A Diamond in Islam | (Published) ✔

{24} Puppy Love

Damon Winters

During my lunch period, I could barely focus on the conversations around me. Amira once again consumed my mind. She liked me, but she couldn't be with me. I didn't know what would hurt more, her not liking me or her not being with me while she liked me.

We we trapped in an endless cycle of pain, neither of us knowing which way to go. I was pushy in my advances and was always rejected by Amira, a girl who prided herself in her beliefs. Most guys would have been repulsed, but her piety brought me closer to an inner comfort I never realized had existed.

The space around me was a distant buzz as I softly gazed at Amira. She looked down at her journal and started writing. That notebook was what she always wrote in. There was something special about that journal.

I knew it wasn't a diary because I read a page from it and it didn't read out as a typical teenage diary. No, Amira's journal was as complex as she was, filled with poetry and musings about snippets of her daily life. She was secretive in every way possible.

Amira bit her lip, and my eyes followed her every movement. I was finding it harder to control my urges for Amira. How could someone be so close to me, yet so out of reach?

After lunch, I ran to catch up with her, suddenly trying to find any excuse to start a conversation. My distracted mind made me blind to the girl in front of me, who I accidentally crashed into, making her drop all her stuff.

"Shit," I muttered, reaching down to help her pick up her stuff.

"Watch your profanity, stupid," a velvet-like voice scolded.

I looked up from my crouched position and couldn't stop the smile from forming onto my lips. "Well, well, if it isn't my little beauty," I grinned.

Amira rolled her eyes. "Well, well if it isn't the little jerk."

I scoffed. "Little? Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart, but I'm several inches taller than you."

"Oh, shut up."

"For a girl you sure know how to hurt a guy's ego," I winced.

"Please, I was just warming up the insults. Don't be such a wuss."

I pouted.

"Damon," Amira said in warning.

I gave her my puppy dog face, which she merely stared at, clearly not amused.

"Puppy dog faces don't work on me," she taunted. "Try again."

"Damn you," I mumbled under my breath.

Amira sent me a coy smile, sly and elegant like she found my scowling more entertaining than anything else. I scoffed, feigning hurt as I glanced away from her.

"Damon," she tried, "stop being such a child about this."

"I feel bullied. I want to file that bullying and harassment report now," I said, a hint of humor in my tone. "You wound me, Amira."

Amira walked ahead of me, laughing softly to herself as she left me trailing after her. She had me on a leash, dragging me wherever she went. All the worries, all the stress, all the heartache disappeared the second I heard her lilting voice, the minute I heard her breathtaking laugh.

"Wait for me!" I called, running to her side. "Why do you insist on insulting me on a daily basis?"

She shrugged and kept walking. I walked in pace with her and looked down at where her hand and mine almost touched. All I had to do was move my hand a little more. I shifted my fingers to grab her soft hands. My fingers lightly brushed against hers and Amira looked up at me as she stopped walking. I paused as well.