"Oh cool, salad, French fries and a diet soda. So interesting..." Jana was busy commenting on my lunch as I sat down at our table. She knew that I didn't eat the meats from our school cafeteria because I didn't know whether they were actually halal or not. I usually brought my own lunch to school, but today was one of those days where I woke up late and didn't have time to actually prepare lunch. In the Omar household, everybody makes their own lunch because there are so many of us. Good thing I had a bit of emergency money in my backpack or I wouldn't have been having lunch at that moment.
That moment when Raeesa got my attention.
"Aamirah..."
"Hm?" My mouth was full, what did you expect me to be doing other than eating? I mean, it's not like I actually had breakfast.
"Your brother is-"
I ignored Raeesa's next words and began to frantically scan the cafeteria for Hamid. What was he doing that caught Raeesa's attention?
Nothing bad I hoped...
My eyes landed on his black t-shirt and short haircut. Hamid. His back was turned to me. He began to wave to someone and turned to walk away. As he turned around, I got a glimpse of who he was talking to.
Petunia?
The girl had blonde hair, looked pretty much European and was quite pretty. Sakeenah also had blonde hair. The only difference was that she dyed her's. Petuina's hair (if that was even her), was very natural. You could see it from afar.
"Aamirah. Aamirah Omar!"
"Huh... What, Raeesa?" I was a bit annoyed by now. All I wanted to do was enjoy my lunch in peace but I just had to focus on everyone else, as usual. I hadn't really been getting enough time to myself, lately.
"Who is that?"
Mental eye roll.
All of a sudden, I felt bad for getting mad at Raeesa. She was a good friend and just because I knew about Hamid's situation, it doesn't mean that she did. After all, Raeesa had known Hamid since we were toddlers and since he was born. In our near 18 years of life, neither of us had ever actually seen him talking to a girl.
"I'm sorry, Raeesa. This isn't my story to te-"
"Guys?" I barely looked at Jana to know what she was staring at in shock. I follwed her gaze.
Azlan and Rubina.
I choked on my lunch. Jana passed me my bottled water which I gulped down thankfully while watching the pair slide into their seats at the same table. They were accompanied by Jared, another three girls and two boys whom I did not know.
Why were they together? Were they a couple? How did this happen? How is Azlan not annoyed by Rubina's constant childishness?
The questions whirled around in my head, not giving me a break to stop and think rationally. I knew that my next ideas were not exactly the best things to do. I knew that they were next to impossible; I was going to have to do some kind of investigating. I had two options and two completely different ways to go about this...
I could ask Jana to ask Jared what was going on or I could find out by spying on Azlan and Rubina, myself.
"Aamirah, are you okay? Is something wrong?" Jana asked me.
"Look guys, can we meet up in the library after school, if you two don't mind?"
"Yeah sure, you two might have to wait a bit for me because I have an Environmental Society meeting with Mrs. Maynard for fifteen minutes after school. Is that fine?"
"Yeah, no problem Raeesa," Jana and I choroused. I smiled at my friends and thanked them for being so understanding. What would I do without my girls?
That, I don't even want to think about.
》》》
Ms. Hemingway, the school's trusty librarian was seated behind her counter as usual. Jana and I greeted her as we entered the building (which stood separately from the school's main buildings) and made a beeline for the shelves right at the back of the library. That way, Ms. Hemingway wouldn't hear the three of us talking when Raeesa arrived. We sat on the carpet in a space where Ms. Hemingway wouldn't be able to see us, then waited for Raeesa.
"So what's this 'emergency' meeting all about?"
"I was supposed to ask you a favour Jana..."
"What is it?"
"Are you close to Jared?"
"I guess so," She shurgged, "We text every night and stuff."
"Did he mention anything about Azlan?"
"No, why?"
"Just asking."
"Aamirah, do you have the hots for that jerk?" Behind Jana's serious exterior, I could tell that she wanted to smirk and probably tease me.
"Dude, are you crazy?" I rolled my eyes, "Azlan is a downright jerk, I know that. The problem is-"
"Hey, guys," Raeesa chirped as she plonked herself down next to Jana, "What's up?"
"Oh hey, Aamirah's just admitting her feelings for Azlan The Jerk," Jana casually stated.
Raeesa's eyes widened. They looked like saucers, piercing into the depths of my soul in shock, "Seriously, Aamirah? The guy nearly killed you on his first day here and acted like an ass about it and now you're into him?" Raeesa shout-whispered her speech to me and I felt like screaming.
"No guys just shut up!"
"What's going on at the back, there?" Ms. Hemingway called from the front of the library.
Silence.
Nobody spoke for a good five minutes. Once Ms. Hemingway was distracted by another target, we went back to whispering.
"I don't have feelings for Azlan. Jana's just being immature. Before you could get here, I was going to ask Jana if she could pry some information about Azlan out of Jared; information about him and Rubina." I sighed. If they were a couple, I wouldn't be surprised at all. They were perfect for each other in every (negative) way.
"Who cares about those two? All they ever do is make your life a misery, dude," Jana placed a hand on my shoulder, "Just don't worry about them."
"Jana, I have to worry about them. I don't trust Azlan at all, I mean, with his play boy stance and everything. As much as I strongly dislike Rubina, it doesn't mean that I don't care about her. If I don't care, who will?"
A thin girl in a tight dress appeared out from behind the shelf we were sitting against. Since we were seated on the carpet, her legs were the first thing I saw. I tilted my head to look up at her face and gasped.
"Wow, Aamirah," She snapped, "You really like pretending to be righteous around everyone, don't you?"
Sakeenah.
"What are you talking about?"
"You dislike my sister but still care about her? Lame. FYI, she doesn't give a damn about you," Sakeenah spun on her heels and walked away. I wasn't going to take what she said to heart. I didn't care if nobody cared about me. Of course it hurts when somebody says something like that to you but I had a tendency to bounce back and be forgiving. All that mattered at that point, was that I cared about Rubina and I wasn't going to stand around and watch her get hurt by Azlan...
🐥🌼🐥🌼🐥🌼🐥🌼🐥🌼🐥🌼🐥
Remember to vote and comment, those will be much appreciated. Chapters will be dedicated to those with the best comments. 💁
If anybody ever needs a definition of something, comment that you need it or message me and I will add a definition to the story. 💜
If there are any mistakes jn any chapters as well, also comment or message me and I will fix those. 🙅
If you would like to just message me and have a little chat, I don't have a problem with that either. 😜
Other than that, stay strong. 💪💯