothing.

"Hoorain beta, aap dadi ke paas jaayein, baba abhi aaya." The little girl nodded and pulled herself out of her father's hold and ran straight to her grandmother who stood only a foot away from them– her eyes admiring the man she adored so much as a little boy.

"You know of Fayd?" Huzaifa turned to her and at the mention of Fayd, her ears tinted pink giving out all the reasons in the world to think about it.

"We worked together." She managed to mumble out, her eyes still on Fayd and Ayat flinched only when the realization came crashing down on her– that she wasn't the only one who watched him play it.

"How many more of his colleagues are spread out in the banquet? I want to meet all of them." Sarcasm dripped from his tone, cracking a laugh from the tender woman there.

"Can I have a moment to talk to my cousin?" He mused, quite immediately excusing them and pulling her towards a corner before Sayrah could have a word to say to him. A nervous gasp broke out of her as she watched the love of his life play an instrument as though he played it all his life- he did, only they didn't know much about his likes and preferences.

And even though Ayat stood at a good distance from Sayrah and Fayd, her eyes were etched on them while a palpable sense of doubt floated in them. She lied to her. She lied to her when she said she had no idea of his whereabouts. Sayrah saw her go crazy, looking for him and for answers. And all they did was, hang up on her.

"What's going on with you all?" Huzaifa went dead flat. He didn't want anyone to make a scene out of anything when they were only minutes away from nikah. Ayat took a minute to calculate him before she opened her mouth to speak, she could say he was worried about what they could possibly do in front of a hundred people and truthfully, making a scene was the last thing she wanted at that moment.