Hidaya
"Hidaya baku gama ba?" Yaya's voice calls from the door and both Adda Fatima and I look at him at the same time.
"We'll be done in about 10 minutes insha Allah" I glance at my phone.
We were really running late and I was yet to collect my graduation gown from the admin office. Heck I still didn't get my outfit from home, I stayed over at Yaya's house because Adda was to do my makeup and I ended up forgetting the outfit at home. It was hard to swallow the fact that I was graduating today, it still felt like a dream.
"Yaya how about you go pick mama up and come back? We're almost done with the makeup." I plead.
"Well you guys better hurry cause we're really running late." He leaves.
We soon finished the makeup and I was doing my hair when mama called.
"Hidaya which one is the outfit? I can't tell."
"Mama there's a shopping bag in my wardrobe, just grab it that's the one." I reply.
"Okay we'll be there soon."
A few minutes go by and Adda convinces me to eat before they arrive but I was way too anxious to do anything. The second I heard the honking of a car outside I ran out.
"I parked the car outside, get changed quickly and let's go." Yaya sprints in with mama behind him. She was holding two shopping bags leaving me confused.
"I saw two bags and didn't know which one to bring." She hands them to me.
"It's okay mama let me go change." I run into the bedroom.
I gasp upon opening the first shopping bag. I had ordered an atampa skirt and blouse from my tailor and he butchered the skirt so I had to send it back to him for adjustments, the problem was I never got the skirt back and so all that was inside was the blouse.
"Innalillahi ya rabb please no!!!" I exclaim grabbing the next bag and almost tearing it open. My hands touch something beautifully silky and as I pull it out, my eyes come into view with a purple abaya. Not just any abaya, Ziyad's abaya.
Great....
________________________________Ziyad
"Congratulations Mubarak." About twenty voices roar the second we get out of the masjid, the knot has been tied Alhamdulillah and my dude was now a married man. We head to the car after greeting about a thousand people and finally head home to the main event of the day.
"How do you feel man?" I ask focusing on the road.
"Like a married man, you kids won't understand the feeling." He teases and I laugh.
"Ahh so you're now calling us kids? Wow" I exaggerate.
"Ehen naa. You'll be a man when you get married but for now you're a kid." He shrugs and we both laugh.
We got home within a few minutes and almost immediately I was being called upon by every uncle in the house.
"We need more drinks for the guests."
"Go bring so and so in, they don't know the house."
"The security guards need to talk to you."
"We need a car to pick up the bridesmaids."
And a lot more. I check the time and it was about an hour and half after the time I was supposed to leave for the graduation. I rush upstairs to the room the groom was in.
"Bro I really got to go but I've got Aliyu and Saif on everything. I'll be back in an hour insha Allah before the event." I lean in halfway through the door.
"It's okay man, no problem." He flashes me a big grin, this man was high on dopamine.
I ignore the thousand people calling my name and rush to the car. "I need to go get more drinks." I yell out the window at one of my cousins that was calling me before zooming out the house.
I need to go get my dopamine.
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I drove like a mad man and arrive five minutes earlier than I should've. I adjust my zanna Bukar and babban riga before going out the car, I was panting as if I had ran to the venue but I couldn't stop now, i sprint into the hall and hit the brakes to avoid drawing attention to myself. The graduants we're going up the stage one by one collecting their certificates and taking pictures, I make my way to an empty seat in the second row praying to Allah I didn't miss hers. Two more people and I hear...
"Hidaya Ishaq Yusuf"
My head snaps up immediately, it was her! My Hidaya. It's her. I didn't know when I stood up, I bring out my phone to capture the moment. But then I notice something....is that the abaya I brought her?
________________________________
I was behind Esther my course mate and the second she walked away my name was called, emotions running through my head I walk up the stage, all I could repeat in my mind was alhamdulillah. I could sight mama, yaya, adda and Yusra in the crowd all with their phones out. My eyes tear up seeing the beautiful proud look in mama's eyes, we make eye contact and I blow her a kiss making her smile even more. As I make my way to the school Dean, i sight someone else standing in the crowd, he wasn't moving or walking out, he also had his phone out and me if snapping me and he looked a lot like Ziyad. I walk off the stage after a couple of congratulations from the professors and a few pictures. I make my way back to mama and the rest where I receive tons of hugs but my mind was somewhere else, I want to know if that was really him or not. I kept glancing back from my seat and we managed to make eye contact, it was him. He remembered? I recall my conversation with Mubarak.
A week ago....
I was coming out of the bathroom when my phone stopped ringing. I had 5 missed calls from a strange number and a message. I unlock the phone and read the message.
'Hey it's Mubarak, Ziyad's cousin. I was wondering if I could talk to you.'
I dial the number back and after a couple of rings he picks up. We exchange greetings and I say "sorry I wasn't near when you called, hope all is well?"
"Yeah everything is okay alhamdulillah. I wanted to talk to you about something ne, I hope you're not busy?"
"No I'm not..." I sit on my bed "...is everything okay?"
"Yes.." he laughs "...karki damu ba komai. It's about the two of you, that's you and Ziyad."
"Uhm...okay." I hesitate.
"He told me all that happened between you and I didn't want to stay silent especially because I know the reason why he did what he did, sort of." He states and I gulp.
"He told you everything?" I feel myself starting to swear a bit.
"Yes, and I want to start out by saying there is absolutely nothing with telling someone you like them so please don't feel bad about it..."
Pfft...I wish you said that a month ago..
"....Ziyad I promise you is a good person, life made him the way he is." He stops as if hesitating to say the next thing.
"Yeah..?" I say when the silence started getting a little too much.
"Ziyad used to have someone, this was about six to seven years back when he finished university. He met Maryam in his final year and they got together almost immediately, they applied to the same company and started working together. Their goal was to get married after they saved up some money to get a house but unfortunately Maryam was seeing other people. Only two months after they started working, Maryam got a promotion and Ziyad was still at the same spot, he literally started starving himself of the things he wanted all to save up enough to give her the life she wanted. He later found out that she was seeing their boss, they were dating and that was why she even got promoted. He found out really late, about two days to the wedding and I can't even begin to tell you how badly that broke him..."
He takes a deep breath "...Ziyad was really close to his dad you know...and this girl, he told his dad about her, that's how serious he was about her. But that's what she gave him in return, after a year haka we convinced him to start dating again just to put himself out there because after Maryam he became a completely different person. He finally agreed and met someone, Badriyya. Because of Maryam, Ziyad shut Badriyya out. She truly really loved him but he just couldn't bring himself to believe it so he just kept pushing her away until eventually he asked for a breakup...and even then Badriyya still didnt move on, she would still occasionally call him in hopes that they would get back together but he never cared. And when he finally did, she had already moved on..."
"Ya rabb..." I sigh.
"...so I think you can imagine the amount of pain he went through and all within short periods of time. He decided to quit love altogether as he had been hurt and he had also hurt someone. He'd still get some girls trying to ask him out here and there but he never paid them any attention, but you Hidaya..."
"Yeah...?" I answer.
"Hidaya you're special to him. Wallahi, I've known Ziyad all my life and I know when he likes and dislikes something. And you have a special place in his heart. I don't want to do all the talking for him but please...when he brings himself to you, give him a chance, hear him out. That's all I ask if you."