Remember to comment and vote. Love reading your thoughts.
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Not feeling it. Rain Check? - Rabail
It's all good. Ssup? R u ok? - Snazzy
Headache. Nauseous. - Rabail
r u pregnant? - Snazzy
Bitch!!!! - Rabail
Chuckling, she replied to her friend.
U smiled didnt u? Love ya nd will bring some tacos for u. Gonna go grab Frosty. - Snazzy
U r the blessing of my life ❤️ - Rabail
Her limbs were heavy. Like her body was just a pile of bones weighing in on her soul. Her mind was foggy and blank. Her body was numb. The only remote feeling in her body was the throbbing pain in her forearm.
Curtains were pulled. The light was off. Akira was sitting in the window licking the toy. Darkness enveloped her, hiding her from the crushing realities. Giving her the battlefield to confront her brutal thoughts.
Her mother's eyes flashed in front of her. Filled with contempt, disgust, hate. As if she was the grave mistake of their life. A regret she couldn't forget. Cancer with no cure. An unforgiving sin. The cause of her destruction.
Her body stirred as she felt the phone vibrating somewhere on her bed. Constantly. She rolled around and found it. Answering without looking.
"I've been trying to contact you for hours." He sounded exasperated and helpless. "This thing is trying to walk around but can't with that broken leg. What do I do?"
She closed her eyes. Listening to him. Listening to his breathing. Familiarity making her calm.
"Rabail?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you there?"
"Yeah."
"The cat?"
"Comfort him. Put him in the crook of your arm and run your hand across his back. He needs comfort."
There was silence between them. Stretched for minutes.
"Rabail?"
"Yes"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She couldn't put it in words so she did what she always has been doing. Keeping it all bottled in.
"Why are you so quiet? What's wrong?"
"How do you know?"
"I just know that there is something. Are you okay?"
"Okay?" She wondered about it. She didn't know what it meant. "I don't know what okay is supposed to look like. Do your thoughts stop suffocating you? Do your memories stop drowning you? Do you stop craving pain?"
"Rabail," his voice was quiet. As if hurting for her. "You didn't, did you?"
He was asking about her cuts. He knew what she did. He knew what her poison was.
"No." She lied. She always did. So natural that it almost tasted like truth on her tongue. It was easier to lie than cut herself open emotionally and put her torment in words.
"Okay is when your heart is calm even when the whole world is burning in chaos around you. When life is uncertain, but you know wherever it'll go, it will work for you. Okay is when everything is falling apart, but you have faith in your Almighty knowing he is putting together something bigger and better for you. He won't burden you beyond your ability to bear. And okay is having that glimmer of hope when everything is choking your throat with hopelessness."
"I've never been okay. Nobody taught me to be okay."
"You will be. I promise, Rabi, you will be." He heaved a sigh and she heard a slow meow of the cat. "Just so you know I'm changing his name to Willow." She knew he changed the topic to distract her and she couldn't have been more thankful
"Willow... I like it. We found him under the willow tree didn't we?"
"Yes. Hence the name."
and her phone buzzed again. She removed the phone from her ear and looked at it. He had texted her. Sliding it open, her lips curved even though it felt like lifting a mountain. She did smile, nonetheless.
"Oh my God! That is the cutest photo I've ever seen." He had taken a selfie with Willow sleeping in the crook of his arm. "My heart." She sighed.
"Don't stare at it too hard. You might fall in love."
"With you? Never. Astaghfirullah"
"You just called me cute. I prefer something else but that'll work too."
"I was talking about the cat, Mr. Khan."
"Sure, Sure, Miss Noor."
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
She stared at the ceiling in the darkness as she listened to his calm breathing.
"Can you stay on the phone for me?"
"Always."
That silence between them. It was there. But he was there. She could hear him breathe, knowing he was there listening to her. It soothed her nerves. No words were meant to be spoken. He was listening to her unvoiced agony. Just knowing he was there worked like a sedative for her and before she knew it the arms of sleep wrapped around her and she had fallen asleep listening to him and Willow.
The wind caressed her face as she drove down the highway. The sun rays warming her. It was a struggle to leave the bed. Easier to lay there and let the pain consume her, twisting into her gut like a knife. Memories working like salt on her wounds.
But She had to move or else Sanaz would have noticed and created a storm if she found out what she did to herself last night. It had taken her hours to just dress up and leave.
She had to take food for Willow. And just the thought of seeing Asfandyar Khan made it easier for her to drive to his house. His presence, it made it easier for to open the knots of her past. It was easier to remove the hands of vicious memories from her throat when he was there. He listened and all she needed was someone to listen, to care that her pain mattered. To look at her and see the girl behind the façade and he saw her.
She took the road off the highway. He lived at the foot of the mountains where houses were secluded by miles between each other. The serenity enveloped the surroundings. The house encircled by tall trees. The ten-minute drive on the small road aligned by pine trees was one of the most beautiful she had seen in Exeter. And then his house was a haven, tucked between the trees. The outside decorated with wood with stones giving it a mountain home aesthetic, but the inside was as modern as the Downtown Exeter got.
She knocked lightly on it and the carved rustic mahogany door opened. Gracing her with the most breathtaking sight. He was running his hand through the length of his wet hair as he held open the door with the other. His eyes blazing in the sunlight like shinning stardust. The rays swallowing the darkness of it and lighting it up like a shooting star she could wish upon. The scar on his otherwise perfect nose fully visible in the daylight. His tall figure towering over her, dressed in a navy blue crew-neck sweater and blue jeans. The sleeves slightly rolled up, putting a show of his veined forearms covered with the intricate ink.
She was fucking starstruck.
He was gorgeous, beyond gorgeous. He had that raw attractiveness, Looming with mystery and fierceness.
Marry Me.
His eyes crinkled in amusement as he raised his perfectly arched eyebrow at her.
"I came to see Willow. You're blocking my way. Move." She pushed past him, huffing. Calm yourself, Despo.
A low rumble of his laugh followed her as he closed the door. Why is it so hot all of a sudden? Does he not have AC in this big asś house.
Walking to the window, she fanned herself. At the foot of the window, Willow was licking his paws lying in his bed.
"Hey, little guy," Willow growled at her. Still not used to the sudden approach. "Sorry." She cooed. "I'm just here to see you. I got your food and pain medicine."
"How are you?" His deep voice from close by. Avoiding his gaze she answered. Focusing on Willow helped her avoiding tactic.
"Fine." She breathed. "I've got him medicine for pain. The vet gave the prescription. It's gonna be a little struggle since he is not used to us, but he needs it."
She put aside her bag and pulled out the liquid medicine. Opening the bottle, she prepared it. Feeling his gaze on her, she swallowed the lump. As if he was trying to find what was different or wrong with her.
She cooed and pet the cat, trying to prepare the furball, but when the time came the cat was rather violent. Trying to scratch her, snarling at. Right when she fed him the last drop, the cat scratched her left arm, hitting her paws over the fresh wound.
"FUCK!" Dropping the cat in her bed, she staggered back. The cut on her arm burning like hot coals. "Damn it, Willow." She gritted her teeth as her eyes burned with hot tears.
"What happened?" In a lightning second, he was in front of her holding her hand carefully.
"Nothing." She said through clenched teeth as her breathing became heavy. "Just unexpected scratched."
"That wasn't unexpected, Rabail." He stared into her eyes. A grim look crossing his face.
She tried to snatch her arm from his hand, but he wrapped his fingers around her wrist. One menacing look from him and she shut up. He rolled up her sleeve and the white bandage wrapped around her arm was soaked with blood.
"Wow." His voice dipped in disappointment. "So you lied to me." His jaw clenched. Eyes flaring red with betrayal. He was livid.
"Please don't do this." She pleaded as he unwrapped the bandage. When it finally came off, his hands trembled. He sucked in a breath as if a knife had been twisted in his back.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" His eyes blaring at the wide open cut that was still bleeding. "How could you do this to yourself, damn it." He closed his eyes and the opening it with force as if the burn of the flowing blood was rather in his own veins. "This needs stitches."
"I'm not going to hospital." She struggled against his hold. She knew she was going to get reported for this. Put through mental counseling. Psychologists and therapists forced on her.
'"did you hear? Rabail's been going to the therapist? You know the one where Cindy's mom was when she lost it. The one were they send mentally ill. The girl is cracked in the head."
"I'm not going to the hospital. I'm not crazy. I'm not cracked." Hot tears freely spilled on her cheeks as she struggled with his hold. "I'm not crazy. I'm not..."
"RABAIL!" His voice thundered cutting through the taunts of her past. "Stop it. I won't take you to the hospital but you do need stitches. I'm going to take you to get stitches. It's going to leave a scar if we don't stitch it up."
"I have scars. I don't care." Her voiced cracked with sobs.
"The less you have. The less you suffer. They don't come for free. They cost you nights of angry pain. Oceans of regret. They remind you of the ruthlessness of your fate. They are like wounds unable to be healed. They won't let you move on when you need to. Trust me. I have them. So let me help you heal."
He pulled her up. Wrapping a new bandage on her arm temporarily, but she hardly heard him through. Still struggling with him, but he didn't let go of her hand, even when he poured Willow's food in her bowl. He dragged her with him to his car.
"I don't care-"
"Shut up." His anger blasted on her. "If you said one more word. I will take you the University's Emergency Room and then you deal with the Exeter's Mental Counseling." He threatened her.
She scowled at him and shut her mouth as he put the seatbelt around her. Strapping her in like a child. As if he trusted her, she'd run away.
If she thought Falak was a rash driver, He was two miles ahead of her. Driving past the speed limit while barking in the phone as he called someone.
"Get her to your room and Get the first aid out." He growled through the phone. "What do you mean you don't have it? I don't care where you get it from, but it better be there. Even if it means you have to dig a hole through hell and get it." He threw the phone in the cupholder.
His knuckles turning white as he wrapped it around the steering wheel.
"I asked you last night." He glanced at her as he pressed his foot on the gas pedal. "You lied to me."
She stayed silent. There was nothing to say. She lied because she always did. He wasn't special. Why would she tell him?
"I'm talking to you." Sneering at her, he slammed on the break as they came to stop in front of Four Season's Hotel.
"Yes, I did. So what? What would you have done? Come flying through the window on your magic carpet and save me at three AM." She snarled back. Removing the belt with force.
"YES! I would have. Even if it meant it was three AM on a damn carpet. You just had to tell me. All you had to do was tell me the truth."
"They all say that. Empty promises. Insincere words. Nobody is there when you need them, so save the bullshit."
She got out of the door and slammed the door. Surprised that the window didn't shatter. It seemed like he wanted to retaliate, but shook his head and pressed his lips together. Rounding the car, he wrapped his hand around hers, holding it tightly. As if she was going to break into a run at any given moment. She huffed as she followed him to the elevator, fuming.
The door he knocked on was opened and a smiling Zach welcomed them. His smile faltering a bit in surprise as he raised his eyebrows as he glanced at their clasped hands.
"Move!" He growled at his friend.
"Gladly." Zach stepped back in the room letting them enter.
"Hi, Zach." She tried to smile at him as the one dragging her moved without stopping. He squeezed her hand as she greeted his friend.
"Noor." A luminous smile graced his lips. "Just when I needed a glimmer of light in this dull life. God graced me with your presence. Marhaba Habibti."
She laughed at his fake Arabic accent.
"Sit." He pulled on her hand and made her sit on the chair by the balcony. "Where the hell is she?"
"Bathroom. Touching up or something like that she said."
"I don't have time for that." He barked. "MAHEEN."
And there she was walking out the door in her damn four-inch Louboutins. Her jaw dropped. Step on my arm with those and I'll gladly bleed. She enviously watched the shoes, forgetting all about her own wound. Damn. I will sell my soul for those. She sighed.
Well, until she realized who was in those shoes. Suddenly all that in her turned sour. Swirling like poison in her stomach. Dressed in an emerald green jumpsuit, her golden hair piled over her shoulder, she walked gracefully towards them in those red sole heels. I hope you fucking trip in those damn gorgeous shoes. Where was this sourness coming from? She didn't understand.
"Khan"
But whatever it was, she didn't like it. The way she was staring at him as if he was the center of her world. Oh, she did not like that one bit. Her heart wrenched at the sight. The veins around her heart twisted as she watched them. Why did it hurt so much?
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Fighting again... smh
also, can someone make aesthetic for the characters whoever you can? I love those but I'm trash at them. I tried, let's say I shouldn't have tried.