Beloved

3. (Hamza's POV)

'Sorry, ...it's just the way you spoke about her...' I couldn't help but laugh. I felt as if I threw iced cold water on his face and he was completely frozen.

'There are other relations too between a girl and a guy dude...look, just look after her. I know her father and he has really high hopes for his daughter' He said to me.

'I am not here to look after anyone Karim, I am just here to train these people. If this girl wants to succeed, she will have to do the work. I am not here to do any favors... I am going to the classroom. I'll see you after the session' I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.

I opened the door of the classroom and saw Ayat sitting on the front row. She looked a bit startled when she saw me, she blinked a few times and the yawned. She yawned. Was she sleeping in the classroom?

'Were you sleeping here?' I asked her as I walked closer to the front desk.

'Yes...I mean no...no I wasn't. I am just sleepy, but I wasn't sleeping here' Liar, her eyes were unusually puffy.

'The class starts at 8:45, you may leave and come back when it starts' I told her.

'I am fine here. I don't want to be late' She opened her eyes wide and stared at the blank screen behind me. What was her deal honestly?

'What did I miss yesterday?' I heard her ask in a low voice.

'Can't you just save your questions until the end of the session?' I looked over from my computer and saw her talking on the phone.

I cleared my throat to get her attention, so I could ask her to leave the room, but she kept on talking on the phone. Was she doing these things on purpose to get on my nerves?

'Ms. Ayat' I said in a sturdy tone. Got no response. I tried again, a bit louder but again it made no difference. So, I walked up to her, grabbed the phone from her hand and ended the call, to hell with whoever she was talking to.

'Hamza...I mean Sir...why did you do that? I was talking' She looked upset.

'I was talking too...you are not in your home...this is a professional space. You want to talk? Here take this and talk outside' I slammed the phone on her bag that was lying on the desk in front of her.

'Why are you so harsh Mr. Hamza? You could have said this in a nicer way, you didn't have to pull my phone away' She eyed me.

'Out.' I pointed at the door. She kept staring at me for a while...then finally grabbed her stuff and walked out of the room. I mean seriously? Why did this girl have to be in this group? Something always goes wrong when I see her. I went back to the table and got back to work.

'Actually... you know what? I am not going to leave...I came here first.' Seconds later, this crazy girl walked back in the room and sat down on her seat again.

'I told you to leave...' I snapped at her.

'And I told you I am not going. Besides I didn't do anything wrong...your session starts in 25 minutes so technically this is a free space.' She wanted to play smart? Well okay then.

'Free space huh?' I walked closer to her and grabbed her wrist to walk her out of the room.

'What are you doing? You can't just grab my hand like this, I am your student' She tried to pull her hand away.

'Actually, I can...my session starts in 25 minutes so technically you are not my student' I fired back. Did that sound familiar?

'You can't do this' She said to me the very last time.

'I am very much doing this...class starts at 8:45' I finally let go of her hand and shut the door behind me as I walked back into the room.

Thankfully, this time she remained outside. I finally opened the door when it was time and five of the students finally came inside.

'Hello Sir, I am Akram. I came in late yesterday and Karim Sir told me to come and talk to you before the class, but the door was locked' One of the students who I had not met came up to me and introduced himself.

'I was trying to keep this stray cat out of the room...that's why I locked the door...anyway, just make sure it doesn't happen again. I'll go over some of the ground rules in a bit, please have a seat' I told the guy and scanned the room.

'Stray cat' I heard Ayat repeat and her eyes went wide open when she realized I was speaking about her.

'Any problem Ms.Ayat?' I looked at her and she shook her head and started to adjust her shawl around her shoulders to avoid the attention.

I moved on with the session, started off with an introduction, spoke a little about myself, my background and what my expectations were from my students. Most of the students asked questions, interacted with each other but Ayat stayed out of it. Did my comment offend her?

'Okay, so let's end it here today. We'll go over the first assignment tomorrow.' I ended the presentation and people started to leave. I wanted to let Ayat know that I wasn't serious when I called her a cat...it was just out of frustration, but I couldn't. If she didn't want to take part in the discussion it was her decision. Not my business. I didn't want her to think that I cared about what she thought of me. I didn't care if she thought I was rude.

'Mr. Hamza, what you said earlier wasn't right' She stopped just as she walked passed me.

'Excuse me?' I stared back at her.

'I know you are not thrilled to have me in your group ...and believe me, I am not very happy about being in your class either but it's not like I have an option...' She started.

'You do, you can drop out' I challenged her. Here I was thinking about apologizing to her. Thank God I didn't ...that would have been my biggest mistake. People like her never accepted their mistakes.

'Oh God, what's wrong with you? Why do you have to be so judgemental...I was actually about to apologize to you about earlier...thank goodness I didn't...that would have been a big mistake...because you know what people like you never acknowledge their mistakes because they are too busy pointing fingers at others.' She blurted out.

'How dare you speak to me like this?' She was driving me insane.

'This dare came from you actually. You dragged me out of the room this morning, then you kept on pretending as if nothing happened and even after class, you didn't have the nerve to tell me sorry because that was too much for your pride to handle wasn't it?' She argued.

'Ms. Ayat I am not here to take part in these silly games. If you don't like my ways, you can simply drop out of my class but if you want to stay here, then I am afraid you will have to follow my rules and if someone breaks my rules, they will have to pay for the consequences...so next time you want to play this blame game...just remember this' I walked closer to her and lowered my face to look at her directly.

'You are unbelievable.' She gave up and left the room. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to center myself.

How did people tolerate her? Every time I saw her, I felt I was losing my sanity more and more.     

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Hi fam!

Happy August to everyone...why time feels like it's flying by? 

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and if you did please don't forget to vote and leave a comment.

Also for those of you who want to see more interaction between Ayat and Hamza, please note that as the story moves forward, the interaction between these two characters will also grow. Please be patient, I promise you the time will come soon! <3

Q: How is your summer break going? Are you working, studying, traveling? What is happening?  I would love to know!

I am working, traveling a bit and working on this story! 

See you guys next week...love ya! :)