"Are you okay?" His sister asked out of concern. It dawned on her that Abdulqaadir is so distant and reserved, he never talked about his problems to anyone, as though he had none but it was their fault, they never cared to sit and talk with him, they were to busy fighting for irrelevant stuff—or maybe relevant—forgetting about the youngest of them.
He smiled, a wretched one. "Yes I'm fine."
Aisha didn't say anything, she looked down at her cup and stroked the handle, she breathed deeply.
"So," she looked up at the TV, "are you supporting the ones in red or the ones in white?" She tried starting up an enthusiastic conversation to ease the tension that was building up.
Sniggering, he said, "white. We are at 1-0 now."
"Which team scored the one goal?" She munched on a spring roll.
"The ones in red." He giggled again.
"I'll support them then." She said after sipping from her tea making her little brother laugh.
"It's not healthy taking these late at night you know." Abdulqaadir then took a bite from the spring roll he picked. He was talking with utter calmness. He's grown to be one calm man.
"I know but it's once in a while." She shrugged indifferently.
"Already." A wry smile played on Abdulqaadir's face when the team he was supporting scored one goal. He sat down calm, not overreacting at all.
"It's just draw, don't have too much confidence." Aisha rolled her eyes.
"Your team will not score any goal again and mine will score at least two, just wait and see." He mischievously grinned.
"How sure are you?" She cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.
"A hundred and one percent." He boasted.
"It's less than twenty minutes until the match is over." She squeezed her face at his confidence at that hour of the game. Little did she now, it wasn't live. It took place two days ago and he was just watching it again, out of boredom.
"Another goal." He laughed, looking her way.
"I'm now supporting the white team."
"They are not the white team, they are Real Madrid, the ones in red are Arsenal." He laughed at this point. "And there is no way you would change the team you're supporting, it's not fair." He continued while laughing.
Aisha only glared at him then continued watching.
In the last minute of the game, Real Madrid scored another goal, making Aisha's jaw drop, just when she thought it was over although they still won, they scored another again.
"See. I told ya." Abdulqaadir laughed her way.
"It's a foul." She wiggled her brows at him. "Not even the referee said that, ma'am." He laughed again.
"You're just lucky but white never wins!"
"Or red is very lucky to have scored one goal today." He said as he disappeared into the room, his laugh echoing on the walls of the house.
"Aisha?" Fatima called as she squinted her eyes to adjust to the light of the living room.
"Na'am." Aisha answered.
"You haven't slept? It's so late. Who are you making noise with?"
"Abdulqaadir, he just left for his room." She looked at the TV and Fatima's gaze followed. Aisha turned off the TV, said goodnight to her mum and went to her room after packing the bowl and cups they used to the kitchen and rinsing them.
Chapter 34
Start from the beginning
