(NOT EDITED)
Dedicated to NesrinMustafe for being such a sweetheart! Thanks for all the love babe xx
“Everyone leave the room except the kids. Mizan, call Zinat and Ayaan.” My father turns to the window while everyone exits the room. I give Alia my deadliest glare before looking towards Omar.
He walks over and sits down beside me with his hand on my knee reassuringly. “It’ll be alright,” he whispers. I start praying under my breath. I don’t know what will happen but something bad will. Something life changing. Those whose life….. that’s to find out.
“Abu,” Mizan Bhai walks into the room with Zinat and Ayaan. They both sit down across from me. Fear is evident in Zinat’s eyes.
“You may leave Mizan,” Abu tells him authoritatively.
“I think I should stay Abu,” Mizan Bhai says apprehensively.
“If you must. Omar, explain what is going on,” he turns back to us.
“Uncle, may I?” Alia stands up.
“No, Abu she wa-”
“Safiyana!” he holds up a hand to silence me. I close my eyes to hold back the tears. Something is going to go so wrong. I feel it in my heart. My pulse is racing, my gut is drowning in anxiety, my mind is running is all directions. Omar wraps his arm around me when he sees that I’m about to break down.
“What’s wrong Saf?”
“Uncle, I didn’t want this to happen. But Omar has already told you. I didn’t want this to happen but Safiyana found out and I couldn’t hide the truth any longer,” she sheds a couple alligator tears. I open my mouth to protest again but Abu silences me with a look.
“Continue,” he tells her.
“I fell in love with someone I go to school with. Nothing happened because my parents told me they were going to get me engaged to Omar before I could tell them about him. It all happened so fast and Safiyana and Ayaan found out and I’m sorry!” she starts wailing like a fucking whale.
Ugh, how I want to face out and shove it up her-
“And what about Safiyana and Ayaan. What was the meaning of what you said earlier?”
“I shouldn’t say,” she says weakly. Dumb trollop.
“Say what you have to say Alia. There are no times for games,” Abu orders. I can’t help but feel happy that even he sees past her fake façade.
“Ayaan and Safiyana,” she sniffles. Ugh, drop it already! “They love each other.”
“What, no!”
“She’s crazy!” Ayaan and I both stand up at the same time.
“Alia, do not go around making false accusations. What proof do you have of this?”
“They spend all their free time together. I’ve seen them alone, talking, laughing. It’s not hard to miss. I’ve heard them say how they feel,” she fumbles it all out.
God, she could’ve been in Hollywood!
“Is this true?” Abu looks towards me and then to Ayaan. “Have you been spending time with each other? Do you wish to be together?”
Ayaan looks at me and then at Zinat. I can read what’s on his mind. If we tell him the truth, he’ll find out about Omar and Zinat. He may not oppose the relationship but he is a man of principle. He will deny it all because of the web we wove.
But if we say yes, my father will believe that there really is something between Ayaan and I and what he does after that is a thought I’m not willing to have.
“Abu, can I have a second to speak with Ayaan and Safiyana?” Mizan Bhai steps in.
“Why Mizan?”
“I spoke to Safiyana about something that I think I need to bring up again. Please Abu.”
“Go ahead kids,” he tells us. I walk out with the two men and Mizan takes us out to the porch. Everyone who left the room earlier is sitting in the kitchen and only Bhabhi sees us walking by but she stays quiet.
Once we’re outside, Bhai closes the door and turns to us with his arms crossed over his chest. “Tell me the truth guys, is there something going on?”
“Bhai, give us a second,” I snap, and walk down the steps and far enough so my brother can’t hear. Ayaan realizes a second later he should follow and quickly walks over to me.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s great Saf. I’ve got a couple ideas though, deny, deny, deny!” he huffs exasperatedly.
“Look, if we say no, Omar and Zinat will never get to be together. On top of that, Alia’s going to blow some more shit into my dad’s face. The only option we have is to say yes,” I say quietly, keeping my eyes on the floor.
“Safiyana, you do realize what happens if we say yes. We will end up married!” he throws his hands in the air.
“I understand that. But I would do anything for my brothers and I’m sorry you got dragged into this but for his happiness I’m willing to pretend to be in love with someone let alone get married.”
“I can’t believe this. This is just brilliant. Saf, my parents will actually get us married! My mom would jump at the opportunity. Listen to yourself,” he runs a hand through his hair nervously.
“Well I’m willing to do it. As soon as a decent amount of time has passed, we get a divorce,” I reason.
“Girls in our culture don’t have lives after divorce. Your life will be ruined,” he pleads with me to understand.
“Guys!” Bhai calls to us.
“One minute Bhai! I know Ayaan. But if I don’t, there’ll be two lives ruined. If you are willing to help me with this, I’ll be okay. We may not even get to the wedding Ayaan. All we have to do is stall.”
“I seriously can’t believe this. I’m going bloody mental,” he laughs bitterly.
“Is that a yes?” I ask, not being able to stop that little shred of hope slipping through.
“I don’t even know. We’ll play it by ear,” he replies before walking back to my brother.
“Ya Allah, thank you,” I whisper to myself before joining the boys inside.
Mizan Bhai goes and talks to Abu while we wait outside with Bhabhi and the parents. Bhabhi puts a hand on my arm when I start tapping my foot in panic.
“Go in guys,” Omar says once everyone leaves the room. His eyes are lighter, relief is evident on his face and I know he and Zinat will be okay.
“Safiyana, Ayaan, Mizan told me. How long?” Abu is sitting on a sofa now. Ayaan and I take the two across from him.
“How long what Abu?”
“How long has this been going on?” he asks uncomfortably.
“Abu nothing is going on! We got paired up for an assignment in school and it just happened. I haven’t done anything you would be disappointed of.”
“Sir, if I may,” Ayaan steps in. “With all due respect, I had no interest or knowledge of Safiyana before we had to work together. She and I have never spoken of our feelings towards each other until tonight and I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”
“Safiyana, you can leave. I’m going to speak with Ayaan and then we won’t speak of this till we are back in England and I have a chance to speak with your parents,” he says tiredly.
“Please don’t be upset Abu. I haven’t done anything wrong,” I stand up.
“I know beta. Get some sleep,” and I believe him. I leave and now only my uncle and aunt and Zinat’s parents are there. No doubt they have a lot to talk about. Everyone else is asleep.
“Safiyana, can we speak to you,” Zinat stops me before I walk into my room. I turn around and see Omar bhai behind her. I follow her into her room and sit down on the bed beside her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why didn’t you say anything? If not to me, then at least to Zinat?” Bhai asks.
“What are you guys on about?”
“You and Ayaan,” Zinat puts a hand over my knee.
Oh God, there’s no escaping this. “I didn’t think was the right time,” I say flatly. No need to make this something it isn’t.
“Come on Saf, this is a big deal. We’re not going to go run and tell the adults. If you two had feelings for each other, you should’ve told us,” Omar sits down beside me, all serious.
“Bhai, we haven’t given this much thought ourselves. Like I told Abu, it just happened,” I shrug one shoulder.
“God, you’re such a robot,” he laughs at me. “Show a little emotion!”
“Look, I have no idea what’s going on. Right now we just need to be happy that things turned out the way they did. If Alia didn’t blurt out all that shit, God knows what would’ve happened,” I sigh in relief.
“Okay, let’s just get some sleep. We’ve got an interesting day tomorrow,”Zinat nudges me playfully. I roll my eyes and leave the room quickly before any more questions arise.
On my little jog to my room, I see Ayaan walking up the stairs. My initial reaction is to run into my room but when I notice he’s alone, I freeze in my stop.
“What happened?” I blurt as soon as he’s close enough.
“He’s going to speak with my mum and dad when we get back to England. And then they’re going to book a day for the engagement.”
“Shit, they’re actually going to go through with this,” I hiss.
“You should be glad. You’re plan worked and my our cousins are getting married,” he smiles slightly.
“You seem really calm about this. I expected some yelling, maybe a couple kicks in the shin,’ I put my hands on my hip. “Come on, hit me with it.”
“There’s nothing to say Safiyana. Maybe now I won’t feel so guilty about all these feelings,” he gives me a full out shit-eating grin then before walking into his room a couple doors down from mine.
“What the hell is going on?” I walk as I fall onto my bed. Ya Allah, what is going on?
“Cantaloupe?”
“Yes please?” I hold out my plate. Bhabhi loads me up knowing how much I like them.
“Dada got a new piano you know?”
“Really? Where is it?”
“It’s in the library for now. He and Mizan were talking about you guys and how you played when you were kids.”
“It has been a while. Let’s go.”
“I’ll be down in a minute. Let me just make sure everyone’s full,” she nudges me to go on.
I sneak to the library and see the glorious, grand piano still shiny and new. I set my plate on the bench and sit down. As I’m about to open the keys, I spot the violin case set on the bookshelf in the corner of the room. I squeal and forget the piano.
As kids, our parents made us all learn classical instruments to improve our learning abilities. Mizan, Mehnaz, Omar and Zayed learned the piano, I learned the violin and Yusuf and Ali were taught the guitar. We never took it far, only as kids. I, however, fell in love with the classical instruments and had Zayed teach me the piano too.
I take the violin and go back to the piano bench. Setting the case down, I take out the beautiful instrument and set it on my lap. My thoughts trail back to Ayaan who had disappeared after I caught a glimpse of him this morning in the breakfast crowd.
I tune the violin before setting it in between my shoulder and chin. After a couple slides of the bow across the strings, I launch into the first thing I learned to play as a kid: the theme song of the film Mohabbatein.
The sound resonates in the circular room, making me pause for a moment. I hadn’t played in years, not since senior year in high school. I forgot how much I enjoyed it.
Playing again, I close my eyes but not a minute later I open them when I hear the door open. Bhabhi and Mizan bhai walk in with Sufyan. Ali and Yusuf come in with Navsheen and Ali being Ali starts to sing. It messes me up for a second but I get back on track once Sufyan starts laughing at him.
“It’s been so long since you played,” Yusuf smiles. “Remember when we used to do that thing on the piano from Big?” he chuckles, referring to a scene in a Tom Hanks movie.
I smile and set the violin back into its case before opening the piano cover. We would spend hours as kids screwing around on the old piano in this house. We squeeze Sufyan in between us and set the plate of my fruit on the top of the piano.
Yusuf begins and I jump in. We go crazy like we did as kids, and more people pile into the room, including our mothers and my aunt.
“Dekh lo. Kabhi nahin bad lenge (Look. They’ll never change),” my aunt chuckles.
“Kabhi nahin (Never!)”, Yusuf laughs. I steal a piece of my fruit back from Sufyan to which he frowns but I quickly distract him with playing again.
“Acha chalo bache, we have a fun day planned at the beach! Get ready and go!”
Everyone runs out of the room, leaving Zinat, Ayaan and yours truly remaining. “Look at you two,” she grins.
“Apaa,” Ayaan groans.
“I’m leaving. I know you two want to squeal and hug now that you can be together forever,” she sings, leaving like she said she would.
“You owe me an explanation,” I cross my arms over my chest and face Ayaan.
He sighs and walks over to the back of the piano, leaning on the lid. “I didn’t know you played instruments.”
“We were all classically trained, courtesy of my deceased grandmother. You didn’t answer my question,” I scowl, eating my remaining breakfast fruit that is half-bitten courtesy of my nephew.
“What do you want me to say? If it wasn’t obvious, I somehow found your stoic charm and forever-irritated wiles attractive. I know, I’m baffled too,” he laughs lightly.
“I really want to punch you in the face right now,” my fist flexes. “Where’d the quiet Ayaan who never said anything go?”
“He’s still here. And I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable or such. But I want to be honest with you,” he stands up seriously. “Your parents are taking this seriously and if we somehow end up having to live with this relationship, I want you to know that I actually do like you. And I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?” I grumble.
“Because I actually wouldn’t mind much if we got married.”
Sorry if it's short but I just started uni and it is crazy! But ohmygosh, Ayaan's confession :O
Vote and comment and let me know what oyu thought!! :D xx