Chapter Five - Don't Break
Sabrina grinned as she stepped through the door, her happiness swimming inside her and making her feel all warm and content. She shrugged out of her sweater and was about to step into the kitchen and tell her mother the good news when her parents appeared before her with raised eyebrows.
"Assalamu'alaikum." They greeted, eyeing her.
"Walaikum'assalaam." Sabrina replied, biting her lip to contain her joy.
"So...?"
"I did it!" Sabrina announced. "I got the job!"
Her parents beamed and hugged her. Sabrina had been trying in vain to get a job for half a year now and when she'd been called in to be interviewed, she'd nearly cried in joy. She'd been extremely nervous about the interview but it had went quite well, except for the part where her male interviewer had tried to shake her hand and and she awkwardly refused, placing it on her chest and stating that she was not allowed to shake hands in her religion with men.
The interviewer guy (Sabrina couldn't quite catch his name because she was too busy being embarrassed over the whole hand shaking situation) had taken it quite well, and even looked slightly guilty as if he should have known better. The rest of the interview went by smoothly and when it was announced that she had got the job, Sabrina had rushed home on cloud nine.
"Can I invite Emaan and Leila over to celebrate? She asked her mother.
"Of course, baita." Her mother answered. "Make sure its alright with there parents first."
* * *
"So, like, can we get free stuff cause we're like your mega awesome best-est friends in the whole world?" Leila asked, with a perfect poker face.
Sabrina laughed. The three girls were seated around the kitchen table, discussing her job. They'd squealed in joy over the phone when Sabrina had informed them and, half an hour later, had jumped on her when she'd opened the door to let them in. Sabrina thought herself the luckiest girl in the world to have such supportive friends.
"I guess I could pull some strings...but it's unlikely that you'll get it for free. Maybe half off." Sabrina said, shaking her head in amusement.
"Well, I'm happy for you." Emaan chirped. "Now you can save up for that car you wanted."
Sabrina smiled. The best part about having a job was that she could make her own money. She would never have to look guiltily at her parents for wanting to buy something ever again. She was eighteen now. It was slightly embarrassing that her parents had to buy her everything she needed, well, until now.
"Plus, Winners is in Kingsgate Mall, which is convenient because well, that's where we always shop."
"True." Sabrina nodded, happy to be working in a store that was in her favorite mall.
Sabrina got up off the kitchen table and headed over to the fridge to pull out some food, while Leila listed down about a hundred things that she was planning on buying for the sole purpose of wanting to do so.
"Anyone want a sandwich? Make whatever you like." Sabrina called, pointing to the counter which was stacked with cheese, bologna, lettuce and all the other yummy goodness that you could want on a sandwich.
Leila and Emaan stood up and walked over to the counter and starting piling things on their plates. Sabrina pulled out the ketchup and mustard out of the fridge and put it on the counter for them, when Emaan picked up a slice of bread.
"If this is whole wheat, why is it white?" she asked.
"OH MY GOD, Emaan." Leila mock gasped. "You can't just ask bread why its white."
Emaan giggled at the Mean Girls reference and picked up the bag of Wonderbread. "No, but really. It says here that its whole grain, but it's white because white bread tastes better while whole grain is healthier. Is that even true though? What if they're both healthy but they say that whole grain is healthier so people buy it more?"
"Sure, " Leila said with a grin. "They're trying to...grainwash us."
"Did you just say grainwash?" Emaan asked in mock horror, "because that just gave me a headache."
"Dont you mean a...migrain?" Sabrina asked innocently.
"Im done." Emaan said, throwing up her hands and making a show of storming out of the kitchen. Sabrina and Leila burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs.
* * *
"What's the word on you and Khalid." Leila asked, later, when all three girls were splayed on Sabrina's bed, feasting on fun sized chocolate bars and a bag of chips. Sabrina was in the middle of wondering why they called in fun sized when it could hardly count as a mouthful. Fun sized chocolate should be bigger, not smaller, she thought. These are, like, depressingly-small-sized.
"What do you mean?" Sabrina asked, noncommittally. She didn't want to talk about him right now.
"I mean, have you decide yet or not?" Leila asked, sitting up and fixing her with a firm look.
"No." Sabrina said truthfully.
"But...why?" Emaan asked, looking confused. "The way he stood up for that blind man...isn't that good enough for you? We all know he isn't the most practicing Muslim out there...but there seems to be good in him."
"I know..I just...its hard." Sabrina muttered.
"What's holding you back?" Emaan asked, staring at Sabrina like she was a difficult puzzle.
"I don't know." Sabrina said, and she really didn't. "I'm even more confused now than before."
"Why? He wants this so much. Don't you want to help him?"
"I told him that I would have my answer in a week." Sabrina said quietly, ignoring the question. Her eyes were faraway. "But I don't know if that's enough time."
"Sabrina, whats wrong?" Leila asked. "He seems to be trying...why are you still hesitating?
"Nothing's wrong, Lee." Sabrina said, struggling to put her thoughts into words. She looked up, her eyes desperate. "It's not even him I'm worried about....its me."
* * *
A couple of days later, as Sabrina was leaving her Human Physiology class and heading to the Library where she knew Leila spent her time during her spare class, she got a text from Emaan. She glanced down at her vibrating phone and blinked.
'Where's Lee?'
She hadn't seen Leila that morning and had just assumed that she was late coming to class, so she hadn't worried too much about it. But now that Sabrina thought about it - she hadn't seen Leila all day, and it was lunch time. She didn't even have a text from her which was certainly odd. Sabrina called Leila as she headed up to the Library after texting Emaan to meet her there.
Leila didn't pick up and that was when Sabrina really began to worry. She bit her lip, waving to Emaan as she appeared around a corner and stopped in front of the Library.
"Salaam. I just called her and she isn't answering." Sabrina said in a rushed voice when Emaan was close enough to hear her.
"Walaikum'asalaam and same for me." Emaan sighed. "This isn't like her. She answers my texts right away, usually. Maybe she lost her phone?"
"Maybe..." Sabrina mumbled but fell silent when she noticed Khalid walking past them.
She pretended to be absorbed in her phone when he passed, noticing that he gave her a glance from the edges of her vision. She'd been avoiding him since she'd him that she'd have made her decision in a week. Which left five days now. Five days and she was still lost. After Khalid had passed, she suggested to Emaan that they give Leila a visit.
"Maybe she's sick?" She assured Emaan and also herself.
They were half way to Sabrina's car - well her parents car - and Sabrina was still thinking about Khalid and what she would tell him in five days when her phone vibrated. She pulled it out, expecting a text but instead noticed that Leila was calling her.
"Salaam." She greeted. "Where are you?"
"Walaikum'asalaam." Leila replied, her voice sounding dry and emotionless which made Sabrina's heart shudder. It was the voice she used when she was trying not to cry. "At Blue Bells Hospital."
"What?" Sabrina shrieked. "Why? Are you alright?"
"Me?" Leila choked out dryly. "Im fine."
"Then what-"
Sabrina was interrupted by a strangling sound and she relaized that Leila was sobbing - or trying very hard not too. The sound alone brought tears to sting at her eyes because her best friend for eight years was crying. Sabrina had rarely seen Leila cry. She'd come close to tears many times but never actually sobbed outright. It took all Sabrina's will to not burst into tears at the sound of her best friend crying.
"Leila....what's wrong?" She managed to whisper.
"Everything. My mom has brain cancer, Sabrina. She has brain cancer and now they're saying that she has only weeks left to live. That's what's wrong, Sabrina. Everything is wrong."
Sabrina clutched her chest and let out a strangled breath. Emaan rushed over to her, perhaps afraid that Sabrina might fall. And she was close to it too because Sabrina was torn. She was devastated that such hardship could befall even the most happiest of all people. Leila was one of her best friends, and had been for such a long time that Sabrina had every right to say that she had never known someone so happy, so full of positivity.
Sabrina cried then, she sobbed because her best friends mother was dying and and because she was afraid for Leila. The bright, beautiful girl who had always smiled. Tears feel down Sabrina's face and she sniffled because she didnt want Leila to lose her happiness, and the pain she was surely going through now threatened to take it all away. She'd known people who'd lost loved ones. She'd seen them break and never fully heal. Please don't break, Sabrina thought. Dont let grief break you. She didn't want Leila to break. Not her sweet friend. But here she was saying that everything was wrong and maybe it was at the moment.
But not forever.
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Got a little emotional at the end...as we can see, this story will be way more than a love story. Just so you all know. I dont do mushy wushy, anyway. And since I dont know your life stories, I'm sorry if you've ever lost a mother or father. Or anyone, really.
Stay strong.
Vote? Comment? What are your thoughts? Do you think Leila's mother will make a miracle recovery? How do you think her mother's condition will affect Khalina?