SAKINA (COMPLETED)

Chapter 6

Ahmad was feeling restless; he tossed and turned in his bed for a little while, before he sat up staring at the wall.
He couldn't tell if it was excitement or nerves in anticipation of his date with Sakina; it could've been both. But whatever it was, it was keeping him up with a billion and one knots in the pit of his stomach.

He looked over to his phone on the night stand to his left and flipped it over. He squinted at the light that came from his screen before he read the time; 2:30am it read.
He huffed and got up from his bed, he didn't have anywhere to go but he couldn't sit or lay down anymore.
He picked up his green T-shirt from the chair in the corner of his room and put it on, he  put his phone in the pocket his grey sweatpants and headed down the  stairs.

He went straight to the kitchen and to his surprise, he found Nada standing in front of the fridge, looking through its contents.
She heard a presence and she turned, a little startled, to see who was there; as she turned small strands of her dark golden brown hair fell out of her messy low bun.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" he apologized.

"That's okay" she said releasing her grip on the bottle of ketchup she was clutching to her chest.

"What're you doing up so late?" He asked her taking a seat by the island in the kitchen.

"I couldn't sleep" she said sitting opposite him placing the bottle of ketchup between them. "I heard some news today that I can't really wrap my head around" she offered a weak smile.

"What is it?" The second he asked, it was as if realization hit her. She tucked the stray hairs that fell on her face behind her ears; Ahmad could tell she was nervous.

"Uhm" It was clear she was looking for something to say.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to"

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I shouldn't be the one to" she said biting her lip.
Ahmad was beginning to get confused.

"I think I should go to bed now, goodnight" she jumped straight up to her feet.

"Wait" He started but she cut him off.

"Talk to Maama, please" she said and like the wind, she was gone, leaving Ahmad with many questions.

His trip to the kitchen that was meant to relieve some of his nerves only gave him more.

~~~

Ahmad barely slept a wink that night, he woke up determined to get some answers to Nada's strange behavior the previous night.
He joined his mother in the downstairs living room after breakfast.

"Maama, I was talking to Nada yesterday and she said something I didn't quite understand" he said as soon as he sat down on the couch adjacent to the loveseat she sat in.
She put her phone down on her lap and raised her head to look at Ahmad.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing really, just that she heard some news that's been keeping her up at night and that I should talk to you about it" Heba took a deep breath and looked down at her hands on her lap before exhaling and turning her gaze back at Ahmad.

"There has been a development in the terms of Nada's stay with us" Ahmad said nothing, patiently waiting to hear the rest.

"Initially, She was just supposed to come live with me and go to school. She's the youngest daughter of your uncle Maher, you know that" Ahmad nods "and you know all his children are boys, so he and I got to talking and we, along with Nada, decided it would be a nice fit for her and my little Munii to be kind of like sisters to each other" Ahmad said nothing still, he knew that all this was just his mother avoiding the point.
"So now, Maher wants her to marry you" she said it so casually that Ahmad couldn't believe it.
He was waiting for her to laugh and say she was joking, but it didn't come.