Amara Mahmoud is a 20-year-old, Muslim girl who is in her fourth year of undergraduate studies. She has a loving family and the most amazing best friends someone could ask for. She's quiet, but can stand her ground. She's trying to navigate her way...
"Uh... I don't remember Sarah from anywhere. Maybe if she jogs my memories, I'll be able to remember." I say.
"That would be great! In fact, she called you up to talk to her. She's getting ready in a spare room. It's up the stairs to your right." Mrs. Bilal points at the spiral staircase.
"Is it okay if we join Amara? She might still be a little ill from last time." Zoya links her arm with mine.
"Yes, of course. You girls go have fun and get to know each other." Mrs. Bilal nods enthusiastically.
Mrs. Bilal waves at us as we walk up the stairs.
"I'm glad you guys joined me, just in case Sarah turns out to be a murderer." I joke.
"We weren't going to let you go unless she let us come with you too." Zoya winks.
When we reach the door, my nerves start to act up. I breathe in and knock on the door.
"Come in!" Sarah's chirpy voice calls us in.
We open the door and to my surprise, she looks like she'd been crying.
"Oh my God, are you okay? We could come back later." I quickly say, she looks rough.
She sniffles a few times and shakes her head. "No, no. This is fine."
"Mrs. Bilal said you wanted to talk to me." I say softly. I didn't want to come off as rude or anything, poor girl looks like she's already having a bad day.
Sarah looks at my friends and I realize she probably didn't want them to listen.
"I'm sorry about the big crowd! I brought them along because I usually get really nervous talking to new people!" I make up an excuse but in reality, there's some truth to it.
"No, that's fine. Maybe they can give me a helping hand too." She smiles.
Helping hand? We've barely met. What can we help her with? Whatever it is, it looks to be bothering her because she must've been crying about it.
"I know about you and Peter." The second the words come out of her mouth, my breathing stops and I accidentally grip Beena's hand too tightly.
She quickly snatches her hand away while mouthing ow.
I start fidgeting as I quickly stand up from my seat. "I... I'm so sorry. I knew I shouldn't have showed up. This is so embarrassing. This was pretty low of me–"
Sarah places a hand on my shoulder, gesturing for me to sit back down. "I don't want to marry him."
"I'm so ashamed—wait, what?" I stare at her, blinking profusely, trying to process what she just said or if I even heard correctly.
"Come again?" Beena asks along with me.
"I don't want to marry Peter. I'm madly in love with someone else. Besides, I'm not blind. I can tell he's head-over-heels for you already. Entering this marriage will ruin both of our lives." She giggles.
"I don't understand... what do you need me to do?" I ask, still not being able to understand anything.
"She wants our help to break off the marriage, duh!" Zoya says as if it's that simple.
I become speechless. This isn't what I was expecting at all, I didn't think of this in my wildest dreams.
Is this a God-given chance?
"How come you don't just tell Peter?" I ask.
"I did. But he thinks this arrangement is best for our families." She grabs both my hands. "If I don't break this off, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I'm ready to just elope at this point but I don't want to do this without officially breaking it off." She sighs.
"But Peter doesn't want to break it off?" Dina asks.
"Are you sure he likes Amara...? He doesn't seem too eager to get out of this." Zoya seems suspicious, not on Sarah's end, but on Peter's.
"I'm sure of it. He looks at her as if her eyes hold the secrets of the universe or if he's literally staring at the stars on a clear night sky."
"That's very poetic." Dina says, impressed.
I'm still not able to wrap my head around what's going.
"Let me get this straight: Peter's fiancée wants my help to get out of this arrangement because she's in love with someone else, plus she thinks he likes me but he doesn't want to break off this engagement."
"Yup." Sarah grins. "The only reason he doesn't want to break off this engagement is because his parents really want this to happen. He's a bit of a rebel child, so he just wanted to listen to his parents for once."
"Why don't you break it off by telling your parents?" Beena asks.
"I told my parents but they said that breaking it off without both parties agreeing to it can cause a huge problem for our family's image... You know how it is, society would rather see the guy break it off than the girl." There's sorrow in Sarah's tone.
"You got that right." Beena agrees. "We'll help you. When do you want to do this?"
"Now." She says firmly.
We stare at her in disbelief.
"If we don't break it before the ring ceremony, it'll be too late." She almost whispers.
Ya Allah! What are we about to do?
- - -
A/N: Amara's dress, but more covered around the arms, of course! ;)
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Next Update: Friday, August 9, 2019.
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