Picture of Imaan to the top^^^
Dedicated to PriNsSShNY
You've got grace in your eyes,
Like I have never seen before.
You bring out the gentleman in me,
So don't be surprised when I hold the door.
~S.A.H
Elham's POV.
After performing my Salah, I went downstairs.
My mother was standing in the kitchen, cooking lunch and i decided to join her.
"Ummi. Let me help you" I smiled, collecting the knife in her hands, chopping the onions she formerly was. Ummi was an arabic word meaning 'my mother'. I was told by a lot of relatives that i was a replica of my mother from when she was younger and when i went through a stack of her old pictures, i couldn't help but agree. We were mostly the only ones home because my father travelled a lot due to the nature of his work. I didn't mind my father's absence, besides it wasn't as if he cared about us anyways. Whenever he was around, our home felt like a prison, it became hell. My father had done terrible things to us that sometimes made me wonder if he was my real dad. Fortunately, my mum and i were always there for each other and i just could not imagine a life without her. She was my mentor, my anchor, my problem solver and someone i could talk to at anytime, my favorite person and my best friend.
"No it's fine. Besides, you made breakfast"
She protested, grabbing the knife from my hand.
"But-"
"Really Elham, it's fine. Why are you here anyways? I thought you were at Imaan's place all this while" her eyes were now watery, from the onions.
I would have laughed, except tears were also dripping from my eyes uncontrollably.
Remind me why people still use onions?
"Uh ummi, I think I'm gonna do just that. I'm gonna head off to Imaan's house. I'll be there for a while. Call me if you need me" I said quickly.
And with that, I washed my hands and ran out of the kitchen, rubbing my blurry eyes and trying to stop the tears rolling out from them.
××××
"Elham! I was about to come over. What's wrong? Have you been crying?" My best friend asked, as I made my way to her bed and sat down on the edge.
Taking a deep breath, I wiped the remaining tears off my face and looked at her.
She looked worried. Very worried.
"Calm down. I'm fine!" I pointed out, picking up my phone.
"Then why are your eyes red and puffy? Oh no! Did Asaad break your heart?!"
Seriously though, this girl had to be crazy.
I ignored her question as I scrolled through my phone.
She came close to me and snatched the phone away from hands.
"What?!"
"Why are you crying?"
"I'm not crying" . "Onions" I muttered
She eyed me warily, as if trying to figure out if i was saying the truth or not.
She handed the phone back to me after a while and walked towards the door.
"Well I'm gonna pray Zuhr. I'll be right back"
And with that, she left.
Seeing Imaan was taking so long and I was getting sleepy, I decided to take of my niqab and hijab.
Pulling the garments off, I walked over to her full-length mirror to inspect myself. Something I rarely did. I really disliked looking in the mirror.
I was now only in casual jeans and a plain black T-shirt.
I was a skinny girl of average height. My black hair was long, a little after my waist. My eyebrows were thick and the only thing I liked about myself were my green eyes.
Amna was right. I was an ugly girl and it was just good that I was wearing a niqab. At least, it was hiding my flaws.
"Elham!" I heard my voice being shouted, making me jump slightly.
It was Imaan.
"You scared me!"
"You forgot to tell me how it went"
What was she going about now?
"What do you mean?"
"You guys were supposed to meet"
"Me and who?" I inquired, drawing my eyebrows together. She face-palmed herself and shook her head. "You, and ASAAD. Project?"
"Oh my God" I gasped. "I totally forgot"
Naturally, I was a forgetful person but how on earth did I forget something so important?? I knew it probably skipped my mind because it was a Saturday and I was usually free on that day, apart from homework and a few other things. But how stupid was I to forget something I had tried so hard to get?
"Where were you guys supposed to meet?" She asked.
"Library. But he did not even give me a time"
"Elham?"
"Yes?"
"Get dressed. We should go check the library to see if he's there"
"And if he's not?"
"We'll wait all day"
***********************************************
We actually waited all day.
Okay, maybe we didn't actually wait all day, but we were there for quite a long time and i was starting to get tired and hungry.
"I really don't think he's gonna show up. Maybe we should just get going". I was getting tired of sitting and flipping pages of a random book i had picked, to keep myself occupied, while she chatted with a group of our classmates. It was one of those days where you just wanted to sleep and stay in but Imaan didn't seem to understand. I wondered why it hadn't crossed my mind to ask him for the time we were supposed to meet. I guess i was too shocked that he even agreed, to ask for anything else.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Let's wait a bit". She said in a low tone, before turning to carry on with the conversation she was having. The place was slowly getting empty and i was loosing any hopes i had of him coming around but it seemed like Imaan was catching a lot of fun from the gossip they had been doing about some guy named 'Stephan' so I shrugged my shoulders and decided to wait a bit longer.
Thirty minutes later and there were still no signs of Asaad khaled, plus I had a rumbling stomach that could not wait to be fed.
"Imaan sweetie, can we PLEASE go now?" I faked a sweet smile as she diverted he attention to me.
"If you insist". We got up, ready to leave before i saw someone walk through the doors. Everyone's heads immediately turned to him and the library was getting filled with whispering here and there. "Oh. My. God" Imaan said, clearly checking him out too. Seriously? He was only wearing the usual thing. A black t-shirt and black jeans. Except his hair was a little messier than usual and the bags around his eyes were gone. He wasn't looking sick or depressed for the first time. If I was going to be honest, he looked good, better than usual. But the looks he got were exaggerated.
He glanced at his wrist watch and released a breath. Then his eyes searched the room. He looked tired but also relieved.
"I told you he was going to show up" Imaan said excitedly, causing me to roll my eyes. Everybody was acting as though some celebrity just walked into a building. I mean seriously, it was nobody special, just Asaad Khaled.
His eyes searched around the room before they landed on me and I felt my heart skipped a bit.
Why was my heart beating so fast and why was everyone now staring at the both of us?
He looked at the group of people beside me and then he did the unexpected. He smiled. He smiled at me. It was short, but it seemed genuine. Then he nodded, and walked towards and empty table and sat. "Go and join him!" Imaan exclaimed. I hadn't even come along with a single writing material, but he seemed to have a notebook and pen in his hands.
With a sigh, knowing this was also gonna be another topic if gossip in school by Monday, I headed to where he was seated, and joined him.
×××××
I had three hobbies. The first was sleeping , The second was painting, and the third and kind of my favorite, was spending time in the library. But as i sat beside Asaad, trying so hard to concentrate instead of worry about the looks both of us were getting now though, I'd have done anything to leave that library due to the awkward situation that was going on.
Sitting upright with his usual poker face on, I couldn't help but wonder if the attention this guy got, ever disturbed him. He seemed rather used to it. Though there was some distance between us, I couldn't help but perceive the strong smell of his cologne, as he flipped through the pages of the notebook that rested on the table in front of us.
I was nervous because firstly, I had never been this close to a guy, secondly, because I didn't know what to expect from this weird, mysterious guy.
My eyes danced around the room, searching for Imaan until I spotted her. She smiled and gave me a thumbs up and i smiled back.
"I didn't get to come earlier because i was busy. I hope it's fine?" He asked, causing me to look at him.
I was about to open my mouth and answer his question, when someone, who by the way, was totally uninvited interrupted me.
I seriously wasn't expecting her to be here and there she was, grinning devilishly at me as she took the sit on the other side.
I rolled my eyes, wondering what she was up to now.
My eyes travelled from her to him and I could see him focusedly flipping through the pages of a book.
"Hey Asaad" she spoke with a wide smile on her face.
He paused for a while, not looking up. For a second, I thought he was going to look up at her and reply her, but he continued with what he was doing, picking up a pen and writing something down, making me realize he was a leftie.
I turned curiously, to see how red Amna would be by now, but she looked calm, butslightly annoyed too.
I was expecting her to give up and walk away, but Amna tended to always force people into conversations with her, so she tried once more.
"Asaad?"
He looked at her this time, a confused look on his face.
"I just wanted to say hi. I think you're such an amazing guy and I'd like us to be friends"
He looked at me, then at her, then back to what he was writing down. I tried so hard not to laugh at this. Why was she disgracing herself in front of people?
"So obviously, he's not interested. Can you please leave so we can proceed with our project?" I was doing this intentionally, trying to get on her nerves as she always did to me, and I couldn't help but feel satisfied.
Asaad quickly turned to me with an amused look and I turned to look at Amna. Her eyes were filled with anger, her nose flared, as she stared daggers at me.
"I was talking to Asaad, so you stay out of this" she threatened me.
I looked away from her, scanning for my Bestie around the room, who was now watching the whole thing. Not only her, every student was watching us and even though I was pretty sure if they couldn't hear what we were saying, they could make some words out and this was definitely going to be ANOTHER gossip in school.I was used to it though, there was always something about me in West High's weekly gossip magazine, Just that this time, he was in the picture.
"Asaad sweetie, we could talk after you two are done and perhaps, eat out or something"
Okay seriously, there had to be something wrong with this girl.
I wasn't a fan of dating and all but from what I knew, you weren't supposed to stoop so low to ask a guy out like that. Her manner of approach was even terrible and if I was a guy, I'd ignore her the same way Asaad did.
He was now shocked, judging by the expression on his face. Probably because of the guts she had to actually disgrace herself like that.
He diverted his gaze to me with a questioning look but later looked away, pulling out his phone from his pocket and quickly typing something.
"Amna dear, I think from your observations, it's pretty clear that he's not interested. Can you please leave now?" I said sweetly.
I was now getting tired of the whole drama. I wanted to get this project done with, and carry on with my life. But this seemed impossible.
"You're not Asaad and I'm speaking to Asaad so shut up!"
"Asaad, will you please answer me, I'm waiting"
"So do you have any ideas in mind?" he asked me, completely ignoring the girl in front of us.
I was starting to feel sorry for her.
"Uhhh not really" I blurted, feeling very stupid afterwards. I actually had a few ideas so why did i have to make myself look dumb? He quickly glanced at me with an expression on his face that I couldn't quite understand.
He passed me his book, and i couldn't help but admire his beautiful handwriting .
I nodded, and pulled the book a bit closer before I began to read.
I was awed with everything I saw. The way he wrote, his descriptions, the words, organization, everything was perfect.
I couldn't hide my excitement so I turned to him with a grin, even though he wouldn't see it. "This is perfect! You're really good you know"
He looked away and my smile dropped.
" Asaad Khaled, who do you think you are not to answer me? You're so annoying and I hate you!" She stomped her feet and walked away. Wallah i totally forgot she was still there.
I looked at the group of people watching us and they were now laughing at Amna's ridiculous outburst.
I would have laughed too, but it wasn't even funny. Even if she actually liked him, she should have just met him in an empty place and talked to him. What happened was really embarrassing and I felt sorry for her.
Asaad cleared his throat, bringing me back to reality. He seemed completely undisturbed by the whole incident and i couldn't help but wonder what kind of person he was. Nothing ever seemed to bother him and he only spoke when he felt it was necessary. There was something about him that seemed to fascinate me, Was it the way he shut everyone and let nobody in? Was it the charisma and authority? Or was it the mystery and the darkness that surrounded him? After a moment of thought, i realised it was all, he was just so different in a kind of way i could not explain. I listened and watched him explain the whole thing to me. And we finally agreed that he was going to write the story, because clearly, i was not even quarter as good as he was, while i was going to go through it and help with editing, typing and printing.To me, it was a fair deal since I insisted on also writing some parts of the story, but he convinced me that it was fine and he loved writing, so it wasn't a big deal to him. And we were going to be meeting after school everyday so I could still get to suggest some ideas and stuff and I was happy to say I was relieved.
I did feel guilty, and felt like I was leaving all the work to him, but he promised me that it was totally fine, besides, I had my own share of work to do.
It was getting late and we decided to call it a day. At first, I thought Asaad was just an arrogant person, but now I knew he wasn't arrogant at least.Okay maybe he wasn't the nicest person around, and he had an annoying attitude of ignoring people, but the little time i had just spent with him, made me realize he wasn't as bad as i thought he was.
He spoke as though he selected his words, calmly, thoughtfully.
He was an intelligent person for sure, had a British accent which weirdly fluctuated from faint to thick.
"You guys are finally done. I was starting to get sleepy" Imaan said, walking towards us.
"Hi Asaad" she waved a hand and passed a smile at him.
He nodded and looked away.
At least now he wasn't completely ignoring her.
I thought he'd stay behind, but as Imaan and I walked out of the building, I noticed he was behind us and I stopped, so he could catch up with us.
He smiled, and made a simple hand gesture, urging us to keep walking, and we did, with Imaan looking back once in a while, and excitedly asking me why he was following us.
I also had no idea why. "Do you guys need a ride? I mean it's only fair if i drive you back home since we are heading towards the same place anyways" Who knew he could say that much at once? "No it-" I could not finish speaking because i was interrupted by Imaan.
"Sure, we'd be so glad" She said with a grin. He nodded at her and we followed him to his car. It was not the same car he entered the other day at school. This seemed even more expensive and it was a sports car.
"Do you think he offered us a ride so he can see where you live? Maybe he wants to marry you" she waggled her eyebrows and I simply shook my head, hoping he couldn't hear our whisperings.
"First of all, no. I'm sure it's just a kind gesture. And secondly, he's not marrying me, I'm not marrying him. There's no marriage taking place. I'm marrying a prince" I pointed out, and she pouted.
"InshaaAllah"
"Yes, InshaaAllah" I corrected myself. "But would you marry him if he turned out to be a prince?"
He pulled out of the lot and the engine revved as he drove off.
Would I? After a few seconds, i replied. "Maybe"
But Asaad and I married? It was even too early to talk about that. Why was I even imagining something like that when I knew it was impossible? ********************************************************
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Xoxo.