Midnight Love || ✔️

11:46 pm

ix | | nine

THE KITCHEN in the Ali household on Thanksgiving day was filled with various women baking, sautéing, whisking, filling, cutting, singing, and yelling.

Even though Ella dreaded the arrival of relatives, especially the criticism that would inevitably came from the older ladies, she had to admit that it was fun to be with her family.

"Hey, Ella!" her aunt, Yasmine, called over the music blaring from the speaker. Arabic music Ella didn't understand but the women loved played loudly from the speakers. "Pass me the potatoes!" Yasmine was Ella's favourite aunt. She was the youngest, only ten years older that Ella herself. They were always close, but especially in recent years, Yasmine felt more like a friend than an aunt.

It took all day for the food to be cooked and prepared, and Ella only caught a break an hour before dinner was supposed to be served. She showered and dressed for dinner in a cable knit red sweater and tight black jeans with a simple, elegant, gold necklace.

Ella went downstairs and sat in the living room, where the men spent the whole day chatting, drinking tea and coffee, and watching TV. Ella supposed it was sexist that the women were the ones slaving in the kitchen while the men did nothing to lift their hands to help, just adding more work by dumping unclean mugs to get washed and complaining about how long it was taking them to make the food. But Ella also knows she couldn't say anything unless she wants all the adults to make fun of her for her "American thinking."

Ella lived in Canada, but okay.

Ella ignored everyone as she sat on the couch with her phone, alone. She constantly refreshed her conversation with Noah, but he hadn't responded to any of the texts she sent the past few days. She played with the idea of calling him, but getting a call ignored was much more embarrassing than a text going unanswered.

She sent one more. Ella might look desperate, but she had to admit that she missed talking to him. She didn't know when he started becoming such a big part of her life.

It scared her.

ELLA: Happy Thanksgiving! We finally finished the cooking, and I'm starving. How was your day?

She cringed at the words, but sends them anyways. After waiting a second, and then another one, but he still did not answer. With a sigh, she exited the text messaging app, pulling up Subway Surfers. Her thumbs swiped mindlessly as her mind whirled with what Noah's silence might mean.

Did he get sick of her? Did he realize she might not be as easy to win over and moved on to an easier target? Did he—

The couch dipped beside her and she looked to see one of her many cousins, Thomas, sit beside her. He was close to her age, one of the few who were. All her other cousins were younger. Thomas smiled at her.

"It's pretty boring right?" he said, gesturing towards the rest of the living room, where all the adults were laughing, drinking, and chatting.

"For them, it's not," she said. She never really talked to Thomas before—she hadn't seen him in years—because they were both at the stage of cringing away from the opposite sex the last time they were in the same room.

"For us, it's is," he countered and she smiled a bit.

"Yeah."

"Were you playing Subway Surfers?" he asked, and she nodded, a little uneasy that he saw.

"It passes the time," she said with a shrug.

"Talking can also pass the time," he said, angling his body towards hers. "Tell me about yourself."