*Yaaaawn!* Please vote, and comment *Sleepy*
Point out any errors. I edited this one in a bit of a hurry. Happy reading! ^^
Salma's P.O.V.
Salma's breath got stuck in her throat. She had no idea what was going on. Zayn's stormy eyes were all she could see, and it was making her head spin.
"Z-Zayn?" she stuttered.
"Don't Zayn me!" Zayn barked.
Zayn glared at her, making her heart stop for an instant. Her cluelessness on why he was so mad at her made her dread his imminent outburst even more. However, she had little time to dwell upon it when she felt a movement beside her. Instinctively, Salma reached out to grab each of the brothers' arms. They had caught onto the fact that Zayn yelling at her, and they were not going to be pleasant about it. Salma could feel herself panicking with every passing second.
"Oye, oye!" James advanced towards him but Salma held him back. "All love and friendship aside bro, watch your mouth when you're talking to her."
With the white in his eyes going slightly red with fury, Zayn ignored James completely.
"Answer me!" he thundered, making Salma jump. "Tell me why is it okay to –"
"Zayn, what're you talking –"
"Don't talk to her like that!" James snapped.
"You stay out of this!" Zayn returned. James leapt towards him.
"Stop! James!" Salma cried. She let go of Dean just in time to grab James shirt and pulled him back. He looked he wanted to tear Zayn to shreds. In her periphery, Salma could see Niall and Claire trying to restrain Zayn.
"Watch it, Classy feet!" James seethed, struggling to break free, "I'll snap those millionaire legs of yours if you ever throw a nasty glance her way again!"
"I'd like to see you try?" Zayn smirked maliciously.
James tried to pounce on him again, but stopped when Salma pulled him back. He could easily have broken free but she knew he was careful not to hurt her in the process. Knowing James would not shrug her off so long as he feared she could get hurt, Salma turned her attention to Zayn who was continuously provoking him.
"Stop, Zayn, please," Salma pleaded, earning a look from him that she could not quite explain.
"Why? Got tired of playing games, have you?"
"I said don't talk to her like that!" James yelled.
Before she knew it, James had broken free. He attacked Zayn like a wounded beast, punching him in the face. Salma lost it.
"James! James, please! James!" Panicking, she turned to Dean for help. "Dean, help me!" she cried.
He was glaring at Zayn like he wanted to burn him down, but, at least, he stood rooted to where he was.
"I'd rather help James." Dean hissed, taking a step forward.
"No, Dean!"
However, when he reached the two beating each other to pulp, he grabbed James by the collar and dragged him back as Niall pulled Zayn away. Not able to reach each the other with their fists, Zayn and James started trying to kick each other.
Claire and Salma stepped in to break those two apart. Niall pulled Zayn back, while Dean stood guard in front of Salma and James. Salma pushed James to move away from Zayn, whose lower lip was bleeding profusely.
"You ran away with your life, you filthy rat!" Zayn growled at him, wiping the blood away on his sleeve.
"Shut up, coward!" James shouted, "You hid behind your sister!"
"What did you say?" Zayn struggled against Claire and Niall. "You rotten waste of sperm!"
"Zayn, just stop!" Claire pleaded, pushing him away.
"James! Come on!" Salma begged when he dug his heels into the ground. "Dean! Please, James! Let's go!"
Salma could hear Niall and Claire pleading with Zayn while the two kept glaring at each other. Finally giving in, James slowly brought an arm back and pulled Salma behind him.
"Stay away from her! You hear me," he yelled, as Salma kept dragging him. "Stay the hell away from her!"
***
"Ouch!" James winced.
Cody sighed.
"Sit still, young man!" He frowned at James. "Otherwise, she's going to drown the entire place in her tears."
"She should," James winced again when Cody started cleaning a deep cut, "I got beat up 'cos of her."
Wiping her eyes dry, Salma glared at him. He had several bruises along his jaw and deep gash near his left temple.
"Excuse me!" Salma said heatedly. "I didn't ask you start fighting."
"Yeah, but I still got beat up because of you."
Cody chuckled.
"That's a new one," he said. "Since when do guys get in fight over you?"
Groaning, Salma put her head down on the table. Dean reached out and rubbed her shoulder.
"It's not your fault."
"Yeah, try telling your brother that," Salma mumbled.
She felt bad that James got beat up because of her, but she was offended that James blamed her too.
"Yeah, try telling me that," James mimicked Salma.
"Shut up!" Salma snapped at him.
He laughed in reply then winced.
"Seriously Thomas." Cody frowned at him again. "Sit still!"
For the next five minutes nobody said a word. Cody's small office was unusually quiet as he cleaned and bandaged James's wounds. The only sounds they heard came from the few customers in the restaurant and the waiters attending to them.
Cody was a middle aged man, who ran a small eatery with his wife. Salma first met him a few years ago. Cody and his wife were drunk driving and got into a terrible accident. His wife was seriously injured. Salma remember him running straight in front of her car, his face pale and tear streaked. He had almost dropped his knees asking for help. While Salma got them to the hospital, her father and Uncle Dawood paid his hospital bills. Ever since then, the couple had become her friends and someone she could rely on in times of need. James and Dean were well acquainted with them too.
"Alright, then." Cody put the first aid away. "You're all set and bandaged."
"Thanks Code!" James smiled at him.
"No problem dude." Cody got up.
"What do we tell mum?!" Salma groaned again.
"That James got into a fight." Dean shrugged.
"Trust me, Sallabae, she won't ask for any proof." James smiled brightly, patting her shoulder in mock reassurance. "She'll believe us. I'll just tell her it was you."
Salma glared at him while the men laughed.
"Why did you get into a fight, anyway?" Cody asked.
A waiter came in with their orders.
"I told you, it was because of her," James replied. Before Salma could protest, he continued, "Some beast I knew back in England started yelling at her suddenly . I couldn't help it. He was asking for it, really."
"Is his face just as badly bruised?" Cody raised a brow.
"More than this, I assure you," James replied solemnly.
"That's my boy!" Cody and James grinned at each other.
Men, Meh! Salma frowned at the pair.
"By the way," Cody's voice turned serious, "what was he yelling at you for, if you don't mind me asking?"
Three pairs of curious eyes turned to stare at Salma expectantly. She gulped.
"Hold on!" Cody blinked at the two boys. "You guys don't know either?"
"Nope," they said in unison. Salma let out a slow breath. She was not sure how to explain, or, if she wanted to explain anything at all.
"Sallabae," James sat back in his chair, "I'd like to know why I got myself beaten to pulp."
***
Things turned unexpectedly nasty when they arrived home. Although James borrowed Cody's hood, he failed to conceal his bruises from Alley's scrutinizing gaze. As feared, Alley did not react well to his partially swollen face. She started screaming and fussing over him the moment James stepped over the threshold. Undoing and redoing all the bandages, she demanded to know what had happened.
James tried to humor her, but it only ended up backfiring.
"Oh, nothing happened Alley." James waved her off. "I only just found out that I'm a partial hulk. So I smashed my face into another guy's fists to see if –"
"James Henry Thomas!" Alley screamed. "You better start giving me answers or I will call your mother, you hear me!"
"Easy, easy there Alley!" James winced. "I only got a pair of really cute ears. I'd like to keep them functional, thank you."
"Thomas!"
"Present!" James raised his hand.
Salma had a hard time controlling her laughter. Before her mother could strangle him, Dean smacked him upside the head to shut him up.
"I'm going to call your mother!" Alley shot out of her chair. "And you two!"
Salma and Dean attempted to straighten their features when her raging mother turned to them.
"What were you doing when he was getting beaten up?"
Before either of them could reply, James started talking again.
"Yeah." He crossed his arms. "What exactly were you two doing?"
Salma kicked him under the table and Dean glared at him but James ignored their warning.
"You should have gotten your faces reshapened like me!" He scowled at them. "You know what Alley, I'm disappointed in them too! How can one be so peaceful and disciplined. These two are --"
James shut up when Alley pushed a phone in his face. Salma and Dean exchanged alarmed glances.
"Alley?" He raised a brow.
"No, it's your mother, Thomas!" Karen's angry voice blasted through the speaker.
The kitchen fell silent. All color drained out from Salma, James and Dean's face.
"Mum!" James snatched the phone, and headed towards the backyard.
Twenty minutes later, all three of them and Asim were gathered in Salma's room, depressed. Dean was furious but he was holding back in front of Asim. Had James's face not already been occupied by black and blue, he would have added a few more injuries to it. After Alley called Karen, she demanded that the boys fly to their Nan's immediately. Dean blamed James for getting their trip cut short by pushing Alley's buttons. Once Asim left for prayers however, he burst out.
"What the hell were you thinking, James!" He exploded suddenly, startling Salma. "Couldn't you stay silent for a just a couple of minutes!"
"Please shut up him," James groaned beside Salma, pushing his face into her pillow. "I'm in enough pain as is."
"You jerk!" Dean aimed a book at his head, but missed. "I have to leave because of you. It's –"
"Shut up alright!" James shot up from the bed.
"Guys!" Salma stepped in between them.
"I was only trying to divert Alley's attention!" James fumed. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if she were to keep asking who I fought and why, moron? Or can your pea sized brain not comprehend the trouble Sally would have landed in had Alley found out about Zayn?!"
Salma looked between the brothers, glaring at each other. She felt a lump in her throat. From James's bruises to Dean's anger, everything was her fault. Salma bit her lip and looked away.
"It's not your fault!" James suddenly snapped.
"What?" Salma blinked back the tears quickly.
"Don't you dare think it's your fault! Zayn was asking for it and he got what he deserved."
"And this idiot right here, deserves to get beaten to pulp because he prefers his fists over his brains," Dean added.
"And that piece of poop deserves what he got because he's a piece of poop and pieces of poop get what he got!" James shot back.
Salma blinked and Dean frowned.
"That didn't quite make any sense," Dean said.
"Not to you, piece of poop, no." James smirked, and flopped back on her pillow.
Since the four of them were too miserable to get up to anything, Saturday was spent watching the brothers argue over whose fault it was that their trip was cut short. While Dean was still mad, James was comparatively calm. He was confident that once he told Karen what actually happened, she would let them come back. Salma could tell Alley was feeling bad about them having to leave so early, but she felt responsible for them and did not want them getting hurt.
Seeing them off at the airport that night, Salma felt miserable. She brooded silently on the drive back home. She thought things could not go any worse, but she had never been more wrong. With a heavy heart, Salma took off her scarf and abaya when she reached home and slumped on the couch, scowling at everything.
"Kids! I've got some news!" Alley announced with a phone in her hand.
"I don't want to hear it," Salma grumbled, putting a cushion on her face.
"Your aunty is coming in a few days!"
"Great!" Salma grumbled into the cushion before throwing it aside, feeling even more miserable.
Asim on the other hand, seemed to have reacted with a lack of response. Frozen midstep on the stairs, his eyes were wide and his face pale. Recalling the conversation they had had a couple of weeks ago about Fahad, Salma almost snickered at how alarmed her poor brother looked.
"Ghamey and his sister are coming over too," her mother added casually.
"Say what?!" Asim and Salma shouted together.
Niall's P.O.V.
Niall groaned, trying to force himself to concentrate on the assignment, and failing. The guy sitting on his table in the library threw him dirty looks, not at all appreciating his harmless complains. Niall quickly went back to his reading, but it was no use. Very swiftly, his mind strayed back to the terrible weekend he had had to endure and the possible explosions he was yet to suffer in the form of his best friend, Zayn.
Zayn was ballistic after his encounter with Salma and James on Friday. Niall could not understand why Zayn was so worked up seeing her with the boys. His jealousy was understandable but what he could not comprehend, was his feeling of betrayal.
Throughout the weekend, he had either been exploding for no reason and kicking the hell out of a football in the back yard till it got punctured, unable to withstand his wrath. On the bright side, he was not spending every second of his day in his horrible art room, spray painting and hurling cans at the walls.
Claire was at the brink of calling her grandpa but Niall somehow managed to talk her out of it. Unexpectedly, Zayn's grandpa arrived anyway. Niall and Claire were worried sick but his Grandpa's arrival somehow worked in their favor. Zayn barely faked an expression or emotion with Niall, and although he usually tried to act less moody around Claire, that was not the case when it concerned Salma. Yet, when it came to his Grandpa, Zayn painted a completely different person on himself.
The old man, however, was not fooled. On Sunday morning before he left, he questioned Niall about Zayn's wounded knuckles, swollen lip and bruised face. Niall, of course had his lips sealed. He only told him Zayn met James Henry Thomas. Knowing of their past rivalry, his Grandpa immediately relaxed.
Niall phone beeped with a message, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Z-Bro: Go ahead without me. I got things to do.
Niall pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a feeling the 'things' Zayn mentioned had something to do with Biological Sciences block. Niall said a silent prayer for everybody's sake that Salma had already left. It was fortunate that there was no English class on Mondays, but Niall doubted luck would come in handy if Zayn corners Salma in her department.
Niall realized yet another hour had flown by and he had barely gotten any work done. Sighing in defeat, he decided to give up. He walked to the next aisle to place the books back and was surprised to run into Salma. She looked up when he approached her.
"Niall?" she said, surprised.
"The one and only." Niall smiled. "Not stalking me, are you?"
Contrary to his expectations, Salma was not humored. She gave him a hard look and turned back to inspecting the books neatly lined on the shelves. Niall was taken aback by her suddenly cold behavior. He knew she would be upset about what Zayn did on Friday, but he was not expecting her to be angry with him over it.
"Listen, I wanted to talk to you," Niall began nervously as Salma opened a book. "Do you have a minute?"
"No."
Niall's mouth dropped open. She was really upset.
"Okay . . ." Niall took a small step back. "but I just want you to know, I'm sorry for what happened on Friday. I had no clue Zayn would react like that. I wish I could have done something to prevent it."
Salma frowned and closed the book.
"Me too." She sighed, placing the book back on the shelf. "I'm sorry for what James did. He's just really protective and Zayn . . . I don't even know why Zayn was so upset."
Niall blinked.
"Wait, you don't even know . . ."
For the first time, she looked up to meet his gaze.
"He didn't really say anything, did he? He just started yelling at me and provoked James."
Niall opened his mouth but no words came out of it, so he closed it again and nodded. He was dumbstruck by Salma's ignorance of Zayn's feelings. Meanwhile, Salma had gone back to finding the right books for herself.
"So err, you are not upset with me?" Niall asked, after a moment.
Her brow furrowed in confusion as she turned to him.
"Why? Why would I be upset with you?"
Niall scratched his neck awkwardly, feeling more stupid by the minute.
"I don't know." He smiled uneasily. "You just seemed kinda upset."
Salma raised a brow, then looked away.
"Sorry about that. This is how I usually am with boys," she said. "I just let my guard down a little back in English. So relax, I'm not upset."
"Oh, I understand." Niall smiled. "Zayn told me about your interaction rules with boys."
"Did he now?" Salma scoffed.
Niall smacked himself mentally. It was a foolish thing to say knowing how Zayn has been forcing his company on her. On a sudden inspiration, he decided to deal with the problem.
"Listen, I know you said you don't want to talk to me and I understand and respect that, but this is important," Niall said, "We need to discuss a few things."
Salma did not reply as she picked another book.
"It's about Zayn," he added. Salma's shoulders tensed.
"Did you follow me here," Salma asked," and planned this ambush so you could have this talk with me about Zayn?"
"No, of course not!" Niall exclaimed. "I'm a law student. Which is why I asked what a science person like you was doing here?"
Niall jumped forward when Salma accidentally knocked two books out. Catching them before they could fall, he placed them back on the shelf.
"Sorry," she apologized. "Professor R.K. gave us an assignment on laws regarding protected areas. So I thought I'd check this place out for some additional references."
"I see." Niall nodded. "Need help?"
Salma weighed her options. Niall could tell she wanted to take his offer because she was lost here. In fact, she was looking for her books in the wrong section.
"How about this, I help you with your assignment and you give me half an hour of your time to discuss a few things?" Niall suggested. Salma looked like she was going to argue so Niall quickly added. "You can totally pick any public place. I don't need complete privacy. I promise to keep it to the point. Please, it's important."
***
Marking the last reference, Niall pushed the book back across the table towards Salma. She was furiously typing it all on her laptop. Truth be told, she was one hell of a student with a very inquisitive mind. Niall must have explained half of American Law to her - that had nothing to do with her assignment - just because she was curious about it.
"There," Niall said. "I think that bit is enough to sum it up."
Salma nodded wordlessly, not pausing her typing or looking away from the screen. Ten minutes later, she was finally done. Packing her things in her bag, she turned to Niall. Her new, more serious and silent persona was throwing him off, but he had to go with it.
"Right, about Zayn," Niall began. "Zayn and I are childhood friends. I've known him for a very long time. These days, he's acting really strangely. I'm having trouble getting to him. It started after he was rescued. So, I wanted to ask and clarify a few things. I need your help."
Salma gave a stiff nod, her eyes dead serious. Taking a deep breath, Niall began his questioning.
"Are you angry or upset with Zayn?"
"Yes," she replied, promptly.
"Which one?"
"Both."
"Why?" Niall asked.
Salma raised an incredulous brow, "Isn't it obvious?"
"Is it because of the hospital incident?"
"Yes."
"Anything else?"
Salma laughed in reply and looked away. Niall knew his questions sounded stupid but he wanted her to enlist the wrongs Zayn had done to her.
"Listen, I want to know how many of his actions you are holding against him?" Niall explained. "Right from the first to the very last one."
Salma gave him an incredulous side glance.
"Like I said, I know him." Niall shrugged. "It's very much like him to commit a series of mistakes, not just one."
"Why?" Salma narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do you want to know how many times he'd crossed me?"
"So I can know how much guilt he's carrying that is making him crack the windows at home by exploding every now and then," Niall replied.
She raised a skeptic brow.
"Are you trying to blackmail me emotionally ?" she asked. "I'm supposed to feel bad for Zayn because he's supposedly hurting himself?"
"No," Niall answered simply. "Given how he's been treating you, I don't even expect you give him the benefit of a doubt, but the guy who been a beast to you is my best friend. He's my brother. He's done more for me than anyone ever has or ever will. I don't expect you to believe or understand where I'm coming from, but he's hurting right now. I just want to find out why?"
Salma watched him silently, looking intrigued.
"He's lucky to have you. He must have done something right in his life." she said after a while. "However, if he's hurting, it's because of his own ego. I have nothing to do with it."
Niall wondered how she would react if she knew just how much she had to do with Zayn's newfound problems.
"How much do you hold against him?"
Her eyes snapped in his direction, somewhat surprised by the question.
"I don't," she cried, "I am angry and upset with him. Every time I'm reminded of what he did in the hospital, I have this maddening urge to slap him, but I can't bring myself to hold anything against him."
Salma paused. Niall wanted to ask why was that but something held him against it.
"He saved my life," she said quietly after a while. "I can't hold a lot against him. I don't know what would have happened if . . ."
She blink furiously. Had there been no veil, Niall knew he would have seen her biting her lip to hold her emotions together. Feeling the need to give her some space, he stayed quiet.
"I just want him to respect my choices and stay away." Salma continued after collecting herself, "I don't want him to keep challenging everything I stand for just because he doesn't agree with it!"
"I know," Niall said. "I'm sorry."
She waved his apology off. "You don't have to apologize. I know he's a nutcase."
Niall smiled. Contemplating over it a minute, he made up his mind and decided to tell her.
"Zayn isn't always like that," he began, earning a disbelieving glance from her again. "He has an issue sorting out his emotions, but that's different. In fact, I haven't seen him like this with anyone except you. There is a reason why he's so messed up."
"What do you mean?" Salma frowned.
"Something happened to Zayn when he was young, something horrible," Niall explained. "He was attacked and nearly beaten to death. It changed him. It completely stripped him off the Zayn we knew. He started blaming himself for something he had no control over. He was made to change his environment but it only ended up backfiring. That incident lead to a series of new tragedies causing him to completely lose himself. He thinks of himself as some sort of curse that destroys whatever he loves or attaches himself to. That's why every time he feels he's growing fond of someone, he pushes them away in an attempt to protect them."
"Well, that adds up," Salma said quietly. "If he pushes away the people he loves. It only makes sense to him to go a step ahead and give hell to the people he can't stand. I don't know how I feel about being on his black list."
Once again, Niall was taken aback by Salma's obliviousness. It was understandable why she thought Zayn disliked her, given the horrid way he had been treating her, but he still had a hard time believing someone as sharp as Salma did not get it yet.
"He doesn't push you away though," she added after a while.
"He tried, but I won't let him," Niall replied. "I owed him that much. He was dragged into a fight that was not his to bother with. He almost died because of me that ni-"
Niall stopped suddenly when he realized what he had just said. He had not talked about that night for a long time. It just brought back the piercing screams, the blinding pain and the agonizing helplessness with such brutal force that it threatened to knock him out cold. When Niall finally met her gaze, he knew he was revealing no secrets of his.
"You know about it, don't you?" Niall asked.
"Yes," Salma answered simply.
"James told you?"
"No, Zayn did," she shocked him by saying.
"Zayn?!" Niall exclaimed. A couple sitting three tables away looked up from their books. Niall lowered his voice. "Zayn told you?"
"Yeah." Salma shrugged. "Back in the forest. He told me about it when I asked him why he moved to the States."
Niall nodded slowly. He had never entertained the idea of those two actually having held a normal conversation. All he ever imagined them doing was fight each other and the criminals. As foolish as his assumption was, it was still mind-boggling that Zayn would tell her about the night they were attacked. He had never uttered a word about it to his grandparents, Claire or Niall.
"Is something wrong?" Salma asked uneasily.
"No, I'm just surprised is all," Niall reassured. "Did he tell you what happened after he moved here?"
Salma shook her head slowly.
"Well, all hell broke loose on him." Niall said. "Firstly, Claire refused to talk to him because she thought he did not care for her, and Zayn loves his sister to bits. They've made up only recently after his grandpa forced the two to live together.
"When Zayn flew to the States, he was struggling to survive. Terribly homesick, in a different country, he was not coping well. Still traumatized over what happened to us, and a bit of a problem with James, Zayn thought it best to make no attempts at having friends. To make matters worse, his grandma wanted him to leave as well. Zayn thought she just wanted to get rid of him, but only two weeks later, he realized why she kept asking him to leave. She was suffering from epilepsy and she didn't want him to see her when she suffered a seizure."
Salma's eyes widened with shock.
"On her request, Zayn kept this secret from his grandpa and Claire. He started spending little time at school so he could look after his grandma. A girl called Lenny understood his situation because her mother was an alcoholic. Zayn tried to push her away, but she made him reconsider his 'no friends' rule. However, her friendship made him a number of enemies at school. One kid in particular didn't like him at all.
"A few months later, his grandma's epilepsy got worse. He came back from school one day to see her on the kitchen floor, twitching and turning, covered in bruises and cuts, having hit herself around the chairs and table. He tried to hold her together but it was useless. While he was trying to help, she hit her head against the edge of the counter. It killed her almost instantly."
Salma gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Zayn was just an empty shell when his grandpa arrived. Having his grandma breath his last in his arms, Zayn was broken beyond healing. His grandpa said he was never more scared for Zayn but back then. He had already lost his wife, he did not want to lose his son. Although Zayn taught himself how to live again for the old man's sake, he is still not over his loss. He blames himself for her death. Zayn thinks he could have saved her somehow, or if he had told his grandpa earlier, they would have helped. These things changed him. He's a complex mess of emotions and he just explodes when things don't work out despite his many attempts."
A heavy silence descended upon the two of them. Niall watched the people around him with their noses buried in books, trying to get their work done. He wondered for the millionth time if Zayn would ever have a shot at normal life like the rest of them.
"I don't even know what to say," Salma whispered. "That's just . . . horrible!"
"Salma, can I ask you one last thing?" Niall asked.
"Okay?" she said, almost scared and uncertain. Niall could tell she was deeply disturbed by what he had told her about Zayn's past.
"Zayn thinks you are deliberately provoking him by cutting him out while socializing with other boys," Niall began.
"That's not true!" Salma immediately denied.
"I know, I know!" Niall quickly replied. "I understand it is not true, but he has his reasons to believe this."
"For example?" she asked, an underlying irritation clear in her tone.
"For example, you told me your name and had no problem holding normal conversations with me but Zayn says you wouldn't talk to him back in the forest. And the reason he calls you Bee is because he didn't even know your name until after he was rescued."
With a deep frown still etched on her forehead, Salma looked away.
"Listen Niall, what you've got to understand is that I interacted with him and you under completely different circumstances. Back in the forest I was alone. I was fending for myself with a boy I was not related to. I had no idea if we'd ever be found again. I had no idea what kind of guy he was or how long I was going to have to deal with him. He could have been a serial killer or sex offender for all I knew. I had to be on my guard," she explained.
"Secondly, Us Muslims live by different rules. Even if we were found, I did not want him to know anything about me or follow me around just because we spent some time together. I am just lucky I got a family who have a strong and clear religious understanding otherwise it's a miracle that I haven't been drowned in rumors for being shameless and characterless and blamed for having illicit relations just because I was stuck with a man alone."
"That's just ridiculous!" Niall exclaimed, disgusted.
"Point is, my brother was right outside the door when I told you my name, and my father and uncle a phone call away every time I conversed with you," she continued. "I was not on my own. With Zayn things were different even after we were rescued. He kept following me around when I didn't want to see his face after what he did in the hospital. He violated me. It should not be hard to understand why I can't stand him when I'm fighting the urge to strangle him!"
"It's not, I understand," Niall reassured, then cleared his throat. He was not sure how she would react to his next question. "What about James and Dean?"
"What about them?"
"You're allowed to, erm, interact with them frankly?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Salma asked, "They're my Mahrams. I can have fun with them all I want."
"Mahram?" Niall frowned in confusion.
"Guys related to me that I can freely interact with."
Niall nodded, feeling uncomfortable. He felt like he was being extremely intrusive and it was making him feel uneasy.
"Can you, like, please explain how they are related to you?"
Author's Note:
Niall finally asked the big question, eh :D? Who can guess what is coming up next lol.
I'm sorry for the extremely late update that even forced some of you to PM me, requesting an update. I've got an extremely hectic schedule these days so much so that I don't even get to think of Lost for days at end. And that is saying something because Lost was all I had to think of a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I stayed up all night writing this chapter. I hope to catch on a few hours of sleep before another long day. I hope you like it :)
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Lots of Love!
J.