Salma's P.O.V
Salma walked out of the dormitories' building deep in thought. Sarah's words kept whirling in her mind.
"Talk to him," Sarah urged, "Explain your side of the story before things get too messy."
"Oh please, not that again!" Salma rolled her eyes and turned away. She was in no mood of engaging Zayn in a conversation. Not after what he'd done.
"Then, tell the adults." Sarah shrugged, "I'm telling you Salma, unless you disengage this bomb, it'll continue to increase in its explosive quality. Your family may not be so protective and supportive of you if they find out after things are blown out of proportion."
Salma was a conflicted after learning about Zayn's grandma, but running to Sarah did little to clear her head. Sarah was deeply disturbed by Zayn's past. Her perturbation came as somewhat of a surprise for Salma. Sarah always kept such a cold, indifferent attitude that in her mind, Salma had almost detached her from the sympathetic and soft hearted person that she actually was. Her unexpected response made Salma apprehensive of the advice she was giving her. However, when Salma could not think of any way to counter her arguments, she knew what Sarah said was right. Bringing her parents into this once more was not the best option. Salma had to talk to Zayn, and fast.
Not expecting to walk into him so soon, Salma had little time to mentally prepare herself or revise her words. Barely had she taken ten steps away from the dormitories when she saw Zayn walking towards the building with Lena and Charlayne. They were talking casually. Lena was telling them some story that had Charlayne laughing her head off. Zayn was smiling at her in amusement. Had it not been for the internal turmoil Salma was suffering from, she would actually have cooed when Zayn flicked Lena's nose adorably and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, squeezing her in a hug.
Snapping out of her thoughts at how adorable those two looked, Salma quickly tried to reassess her next move. Should she grab the opportunity or should she run? Salma knew she should talk to Zayn while he was happy, which was extremely rare, but her stomach churned at the mere thought.
Salma could not figure out if she was more nervous or annoyed with Zayn. She just knew she was not at all ready to face him so she tried to take a last minute flight. However –
"Salma!"
Freezing to the spot, Salma turned her gaze to the three. As expected, Zayn's eyes were so cold that Salma almost did not see Lena's deathly glare or Charlayne beaming face.
Feeling her heart pound rapidly, Salma found it impossible to break eye contact with Zayn. His intense, accusing stare send chilly shivers down her spine. Salma gulped when she took in the deep cut on his lower lip, and his bruised and swollen temple. James really returned what he got, full force.
"How are you doing?" Charlayne's cheerful voice broke past Salma's overwhelming anxiety that was descending upon her in waves. "Here to visit your friend again?"
Forcing herself to look away from Zayn's brutal stare, Salma tried to process her questions. She could not remember what Charlayne had asked her. Charlayne's smile evaporated, getting replaced by a frown.
"Are you alright?" she asked concerned.
"Hm? Um, y-yeah." Salma cleared her throat awkwardly. "Yeah, I'm good. How are you?"
Salma was glad her voice was stronger than she felt.
"I'm great!" She grinned, "We were just coming back from seeing Zayn's recent project. It's hilarious. He's crap, I tell you! And to think he thinks of himself as an artist. You really should have done us all a favor and just kicked him further down the hill in that forest!"
Charlayne and Lena started laughing. She was funny, but the uneasy feeling sinking in Salma's gut did not let her appreciate her humor. Salma forced a smile just to be polite. Zayn, however, was not bothered to put up a mock display of amusement.
"Come on!" Lena rolled her eyes. "He's lovely. You don't admit it but you'd miss him the most if he were gone any longer."
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Charlayne gave her an incredulous look. Salma chuckled earning a wink from Charlayne and a glare from Lena.
"I'm sorry for slipping up on the opportunity of doing you a favor, Charlayne." Salma smiled.
"Oh yeah? So you'd rather he be dead?" Lena snapped.
"God, Lena!" Charlayne gasped.
"Lee," Zayn muttered in a bored tone, putting an arm around her shoulder.
"To be honest, to me, it's still a mystery how Zayn survived a filthy crow like you!" She spat.
"Damn it, Lee! She was only kidding!" Charlayne protested.
Salma gritted her teeth but decided to hold her tongue and ignored her. There was no point in replying back. To be fair, Lena's blatant hatred of her really caught her off guard. Salma searched her face trying to figure her out. As if to mark her territory, Lena backed into Zayn who was rubbing her arm to calm her down.
Salma rolled her eyes. Seriously, going on a date with an untamed wolf would be more exciting.
"Not that I'm not enjoying myself, but can we leave, Lee?" Zayn groaned.
Not waiting for her reply, Zayn led her away and walked past Salma. Drawing her close, he started whispering into her ear.
"I'm so, so sorry," Charlayne apologized, recovering from her state of shock. "They were alright just a minute ago."
"It's not your fault." Salma smiled at her.
"Hey Char!" Lena turned around a few steps away. "You coming or what?"
"Coming!" she replied before turning to Salma. "See you around, then."
Just then Salma and Zayn's gaze met for a fraction of a second. A strange sense of restlessness washed over her. Her chest constricted making it hard to breathe. In that moment, Salma knew, the sooner she dealt with this mess, the better.
He looked away. Bracing herself Salma forced the heavy words out.
"Zayn!" she called, making him pause. "We need to talk."
For a heartbeat, the air around them seemed to have frozen to a still. Charlayne paled and Lena latched to Zayn looking scared. You would think Salma had uttered some sort of an incantation to turn the two of them into monkeys.
After a moment that seemed like an eternity, Zayn returned his cold glare to her. His filthy response hit her in the face with the force of a sledgehammer. Charlayne gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, shocked by his brutality. Lena smirked in content and Salma's blood boiled over, making her ball her fists.
Had it not been for the fact that she had instinctively turned over her heels to create distance between them, Salma would have definitely ripped his head off.
***
"I hope you're happy now!" Salma seethed.
"But what happened?!" Sarah attempted to coerce the answer out of her.
"Nothing happened!" Salma snapped. "Leave me alone!"
Breathing heavily, Salma shrugged out of her hold. Saying nothing, Sarah simply leaned against the tree and looked away. Sarah had seen Salma storming away angrily on her way to the library and followed. Salma did not know how she felt about her being around. She was too messed up to think straight.
Salma was beyond furious. She was ballistic, consumed by rage and borderline mad. Everything seemed red in the periphery. She paced around like a bloodthirsty beast for a few minutes. When nothing changed after kicking a few pebbles out of the way, Salma sat down on the grass, and put her head on her knees.
She felt a hand on her back as the silence stretched on. Upon lifting her head, she saw Sarah offering her a water bottle.
"Listen, I'm sorry if he turned down your request," she said softly as Salma accepted the bottle. "I did not see that coming. I was only looking out for you."
Salma's throat constricted. She took another sip of the water, letting the cool liquid soothe her temper.
"He did not turn down my request," Salma said quietly. "That would have been a lot nicer of him."
"What did he do?" Sarah asked, almost dreading the answer.
"He told me to bug off," Salma replied, looking away. "Except he isn't that diplomatic. He hit me with the F-bomb."
Feeling a sudden movement, Salma turned around just in time to see Sarah jump to her feet.
"That bitch!" She growled.
"Wait!" Salma cried. Standing up quickly, she grabbed her hand. "What are you planning to do?!"
"You don't want to know."
"Listen to me!" Salma jerked her around to face her. "Enough of this! No one is going to talk to him! No one is going after him! You're not confronting him for anything!"
"But --"
"This is my mess and I want to deal with it my way!" Salma said fiercely, "I've done whatever you advised me to do. It stripped me of whatever respect I had. It's my turn to deal with this and I don't want anyone getting in my way!"
Sarah searched her eyes, her sudden blast of anger was quickly replaced by concern.
"What're you planning to do?"
Salma swallowed, looking away.
"You don't want to know," she whispered. Ignoring Sarah's worried gaze, Salma shouldered her bag. "Sorry for snapping at you."
Patting her shoulder, she left.
***
Salma was just as pumped by anger when she arrived home as she was at the campus. During lunch, she forced a few morsels down her throat while her subconscious was busy planning out the scenarios as a payback to Zayn's insult. For some reason, it always ended up with a cockroach going up Zayn's nostrils.
"Are you alright?" Her mother frowned at her.
"Tired," Salma replied shortly.
While getting ready to pray, Salma continued to plot her retaliatory move against Zayn. Splashing water over her face during ablution did nothing to cool the burning rage inside her. She stared hard at her reflection in the mirror, getting more and more worked up as Zayn's insults kept repeating in her head like a broken record. She had the urge to smash the mirror to pieces.
As upset and furious as she was, she lost her steam when she stood up to pray. Salma could not help but feel petty and low as she whispered the words out. Taking in a deep breath, Salma continued her prayers, only to have the next words hit her like a ton of bricks.
". . . Iyaaka Na'budu (You are the One we worship) Wa Iyaaka Nasta'een (And You are the One we ask for help) . . ."
Salma was dumbfounded by the words. Was she really worshiping Allah while plotting to insult Zayn back? Was she really seeking Allah's help? What was the point of repeating these words a few dozen times a day if all she was doing was lying?
Salma's heart clenched painfully. On the one hand, she felt Zayn's insults branding her mind with white hot iron, and on the other hand, she felt disgusted by her inability to shrug off his filthy response. Apologizing to Allah over and over again for letting her anger consume her, Salma prayed for guidance.
Should she retaliate or not? The question frustrated her. She could not make up her mind when she was so conflicted and she knew she had to think things through. Lost, she decided to just go to sleep.
"Salma?" She heard her mother, barely a five minutes later. "Salma, wake up!"
Mumbling, Salma turned away from her.
"Come on, you've been asleep for three hours!"
Salma's eyes flew open. "What?!"
"Seriously kid, it's almost past 'asr." Alley shook her head in disbelief. "Come on. Be quick! We've got guests downstairs."
Halfway out of the bed, Salma froze. Her already depressed mood went further down the drain.
"Guests?" she echoed.
"I told you your aunt would be here, didn't I?" Alley said impatiently. "Get a move on unless you plan on missing your 'asr?"
"Wait mum!" Salma stopped her as she turned to leave. "Is Fahad or Ghamey downstairs?"
"Ghamey is," her mother replied, and with that she left.
Salma scowled at the closed door. Alley expected her to go downstairs when one of her vulture-like cousins was seated there?
With a heavy heart, Salma dragged herself to the bathroom to renew her ablution.
Ten minutes later, she came downstairs with her head and face covered, and being extremely irritable. She had been snapping at everything on the way; the sink, the tap, the door, the prayer mat, the side table, her cellphone, Asim, and finally the last step on which Salma had tripped.
"Salma, Assalamo'Alaykum!" She heard her aunt's greeting.
Still tending to her big toe, Salma straightened up to meet her gaze.
"Wa'Alaykum Assalam." She smiled, and accepted her hug.
"How are things? Good? Still quiet the sleepy head, aren't you?" Her aunt asked a string of questions to which Salma just nodded and smiled.
Just behind her, Salma could see her son sprawled on the couch, busy with his phone. She had the sudden urge to stomp on his irritating face. Surprised and confused by her violent thoughts, Salma turned back to her aunt.
"How are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm good. I'm very good." Her aunt smiled kindly, her eyes trailing over Salma's veiled face. "So you really are going through with this, aren't you?"
Salma felt her toes curling and tensing. She did not want to get lectured on how she was going overboard with the idea, and that it was not a workable arrangement in their family environment. Salma knew what she was doing. She had come to the conclusion after doing her own research. She did not want anyone telling her what to do.
"Yes," she replied stiffly.
While her aunt just smiled, Salma heard Ghamey snort. Biting her tongue to hold back the retort, Salma excused herself.
"How long are they going to stay here?" she asked her mum the moment she entered the kitchen. Although Salma tried to, she still failed to keep the strain out of her voice.
"A week, maybe two," Alley replied, annoyed by her daughter's displeasure.
A week? Maybe two?
Salma's heart sank as she started lending her mother a hand in the kitchen. How was she going to survive a week, maybe two, with a non mahram in the house? And that too, someone she really could not stand.
Setting the teapot in the tray, Salma carried it to the sitting room. Her aunt had left to pray. Her cousin suddenly decided to stretch his legs and place them on the adjacent couch, blocking her way to the coffee table. Completely ignoring her standing there with an overloaded tray, he kept staring at his cell phone. Salma gritted her teeth and walked around the couch to put the tray on the table. Whether what he did was intentional or not, it was enough to bring Salma one step closer to blowing up.
"You're just on time," she heard her mother tell her aunt when she came back. "The tea is ready."
"Thank you."
"Where is Gul Sanga? She left to freshen up, didn't she?" Alley looked around, "Oh, there you are!"
Another uncomfortable knot was tied in Salma's already tangled gut. She turn around, dreading to see the young, olive-skinned girl with pointy features and sharp grey eyes. Her light hair was tightly pulled back in a high ponytail.
"Assalamo'Alaykum," The younger girl smiled, while her eyes said, 'Get lost'.
"Wa'alaykum Assalam." Salma replied shortly, exchanging a stiff, hasty hug.
The family gathered around in the lounge so Salma slipped back into the kitchen. Munching on her biscuit, Salma was deep in thought when the back door opened.
"We're doomed," Asim groaned, slumping on a chair beside her.
"Good luck to you," Salma replied nonchalantly.
Asim gave off a short laughter.
"Says the one who needs it most." He rolled his eyes.
"What does that mean?" Salma asked, her senses alerted.
Asim gave her an impatient look as if she was the greatest fool that ever lived. Opening his mouth, he just sighed, shook his head and stood up.
"Nothing."
Frowning, Salma watched him go. Could it be that he knows about her and Zayn? Salma thought.
Salma stared at the tea in her cup. Everything was turning into a mess. And the mess was piling into an even greater mess with every passing hour. Salma tried to think over what Asim said but her head started aching. Deciding, it was only her over-thinking things, she picked up her cup and downed the contents in one go.
"Fetch me a glass of water!"
Salma jumped in alarm when she heard a masculine voice just behind her. Slapping her veil back on her face on impulse, Salma turned around. To her horror, Ghamey was standing in the doorway, scoffing at her behavior. It made her want to hit him on the head with the mug. Reminding herself that he was a guest, Salma got some water for him. He stepped forward and reached for the glass, but Salma, not trusting the look in his eye, placed it on the counter instead of handing it to him. She then, tried to slip past him.
To her utter shock and dismay, the disgusting lowlife slammed into her, shoving her into the chairs. Salma's ribs seared with pain as she grabbed the counters for balance. When she turned around, she was not surprised to see the beast smirking. Angry, hurt and violated, Salma grabbed hold of a chair, slammed it on the tiled floor, and stormed out as the crash reverberated through the kitchen.
Salma did not stop to register her mother, aunt and Gul Sanga's shocked and questioning faces. Neither did she head upstairs to her room. She went straight out of the door, across the street, banging on a door, she barely frequented these days.
The door opened, revealing a sleepy looking William. His green eyes widened in surprise upon seeing her.
"Sally?!" he cried, concerned, instantly knowing something was wrong as his eyes zeroed over her brown ones. The slight frown on his forehead deepened. Opening the door wide, he stepped outside. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Author's Note:
I actually set the stage for a lot of the story in this chapter. Hopefully I'll update soon. Please pray that I'm able to work my schedule well. I'm getting loaded and it's getting a bit hectic.
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Lots of Love,
J.