For Her

Chapter Fifteen: Letting It Go

"Hey..." He smiled back at her and sat down on one of the chairs in the lobby. She sat down in the seat opposite of him. "So um...What's up?" She started off awkwardly. "You could be comfortable around me, Mara. That is what close family and friends call you right? Zak was telling me about it." He asked uncertainly. All he wanted was siblings his whole life and now the ones he does have are uncomfortable with him. It takes time Amir, he reminded himself.

"Yeah, you can call me that. So...What do you want to know? About our family and stuff." She asked while rocking back and forth in her seat. "Um... I don't know. But what I do know is that I want us to be comfortable with each other." He stated honestly. He knew she wasn't comfortable with him, but how could she be? They had literally just met a few days ago.

"That's probably going to take some time but In Shaa Allah we'll get there." She also said honestly. There was an awkward tension in the air which made the two of them feel some what weird. "So uh how many siblings do we have?" Amir asked, changing the subject.

"Well there's four of us all together. Amran, Mahirah and you already know Hamid and me. Oh and there's also our brother-in-law, Nur. Just between us siblings, Amran is the oldest, she's 26 and pregnant. Mahirah is the youngest, she's six. What else do you want to know?" Amara asked while smiling a bit. She loved talking about her family. Except when it comes to her parents...it's a whole different story.

"Wow. What about your mom?"

Suddenly the smile on her face faltered and Amir noticed it.

"Well my mom... she has... cancer. She had it for a couple of years now. Did my mom know about you?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Her and Amran knew about me. Well that's what dad told me." He admitted. Suddenly Amara stopped breathing and dropped the coffee she had in her hands. They knew? THEY KNEW!? Betrayed is the closest word to describe what she is feeling right now. She felt as if she was just stabbed in the back.

"T-They knew but didn't tell the rest of us?" She stuttered, not believing what she was hearing. Her sister kept such a big secret from everyone. She knew about him but never said anything to anyone. She didn't try to get to know her older brother... she just ignored him. And he was okay with it...

"What's going on here?" Hamid asked once he saw Amir. They both stood up immediately once they saw Hamid.

Hamid Abdullahi

"Well?" I snapped.

I can't believe it! I can't believe that she went behind my back and called him. I thought we were close you know? If she wanted to talk to him then it's fine. But why didn't she tell me..? That's not like Amara. "I needed to talk to him Hamid. He's our brother and it's not his fault that our dad is a bad person. I don't see why you're so mad at Amir." She replied angrily. Amir cleared his throat, making me look at him and not Amara.

"I'll just get going. It was nice talking to you Amara." He said as he left.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" She looked at me with fire in her eyes.

"Nothing!" I stormed out of the lobby. I know I'm not allowed to leave but right now I really don't care. I only have one thing on my mind. I need to find him... I need to see him just once and ask him why? Why did he leave us? Why did he have to drink? We could have gotten through it together. We could've had the father-son relationship we always wanted. But now I only have one question. Just, why?

* * *

"Pick up, pick up!" I mutter to myself as I continued to type my brother's phone number. It still feels so weird having a big brother. I was the only boy and I liked it like that. "Hello?" A different voice replied. That isn't Amir and it isn't Zakariya... it's him.