Note: yassin in the chapter pic! when someone says JazakAllah Khair is the reply wa iyyaki or wa iyyakum? I always get confused.
It had been a week since Badr left, and
his absence around the house was
slowly driving Yassin insane. In his spare time he didn't know what to do or who to talk to. He resented the emptiness of the huge house and missed the commotion his little brother created either arguing with Laila or watching Barcelona annihilate another team. Everytime he managed to successfully hack into a server there was no one to tell really. He was pretty sure Laila wouldn't appreciate his hacking legends at all.
He wondered if Niha would.
Wait-what?
Where did she come into this?!
He sighed and unplugged his phone from charge. There were several messages, and a couple were from Badr. Yassin eagerly opened them.
1:48am
I'm at the Langham on the other side of town. It's pretty awesome here, Jax already found someone.
3:09pm
Yassin I asked amu you can ask Bilal to come over if he's prepared to meet up with Chloe somewhere else. By the way, thanks for getting that description. I'm sure I'll find him soon.
Yassin grinned. It could be pretty awesome having Bilal around. As for finding out what the man who'd marred Laila's skin looked like was not too hard but a bit uncomfortable seeing as both of them had tried not to talk about that night since it happened. Then there was a last message and most recent:
5:45pm
Amu Faris's wife has fallen into coma. Don't tell Laila.
Oh no...
Yassin hadn't even seen Ms Ruba Mohammed, but he did know Amu Faris would have loved her very much if he was willing to go to such lengths to ensure her safety.
And now she was in coma.
He wondered if it was right not to tell Laila. Was it her right to know? Maybe it was something that she ought to know.
*****
After an hour of begging, Bilal was finally persuaded to move in. He'd hated not being able to bring Chloe over or at least tell her where he was going, but Badr had been pretty strict on that, and at times like these they listened to their little brother. Yassin went to find Laila, wondering how she'd take to Bilal. He could be a little...blunt sometimes.
"Oh, hey Yassin" Laila greeted him, unpacking some tandoori chicken he'd brought for dinner, "I wanted to tell you something!"
He grinned, picking up an apple and tossing it around, "I do too. You go first though"
"Okay" she said excitedly, "I got selected for the top team for soccer! I found out on Monday but I didn't even think to tell you. Our first game is on Saturday morning and it's at school!"
"Wow Laila you are full of surprises!"
She blushed slightly, "JazakAllah Khair"
He looked away awkwardly. How to reply?
"Wa iyyakum" she said softly, "that's what you say back"
"Oh" he said nothing else but felt a sense of relief she'd understood.
"You also had some good news?" She prompted with an encouraging smile.
"Oh yeah" he straightened up, a mischievous glint in his eye, "my brother Bilal is moving in for a while"