The Wish From Heaven | ✓

chapter 11 : it's empty

It doesn't take long for things to go bad.

Soon after Alex, her best friend Ayesha joins us. Ayesha is a small and sweet girl who only wears different shades of blue Hijabs to match with the color of her eyes. She has freckled cheeks and thin lips, and claims to have hair that reaches almost down to her waist. Her tone of speech is very polite, which only enhances her soft personality.

Edgar dives into a conversation about what happened at Physics class, which both the girls find really funny.

While we're talking, three seniors walk past our table, and one of them lightly pulls Ayesha's Hijab, teasingly asking, "Hey, isn't it hot inside that?" He and his buddies burst into laughter and walk away. My ears grow hot. Alex stands up to protest, but Ayesha grabs her arm.

"Ayesha!" Alex says, disbelief on her face. "You can't just let it be."

The Muslim girl calmly shakes her head as she fixes her Hijab. "It's okay. It's not that I am afraid of them, I just don't want to do anything that will make it worse."

"But . . ." Alex sighs in exasperation.

Ayesha shakes her head. "You don't see too many Hijabis at this school, right? With this piece of clothing," she points at her head, "I carry the weight of protecting an entire race's reputation. So I have to act carefully, Lex."

"But still," Edgar says, sounding angry as well, "they fucking disrespected you."

She nods. "They have disrespected me, so Allah will punish them one way or the other. Besides, no matter where I go, there will always be some people like this, and I can't do anything to change that. But of course, if it goes too far, I know how to stand up for myself, and my religion."

She smiles. "But that's not what's important. What's important is that I have people like you all around me, people who respect me and stand up for me. I'm so lucky!"  She hugs Lex from the side, who pats her arm.

What a positive minded person. She's had a good upbringing.

The topic is changed quickly. Somehow, before I know it, the conversation has drifted to Rain Castleton and how he suffered from academic pressure.

While the conversation is going on, I mostly keep silent for my lack of knowledge on the topic. Though I decided multiple times to give that guy a search and get to know the basics of his case, I keep forgetting to. Maybe I don't care that much about it. It's just another death, another life lost to the weight of the world. Just like the world didn't stop after Dawn left, it also won't stop after Rain Castleton did. But Rain will be remembered by many, while Dawn will get buried under the sands of time.

Isn't that unfair? My Dawn deserves to be remembered too.

I shake the thought away, and focus on the conversation instead. They talk about how shitty Rain Castleton's parents are, how their tears in front of the cameras were fake, and how Rain Castleton has a twin brother who ran away from home few years back, and all such stuff.

Makes me wonder, do some people give birth to children only to ruin their lives?

It isn't as if I'm not having a good time—I really am. But that's when Alex tells me something that ruins everything.

"Cedar," she says, her voice soft and kind, "Don't take too much pressure on yourself when it comes to studies. Studying isn't everything, you know. I know your mom is very strict, so just try to hold on there, hmm?"

Irritation rises in me. She has this look of sympathy on her face, which makes me feel like someone extremely pitiful. I don't know why people should think that just because I take studying hard, I might end up having the same fate as Rain Castleton. How generalized can something be?