"What's going on?" my father asked with wide eyes. Nobody answered him for a few moments.
"That's her dad." Tasneem mouthed to Ahmed and Hakeem.
"I'm really sorry this was all my fault I wasn't paying attention to the road, how bad is the damage?" Hakeem nervously asked as he looked at the bumper of my dad's car.
"I'm more concerned with what my daughter is doing with two strange boys." my father said angrily.
"Aabo we just went out to eat." I replied. I wanted to explain how Hakeem was Hawo's son and that my mom would probably be okay with us going out to eat but I figured he wouldn't understand.
"I don't care what you were doing. Who are your parents?" he asked Hakeem.
"Hawo Mohamed." he responded quietly.
"That's your mother?" he asked.
"Yes." My father put his hands on his face. He looked so tired and stressed.
"Warsan, come with me." my father said. We walked to a grassy area on the side of the road.
"You know how I feel about boys." he said.
"Yeah I know but it wasn't even like that. His mom went with hooyo, ayeeyo, and Aunt Nadira and we got hungry so we went to grab something to eat."
"This isn't the company you want to keep around." he whispered.
"Aabo what are you talking about?" I asked.
"That boy's name is Hakeem right?" he asked, pointing at Hakeem.
"Yeah, why?"
"Stay far away from him. That's all I'm going to tell you." I looked at him confused and then looked at Hakeem. He was staring back, he must have known we were talking about him. I looked back at my dad he had his cell phone up to his ear. He called my mom and told her what happened. While he was distracted I took the opportunity to go and talk to Hakeem, Ahmed, and Tasneem.
"Is it bad?" I asked.
"Not really, my mom's car is more damaged than your dad's. Sorry if I got you in trouble by the way." he said.
"Don't worry about me I don't think my mom will be too upset." I shrugged.
"Is he calling the police?" asked Ahmed.
"No he's calling my mom." A few moments later Aunt Nadira's car pulled up on the side of the road. Hawo immediately jumped out and ran to Hakeem and hugged him.
"Are you hurt? Does anything hurt? Do we need to go to the hospital?" she asked.
"No hooyo I'm fine but there is a dent in the front of your car."
"I don't care about the stupid car! Do you know how scared I got when I heard you guys got in an accident?" she looked around at all of us. "Are you all okay?"
"Yeah we're fine." we all said. I looked over at where my father was standing. My mother, Aunt Nadira, and ayeeyo were crowded around him. I remembered that this was the first time they had seen him since the news. I walked over to my mom.
"Are you okay baby?" she asked. I nodded my head.
"Is this what you're doing with my daughter? Allowing her to spend time with boys like that?" he looked over at Hakeem.
"Oh shut up Liban, don't judge the boy like you know him." my mother responded.
"You are in no position to judge anybody." said Aunt Nadira. "Hakeem is a nice boy."
"I don't want him around her." my father said.
"You sound stupid." said ayeeyo.
"Let's not waste anymore time here." my mother said. She started walking away when my father called her back.
"Rahma, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Just a minute of your time."
"Whatever it is you want to say, I don't want to hear it. It's too late. You've already made your decision and I've made mine."
"What do you mean you've made your decision?" he asked.
"I filed for divorce today." she said. My father stood there emotionless for a moment.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"I said that I filed for divorce today."
"So this is the end?" he asked sadly.
"I don't understand why you're acting upset as if you weren't the one that caused this." Aunt Nadira was annoyed. "You go to Africa and marry another woman, you bring her back here and shove her in Rahma's face without warning, and you expect her to just accept it?"
"It wasn't what I wanted." he said.
"You are a grown man, you can't keep blaming this decision on your mother m." said ayeeyo.
"If you wanted a divorce you could have just told me." my mother said. My father paused for a few moments.
"I don't want a divorce." he said.
"Well you can't have it both ways so which do you choose?" she asked. I could tell she was frustrated. My father looked at her in eye but didn't answer.
"Let's go home." said Aunt Nadira after realizing that he was not going to respond. I went back to where Hawo, Tasneem, Hakeem, and Ahmed were standing.
"Come ride with us." I said to Tasneem. We sat in the back with ayeeyo.
"So what happened?" she asked.
"Nothing really. How did you like talking to Hakeem?" I whispered.
"I loved it! He's actually really cool and I think he likes me" she whispered back. I smiled and looked out of the window, I couldn't help but wonder why my father was warning me about Hakeem.
---
A few weeks had passed and I had been doing everything I could to keep myself busy. Half of summer had already gone by and Tasneem, Hakeem, Ahmed, and I had been spending a lot of time together. We hung out almost everyday. Fuad and I had been doing better but not as good as I would have hoped. He was still distant and our conversations were very minimal. It bothered me, but he did warn me that things would be like this for a while. It was also my decision to stick around and be patient until things got better. Hakeem and Tasneem were really hitting it off also. According to Tasneem, he was close to asking her out. I was laying in my bed one evening and decided to call Tasneem.
"Hello?"
"Hey Tasneem, what's up?"
"Nothing really." she giggled.
"Are you texting Hakeem?" she only acted like this when she was talking to him.
"Yes Warsan he's sooo funny." She was right, Hakeem really was a cool guy. But I always tried to keep my distance. Something about being close with the guy my best friend had feelings for felt weird to me. Also, I still hadn't figured out what it was about him that my father warned me about. I bet if Tasneem wasn't head over heels for him, me and him would actually be really close friends.
"I'm so happy that things are working out Tas." I said.
"Yeah I really like him and I think he really likes me too. We talk nonstop."
"That's so cute."
"Thanks but how are you and Fuad doing? You haven't talked about him in a while."
"We're as good as we'll ever be." I sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"We're doing the best we can but he's always so busy and-" another line came in. "Let me call you back, Tasneem. Somebody else is calling me." I hung up and checked who it was. It was Hakeem.
"Hey Warsan."
"Hey Hakeem, what's up?" I asked.
"This is going to sound weird but can you step out for a little?"
"Why?" I asked.
"I need your opinion on something."
"Umm, okay." I agreed. "I'm coming out now." I hung up, put a sweater on and went into the hallway. He was standing there holding a book.
"Hey Warsan, I know this is really weird but I have a slam tomorrow night at my school. I wrote a few poems but I'm kind of unsure about them. Can you read them and tell me what you think?" he asked.
"Yeah, of course!" I said. He handed me the book and we sat on the staircase on our floor. I opened the book and looked over at him, he looked really shy. "What are you afraid of?" I asked.
"Nothing, I just always feel weird when people read my work."
"Don't worry they're probably great." I smiled at him and nudged him with my elbow. There were about ten poems in the book and I read each and every single one carefully. I even read some a few times. There were poems about the world, about himself, about his mother, about falling in love, etc. I was truly amazed by every single one of them. After a few moments of silence I looked over at him. "Wow."
"So what do you think?" he asked. "I only want your honest opinions." he said seriously.
"Honestly, I think that these are some of the best poems I have ever read."
He smiled. "Do you really mean that or are you just saying that to not hurt my feelings? Because I can take criticism."
"I mean it all. Hakeem, you seriously have a gift."
"Thank you so much, Warsan. Which one was your favorite?"
"The one about falling in love, it reminded me of how I felt when I fell in love with my boyfriend. You captured the feeling perfectly." He looked down at his feet. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked.
"Of course."
"Why have you been avoiding me lately?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I don't know, it could be all in my head." he continued. "But I feel like you're keeping your distance from me."
"You're right, I am."
"But why?"
"Because it wouldn't be right of me to get really close with you. Tasneem likes you a lot and I don't feel comfortable spending so much time with the guy she's into."
"Are you sure that's why?" he asked.
"Yeah. What else would it be?" I asked.
"That day when I hit your dad's car. I feel like he told you to stay away from me."
"He didn't." I lied. "But why would you think that?"
"I don't know. Maybe he heard something."
"Well what do you think he heard?" I asked. I really wanted to know what this "secret" was.
"It's not anything that I've done. But when my mom was sixteen, she got pregnant before marriage. It was a big deal everybody in Columbus heard about it. She had to drop out of school and marry the guy. And he was really abusive towards her. When I was a kid, around five years old, I saw him beating my mom. She grabbed the phone and called the police..they came and he got arrested and eventually deported."
"Wow." I didn't know what else to say.
"Yeah it's a lot. There's some people that hear about what happened and judge me and my mother, like we're bad people."
"You and your mother are great people."
"Thanks Warsan. Your grandmother and aunt have always been nice to me and my mom. You remind me a lot of them. But the look your father gave me after I told him who my mother was..I don't know I felt like I was kind of being judged." he admitted. "It doesn't really bother me anymore, but I don't want my "reputation" to effect our friendship. You know what I mean?"
"It won't, Hakeem. And I'm sorry if I made you feel like I was being distant because of that. I was just trying to be a good friend to Tasneem." I apologized.
"Don't apologize. I get that and I respect it."
"So how do you feel about her?" I asked.
"Tasneem is a cool girl. She's funny, she makes me laugh a lot." he began. My phone started ringing in my pocket. It was Fuad.
"Hey beautiful." he said.
"Hey babe I'm with a friend right now. Let me call you back in like ten minutes."
"Okay love you."
"Love you too." I looked over at Hakeem, he was awkwardly playing on his phone. "Sorry about that."
"I'm guessing that was your boyfriend."
"Yeah it was."
"You should probably go talk to him then." he smiled. I got up to leave and turned around to say goodbye. He took off his beanie and ran his fingers through his long curly hair nervously.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come to my slam tomorrow night."
"Yeah sure!" I said. "I would love to."
"Yeah I think you would enjoy it."
"I can't wait, text me the details."
"Alright goodnight, Warsan." he said.
"Have a nice night, Hakeem." I smiled and he smiled back.
I went back inside of the apartment and went to my room. I laid down and thought about Hakeem's poems, replaying them in my head over and over again. I also felt really bad about what he told me about his family. It must have sucked to live your life being judged for something you had no control over. Hakeem is an amazing guy, and Tasneem was lucky to have him. I couldn't wait to see him perform his poems live tomorrow night. I was so deep in thought that I forgot that Fuad was waiting for me to call him back. I took out my phone and stared at a picture that me and Fuad took the day before he left, I really missed him. I dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello." I said.
"Princess, I have good news."
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I'm coming back to Columbus."