Kameela

Chapter 2 - Food for Thought

On the king sized bed that was stuck at the corner of the dimly lighted room was the long, slightly muscular silhouette of Ismail. After some tossing and turning, he raised his head from the grey coloured pillow and sits up. He stretches his hand to the bedside table and takes his phone, he looks at the time and stands up from the bed. After stretching his arm, he flings his phone on to the bed and walks into the bathroom.

He walks out of the bathroom after a long period of time. He walks to his wardrobe and opens it. Searching through the clothes hanging from a rail in the wardrobe, he brings out a navy blue thobe and drops it on his bed. Using the towel on his waist, he cleans his wet body. Standing stark naked with no worries, I mean after all, it's his room. He throws on his briefs and his navy blue thobe. Putting his phone in the front breast pocket he walks out of the room to head to the kitchen for a hungry man sized meal.

Heading towards the kitchen with a Cheshire cat like grin with him imagining all the things he's going to eat, he hears a distant noise. Moving closer to the staircase, the noise gets louder and it sounds like the annoying sound of guests. Not wanting to face or greet them, he cuts his trip short and enters his mum's room and sits on her bed.

Ismail's P.O.V.

As I sit down on my mum's hard bed that has zero comfort. I notice my nephew, Sadiq on the bed too. Why will Aisha put this poor little fella on this stone turned bed? I take out my phone and start going through all my apps. I'm just really hungry and I'm not in the mood to fake a smile for these guests. I wonder who they are.

This time I'm going through the family group chat media on WhatsApp and I see my aunties dropping pictures of their daughters, I think they were arguing on who is chubbier or fairer than the other. Trust me, their conversation is that pointless.

I hear someone turn the door knob. Looking up I see it's my older sister, Aisha. She looks tired as hell. She slumps down beside me and lays on the bed letting out a groan.

"I'm honestly tired of doing this thing. Get this! Do that! I'm not as active as I was before. This weight that I've gained seems like it's not going anywhere." Aisha complains. I did actually notice that she wasn't loosing weight since she started 'trying' to loose it, but I didn't want to go into an argument with her about what she should actually do to help herself. The thing is that when she is done working out, she eats twice or even thrice the normal meal size.

"Umma always gets excited when guests come over, you should even be used to it. But wait, why isn't Manal doing anything? Does she have an evening class or something?" I said.

"Manal isn't doing anything because the guests are here to ask for her hand in marriage." Aisha said while sitting up.

"Is Abba forcing her to get married? Is the guy one of Abba's friends? Is Manal okay? Let me go and talk to Abba." I said standing up. Ready to get the answers to my questions.

"Ismail relax your nerves. Manal is the one that told the guy to send his parents over. She likes him and evidently he likes her back." She said holding my hand to drag me back to the bed. I was already thinking about how I was going to make my father leave the living room so I could get my answers. Sitting back down on the bed, I just nod, processing the fact that Manal might get married soon.

"You're probably trying to process how Manal will soon be in her husband's house." She said, interrupting my thoughts. What she said was actually right.

"Yeah..." I kept on scrolling through my pictures when Aisha called my name in a low tone.

"Mhmm?" I said still using my phone.

"When are you getting married?" This time I looked at her and by the way she was looking at me I figured she wasn't joking. I let out a sigh.

"Well actually, I'm really ready to get married. I mean I wanted to finish school, to become a doctor and have enough money to have my house and start a family. Everything is ticked, it's just that I don't have the time to start looking for someone new. Between my busy shifts, making reports and me trying to get some sleep I don't have the time to get to know her, you get?"