Let Me Redeem [Completed]

You Promise?

"When?"

"1:30."

"I'll bring you back on time, I swear." Hadi grabbed his bag and closed her book thrusting it into her own.

"Hadi I can't-"

"You don't trust me, do you?" Despite being aware that it was the most ironic few words to say, he found himself blurting it out, only to experience a sharp pang at her answer that he had no doubt about.

"I do but-" Mirha tried again, she didn't want to stray away from her restrictions, didn't want to break her promises she'd made to herself.

"I've had a bad day, Mirha and instead of helping me out here, you're downright refusing. I didn't take you for-"

"Fine." She sighed, giving in as she convinced herself it was just Hadi who had been nothing but helpful to her. "But promise-"

"Yeah I promise," Hadi interjected, grabbing both their bags he stood up, a new glint in his eyes.

"But you didn't even listen what-"

"I know what you were going to say." He said, looking down at her who was still sitting cross legged, plucking the blades of grass. "Are you getting up yourself, or should I carry you?"

"What, no!" Flustered, Mirha immediately rose to her feet.

A grin broke on his face.

---

"So you're talking to your father after this, you prom-"

"Oh no, I'm not promising you that." Hadi scoffed as he closed the door to the front seat of his car and turned the ignition.

"You already did!" Mirha said as she turned in her seat to look at him, promising to herself this was the first and the last time she was sitting in a car with a boy, unaware that circumstances wouldn't give her a chance to keep it.

"I didnot!" Hadi huffed with mock contempt as he sped the car forward, taking a turn to the main street.

"Hadi, when I said promise and you cut me off you said you knew what I was asking you for." Her heart gave a thud, when for a moment, Mirha wondered if he wasn't going to keep his promise. And if he lied about that, he very well couldn't have meant that he'd drop her back on time for her class, or that he was just taking her to grab coffee for that matter. But she calmed herself, repeating over and over that it was Hadi she was with.

He glanced sideways at her before turning his attention back to the road, eyebrows furrowed. "It wasn't about taking you back for class?" 

"No!" Mirha said as if it was way too obvious, and rolled her eyes. "I knew you would, I knew I would be safe with you, what I wanted was for you to promise that you'd talk to your father and apologize."

Hadi looked away and saw the old couple in the car next to his as they stood waiting on the signal, with three small girls on the backseat. He had tensed all over and now slowly dragged the breath out that he'd held without knowing. Turning his gaze back to Mirha who was looking at her with wide expectant eyes, he let out a low mirthless laugh. "You're making it all the more difficult for me, you know?"

"Making what?"

"Never mind." He muttered and pressed the foot on the accelerator as the signal turned green, the white Auto of the old couple sped at a faster rate than Hadi could.

"You still didn't promise."

He heard her say and said, relaxing only minutely, "I'm not sure about that. Though I might want to put some sense in to my brother for lashing out at me like that."

"Fine, then." Contorting her mouth into a pout, Mirha gave him a resentful look. "Stop the car."

"Why?"

"Please, Hadi."

Even in this mood, she had the audacity to say please. She was a first. He turned the car close to the curb and pulled over. "Yes?"

Mirha turned to unlock the door but her elbow accidentally pressed the button, the glass rushed down and she almost gave a start. "Oh, sorry sorry." She blurted nervously.

Hadi laughed. "You were saying?"

Fuming, she shot him a glare, though she wasn't really angry, and this time pulled the door open. "I don't want to eat ice-cream with you."

Though he was about to grab at her wrist to stop her from getting off the car, he couldn't stop the grin that split his mouth, all the stress he was in, starting to wane. "I never said we were having ice-cream."

Mirha turned to look at him with a scowl masking her face. "What?"

"I said coffee, not ice - cream. Now get in, you're not going anywhere Mirha Qadeer."

"I am, Hadi Maher." Biting every word out she slipped her legs out of the car, but before she could have completely gotten out, Hadi caught her by the wrist, and her heart almost jumped to her throat.

"Hey-"

Wrenching her hand from his grip, Mirha let herself back in and pulled the door close, blood pounding  in her ears.

"I'm sorry." The minute Hadi had touched her, he feared he would get slapped for the offense but she simply snatched her hand away and instead of getting out, to his surprise, she settled back in.

"It's very arrogant of you, you know." She said, folding her arms over her chest, her voice stern.

Hadi sighed as he moved the car forward, his eyes on the side mirror as he let the bike behind to zoom past. "I know, but-"

"You're not supposed to shout or yell at your elders. You shouldn't even raise your voice in front of them, it's disrespectful, Hadi. You promised you'd talk to him, what if something, God forbid, something happens to him, all there's going to be is regret. What's worst?"

She was saying and Hadi wondered that no matter how trivial this matter was to him and how it didn't weigh on his conscience much, he was always the sensible among all his friends, always the one putting sense into them, calming them down, telling them the right thing to do, he'd never let his emotions overcome his sense of judgment, his ability to make proper decisions. Had one of his friends been in her place, he wouldn't have told them what Mirha did. It didn't matter to him, he didn't think on the same page she did. He would have simply calmed them down instead, telling them to forget about it.

While it was hard to actually put it into action, Hadi had to admit Mirha was right. "Fine, I will." He nodded slightly.

"Really?" Mirha turned to him as she brightened up. "You promise?"

His lips curled up as he saw her from the corner of his eye, pulling over in front of a coffee house adjacent to which was an ice-cream parlor. "I promise, yeah."

"Thank you." She beamed.

"My pleasure." Hadi said, opening the door, and adding before he got out. "Okay, what flavor?"

Mirha shook her head. "I don't drink coffee."

"I gathered from your outburst earlier, I meant ice-cream." He smiled.

"I don't-"

"Come on Mirha, it's a treat." He said and without waiting for her reply, he walked away.

Though she knew she trusted Hadi, liked him, as a friend and as a teacher, this little trip still weighed on her conscience as if doing something wrong, as if a small part of her was aware of the actual feelings of her traitorous heart, for she hadn't reacted the same way she had with the  Bilal guy when he'd caught her hand. Mirha felt guilty and tried to console herself that he wouldn't be there by the next year, in vain though, because instead of relief that she'd expected, she felt a strange sense of yearning.

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