Our Bizarre Life

Chapter 2: The Nikha, The Glances, The Meeting

"Suck it in!" My mom said horrifically as she tried to fit me in on my wedding gown. I yawned, and tiredly reached out for the plate of cookies that was supposed to be in front of me. When I opened my eyes, my mom held the tray high, looking at me with disgust and disappointment. "Suck it in!" She screamed one more time. "I told you to lose some weight before your nikha, didn't I?" She asked, now calm. I yawned one more time. I was about to get started on my makeup. I had one chance to meet the guy, but I declined it. Was there any point in meeting someone I had to marry under every circumstance? He didn't seem too enticed to see me either.

I sucked it in as much as I could before my stomach could just barely fit in.

"I'm not losing weight for some guy I've never met." I said, reaching for the cookies high in her hand. My mom shrugged her shoulders, and gave me the platter of cookies.

"Well, it doesn't matter. You're no longer my responsibility." She said. We both stared at each other in silence while I wolfed down as many cookies as I could in that one moment.

"What a burden I must be." I said, honestly.

"What a burden you were." She said, still staring at me. Then something unbelievable happened. She ruined her makeup.

She ruined her makeup to shed some tears for me. My selfish mother shedding tears for me? She wiped them away, and said, "I don't even know why I'm crying. It's like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders." But her eyes said something completely different.

"You said I can stay with you until the guy settles down. That's gonna take years. You should take advantage of the time you have left with me."

My mom had developed this lying problem during her lifetime. It wasn't because she was a bad person that used every chance she could get to lie to my face. It was because she never knew how to express her feelings, and the only way she didn't feel shy doing so was through lying. Also, she was way too proud to show even an ounce of love to anyone. She had my dad under her foot. Normal mothers would tell their kids how much they love them. My mother always told my little brother and I how much she hated us.

Her only problem was lying.

My only problem was living honestly.

Or should I say... too honestly?

"Hey, what's the answer for ten?" Yuna patted me on my shoulder as she whispered from behind, as we wrote our grade 11 chemistry midterm. I turned to the teacher, raising my hand. "Miss, Yuna's asking me what's the answer for ten." The teacher turned to Yuna, angrily, and gave her the biggest zero of her life.

From then on, no one dared to ask me for any sort of help nor did they approach me in any way.

The nikha took a lot longer than I expected. I didn't know what to write for the mehr, so I just asked for a weekly allowance, two tickets to hajj, and the right to study as much as my heart desired. It was all so rushed. There were tonnes of things my mom made me write down which I didn't pay much attention to.

When we were both seated next to each other, I didn't dare look at him. Come to think of it, I don't remember what his name was. It started with an A, didn't it? I could tell, he was staring directly at me. I wasn't some pretty girl worth people's attention. I was just a simple girl, trying not to fall asleep during her wedding ceremony.... Also trying to remember her fiance's name.

Wait.

Wait.

Just hold on a minute. Why am I lowering my gaze to a guy I can finally call my mehram? I straightened my back, and shot my gaze towards him. He was staring right at me. Or more like... he was glaring. He wasn't startled or surprised. What he saw was me, and what I saw was him, and his piercing grey eyes. My pupils dilated, as I took in his features and his intense glare.. I stared back at him. He didn't look strong enough to send me flying to mars... but.... Wait a minute. We just met and now I'm forced to have a staring contest? I stared right back at him, expressionless. But when I took in the anger in his eyes, I could feel that he wasn't as weak as he looked.... And I wasn't as strong as I acted.

"The rings!" I heard some lady say. If I was right, that should have been his older sister. I slowly turned away realizing something very slowly.... Did I just marry a thug?

It was only until rings were forced into the palms of our hands that I felt him grab my hand and slip on my ring roughly.

I married a thug. I married a thug. I married a thug.

By now, I was already scared. I looked up to see my mom nowhere to be found, and my dad laughing with his friends. I found my little brother hiding under a table... How did I figure that out? His foot was sticking out from underneath the table. He was probably sleeping. I took the ring from his sister, and tried very hard to put it on him without letting him see my trembling hands.

He grabbed the ring from me and put it on himself. I didn't dare look up after that.

Today I turned 18, and today I turned into a married woman.

Oh, what bliss.

As if.