" You need fresh air darling, go out and buy a smoothie or something or just drive around the city. I honestly don't like seeing you like this" Daddy says to me, taking my phone away from my fragile hands as I laid on my bed, looking at all of Saleem's pictures, wishing he was still around. " It's honestly hard to get over it daddy" I respond in a whisper, sitting upright on my bed.
" I know it is, but did you let the loss of your mother ruin your life?" He asks and I shake my head. " now, don't let Saleem's absence ruin you. You're young and In Sha Allah you have a bright future ahead of you. People come and go, and of course it hurts but it's your choice to let the departure weigh you down or keep you going. Choosing the latter is what's best for you and for us all. It's been four days since you left your room, please Zakiyah, it's enough" Daddy says again and I sigh heavily, letting his words sink in. " it's going to be hard for me to have fun after everything"
" It'll happen gradually, okay?" He answers and I nod. " Bear in mind that he won't like to see you in this condition, even if he's gone. He'll be happy if you're happy so at least, do that for him" Daddy says and with a small smile, I gently rest my head on his shoulder. " I know you can do this, you've done it before, you're going to be able to do it again, right?" He says sweetly and I respond " right".
He left minutes after for work and I made sure not to bump into Habeebah, no matter what. I'm certainly not in the mood for any of her shenanigans this morning. Ameerah isn't home, I'd figured she went to work already so I need to find something to keep myself busy. I might just end up driving to Juwairiyah's or Tayibah's place.
After taking a bath, I got dressed in a pair of blue baggy jean trousers, a black shirt and a jacket, cause it's windy outside. I threw a black cap and a veil on me, slipped into a pair of sneakers, grabbed my car keys and here I am, driving to Tayibah's house in Kawo.
It'll be fun if the rain pours while I'm at her place.
I'd figured I'd get something for Tayibah's younger siblings, Nusaibah, Mufeedah and Marzuq. Tayibah has 5 siblings, the eldest is Zahra who is now married, followed by her handsome brother, Ahmad, then Tayibah comes in next, followed by Nusaiba, Marzuq and then Mufeedah.
Mufeedah is the most beautiful amongst all of them, she's 4 and man, she is insanely cute. They mixed the genes of their beautiful parents and made something for themselves, they all share similar resemblances with their parents and more similar resemblances between themselves.
Malteasers chocolates were the only thing I could get for them at a nearby store that's a walk away from their house.
The Farouq's, that's Tayibah's family, don't have a regular gateman. Their father works in the military, navy so yeah, that explains it.
Driving into their spacious compound, I get down from my car with the pack of Malteasers in my hands and head towards the door that leads to the main house. Tayibah's mother, or as people call her, Mamman Mufee, calls out my name and I look around to meet her walking down the stairs to their grand living room with her eldest daughter behind her.
When I say grand, I really mean grand. " A'ahn Zakiyah, I've missed seeing your beautiful face, how are you?" She chirps as I walk towards her on the stairs and she immediately pulls me into a warm hug as I greet Aunty Zahra that's behind her, with a small baby bump.
Awww, her baby's going to be adorable.
" Mama I'm fine"
" Are you sure?, we heard what happened with Saleem, Allah ya jikanshi ( may his soul rest in peace)" She says and I smile a bit before responding with an " ameen".
" Zakiyah, everything will be fine okay.... take care of yourself, he'd want that" Aunty Zahra says, same thing daddy said.
" Well Zaki, we're going to pick your younger siblings from school. Do you want anything?" Tayibah's mother asks and I shake my head. " Don't worry, zan ce ma Tayibah ta yi maki girki ( don't worry, I'll tell Tayibah to cook for you)" Aunty Zahra says and I couldn't help the laugh that came out of me in response, making them join me. Tayibah can't cook a proper meal even if the world depended on it. " See you guys, she's learning slowly. Zahra let's go, Zakiyah just cook anything you want in the kitchen when you get hungry" Mama says and with a hug from both of them, they walk towards the front door and I walk up the stairs to Tayibah's room.
Lo and behold, Tayibah is giggling while on a video call with someone, certainly Salman. Honestly I'm jealous, but I really can't let that make me inconsiderate and not happy for my friend who has been chasing boys away all her life.
" Well Hello lovebirds" I chirp loudly in the background, making Tayibah pay more attention to my arrival as she lifts her eyes from her phone screen. " Guy, don't call us lovebirds" she says and throws a pillow at me, that hits my face squarely.
" There's nothing wrong with being honest" I say and sit beside her on her bed, looking at the person she's giggling over and yes, it's the handsome Salman. I really need to know more about this dude since he's really into one of my bestfriends. " Oh Zakiyah, how're you?, I heard what happened, I'm deeply sorry for your loss" He says, arabian accent thick. " It's okay, thank you very much" I answer. " Uhmm, can you hold on a bit?, I'll just talk to this girl here for a second. I'll call you back in a jiffy" She really seems to be enjoying his company.
" He's an interesting person, better than all these Nigerian mumu's" Tayibah says with a blush on her cheeks and my smile widens from noticing them. " Alas! The person sweeping you off your feet with sweet words has finally arrived" I answer dramatically, earning me a spank on my thigh. " Ouch" I groan and pout.
" Well how are you?"
" I am fine I guess, trying to be" I say and rest my self on her bed, enjoying how soft her bed is. " you'll be fine, should I call Juwairiyah to come over?"
" Yeap, I'm hungry Tayibah. I didn't eat anything at home"
" who asked you not to?" She answers while dialing Juwairiyah's number. " Tayibah, show me small love now" I whine and she sighs, heavily. " why?"
" Because"
" Because what?"
" Because because" I say in response and laugh at how she face palms herself. " let's go and cook something, I can make dan wake at least, you'll fry the onions. Let's go, let me message Salman first. You're such a kill joy" Tayibah answers after a loud groan and speaks into the phone as Juwairiyah answers on the other line.
" Guy how far, Zakiyah is around, come over"
" Yayy, I'll get dressed and tell oga Marcus to bring me"
" Toh, if you like sleep there"
" I'd love to do that "
" Mtsww" Tayibah hisses in annoyance and ends the call. " I wonder why you two are my bestfriends sometimes" she voices as she begins texting on her phone and I remove my jacket, veil and sneakers. " Because you love us like your life depends on it"
" Now that's a big fat lie"
" Accept it jare" I say, walk out of her room and head to their kitchen. Their home is normally not this quiet, her younger siblings are in school so that always explains it.
" So why's Salman already so special to you?" I comment while washing the onions I managed to slice for our meal. " He's funny, and we have a lot in common. Plus he's handsome, do you know he has finished all of Danielle steel's books and that's surprising because he says work is always busy. He finished from university of California last year and is already working, software programming. He can be sarcastic as well, but he's really nice and everything. You should see his younger siblings, his dad is late and he has two younger sisters, Yara and Farah. Yara is our age and Farah is a bit older, they're drop dead gorgeous wallahi" Tayibah has never talked about a guy like this, even though I can't help but feel slightly jealous and hurt, I'm still more than happy for her.
She deserves someone who'll keep her happy, irrespective of their distance apart and race. " He's into badminton too, and he has a nice fashion sense. You don't always see those kind of guys here in Kaduna, it's only those ones that will slide into your DM with the lamest pick up lines that we have. So sad" She shakes her head and I smile widely at the motion.
" Aunty Nafisa says she'll be done with our dresses next week, do you know that Zahra is pregnant?" I clearly saw earlier. " I'm going to be an aunt soon" she squeals and at the moment, the kitchen door swings open, revealing a figure of Juwairiyah in a full length hijab. " You're wearing shorts inside that ko" Tayibah says to Juwairiyah as she takes off her hijab and confirms her question.
Juwairiyah is wearing baggy white shorts and a casual tee shirt, not exposing her curves. " you know me"
" Help me cut the tomatoes so we can eat, I'm really hungry" I request while pouring the hot oil with fried onions into a plate. " sure, I'm hungry too" she's always hungry.
We sat down to eat our meal in Tayibah's room and the both of them discussed how their love life was going. Part of me feels that isn't fair because I just lost someone I planned on spending the rest of my life with and here they are, enjoying their several companions. But the greater part of me doesn't mind, I mean they're going to have to talk about their relationships with someone and that person has to be me.
I'm happy for them though but I can't help but feel left out.
" You guys don't know what happened.." Juwairiyah starts, sparking I and Tayibah's interest. " on our graduation ba, it's now Abigail is telling me that she and headboy saw Mary Ann making out with one junior girl, in science lab" Ewwww. " oh my goodness, that girl is disgusting, tell me why they gave her head girl please?" Tayibah asks in disgust. " is that not how she wanted to kiss Zakiyah when they were making list of stuff for cultural day in library" I honestly don't want to be reminded about that.
But yes, it happened.
That day was very weird, she sat very close to me and was using her hand to caress my thighs, she even almost tried to put her hand under my skirt. I sternly told her to stop and she did, we continued making our list and I caught her staring at my lips, trying to lean in and kiss me.
That was when she received a well deserved slap across her face from me, luckily we didn't stir any attention because there was no one apart from us in the library and she also begged me not to report her to the school.
I didn't report her, but I made sure to threaten her not to try such nonsense again.
It was a horrible experience. " Omo, if I catch that girl ehn. I'll beat her, she's very beautiful and she's wasting it all on lesbianism" Tayibah groans and Juwairiyah laughs at her.
" It's not her fault actually, if you hear her story, wallahi you'll feel for her" Juwairiyah says and both I and Tayibah exchange strange looks, like 'what's this mumu saying?'
" Don't look at me like that. You know Amanda in B class right, the cute one, fair, igbo, Chimamanda?" She was the cutest girl back in our set, she even received an award for it. " Yeah, sure" Tayibah answers.
" well her mother and Mary Ann's mother are friends. So you know randomly this one will go to this one's house for gist and like that like that, sha you get?" She starts and we both nod. " Toh when what happened to you happened, ashey Chimamanda saw what went on so she came to talk to me, cause you know I'm friendlier with her than the both of you"
"Yeah" I answer. " So she told me not to let anyone else know, she made me promise. Toh, she said that there was a time that her mother and Mary Ann's mom were talking, and she was just passing by. She heard them talking about how Mary Ann's parents and Mary Ann herself involve in threesome" Oh my goodness.
My jaw drops from that sentence, what nonsensical activity is that?. " hmmm, I was shocked o and do you know why?, wai the mother said that they're trying to let their daughter know how to do with her husband in the future. Are you hearing nonsense?, wai that it's better to engage the daughter now so that she'll not go outside and experience something she can be able to experience inside her house. So they're enlightening her on her sexual life" that's just disgusting. " And she's the only child ko" Tayibah asks and Juwairiyah nods. " The thing is sickening honestly, can't the Mary Ann tell them it's not right?" I say and another story erupts. " toh Chimamanda said, her mother told Mary Ann's mother that what they're doing isn't proper, that they should stop. Mary Ann's mother said sure, they'll stop and they did but it impacted on Mary Ann you get?. She's nice, respectful and smart yes but she sleeps around with both genders, she's bisexual and not a lesbian" I never imagined that this kind of thing can happen in this country honestly.
" And that they've been doing it for long so she's used to it, if they say she should stop now, it won't be easy for her" Oh no. " Chimamanda's own was that we shouldn't judge her and stuff cause it's honestly not her fault. It's her parents that fucked up and need mental checkup as well. And now, Chimamanda's mother has talked to her wai, but I guess it's hard to let go of that kind of thing"
" It's honestly not nice wallahi, I don't even know how to react to all this" Tayibah says, with folded arms. " Well there's nothing we can do but pray for her, we can't just come and start advising because it's not as if we're close. Let's just pray for her and stay out of her issue" I say and with heavy sighs we continue to eat our meal.
I can't believe I almost lost my appetite over that.
There should be a punishment for her parents under the Nigerian constitution.
The moment we finished washing our plates we used to eat, Mamman Mufee arrived with her four children. I had a great time chatting with them and helping Nusaiba and Marzuq with their assignments, Nusaiba is in Jss3 and Marzuq, Jss1. Their mother brought home awara(Tofu) and gurasa which I ate to my fill before going back to rest in Tayibah's room while rain poured heavily, reminding of the time I spent with Saleem in his car when it was raining and we had to stop.
" You guys shouldn't forget to include Saleem in your prayers please" I say out of the blue and watch as they both look my way. " We never forget to do that Zakiyah" Juwairiyah says and sends me a small smile.
My phone begins to ring in my bag and I rush to pick it up, meeting Hannef's name on the caller ID. " Hey Haneef what's up?"
" Hey how are you?, I just dropped by your house and they said you went out"
" Yeah I went to see Tayibah"
" oh okay, hope you're fine?"
" Yeah I very much am, you?"
" I'm fine too. I was wondering if you'll be free tomorrow, to go check something out"
" oh what's that?"
" A surprise, just be ready by 2:00pm tomorrow, I'll come and pick you up"
" well I should know what I'm dressing up for"
" Oh just wear something casual, I'll talk to you later, take care of yourself"
" Sure, I will, you too"
" Sure, bye"
" Bye" I sang and end the call. " So where are you and Haneef going to?" Tay Tay asks. " No idea, he said it's a surprise"
" Oh yayy, can we come along?" Juwee inquires. " He didn't say and I'm not sure, he would have said all of us though"
" But he didn't, so you two are going on a surprise date" Well I don't see it like that. " Well I don't see it as one"
" It looks like one actually, I second Tayibah's thoughts" Juwee adds. " Well we aren't sure, but if there's something I'm sure of, it's that Ameerah doesn't like seeing you around Haneef" Tayibah says and Juwee continues, " yeah, I remember when you two sat together on the plane when we were on our way back, she didn't peel her eyes off you guys for even a second. You could see the lines of her veins form on her forehead, she was mad" oh I still haven't had the time to even think about her and my surprise for her on her birthday. " Really, she was jealous like...if looks could kill, I'm sure you would have joined Saleem" oh it's that bad. " Mumu, don't say that" Tayibah scolds Juwee by pulling her ear and I laugh at them. " Well, you guys know that I don't care" I respond, leaving Tayibah to give me an answer.
" But your step sister cares, big time"