Samaar's POV
Yesterday was the day I met Sheath. Today was just as unpredictable. I went to school, looking extremely tired. Well, I did sleep late at night with an extended curfew which was pretty sad because Aakifah kept me up as we Skyped our parents. I mean I have a bed time, and if I don't follow it, then I'll be mad and grumpy the whole day. Sareena, the girl sitting beside me, had me playing 'rock, paper, sissors.' We were both board, especially since the professor came late.
"I'm usually not into other peoples cultures and religions but I wanted to ask you something." She said. I nodded telling her to go on. I didn't have the energy to talk. I yawned without realizing it. She laughed. "You didn't get enough sleep, did you?" She asked.
"This time, my parents kept me up..." I put my head on the table. "So what did you wanna ask?" I asked, resting my eyes.
"Well, have you ever had a boyfriend?" She asked. I got up, and shook my head.
"In our religion, love comes after marriage. In other religion and cultures love comes before marriage." I replied. My hands automatically jumped for my stomach. I was having cramps. Bad ones. "Oh god, my day just keeps getting worst and worst, doesn't it?" I asked myself in pain.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Cramps." I whispered. She shuffled through her bag and gave me a pill.
"It works." She said, smiling, My face sparkled as I looked a the pill. This will save my life! "Where's the professor today anyways?"
"Who knows. Does this mean we can sleep?" I asked, excited. "Oh, where's your boyfriend?" I asked looking straight at her. She sort of faked a smiled.
"We broke up?" She said in a sad voice. My face became twisted.
"For what reason?" I asked.
"He... caught me with another guy..." She said, slowly.
"Are you guilty of cheating on him?" I asked her in a low voice. She shook her head. She was about to cry. I furrowed my eyebrows and made a retarted face. She laughed. "Don't cry! He doesn't deserve you if he can't trust you. Has he even tried talking it out with you?"
"Nope. He hasn't even called yet."At the door, I saw the professor come in. As we started class, we ended up working in silence. After class, I talked to Sereena again.
"If you're still feeling depressed, I could hang out with you for another hour or so?" She was extremely depressed.
"I think I should just go home and sleep." She said.
"Nonsense! You need to forget about him completely." I said, jokingly.
"I guess." She replied. "So where are we going?" She asked. I grinned.
"Hmm... Pizza?" I asked. "I'm seriously craving it!" She slapped herself and grinned.
"Let's go." She said in a twisted tone. We wen't to the closest (halal) pizza store we could find. Luckily it was only one street ahead. We found a spot at the park and sat down.
"Wanna do prank calls?" I asked. "What's your boyfriends phone number?" I asked, not waiting for her reply.
She sighed, then told me. We told him it was an important phone call from the university asking him o drop out immediately. He got scared and we hung up. I wonder if universities actually do that though...
After spending the day at the movies and everything we finally went to the library. She was actually really interested in religions. She kept asking me over and over again about Islam. At one point it actually got on my nerves so I started asking her about Christianity because I assumed she was when all she ever said was 'Jesus Christ!' in all the scary situations she's ever been in while I was present. She answered them as I expected but in the end I found out she was actually a Hindu. When I asked her why she still ate pork and everything she replied that she was a Hindu at heart but a Christian in name and action. She sort of reminded me of Pi from Life of Pi...
After we did a whole bunch of chemistry work we were able to leave the library. I also found out she lived a street ahead of where I live which was that girls dormitory, As suffocating as it was I was glad to get to it before Aakifah. Otherwise she'd worry about me being kidnapped or something.
"Oh! Give me your number..." She said, looking through her phone for the contact list,
"Sure." I took a pen out and ripped a paper from my agenda and wrote it down. We were right in front of the dormitory.
"Samaar?"
"Yes?" I said, looking down at the paper I was writing on.
"Today was great. Even though I still have some pizza stuck in my teeth." We laughed and when she left I thought about what my married life would be like. Would I ever get misunderstood by my husband in a situation like that? Well the reason I'm saying 'husband' instead of Sheath should be pretty obvious. Well now since we're husband and wfe I might as well work my charms on him. I grinned as I went inside. Aakifah came in half an hour later.
She looked horrible.
"Allergies?" I asked.
She nodded in an unsettle way. "Ugh! Why do I have to suffer? I got it on the way home because I was this close to eating a kiwi."
I raised my eyebrows. "How so?" I asked as I rolled my chair to her bed.
"They were giving out samples of fruit muffins and cake. Oh, mom called and she said that you can meet Sheath as much as you want and I for one am free of chaperoning you." She said in a sing-songy voice. I nodded looking at her thoughtfully, thinking about nothing but cakes.
"Hey, couldn't you have brought me one at least?" I was craving some.
"Relax. Your birthday... Oh, right. You hate celebrating them cuz you think you're only 8 years old at the moment." Aakifah said as she rolled her eyes.
"Actually I don't think I am, I just am."
"May Allah bless your young soul." She said, getting up from her bed. Tomorrow's Saturday. Ruhi couldn't make it today so she said she'll take us somewhere tomorrow."
"Where?" I asked.
"I don't know..." She took out a chip packet from the cupboard and threw it at me. I opened it and started eating some. "Probably something to do with her wedding again. Where's the sour cream??"
"Wanna go to that halal Chinese shop around the corner?" Aakifah still had her clothes on, except she wasn't wearing her hijab.
"Can we? How much do we have left for this week?" She asked.
"About $50?" I said, thinking really hard. "It'll be enough. Plus the shop's pretty cheap too!"
"Fine, let us feast tonight." Aakifah said grinning. Our parent's sent us $80 each week for food. We actually saved quite a bit from before since we only brought chocolate hazelnut spread, bread and more chocolate hazelnut spread. Oh and we also brought a lot of noodle packets too. Eighty dollars for food was more than we needed. We'd save the rest for a shopping spree sometimes.
When we left the building, we started walking around the houses in front of us. In five minutes we reached the place in no time. "Hey, are you sure I'm allowed to hang out with Sheath whenever I want to? I still feel like I shouldn't..." I asked Aakifah.
"Why? If you guys didn't have the minds of young children, you would have already been living together. That's what mom told me. She said you're just scared for no reason. The day we went to Sheath's work place, do you know what happened? When Sheath came to serve us, and Ruhi talked to him, he was looking at you the whole time. That's just how much he loves you. He can only stare at you." We walked into the halal Chinese shop and sat down.
"Now that is obviously a lie... If he only had eyes for me, he wouldn't be talking to other girls while they flirted with him."
"Hmm? When did that happen?" She asked looking at me in shock.
"Uh... it didn't." Right... it's a risk to tell Aakifah anything. She won't believe me. But then again when he was talking to the girl at his work place... he was looking through orders. So he wasn't looking at her. UGH! I'm not going to believe what Aakifah said! That's right.. only Allah knows!... I wish I knew sooner or later though.
"May I take your order?" I was staring at the window, when I heard that familiar hoarse voice again for the second time in my life.
"Yes please." Aakifah said as she told him what she and I wanted for dinner. I didn't look up or talk until he left our table. It was Afsar for sure, and I didn't have to confirm it... I looked up and found myself staring at his back as he fixed us the order.
"Can we take take-out instead?" I asked Aakifah. Before she could answer, I saw a bunch of guys coming into the store, filling up each and every place in it. What the.... The store was extremely small. I saw two guys at the couner ordering for everyone over there. One of them was... Sheath.
He was laughing at the joke the other guy told him. As I closely examined Sheath, I saw Afsar walk up to him. Afsar smiled and shook hands with all of them. He especially started talking to Sheath.
The store was now cramped. Even the AC couldn't make up for the hot weather in the store.
I wanted to leave very quickly... Aakifah finally turned to me and looked me up and down. "You look fine for now. Why don't you go talk to him?" She asked.
Knowing it, I asked "Who might you be talking about?" I asked flipping through the menu casually.
"Your husband, of course." I frowned at the thought.
"He has a life of his own. Leave him alone for now." I said as another waiter brought us water to the table. I paused. "Remember the jinni guy I talked about before?" I asked her.
She nodded, looking at me. "He was the first guy who came and served us." She raised her right eyebrow.
"You said he was a Muslim Afghan."
"And I also said he didn't look like one."
"Ah! So he's the guy that partnered up with you in class?" I nodded.
"I feel like something bad will happen if I stick around him..." I paused looking at Aakifah's face. She was looking over at Afsar. When she looked back, she gave me a serious look.
"Don't ever... I repeat EVER think of falling in love with another guy other than your husband." She said as she flicked my forehead. "I understand your love for calm and quiet people like him, but you know. You of all people know it's trouble." She looked at him again.
Wait. What? That was impossible. How in the world does that make sense. "Aakifah, are you okay in the head or something?" I asked.
"How could I not be?" She asked. "Alhamdullillah. I'm as fine as I could ever be. Oh, by the way, isn't that your hubby walking towards us?" She said, pointing directly at Sheath. I swear. Why is it always at times when I don't want to deal with him does he show up? Oh Allah, did I do something wrong to anger you?
"Assalamu Alaykum, Mr. Brother-in-law." Aakifah said, smiling as she got up.
"Walaykumasalaam." Sheath said, smiling back as he lowered his gaze.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom for a bit to fix up. So you guys can talk if you want."
If we want? If we want? I don't want to! But I'll have to anyways! Wait! This should be a good opportunity! I have to make him like me back. But... how? Ugh! Why am I so lost??
He said salaam and waited for my reply. I... almost forgot how to talk...
I smiled really big and finally greeted him back. It was probably the hugest effort I ever made in my life. He sat down across from me and put his hands in his pocket. His glasses were fixed in place and his eyes were right on me.
"What are you doing out today at this time?" He asked. When I took too long producing an answer, he smiled and leaned in on the table. "Were you perhaps stalking me?"
For some reason all I could do was smile. "Maybe. Maybe not. Though I don't think you should make such accusations on your own. You'd probably be embarrassed to find out the truth." After examining his face, I saw him seat himself back the way he was before. "Me and Aakifah came out to eat. What about you?"
"I came to eat with some friends. They... came to celebrate something."
Something?
"Mind telling me what that 'something is?"
Sheath took his gaze off me as he looked down. "You."
Me? What? That doesn't make sense. I gave him a blank look.
"Well..." He continued. "After a year of pestering... they found out I was already married... They always tried hooking me up with some girl but I got really tired of it." I grinned.
"Why? Should they be hooking you up with a guy instead?"
He made a dumbfounded face than said, "Haha very funny... It's just that I don't believe in having a relationship involving a non-married couple."
I know I had a puzzled look on my face. "Remember one of the first times we ever talked to each other? Those plans about destroying the marriage? You were the one who suggested that you could run away with a girl. Weren't you serious?" I asked. I mean, come on... It just doesn't make sense. I waited for his answer as he poured himself a glass of water.
"Me having a girlfriend is simply impossible. I'd hate myself more than my parents would." He replied. "So obviously it was a lie." Then he handed me the water. I stared at it blankly. I finally held on to it as he moved back. "Drink up. It sounds like you have a sore throat..." He said looking at me. Somehow it was always like this. He is probably the only one guy that isn't able to stop my fast heartbeats towards him. And for that I felt a little shy but angry around him at times. How am I supposed to make him fall in love with me if I don't have the guts to stand up to him?
Afsar came around and finally brought our order. I saw Sheath get up as he saw Aakifah coming out. Afsar stared at me for a moment then looked up at Sheath. "That's her?" He asked calmly.
Sheath looked hesitant. "If you tell any of the other guys, I will murder you." A smile slipped over my face unconsciously. I don't know why but it felt like I was being protected. "Samaar, if anyone recognizes you... just run out of the store and I'll tell Afasr to wrap you a take-ou..."
"SHEATH!" I heard a voice coming from behind us. My ear drums almost popped... "No way! You're talking to a girl?!" I looked at Aakifah who looked at her watch.
"Shall we leave?" She asked me. I nodded. "I'm sorry, but can we have take-out instead? We have to get home now." When I looked over at Sheath, I saw him glaring at the guy to keep his mouth shut. But the guy didn't... He looked familiar... He had blond hair, grey eyes and a tan. Who is he? Sheath walked around the table to where I was standing. He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face the guy fully.
"Pretty, isn't she?" He asked. IS HE INSANE? "But unfortunately she's not an object you can play around with. So don't even think about it." He turned me back to him and whispered. "You might as well start doing niqab." His voice was inches away from my ears but my whole body turned to stone. Aakifah grabbed my arm and we were already out.
"What just happened?" I asked myself, but I heard Aakifah answering.
"You witnessed your hubby threatening someone." Aakifah said. She was smiling. "Aww, I wish I got married too."
After cooling down, I asked why she didn't get married before me.
"It's complicated. And I like it better this way! I wouldn't want to be with a playboy." Aakifah replied.
"Just tell me." I said, trying to forget about tonight.
"I'll tell you when we get home. It's a long story."
I didn't understand anything at all.