"Awwww, see couple goals" Tay Tay chirps while staring at the pictures I and Saleem took on my phone. " I'm certainly going to post, guy come let's do a lomotif for you now" She adds, the big smile on my face not planning to wear off anytime soon.
Thinking about my day with Saleem sends the butterflies living in my stomach crazy.
Literally. " Well we had a great time at the mall today, we got lots of nice stuff and enjoyed the company of Haneef. The guy is a whole vibe I swear" Juwee says from my left hand side. " I swear, he's funny and omoh, he sabi dance. Forget the fact that he's posh and classy and all that but if he start him leg work ehn, he dey give them hot hot"
" I think I have a video of him dancing from earlier. There was this store that was playing one gbedu like this ehn, come and see" She adds again and shows me the video of Haneef dancing care freely with a vibrant smile on his face.
" He sabi o" I comment and turn to my right hand side to surprisingly meet Tay Tay blushing at a text she received from her phone. " Guy, who's making you blush like that?" I ask, startling and causing her to hide her phone away from me. " I'm sure it's one of the fine guys Haneef convinced her to exchange numbers with at the mall. I forgot to tell you that part of the day" well this is very interesting.
" you see Haneef and Tay Tay caught some guys staring lovingly at Tay Tay, and they were fine. There's one in particular she picked interest in most, a black American dude, one Salman like that. You should have seen him in person guy, he's so cuteee" Juwee chirps and I tilt my head to find Tay Tay actually blushing, which is very rare and that simple action is enough to melt ones heart. " He seems to be nice, and really interesting. I just hope he can be someone I can actually relate with" Tay Tay comments and begins to scan through the pictures they took with Haneef.
" so did you get to know why your sister and Haneef broke up?" Juwairiyah asks out of the blue and my mind races to the scene that occurred moments ago. " I am supposed to be asking you that cause you spent the whole day with him"
" Well we were too engrossed in everything we saw and totally forgot about asking" She answers and I sigh heavily. " I actually met him in the elevator after Saleem dropped me off. Some kid made me fall and my ankle hurt a bit so yours truly Haneef overreacted and carried me, saying " Saleem wouldn't be happy if his best friend let's his girlfriend walk in pain", something like that sha. Sha he said Ameerah broke up with him without any valid reason and the funny part of this whole incident is that, she saw me in his arms in the elevator, argued and wallahi, she almost cried" I say and watch my friends lift their lips to say "ah" in surprise.
" That's some complicated shit right there" Juwee remarks and Tay Tay sighs heavily before slipping in a comment. " Toh gaskiya, that's really some fucked up shit that we shouldn't include ourselves in"
Dinner with girls alone wasn't bad at all, we discussed about how everyone's day went and how happy we all were. We ate pizza and ice cream, not the healthiest dinner ever but we still ate and got along pretty well.
We decided to all go to the beach tomorrow, it was tough selecting the perfect beach we could go to cause mehn, there are tons of beautiful beaches here, but we luckily decided to go to Umm Suqeim Beach because of the amazing reviews and yes, they have a section for kite surfing, and an amazing view of burj-al-Arab.
" Zakiyah, can I please talk to you?" I hear Ameerah call out after peeping into our room from opening the door. " Sure" I answer and carefully get up from where I was already preparing to doze off.
My bestfriends are already fast asleep, cause it's past 12 and yeah we all need to get our beauty sleep against tomorrow.
" What's up?" I ask after walking to where Ameerah stood outside our room door. " Well, I couldn't go to sleep cause I'm honestly worried about your relationship with Haneef" here we go...
" Why are you worried about my relationship with Haneef?, cause I'm very sure everything between me and him seems very platonic" I answer and she wraps her arms under her bust. " Haneef isn't someone you should be friends with Zakiyah"
" A'ah, I don't understand. Then who should I be friends with?"
" Someone's that's not Haneef. Look honestly, Haneef isn't trustworthy and look, Zakiyah, I'm trying to look out for you. Please stay away from him" Iyeeh. " Okay okay okay, he's not trustworthy and you're trying to look out for me. Thank you very much, I'll try and obey" That's all.
" I don't want you to think I'm jealous or anything like that...." I just felt it, she still has feelings for him.
So she's mad that he's trying to be my friend, she's the jealous type. Tssk tssk, I'll eventually have to make her happy. " I never even thought so Ameerah"
" Toh, I've sha said my own. At least I've cleared my mind and warned you. It'll be your choice if you choose to be careful or not. Good night" okay o. " Good night" I answer and watch her walk to her room beside ours.
Ameerah's a complicated female.
I legit don't even know how to process what she just said to me, but anyways, there's a bed waiting for me and it's not nice to keep nice people waiting.
Waking up for fajr prayers is one of the hardest yet also one of the most rewarding things for a person to do in a day in his life and I'm more than pleased right now because I've done all that.
Getting ready for the beach in the morning was filled with hours of massive fun, starting with Candy blasting her portable mini speaker with loud music one can't resist dancing to. While dancing, we all took turns freshening up and selecting what to wear for our outing and by 10:00am sharp, Saleem and Haneef were already knocking on our door, ready to take us to our destination for the day.
"Rest your head on my shoulder" Saleem says, gently helping me rest my head on his shoulder by my side with hands intertwined. It's amazing how he just arrived into my life and here I am, imagining the rest of our future together. " You know I love you sooo soooooo much ko?" He whispers into my ear and I feel my cheeks flame up and I nod shyly. " I love you too"
" Well there's something I have to tell you, it came impromptu to me too. The pilot that's suppose to fly the plane back to Lagos tomorrow caught a serious diarrhoea infection and I have to fill in for him tomorrow"
" Oh no, you won't be able to attend Ameerah's birthday party" I was already imagining how cute the pictures we would take will turn out. Bummer.
" I know but don't be sad okay?, promise me you'll take lots of beautiful pictures and also promise you'll take care of yourself for me okay?. Haneef is going to be around to keep you guys company, I convinced him to stay and leave with you guys. He'll be your chaperone" He says again and plants a small, gentle kiss on my forehead.
" A'ahn, set awon couple goals. It's okay o" Tay Tay comments and as a reflex action, I roll my eyes. " Guy how far?, don't ruin their cute moment mana" Adama defends and Taybiah pouts in the weirdest manner possible for no reason whatsoever. " Tayibah please, no one is going to pity you with that weird looking face" Ameerah comments and Juwee snorts before speaking up. " Allow her to be doing face like sour shit" The first person to crack up turned out to be Haneef and boy, his laughter is contagious. You'd expect a manly laughter from him but no o, it's the exact opposite. A childish laughter escaped Haneef's lips and due to shock and how funny his laughter was, we all joined him. Laughing this hard honestly has to be good for ones health.
There's only one word to describe Umm Suqeim Beach and right now, it's like I'm legit standing in the middle of an empyrean. There are lots of people around, mainly tourists, different families and surfers, kite surfers to be exact.
We took tons of pictures with burj-al-Arab as a very nice background and with faces plastered with extremely happy smiles. I've never been more happy than I am today, with my friends, Ameerah's friends, Saleem and Haneef around. We ate, talked, and argued about the tiniest things, all in all we had fun. We ate different kinds of snacks, delicious snacks might I add and I and Saleem took a walk around the beach, hand in hand, enjoying the perfect view of the sunset.
I've never seen anything prettier. We left for a restaurant where we got dinner before leaving for our apartment and before heading to bed, I decided to call the event planner for tomorrow and check if everything was set, also informing her that I, Juwee, and Tay Tay will be there early in the morning to see what they're setting up for Ameerah.
I also called Ameerah's father to make sure he's in Dubai and yes he is, he's going to give Ameerah a wonderful surprise tomorrow and I really can't wait to see how large the smile on her face will be. She has been through a lot with Habibah, and right now, I just want her to forget about everything and enjoy her day tomorrow.
She very much deserves it all, and even more.
Gently closing my eyes to drift off to sleepy in the dark and comfy environment I'm in, my phone's notification sound tings and I open my eyes in a jiffy to meet an extremely cute text from Saleem.
Saleem❤:
Baby❤
The past few days I've lived with you by my side have been the most amazing and beautiful days of my life, I'm always going to cherish these moments and make sure that we make more💞. I love you sooo soooooo much my love of my life ❤.
I'll be leaving early tomorrow, so we might not get the opportunity to talk but we will when I arrive Nigeria In Sha Allah❤. Take care of yourself for me, and always smile, even if I'm not around to make you smile, okay?. Always smile and be happy❤.
Good night my love😘❤.
How sweet. I honestly love him more than he can ever imagine.
I really don't have enough energy to reply so replying first thing tomorrow morning is my only option.
Waking up early in the morning to surprise Ameerah with a small birthday cake Adama ordered while we were at the beach yesterday, a wide smile spreads on my face as we watch Ameerah open her stunning eyes to meet us joyfully singing a happy birthday song to her.
After multiple hugs and a few pictures and videos, we all moved to getting ready for the day. Adama and Candy are going to be taking Ameerah to a spa and a beauty salon, I and my bestfriends will join them after making sure everything is set for tonight.
I high-key can't wait to see Ameerah's face when she sees her father again after all these years.
I slipped into a white palazzo jumpsuit, with a pink inner long sleeved shirt and pink and white Adidas sneakers. I topped it with a pink and white scarf and a few accessories to match.
I look good, I'm very much aware.
Omar is going to be taking Ameerah and her friends to the spa, while here we are in a vanwith Haneef and his driver. I received a morning text from Saleem, informing me that he'd already left Dubai and I responded, wishing him a safe flight and telling him how much I love him and also how special he is to me.
I'm honestly going to miss him a lot.
" so Saleem is gone now, don't miss him too much okay?" Haneef says from my right side, we're sitting beside each other while Tay Tay and Juwee are on the seats behind us. " Well, I'm not sure I can adhere to that. I already miss him a lot"
" Don't worry, it sucks being away from someone you love a lot. You'll eventually get used to it, I promise" he says and flashes me an assuring smile. " What plans do you have for yourself in this life?" A lot. " Well, a lot. I really want to achieve a lot, I want to own my own caligraphy gallery, I want to be a perfect mother to my future kids, I'll make sure they won't go through what I went through you know, having to live without a mother figure and stuff"
" I understand, she passed when you were young right?"
" Yeah, I miss her everyday. I know she didn't want to leave us and it was her time, but I'm really praying hard to be able to see my children and grand children grow. I would honestly love that"
" In Sha Allah you will, you should also be thankful that your mother passed instead of fleeing from you guys"
"Why will I be thankful for that?" I see both scenarios to be utterly horrible. " Well you know your mother didn't want to leave, I had to deal with my mother leaving us because of some financial issues back then" as Saleem said. " yeah, I am so sorry" I console and watch him put on a pitiful smile, eyes teary. " I'm sure Saleem has already told you about it" He answers and I nod.
" Well the good thing is, my father moved on and found them Khairiyah's mother. We're all blessed to have her and yeah, she has tried all she could to help me erase the pain my mother left me because I was really close to my mom, I loved her more than anything else in this world but the scars and pain just can't be erased. I have had lots of time to heal but I can't help low-key feeling depressed about her leaving me, leaving me clueless" part of me is wondering why he's finding it easy to confide in me but the other part of me just wants to comfort him and make him aware that everyone is free to make the decisions they want, it can either be good or bad.
Reminds me of Ameerah's story.
" Well what your mother did was very wrong, have you tried to find her?, to hear why she left directly from her mouth?"
" What's there to hear when the reason why she left was obvious. Hearing it again from her will just make matters worse for me" He says, this time staring intently into my eyes, forcing me to admire his pretty eyes which are now filled with sadness. " Sometimes, one needs confirmation from the horses mouth. No matter how painful it is" I respond with a small smile and all he does is stare back intently, without flinching and weirdly, making my heart skip a beat.
" We've arrived, Sir Haneef" Haneef's driver announces and he slowly takes his eyes off me, making me breath normally again. " Yayyy, Zaki get down already" Juwee persists and I pull the van door open quickly, getting out to enjoy the fresh mid day breeze around me.
I'm standing right in front of a grand tall building which is also surrounded by tons of skyscrapers, with the words Dusit Thani written on them.
Just the view in mid day is magical, I wonder how pretty it'll look at night. " Haneeeffffff!!!" Juwairiyah squeals from a distance away from me and Haneef. " Come and snap us please, or tell you driver to come and snap all of us here. This is so beautiful wallahi" She squeals again and with a smile on my face, I join them to take a picture, pictures.
Minutes after our photo session, we walk into the hotel lobby and there we met the event planner for Ameerah. A fine, tall Arabian woman who speaks English with an Arabian accent.
Pretty slick.
Her name's Malika.
The building is packed with people of different races, colour and religion and the paintings and interior are all so classy and top notch. Malika leads us to the elevator going to the last floor and we all follow behind, happily.
" We cleared the whole area for you and we've set up a small round table for all 8 of you. The view from this area is perfect" Malika says as the elevator door opens up, revealing a space with lots of nice coloured flowers and ballons around. " Woah" escapes my lips as we all walk out of the elevator, feasting our eyes on the view of sky scrapers almost touching the pretty blue sky. The sun is making the whole surrounding glisten and a smile of contempt spreads across my face.
This is one epic view.
" The caterers are going to be bringing in the food and cakes later in the evening and we're setting up the sound system now. The DJ is also setting up now, and I managed to blend a few nice colours around" Malika continues to explain as we look around. There's a confetti cannon on both sides of the elevator door so when Ameerah arrives, it'll go off.
There is also a very nice flower wall with purple balloons shaped in 22 floating in front of it. I can already see the lights they're setting and I really can't help but imagine how beautiful tonight is going to be.
If this doesn't genuinely make Ameerah happy, I really don't know what else will.
We decided to help Malika and her crew set up faster, and we had a great time playing and dancing around. We left them when it was time for Juma'ah and Haneef's driver drove us to Marina Mosque, where we sat and relaxed after praying. We ended up praying Asr there as well, it was a great avenue to spend time with my friends and also get to know Haneef who told us about his history with women, sorry girls he has been with.
Dated, flirted with and yes, made out with.
He told a lot of stories that displayed him a player, a bad boy and honestly, I couldn't help but find all that disgusting and irritating until he said, he left his ways when he found Ameerah.
She still means the world to this guy and it's obvious he loves her a lot and is willing to do anything to get her back, but the missy doesn't want to budge.
I'm honestly more interested in knowing why she left him because in Haneef's words, he took care of her like an egg.
I guess the chick was tired of that shell.
I also got to meet Salman, Tay Tay's suitor who might I add, is hot like mad. He's one of these muscular, huge black American cute guys.
You know with the pink lips and dreamy eyes and all. If Tayibah sends this guy away, I'm legit going to drag her back to him cause they honestly look very cute together.
Fast forward and here we are, back in our apartment, ready to get set for Ameerah's birthday party. Tayibah is making Juwairiyah up already, and she'll get me set last cause I showered last.
We're all wearing the same dresses today, a violet and white coloured dress, it looks like a top and a skirt but it's a dress. Ameerah made the dress to have a violet flower patterned peplum top, and a white straight skirt, making us all look very beautiful. After my make up which lasted, 20 minutes approximately, it's a nude makeover, I tied a violet coloured veil around my head and wore white flats.
Yes, I look good. Juwairiyah is wearing heels and Tayibah, low heeled sandals. We all look cute.
We head back to our venue with Haneef and his driver and I try contacting Saleem, he ought to have landed in Nigeria by now. He's supposed to message or even call me first when he reaches. " Saleem hasn't texted?" Juwairiyah asks from my left side and I nod. " Maybe something delayed them, don't worry, he'll message you. Stop pouting sadly, it always makes me feel like crying for you" She says again and hugs me gently before all for us head into the building and to our destination at the top floor.
My eyes open in amazement as the elevator door opens up again revealing an area that looks simply amazing, there are pretty lights shining and twinkling everywhere, adding more colour to the area. Her cake is seated gracefully at the middle of the table, which is also surrounded by tons of mouth watering snacks and delicacies. Ameerah is certainly going to love this. " Thank you very much Malika" I chirp happily and wrap my arms around her, giving her a big hug. She's tall by the way, intimidating.
" You are welcome, we're glad we could be part of this special day" she answers as I finally let go of her. " Like everything is just perfect, what do you think Haneef?" I hear Tayibah ask Haneef who's busy looking around as well. " it's awesome actually, Ameerah is going to love it" he answers and my eyes move to Juwairiyah who's busy taking pictures with everything around her.
My phone dings and I check it swiftly, it's a text message from Adama.
Adama:
Yoo!
We're coming up.
" Well it's time to get the cannons ready. Get your cameras ready too and wait" I announce and we all move to position ourselves. Tayibah and Juwairiyah are standing by the cannons while I and Haneef are ready with our cameras to record the moment. " I didn't tell you you look stunning tonight" Haneef whispers into my ear and I blush instantly. " Well thank you, you actually don't look bad yourself" I honestly didn't take in his look till now, he's wearing a white jean jacket on top a black shirt and black trousers, with fancy sneakers.
" Well, it's really not hard for me to look good" He answers and flashes a quick wink my way before returning back to his phone.
I swear, my heart fluttered from that tiny move.
He really is a charmer.
As the elevator finally opens up slowly, Fall- by davido starts playing in the background and the cannons go off as a figure of Ameerah in a plain white ruffle dress reveals itself. I glance to my side, to meet Haneef staring lovely at the love of his life. There's this twinkle in his eyes as he's staring and my heart can't help but soften, getting them back together isn't bad right?
I mean I know I said I didn't want to be part of their issues but there's obviously something that needs to be settled between these two and they'll be happy if they move on from it.
I'll honestly love to see them happy, together.
" Happy Birthday Ameerah" Candelaria squeals and we join her in cheering for our birthday girl. She looks so happy.
Ameerah rushes to hug me tightly and thank me for everything and my lips form a proud smile.
I'll honestly never stop saying that she deserves this and more.
The event kicks off with pictures and dancing, with Haneef being our photographer and videographer for the day.
An hour after the beginning of the celebration, Ameerah's father messages me, informing me of his arrival. I decided to take a short break after dancing to refresh my self when the message came in. It's time for Ameerah's smile to widen even more.
" Guys, can we all sit down for a moment and pause the music please DJ" I request and with questioning eyes, they all obey. " What's going on Zakiyah?" The celebrant asks and proudly, I give her an answer. " I'm about to give you your birthday present, just wait. It should be here in a few seconds" I respond and hurriedly walk over to the front of the elevator to wait for her father.
The doors open up again as my heart begins to pace faster and a bold figure of a strikingly handsome mr Abdulmalik appears right in front of us.
He's wearing a black suit, looking all formal. I quickly turn around to meet Ameerah's eyes, which are now filled with mixed emotions. " Good evening sir" I greet as mr Abdulmalik walks out of the elevator, eyes locked with that of Ameerah's.
"Daddy?" Those words didn't leave Ameerah's lips with a sound as she stands up from her seat, walking towards her father. " I honestly can't believe this is real, Zakiyah what did you do?" Ameerah asks, finally sparing me a glance and I get to look into her now teary eyes. " You need to clear everything that happened to you before, and here he is to give you all your answers and make you happy, genuinely" I respond and she instantly pulls me into a warm hug, pouring her eyes out. " Thank you so much Zakiyah" she says and I gently pat her back. I'm more than glad that she liked my surprise, I mean who wouldn't.
Immediately after letting go of me, I happily watch Ameerah fall into the arms of her father who she hasn't seen in years. It's really an honor that I got to make this happen.
I received lots of nice comments from everyone around because of my nice act and here I am now, standing by the edge of the walls, enjoying the pretty view of all the skyscrapers from here and enjoying the cool breeze, feeling at ease and proud of myself.
It feels so good to be good. Turning my data on, messages flood into my phone and I begin to glance through them one by one, my heart starting to race as I glance through some of them saying " I'm so sorry for your loss".
"What's going on?" I ask myself and enter our group chat to meet 163 unread messages. It's better to read everything one by one and get the gist of what's really happening.
There's a video at the top a random class mate of ours sent to the group that evolved a lot of comments and I quickly click on it to view.
It's a clip from Al Jazeera news and listen carefully to what the newscaster is relaying.
" Coming in live, is a footage of an Emirate airplane, allegedly heading to Nigeria earlier today that exploded mid-air on reaching the outskirts of Sudan leaving behind no survivors. Here's our live informant Irene, please share the news..."
" Hello Good day, thank you Alexa. Earlier today, an Emirate airplane coming from dubai exploded mid-air right here in the outskirts of Sudan, it is reported that there are no survivors for now and many bodies are being recovered as we speak. The pilot, who we got to know to be in the person of Saleem Yahaya reported that the plane was having a fuel leakage which caused the explosion"
No.
No.No.No
I can't watch more.
Inalillahi wa ina ilaihi rajiun. " Nooo" I scream out loud, not minding the phone falling out of my hands and down the building as tears begin to swell up my eyes.
I honestly can't believe that my Saleem is gone.