Freeing or Fleeing

Chapter Twenty-Three - New Year, New Beginning

"Okay, come sit down for a second. I have news," she squealed again.

I did as she said; I could tell she was struggling to contain herself.

"It's barely ten am, why are you so happy? Can't you be grumpy like the rest of us for once?" It was a genuine question.

She was not amused.

"Shut up! Guess what?"

"What?"

"You remember that proposal at the library? He finally called my dad last night." She was beaming from ear to ear.

"What took him so long?" I was holding back my smile. Teasing her a little won't hurt.

"Because of you!" Well, that backfired.

My face dropped.

"Well, he's not worthy of ––" I began before she cut me off.

"Just kidding," she laughed and then stopped before she continued. "His Aunt passed away a day or two, something like that, after that conversation with you so he was just dealing with a lot and he wanted to sort himself out before he got back to us."

"Oh, Inna lillahi Wa Inna ilayhi rajioon," I muttered. "May Allah grant her the highest ranks in Jannah and make it easy upon him and his family. Ameen."

"Ameen. I feel really bad for him."

"So what's the plan?" I asked regarding the proposal.

"Dad is speaking to his family over the phone and then they're going to set up a meeting to come over to ours in the next few weeks," she answered all giddy. "You better come over that day too!"

"Don't do it!"

"Do what?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Get married." I couldn't keep serious and let out a giggle.

She slapped my shoulder. "Stop it!"

"Well, don't say I didn't warn ya," I shrugged, still laughing.

"Anyways, let's go celebrate later today. How about this afternoon? Aaliyah can come and a few others so be ready, okay? We can go together, I'll come over. I wanna go somewhere fancy." It was like she was speaking to herself because she didn't even let me get a word in. "Anyways, I have to go. I'll see you later."

"Okay?" I said to myself as she was already out the door by then.

~~~

"No no no!" Khadra moaned, "this is a celebration, you can't go in all black. We have to go get you changed!"

She dragged me back up the stairs to my room.

"It took me forever just to decide on this, you know," I countered.

"Yeah, well, you're not going out to save the world, we're celebrating." She only let me go when we got into the room, just so she could raid my wardrobe.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You look like batman," she deadpanned.

She took out a few abayas one by one, examined them and then returned them to the wardrobe. She did this for about three minutes; yes, I was watching the time.

"It's not that big of a deal, Khadra."

"It's my celebration, I say what goes," she commanded.

Man, I had no idea how bossy she could be.

"Whatever!"

"This is the one!" She pulled out a maroon abaya, where the top half was velvet and the skirt was a stretchy material that I'm not too familiar with the name of. "Oh look, it has pockets."