Midnight Whispers | ongoing

1 | Bittersweet Birthdays

Lamia wiped the table with the cloth before heading to the kitchen to grab her bag and leave the place once and for all.

As soon as she made sure she wasn't leaving anything essential, she made her way to the door and was just about to push it open when her wrist was grabbed from the back and she gasped.

It was one of those days.

Lamia would feel her skin tickle with fright as she knew what was about to come.

The girl made a run for the door to escape the torture, the pain, but her wrist was grabbed from the back and she was forcefully turned around.

Marwah glared menacingly at her. "I'm not done yet, Lamia."

And then it came. In reality, it happened in a split second, but the little girl saw it all happen step-by-step.

She saw her first clench and unclench her hand before it collided with her cheek painfully and-

"Lamia!"

She jolted back to reality when a hand on her shoulder shook her gently, her widened eyes now staring at the person ahead of her.

It was Ahmed; he was a Bengali-American and the only Muslim employee at this pizza place other than her.

"God, I've been calling your name for so long," he sighed. "the manager is calling you back inside for a moment."

Lamia held his hand which was still on her shoulder and dropped it in the most respectful way.

"Oh, yeah," he voiced out sheepishly. "you weren't responding," his hand scratched the back of his neck. "I guess you zoned out or something."

She looked around the area, deciding to change the topic. "Right," she released a breath. "where is Miss Julia?"

The boy pointed towards the staff room, leaving Lamia perplexed over why the manager was waiting for her rather there.

Not thinking too much of it, she walked through the door only to see the rest of her coworkers sitting by the round table which was moved to the center, a jumbo-sized pizza box in the middle.

"Surprise!"

They all jumped, and so did Lamia when she got startled, adrenaline pumping through her veins at the scene before her.

On the pizza, she noticed the happy birthday written above her name all with ranch dressing, sliced jalapeños sprinkled all over for the prominent flavour of spice.

She was still standing there, absorbing what was happening right in front of her.

And then, she smiled.

"What's this?" she gestured to the entire room, the grin never leaving her face.

"Oh come on," Lee pushed her gently towards the table. "I didn't expect you to be so dumb." he let out a laugh. Everyone else's followed soon after.

Lamia sat down and was handed a large slice, the rest of her coworkers in a circle around the table devouring theirs'.

"It's your birthday and last day here, you really thought we wouldn't do something?" let out Shreya as she tossed a dropped slice of jalapeño in her mouth.