"What do you think is going on?" Imaan asked me. I shrugged.
Who knows?
"I have no idea" I said, adjusting my niqab to take a sip of my coffee.
Yasmeen stormed back in and took a seat.
"Asaad is unbelievable. Ugh!" She whisper-yelled.
Both Imaan and I turned to look at her, clearly curious.
"He thinks I'm turning you against him while I've been trying to make him understand that he fucked up big time. You were in trouble and it took him 372 days to show up and he was literally in the next room when everything was happening. I was downstairs and I heard everything. How could he not have!" She was pissed and I could.
"I mean, it's fine. It's not a big deal anymore..." I trailed off.
"It is Elham. And the least he could do was offer a proper apology not coming to ask if you blocked him. Like, He would block him if he were you!" Imaan uttered while making hand expressions.
"Exactly!" Yasmeed agreed.
I looked at them anxiously. "I think you two are exaggerating this. I mean, it was not like we were friends or anything" I spoke.
Yasmeen arched a brow.
"Even if that were the case, we attended the party together. I know i fucked up but at least, I owned up to my shir. He isn't" Yasmeen stated,
True but...
"But it really doesn't matter anymore. I'm over it and that's it. I have bigger problems so can we not bother about some boy please?" I said.
I truly appreciated the fact that I had to people who were so worried about me. And I also appreciated the fact that Yasmeen chose to stick by me despite Asaad being her very close cousin.
The week was over and to sum it all up, the teacher who Amna slept with was fired and Amna bagged a three week suspension. This was the news of the week and everyone kept talking about it. Also, nobody had seen Amna since that day and people were starting to wonder if she was fine.
When I say people, it excludes me.
I was at the library, trying to finish my project since I was no longer on speaking terms with Asaad.
Although, I have to admit he was a much better writer.
Nervously, I walked back home in preparation for what was about to happen. I had sent a text message to my dad, telling him I needed to have a discussion with him today.
Surprisingly, he flew back home for the discussion and now I had to gather up the courage to face him.
"Salam alaykum" i said stepping into the house.
He was on the couch in the living room, reading a newspaper with a cup of tea resting on the stool in front of him.
He paused his reading, and looked at me, replying to my salaam.
He then stood up to face me.
"So, what is it that you wanted speaking to me about?"
I noticed Ummi was not in the kitchen, probably upstairs, so I asked him if we could drive to the park. He reluctantly agreed, letting me know that it would better be worth his time.
As we reached the park , we sat on a bench. He seemed so uncomfortable with the surroundings and this made me wonder when last he had been to a park. He was always busy with work and had little to no interest in other things in life.
I had rehearsed this conversation in my head for days but I
couldn't even bring myself to start the conversation.
He cleared his throat. "So, what did you want to tell me?" He arched a brow, his round eyes popping out more.
I didn't think he knew about Ummi's health condition at this point but you never know with this man.
"I don't know if Ummi actually told you this, but she was diagnosed with blood cancer months ago. Doctors say she has less than three more months to live. Again, I don't know if you knew already but I am so mad that Ummi is going through such a tough time and her so called husband isn't there for her" I ranted, pausing to see his reaction.
He did look a bit taken aback.
"Wh-what? She never told me" he muttered.
"Of course she wouldn't. And how do you think I felt, coming home to see this woman with wounds that you gave her. Someone that is dying. How do you even think I felt or she felt all this while that you've abused us. Especially her" i was at the verge of tears at this point. And that was when I realised I brought him to the park because I was scared of what he would have done to me if this confrontation had happened at home.
"Elham, you can't talk to your father like this. Where have your manners gone. I see your mother raised a disrespectful daughter" he muttered standing up. I equally stood up, eyes flooded with tears, body trembling.
"Well at least she was present and I didn't grow up thinking of her as a monster all my life. If me being disrespectful is all you care about right now, then it's so freaking sad. I am tired of you and your terrible attitude towards us. I wish I could say I hate you even. How could you even be so heartless? Ummi has done nothing but love you unconditionally yet all you do is talk bad about her and hit her. I wish I could blame you for everything but I must blame her for choosing to still be with a monster like you. We've given you all the respect in this world but all you do is treat us like crap" I paused, taking a gulp of my saliva, hot tears trailing down my cheeks while he stood there with gritted teeth and furious eyes glaring at me.
"All I wanted was for us to talk about her health and how we can put her through this. How you can help me put her through this because I can't imagine a life without her, I just can't.." I began to sob but I composed myself.
I cleared my throat. "So, father if you really don't love us, please just stay away from us. I need my mother to get better,not worse" I uttered, before walking away, aggressively wiping off tears on my face. I was pretty sure my eyes were red from all that crying but I didn't care, I just needed a shoulder to cry on at that point.
