•Aaliyah
Six months later, I'm ready to pack out and leave to Dubai to bag myself a degree.
THE FREAKING MIDDLE EAST!
I got accepted to Zayed University. My accommodation had already been taken care of weeks before so all I needed to worry about was my registration and buying the necessities for myself and my new home.
Hamza was long forgotten, put in the back of my mind, and my new boyfriend was the library I was dying to meet.
My flight was scheduled for 18:30pm in the evening. Bilal just arrived to take me to the airport but he was too early as it was just 16:35pm.
He came along with Ruqayyah who I heard was skeptical of the relationship I had with Bilal. I explained to her with facts, pictures and a whole lot of other stuff before she was convinced. And it was as if we'd known each other for about ten years, we joked and laughed about different subjects and soon all was forgotten.
Bilal and I had 'the talk' again. And he explained that all Yusra did was throw shade at Hamza because she was angry at him for breaking up with one of her friends and she didn't know that he had changed for good. I still had doubts but a part of me believed Hamza had changed since he hasn't been seen with any girl apart from his sister's for at least two years now.
I understood what he tried to explain as Hamza's shortcomings that had already been moralized but I needed to focus on my growing business. All that I needed was to break it off and forget everything.
I don't know if destiny will bring us together again but just maybe I don't want that anymore.
I'm quite confused at the moment.
Halfway through the ride, Bilal convinces me to go to flavours for more with them one last time before continuing to the airport.
"Will you miss Hamza?"
Deep down I knew I would. But would he miss me too?
"No wa-Definitely." I said almost too quickly.
"Good girl!" Ruqayyah said as she noticed the crease of my brows, "Aaliyah, love doesn't speak, it acts. Even if you lie, your actions will speak another language."
"What?! Speak another language?" I blushed.
"Bitch I was trying to sound philosophical!" She said and we all bursted into a fit of laughter.
"You didn't deny it. That's good. There's really no point in lying again. If only you knew the things he used to say about you..."
"Tell me!" I demanded while Ruqayyah laughed.
"That's for him to tell you." Bilal said firmly.
"Ok. Just tell me one thing. Does he really care as much as he says he does?"
"Aaliyah he cares much more than you think but I guess some circumstances won't let you give your heart to him."
"Bilal, it's much more than the circumstances we've found ourselves in. I'm scared. Will he treat me the way I want to be treated? I believe I've suffered enough. I've gone through pain in a much higher pedigree than he'll ever know, Will he leave me once he finds a better girl? Or a prettier one. I have so many questions for him but I don't want to hear the answers now."
"When would you like to hear them then?"
I felt embarrassment wash over my entirety the moment I heard Hamza's husky voice coming from Bilal's phone.
"Bilal!"
He smiles evilly.
"He wanted to know how you felt about him. Today is your last day here. Come out of the car and we'll hear what he has to say." He ushered.
I suddenly felt numb as my heart beat erratically to the fear of coming face to face with Hamza.
Where has the confident Aaliyah gone?
I tried to lift my hands to open the door but my limbs felt weightless, my body taking the form of jelly.
Bilal opened the door and I stepped out slowly, too scared to see my supposed one true love.
For some reason, I started to believe in the Qadr, destiny, these past few days. I mean, it was the same destiny that made me an orphan, brought me to the conclusion of running away from home because I foresaw my impending death and lastly, the one it seems the universe happened to give it's blessings to, my meeting with Hamza.
As a Muslim, I should believe, but some incidents had me thinking they were all sheer coincidences.
Until now, do I feel partially wise. Not as wise as I'd like to be though. Like the old men and women who've lived for decades.
Things like this have me wondering if time travel exists. I know, stupid. But what would things have been like if I altered some events to suit me? Would I still have met Hamza? Or I'd be stuck as a housewife living off my husband's farmland that rarely produced enough to feed our family of what?! twenty five?
I'd like to sit in a room for a day to think about my choices to see if I made the best or worst of them all. I want to read minds and control people's thoughts, to be a mastermind of sorts.
A psychology expert of mind control and time travel.
Does that make sense? I hope not. I'd like to be the one to explain the result of a cognitive process. What I invented in just one sitting. How to use time travel to manipulate the central nervous system.
Pure genius!
Maybe my parents would be alive! Who knows if Aunty Raliya would've still had a heart and remained married to Uncle Hakeem, I would've still met Hamza just that it'll be under normal circumstances and I'd not run away-since that has become my only way out.
Who would've thought that maybe Abba would've been good to me and we'd still be together so no Hamza? That's bad!
I'd like to make everything good to and for me then leave Abba so I'll be able to meet Hamza. Happily ever after right? But that's wishful thinking.
That's the plan, but to avoid Allah's anger I'll desist from challenging what has already been preordained.
"What are you thinking of?!" Hamza asked, puzzled.
"It was me ko?"
"Don't flatter yourself."
He laughed and I felt butterflies spread like a wildfire from the pits of my stomach.
"Aaliyah your face tells a different story."
Darn! I need to learn how to keep a good poker face.
"Whatever."
"Aaliyah.."
Bilal left back to his car to give us some privacy as Hamza started.
"Wait!" That was me, "You heard everything. What do you have to say?"
"Habibty I don't have words to explain how I feel. Love is not even one-tenth of how I feel. If you remember clearly I called you my everlasting heartbreak story, you knew you had my heart but you chose to pretend it wasn't yours."
"I wore my heart on my sleeve to prove my loyalty but you still live on Yusra's words so your mind won't let you give your heart what it yearns for. I had a long speech all planned out but I forgot most of it the moment I saw you. Here's a gift-a token of my love."
He presents a tiny box which he opens to reveal a necklace with the word Cinderella engraved on it.
The tears were too damn strong to hold back. He spoke but my mind was too clouded to understand. He was even on one knee but I was too slow to notice. It rained so much you'd think this was really a movie.
Remaining for us to kiss ko? I wish. Unfortunately he's Haram to me. Curse my dirty mind!
Goodness!
Was this true love?
He helped me send my aunt to jail, was there through everything as we sought out to look for evidence and protected me at all times. I mean, after Bilal I only had him and maybe Uncle Hakeem.
I guess this was it since he sacrificed not only his time but his everything for me. Let's not talk about money.
"Habibty remember the first day I first messaged you? And I called you Cinderella." I nodded, "I want this to remind you that you've always been the one for me. In the story someone said 'if the shoe fits, wear it!'. I marked that day as the day I met my fit-my other half. I don't care if I sound cheesy. You're my happily ever after! I can't imagine that life with anyone else. If you believe that I'm the one for you then please come back for me. Our meeting wasn't coincidental, I'm sure you believe that too."
"Hamza, This gift is little but it holds s-s-so much weight. Thank you so much! Not only for this but for everything. Maybe I do love you, maybe I don't but I feel something and it's driving me crazy! I don't want to know yet. If you make me try to figure it all out today it I won't leave. This was why I told Bilal I didn't want to know what you had to say now."
"Someday I'll be back for you and hopefully I'll have a better understanding of what love really is."
"I'll wait for you. It's only a matter of time. It'll hurt but I'll manage. Take care of yourself. You should go. You'll be late Habibty!"
He called me Habibty! Dear lord was that my chance? Did I blow it?
And with that he retreats back to his car and I was left standing in the middle of the parking lot crying till Ruqayyah comes to my rescue.
She pulls me to the car and we zoom off to the airport.
__________________________
~Aisha Safiyanu🥀