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So here's Chapter 18 because I value all my readers.
Tawfiq couldn't believe Habiba thought he didn't understand French.
He was homeschooled for a while and learnt all the major languages of the world. Some, he wasn't so fluent in, as the other, but he was fluent in French. And right after homeschooling, he started attending the most prestigious school in Abu Dhabi, maybe even the Middle East. A school where only a select few attended.
Tawfiq however enjoyed their banter until he got a call.
It was from Salim.
He was sure Salim had done what he had asked him to do.
Tawfiq excused myself and went to take the call.
"Salam mu Alaykum." He said to Salim.
"Waa Alaykum Salaam" he replied.
"Is everything going as planned?" He asked.
Salim knew what he meant.
"It was a little difficult but not impossible, I had to use a lot of 'you owe me' to get it done. I had her father transferred to another state as a sort of promotion." Salim paused. "Why did you want me to do it again? This is the third time I'm doing something like this for you. This time for the first time it's against a girl. I'm surprised. Explain. I deserve one." He said to him.
Tawfiq knew Salim would be curious and question his actions.
Tawfiq had done stuff like this before to people but never to a girl.
He would send people and their families, all boys, to different parts of the country because they did something to hurt someone close to him.
It was rather simple for Salim. He'd just find ways that would lead to people moving away.
Maybe a job promotion, maybe they lost their house due to unknown reasons, again, simple.
But this time it was a girl and Salim was definitely surprised.
"She-she hurt my friend." He said simply to him.
"Tsk. I need more information than that. You expect me to believe a little high school girl messed with one of your boys and you couldn't handle it by yourself?" He asked dryly.
He wasn't buying that.
"She hurt my freaking girl for Heavens sake, Salim. You know I wouldn't do that to a girl, but I warned her. You of all people know I don't warn before I act, but I did. I fucking did. But she still went ahead. She still hurt my girl and I can't forgive that." Tawfiq growled lowly.
Tawfiq hadn't realized he had been saying Habiba was his girl continuously, she wasn't his girl, but he had become used to her around him. He had friends or well acquaintances who were girls in school but he wasn't as comfortable with them like he was with Habiba.
Habiba was. . .different. She was like the rose in the weeds you just couldn't ignore.
"Tawfiq, don't tell me you got married there. Or are you now dating?" He said shocked.
Typical Salim.
"No, why would I do that? She's just a friend of mine."
For now.
"Just tell me, you made sure Lacey is okay, right? I might not like her but I wouldn't be a good person if I just didn't care. . .you have taken care of her? she won't be seen around here, right?" Tawfiq asked him.
"She's fine. Nothing to worry about. But I have to go now. Salaam." he said and ended the call.
Tawfiq turned round to go back to the oak tree and what I saw killed him.
Metaphorically.
His heart squeezed.
It was Habiba.
She was standing there like she was lost in thoughts.
How much did she hear?
No. No
Shit.
Tawfiq took a step forward but stopped.
She looked at him with so much fear that he didn't know how to take his next step.
He started to walk towards her slowly to explain to her what she might have heard but before he could get to her, she snapped back to reality and ran.
Tawfiq ran after her. He could catch up with in an instant. He was faster.
"Habiba, stop. Wait." Tawfiq said calmly to her.
She looked scared already and he didn't want to scare her anymore by shouting. He quickened his pace.
She was running as fast as she could, away from him. Tawfiq didn't know if it was the adrenaline in her but she wasn't slowing down. She just kept running much quicker than before.
Tawfiq ran faster to catch her before she got too far or hurt herself.
When he got close enough to her, he caught hold of her wrist and turned her instantly.
She screamed.
"No, no, please don't hurt me. Please. I won't tell anyone what I heard. Please, let me go, Don't kill me please, In the name of Allah, please let me go." She began to cry hard.
Pleading for Tawfiq to let her go.
If they were farther back where strangers were, this would have turned out bad.
Naima's eyes were shut so tight like she couldn't dare to look at him.
"I would never hurt you. You, of all people should know that." Tawfiq breathed out.
"If I leave your hands, you promise not to ran away?" Tawfiq asked her slowly.
She just nodded her head quickly and Tawfiq let go of her.
"Whatever you heard back there, I can explain to you. I just need you to believe me and listen to me." Tawfiq spoke to her calmly like a child.
She didn't say anything but the way her eyes were shut showed clearly she was scared. . . scared of him.
It didn't feel right to Tawfiq when she was scared of him.
"I didn't do anything to Lacey if that's what you are thinking. I didn't kill her. You know me better. I don't go round killing high school kids. I'm not going to lie, I did do something to her but not kill her." I said calmly making sure she understood what I was trying to say.
"W-what d-d-did you d-do t-to h-her?" She stuttered.
She was still scared that she couldn't even speak straight.
Darn it.
She should never had heard it. Tawfiq didn't even know what she heard. But whatever it was, she must have interpreted it just how it sounded.
"Open your eyes, I won't do anything to you. I can't even do anything to you." He continued. "Tell me what you heard, Naima." Tawfiq used her real name.
He didn't want her to get even more scared about someone she thought was a potential killer calling her 'Habiba'.
He had to make her believe him first.
It worked though.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked down at her feet as Tawfiq caught sight of a tear leave her eyes and fall to the ground.
"Y-you asked i-if they h-had t-taken care of Lacey, a-and if she wouldn't be seen h-here again. Tell me does that sound right to you?!" She screamed and gave Tawfiq a deadly look.
But behind it lied her fear.
Tawfiq just looked at her sadly.
Lacey had done the worst to her and yet she still cared about her life.
She was too good.
"You killed her, didn't you? You did!" She stepped forward to hit his chest.
Tawfiq didn't move, he felt pain in his chest, not from Habiba's pounding at his chest but from him making her cry and she thinking, he actually killed Lacey.
It wasn't her fault though. Anyone else would have thought the same from what she heard. Tawfiq held both of her hands in place as she cried harder whether from fear or disappointment, he couldn't tell.
"Naima, listen to me." Tawfiq said a little more sternly now and she removed her hands from his grip.
"I didn't kill her, Allah knows that and deep inside you, I know you do too. I asked my contacts to transfer her father to another place. He used to work in one of the branches of a company here in Valley View, so I just let them change his branch somewhere else." Tawfiq explained.
"Where? Where did you send her?" She asked.
Tawfiq honestly didn't know which state in the country she was in now. All he knew was that, it was far away from Naima. As far as possible.
And now as he looked at her, he knew he couldn't tell her the truth about him yet.
She would get scared and ran off.
They always did.
Not that he didn't trust Naima but he didn't want her to ran away from him. He wanted her to stay.
"I don't know, but she's okay. My contact confirmed it to me. You have to believe me Naima." Tawfiq all but pleaded.
He raked his hair from all the frustration building up in him.
He normally did that, unconsciously. It somehow cooled him down.
Naima didn't say anything for a while.
Then she looked at Tawfiq directly.
Making Tawfiq's breath hitch.
"Then were you the one who removed all the pictures of usvfrom social media?"
She asked with a little shock in her voice.
Tawfiq knew she would find out. Habiba was fast at connecting dots.
"I knew you wouldn't be happy when the pictures came online. I knew a couple of IT guys and they brought it all down and made sure everyone's phone at school had been swiped of the picture." Since he was coming clean, why not? He continued. "I also had that first year student do something chaotic so everyone wouldn't talk about your incident. I paid his fees for him for the term because they were struggling a bit. I didn't tell him to do what he did though, just said 'anything dramatic' " Tawfiq said with a small smile and added.
"You have to believe me. I did everything I could to protect you. I didn't want you getting hurt. Especially because of me. I care about you even if you don't believe that. I got you in the mess with Lacey in the first place thus I had to get you out." Tawfiq pointed out.
She narrowed her eyes up at him and said,
"Let's say I believe you, do you have any proof?"
"I will call my contact. My brother. He did everything concerning Lacey's moving away."
Tawfiq pulled out his iPhone from his pocket and decided it was better to FaceTime Salim because if he thought Tawfiq was alone, he would let something slip by mistake.
It rang three times before he answered the phone.
"Tawfiq, why in Heaven are you Face. . .Yaa Allah." Salim cut his sentence short and covered his mouth when Tawfiq brought the phone into Habiba's view.
"Salim, this is Naima." Tawfiq introduced. "Please tell her how I didn't do anything bad to Lacey." Tawfiq arched a brow.
"Naima? your girl? The one Lacey messed with?"
He freaking said that.
Naima gave him a confused look and Tawfiq looked away in embarrassment.
Salim could act so stupid at times.
Tawfiq forced a chuckle.
"I didn't say my girl, I said my friend, you dimwit." Tawfiq said a bit angrily.
He didn't seem to catch on to what Tawfiq was trying to say.
"But you said that, your words were,. . ."
Tawfiq didn't give him the opportunity to end when he cut him off.
"Salim, focus. Tell Naima that I didn't do anything wrong to Lacey." Tawfiq voiced out slowly.
Salim nodded in understanding.
"Ohh. Oh yes. Sister, he did nothing wrong. Just transferred Lacey and her family to another state because he said he wanted to protect you. But let me tell you something, he only protects people really close to him. He wouldn't go through all this fuss if he didn't. . ."
Tawfiq knew what he was about to let out so he ended the call quickly before Salim could embarrass him further.
"Okay, fine. I believe you." She mumbled.
"You do?" Tawfiq raised both brows. "I would have hugged you but it's haram and I'm a good boy." He said with a wide smile.
"You? Tsk. . .good. The world is indeed ending." She gave him a smile of her own.
The smile that made his strong knees, weak.
It should be made illegal if it could make him so weak.
"I missed your smile, Habiba." Tawfiq added out of the blue with a genuine smile.
But leave it to Habiba to break his hopes.
"I'm sure you saw me smiling not more than an hour ago. You're just funny." she said, still smiling.
Yaa Allah, someone should arrest her for smiling too much.
"I'm speaking the truth."
"Sure, sure." Naima rolled her eyes. "I actually thought you were a serial killer and were going to kill me for finding out your secret. You scared the Heaven out of me. If it wasn't for your cute brother, I would have ran for the hills." She giggled.
See how fast she changed the topic.
Wait, though. What!? She did not just say Salim was cute.
She never told Tawfiq he was cute.
And she just met Salim.
Tawfiq puckered up his lips angrily.
"Did you say Salim is cute?" Tawfiq asked her.
She acted oblivious to his apparent anger.
"The Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon Him once said, we should always speak the truth you know." She said with a smirk.
"You little. . ." Tawfiq couldn't even think of anything to say.
Naima laughed and shrugged.
"What do you want to hear from me? That you are really handsome or what?" She asked.
Tawfiq felt his face lit up in a foolish grin.
"You just called me really handsome." He said with a coy smile.
His first ever compliment from Habiba.
The girl was killing him slowly.
And he wasn't afraid to die.
"It was a question for Heavens sake." She said and slapped her forehead.
"Well, I know I'm a sight for sore eyes. Alhamdulilah. I try my best." Tawfiq sighed and looked at Naima with a sly smirk.
She looked at him with a flat look and pointed to the sky so Tawfiq naturally looked up.
She came by his side and whispered.
"That's how high your ego went." She smiled and ran. Probably going back to the picnic table.
The others.
They were going to ask questions for sure.
And Habiba's brother was there. Tsk tsk.
Not good.
When Tawfiq got there Habiba was still laughing at Allah knows what. Everyone looked at her like she was mad. They all gave Tawfiq weird looks when they noticed him and Zain stared suspiciously at him.
"Where did you two kids ran off to?" Dean asked with a smirk and raised his brows suggestively and Tawfiq knew what he was thinking. Dirty minded boy.
"Just talking." Tawfiq answered simply.
"For almost one hour? And what has got you all giggly little miss?" Zain asked with his attention now on Naima.
"Oh, nothing important." She said quietly and looked at her fingers.
"Sure thing, I hope you didn't do anything I wouldn't do?" He asked with a questioning smile.
"Really, Zain? I'm not sure I could do anything you do. . . but hey, I don't judge." She said with a sly smile in return.
Tawfiq looked at Belinda who was now in a deep talk with Dean.
He thought Deanhad a girlfriend. He met his 'girlfriend' a week ago.
Maybe they broke up. Tawfiq didn't really care. That was Dean.
But Belinda was too fragile for Dean.
Dean was Tawfiq's best friend, brother but it didn't mean Dean was the holiest person on Earth. He had his ups and downs but they were still going to be brothers.
Zain had his attention on Belinda and Dean whiles Habiba was typing something on Tawfiq's laptop pretty quickly.
For someone who said she did not have a laptop, she did pretty well.
"Umm. Tawfiq? I forgot to tell you that someone called on Skype." She said to me quietly so no one could hear.
"I will check when I get home. Thanks for telling me, anyway."
They talked with each other for a while until it was almost five in the afternoon when Zain and Habiba decided it was time to leave.
Tawfiq politely offered them a ride home but they declined or well Naima declined-which earned her a subtle scowl from Zain-, saying they would walk back.
Dean was going with Belinda in his car to help her send the empty food flasks home.
Truth be told Belinda was an amazing cook. She could become a chef one day as Dean pointed out earlier.
Tawfiq hadn't tasted Habiba's food yet. And he honestly wished he could very soon.
He was sure she could cook some UAE delicacies.
Tawfiq exhaled.
He could now almost taste his mom's famous Al Machboos she'd cook for them once a while.It was almost like the food Belinda brought today but tasted different.
Maybe, he could ask Habiba to cook some for him one day because he couldn't get his Al Machboos right everytime he tried. It never tasted the same to him.
Tawfiq normally ate at Dean or Malik's parents place or just take out. He could also prepare some dishes but he was mostly tired so he didn't cook all the time.
Zain took everyones number for Allah knows what reasons before he and Habiba left.
Dean, Belinda and Tawfiq walked to where they had packed their cars.
Belinda gave Tawfiq and Dean packaged food to send home.
No take out for Tawfiq then.
Belinda was a really nice girl actually reminded Tawfiq of Habiba. Always to herself.
At least she was opening up a bit now.
Unlike one other girl he knew.
Tawfiq got to his Mercedes and went straight home. He was exhausted.
He had stopped bringing his Buggati to school since the first day he had sent Habiba home from school. He loved sports cars, there was no denying but he needed to sell it off soon.
It was raising a lot of questions around about him. And he didn't want that.
He now used his Mercedes Benz CLS.
Even though it was expensive, it looked more affordable to a high school student than the Bugatti.
To his lonely home I went.
Maybe he'd call Dean over.
Maybe.
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#VCS
Byee.❤️❤️