In the Stars ✅

Chapter 18- Unexpected

Khayra

   Never did I ever expect that I would have a visitor. Normally, it's only Sayida or her brothers who come to visit me. Being so much isolated from my family, this was something new to me. Probably it's one of my cousins, coming to rage at me about having to return home. I had set boundaries, but those people knew nothing but being nosy. If anything, they had a PhD in it.
At first, I thought it was Hammad. A cousin from my father's side of the family. I was ready to rain hell on him as I slid out of my car. He leaned against his car as if waiting for me to reach out to him.
I was going to let out a string of colourful words to him but stopped abruptly when I realized who it was.
" Ranka ya Dade?" I pronounced to be sure of what my eyes were seeing. For a while, I was dumbfounded. Ever so slowly, he turned to look at me, taking off the baseball cap that shielded his face. It was him. Zayn.
What was he doing here in the first place? And he looked worse than before. His eyes were bloodshot, and Good Lord... he reeked of alcohol. He must have been going through a lot, following the news of his dismissal. It was written all over his face and coloured in his demeanor. This wasn't the man I knew. No wonder he hadn't been active on any social platform for so long. He hasn't made any public appearance since then.
" Ashraf," I called again.
I think that made him annoyed because he thought calling him for the second time for clarification was me judging him. I would never.

"Khayra, it's me," he returned in a gruff voice. Being that close to him at the moment, I remembered how bad his breath reeked of alcohol. Then it hit me. Considering his father's position in the sultanate, it would be a disaster for anyone else to spot him like this. It would raise questions. Although the area was almost dead silent at the moment, we would never know what could go wrong.
So, I thought of inviting him inside. If he declines my efforts, then fine. Firstly, inviting a drunk man into my house when I lived alone sounded like a stupid move, but something needed to be done about him.

" Would you want to come inside?" I enquired calmly. I was dealing with someone who wasn't in his right sense. Anything could go wrong. " You wouldn't want to be seen outside like this. It would cause an uproar in the society."

He raised his gaze to me, watching me intently. Probably thinking that I'm stupid. However, there was this sentiment that floated behind his bloodshot eyes. Something I've felt before. He was pleading. Pleading to be pulled out from under the rubble. It was a silent cry.
Ever so slowly, his lips tugged up in the smallest smiles, making me miss those blinding smiles he sent my way the last time we spoke at the charity event.
" Thank you for being this much thoughtful. "
I would take that as him agreeing to be let inside. I fished my keys out of my bag and opened the metal gates that led to the somewhat spacious compound.
We walked in together, and he settled down at the staircase that elevated my porch. It was made up of only three stairs. I went ahead to drive my car inside the compound and parked it at its usual place before getting back to him.
" Welcome to my house," I chuckled, settling down a little bit close to him. He shifted a bit away from me. Okay, he passed the test.
He looked like he was lost in a trance. Far away from me and this world. As if he has woven a separate world for himself to dwell in it. I didn't want to get him out of it. Rather, I felt so sorry for him. Things got that bad to the extent that he had to take up to drinking. It was him that night when it all happened, and I couldn't imagine going through it all. I would have died in no time. That adversity made him so strong. He's only too blind to notice it. One look at him, and I could tell that he was broken. So broken.

" Stop looking at me with those eyes." He cautioned, making me break out of my thoughts. I hadn't realized that I had been staring for that long.

" Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized right away.

"I hate being pitied." No matter how firm he tried to sound, I could still make out the slurs in his voice.

" Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"