When Stars are Hidden

Chapter 24

"Happy birthday, Habiba " he said with the most genuine smile ever.

The tears were still flowing as Naima tried her best to stop them but to no success.

"Aw, don't cry, Habiba. I'm sorry. I'm sure you didn't want anyone to know about your birthday and i didn't follow your wish. . ." he was rambling when Naima cut him off.

"No. No. This is the -hiccup- happiest day of my life. All my family -hiccup -and friends are here. How did you get to plan -hiccup- all this." Naima's eyes went round. "Then I wasn't going crazy at the mall then. I really thought I was."
The tears had stopped falling but she was now hiccuping.

Naima turned her attention to Hasia.
She acted so oblivious about everything going on that Naima actually thought she was hallucinating and seeing things in her head.

She gave her a mischievous smile and shrugged like she didn't know why Naima was looking at her.

"I actually thought you'd catch on at the cinema. It was so obvious. But you're dumb so it's understandable." Zain butted in and laughed.

Naima frowned at him.

"I'm not dumb and I caught on, I think, but Hasia had to act all oblivious. For a moment, I actually thought I was seeing things or even going mad."

"How long did you take to plan this? Even Zain came and all the way from Dubai. And Aunt Faiza?" Naima cocked her head at Tawfiq waiting for a explanation.

They made everything so simple yet just as extravagant at the same time.

He smiled, his eyes glowing.

"That's a long story. To be honest, it starts off from when Aunt Faiza dropped you off at university. She immediately called Belinda to reach out to Dean and I." He cackled. "She had already guessed you wouldn't want to do anything 'serious' on your birthday. So she informed us about when it was. The announcement at the mall was easy, just asked the information desk if we could make an announcement."

He scratched the back of his neck.
"The cinema though was a problem. We had been planning it out for a while though and hoped everything would just fall into place.
Hasia had volunteered to bring you to the mall. And I have to give it to her, she could win an Oscar with that acting."

Tawfiq glanced at Belinda.

"Belinda confessed she would have spilt the beans if she was to act as oblivious. . ."

"So that's why she texted me to meet her here." Naima made eyes at her.
"You always come to the dorm. I should have known."

"I couldn't risk it. I'm bad at surprises." She came clean.

Tawfiq continued.

"Okay so were was I. . .the cinema, right."

"We had to rent the cinema for just you. We had to pull some strings to get it. It took a bit longer than planned to make the video. Zain and Aunt Faiza had to find all your old pictures, we had to scan them and do all sort of edits and stuff. Luckily we finished it on time."

"Everything from that time till now you already know. Dean and I had chanced on this place a while back and since no one came here that much, we decided it was the perfect place." Tawfiq beamed in excitement.

Naima gazed at Zain and Aunt Faiza.
When did they even get to Boston?
Did Aunt Faiza even leave?

"I arrived three hours ago. I called with a WiFi so you wouldn't notice I was in America. I picked up Mom at the airport and we drove here."