Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu everyone.
I hope everyone is doing great.
I know it has been almost a month that I did not update but I was genuinely very busy and some health issues too. I am extremely very sorry for that.
JazakAllahu Khairan Khair to all my lovely readers for having my back throughout.
Thank you to all for commenting and making an effort to stay by me throughout. Even to all the silent readers a big thank you.
Also JAZAKALLAHU KHAIRAN KHAIR APPI Pearls_Queen for such a beautiful cover. You have always stayed by me from the very start and has always encouraged me and inspired me. A very big thank you to you. Guys go and check out her books, I am sure you all will love them all.
And I am extremely sorry to all those people whom I did not mention above, do comment here or pm me and Insha Allah I will do that in my next chapter
Enjoy reading
Surah Al-Araf, Aayat No 54
إِنَّ رَبَّكُمُ اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ يُغْشِي اللَّيْلَ النَّهَارَ يَطْلُبُهُ حَثِيثًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ وَالنُّجُومَ مُسَخَّرَاتٍ بِأَمْرِهِ أَلَا لَهُ الْخَلْقُ وَالْأَمْرُ تَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ
"Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods of time, and He is firm in power; He throws the veil of night over the day, which it pursues incessantly; and (He created) the sun and the moon and the stars, made subservient by His command; surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds."
***
When you are trying to neglect a certain person because you know you had ended up blemishing yourself and do not want the history to recapitulate again, yet the person you want to malinger from do not want the same?
Rida was in the same situation for the moment. The person she was trying her best to evade, was now in front of her and was the one who had initiated a talk! The thing that she had not awaited. And she didn't knew what got into her that she asked him such an intrepid question, but she was glad that she did. She stood there a little at a distance from him, her eyes lowered. She did not wanted to look at his face, that face that pained her heart. The one face that was once the reason behind her smile.
"Rida?" Fahad called out to her and she looked at him through her eyelashes, who was scanning her face with his eyes searching intermittently. She was nervous and she could sense the flopping in her chest. Her legs were quivering badly, while she was continuously biting her lips. She knew by the moment she would be out of the place, her lips would be bleeding.
She did not utter a word and continued staring at the floor. He moved a step forward and her eyes widen in fear. She took a step back to only realise that there was no escape. She stood firm on her place, and sighed in relief when she noticed the gap between the two of them.
"Aafia might be looking out for me." She whispered and the voice was hardly discernible to reach him but he understood from her lip synching.
"The game is over, Aahana Appi's mother ordered everyone to sleep." He said and she felt more solicitous in his presence knowing she was forlorn, downstairs.
"I think I should take my leave." She said feeling a lump in her throat. She did not wanted him to see her cry, because she knew as much as she try she was still weak.
"I need to talk to you." He said with his eyes still intensified on her face that she tried her best to escape.
"I don't want to talk to you." She said not looking at his face, her hands trembling while her mind racing to places as to what would be so important for him, that he is speaking to her.
"You are not getting out of this place until then." He said a small smirk making its way to his lips making her look at him in bewilder.
"You cannot just decide things for me." She said with a straight face and he was very much surprised to see such a change in her.
Fahad has always known Rida for her shyness. It was her shyness that had attracted him to speak to her and he had seen she was the same but for now she was pretending to be something she wasn't, and he did not like it. He wanted the same old Rida back, who would care about people, and he was sure she still did that, but it was just him who was get such a treatment from her. But he did not care as long as she was ready to hear him out he was fine with it.
"Rida, just ten minutes." He pleaded and she looked down at the floor for a second, biting her nails, before pulling out her cell phone from her pocket and unlocking the phone.
She opened the clock app and set a time for ten minutes and turned it to him. He looked at it confused but when he saw what it was, he was astonished!
Had she really changed so much?
She clicked on the start button and she did not ask him to speak nor did he say anything. She was still gazing at the time, that was showing her the amount of seconds he has wasted without uttering a word.
"How have you been?" He asked Rida, taking her by surprise. She looked at his face for a few seconds before averting her eyes.
"Alhamdulillah." She said after wetting her lips that were dry from not speaking for a long time.
"Good." He said and she waited for him for a second to speak up but when he did not, she stopped the clock and kept her phone in her pocket.
"I guess you don't have anything to speak, so I am leaving." She said and was about to leave when he caged her from the left side and she was quick enough to move away so that he does not touch her.
"I just wanted to gaze at you. It has been a while since I last saw you." He said and if it was some other day, Rida would have blushed, not because it was him but because this were the kind of conversation she had heard couples speaking and someone speaking such things to her, especially boys, made her nervous, tensed.
Rida looked at him with an expressionless face. She did not smile because she knew any wrong gesture can make him to sense something else, which she did not wanted.
"I know it is not right to talk to a girl but I couldn't help it." He said when he saw her opening her mouth. She was amazed as to how did he come to know what she was going to say to him, but throwing that thought at the back of her mind she nodded her head making him realise that what he has done is wrong.
"Rida I am sorry for every possible thing that I have done to you." He said and she raised her eyebrow at him.
"I know you had trusted me for not leaving you, yet I did that and I am genuinely, humbly apologizing about that." He said and she nodded her head at him before turning to leave.
"You know after I ended up our friendship I was never at peace. The nights would haunt me, and the guilt was building up within me because I knew such things pained you and when I promise to not hurt you I was the one who pained you the most." He said and she gave him a small smile while a tear left her left eye.
"It's okay." She said not knowing what to reply to such a confession.
"No that's not okay, and I know it. I have messed it up badly." He said and she didn't knew what she should be saying in the moment.
"It's okay." She said it again not wanting to discuss the topic further.
She had suffered a lot. She had been awake nights and nights thinking where did she go wrong that he ended up their friendship, but now she was healing. Slowly and steadily she had accepted the Qadr of Allah Subhana watahaalah and was finally moving on. She now wanted nothing to do with her past. She had finally started to be happy in her life and she knew who the reason was, but again a fear settled in her. What if Rehan does the same thing what Fahad had done?
"Do yo-you kn-know why I had broken our friendship?" He asked her hesitant and a question came to her mind. She hadn't known the reason behind him breaking the friendship but had finally concluded that she was not the type of girl he loved be friending with.
She shook her head and he sighed in relief. He did not wanted her to come to know about the reason from somewhere else even though he knew no one knew about it.
He gazed at her for a few second. He was having an inner turmoil. He wanted to let her know the reason yet he knew that she wasn't the type of girl who would give an affirmative response. He did not wanted to tell the reason in such a way that she feared him, or go away from him because that was the last thing he wanted. He smirked slowly when he planned of something.
"You know it was your fault that I broke our friendship." He said and she gawked at him astonished and he was trying hard to hide the smile on his face looking at her face.
Rida did not know what to speak. Had he just blamed her for their broken friendship? She tried recalling every possible things she had done and she could not bring herself to any conclusion as to what was her fault.
She looked down and started biting her nails, a habit of hers that usually meant she was nervous. After thinking for a second she looked up at him to see him gazing at a with a smile and she didn't knew why but felt that he was just playing around with her.
"And what was my fault?" She asked crossing her arms on her chest while narrowing her eyes at him and he couldn't help but find her cute when she was angry.
"Of course it was your fault, if you wouldn't have been that way I wouldn't have broken our friendship." He said shrugging his shoulder while moving the phone light around the room and now it was making her curious. She now wanted to know the reason at any cost.
"Are you telling me?" She asked pissed off because she could clearly see that he was playing around with her. He was taking his own sweet time.
Before he could speak up, Rida's phone rang. She looked down to see Aafia calling her. Her eyes widen when she realised it was almost half an hour that she was missing and Aafia now was getting tensed to where she was lost. Rida was debating with herself as to what to reply to Aafia. She did not wanted to lie nor did she wanted to tell her the truth. The call ended and before Aafia could call her again, she messaged her saying that she would be back in a minute. She kept her phone and looked up to see him gazing at her.
"I need to leave." She said not wanting to wait for him to speak anything, but he stopped her, again.
"You don't want to know the reason behind me breaking our friendship?" He asked her wanting her to stay for a little longer time. As eager she was to know the reason, she did not wanted Aafia to doubt her. She knew if she do not reach the room right now, she would come down to check for her and if by chance Aafia sees Rida and Fahad together she would misinterpreted and Rida did not wanted that.
" I now have nothing to do with the reason because things will never be the same again." She said and without waiting for his reply she rushed out, but she did hear him.
"I want to be your friend again."
She breathed in relief when she was on the staircase. She ran up the terrace. She closed the door of the terrace and busted out in tears. The tears were continuous. She did not know why she was crying. She always wanted this. She wanted him to be with her. First as a friend and then as a life partner but now when he wanted to be with her, she felt nothing. She felt hollow. She didn't knew whether she should be happy or be sad? She always thought that this was what she wanted but now she doubted it. Was this really what she wanted?
She sat there for like 10 minutes before wiping her tears. She had decided that she wouldn't cry for him, but here she was again shedding tears and for whom? The same person. She got up and after she had made herself presentable she walked down. She peeped inside the room and heaved a sigh when she found Aafia sleeping. She entered the room slowly without making any noise. She laid down besides Aafia, her back towards her thinking about the encounter she had with him.
Her mind had always loved overthinking and that was the exact thing she did the entire night. She did not understand why she felt empty, hollow when she had all the rights to be happy and satisfied because this was the exact thing she wanted, Fahad back in her life and now when he had asked for it she did not like the idea even a bit.
Even though she was not the person to let anyone replace people in her life she didn't knew why she felt that he never did had a place in her life. A permanent one. She had always heard people say that people come and go and that life doesn't wait for anyone but when she had gone through it she had experienced the worst kind of pain. The pain that had broken her but she never did express it out loudly. She never loved showing her pain to anyone and she knew her family cared about her a lot and she did not wanted them to worry about her. But now she felt her heart heavy. She wanted someone to talk to, someone with whom she could say how much it had pained her.
She turned to her left to see Aafia sleeping soundlessly. She gazed at her for a movement. She shook her head and looked back at the ceiling blankly. She did not wanted to create problem within the cousin and she wouldn't like it at all that she was the reason behind it.
She thought about Safa. She knew she can confine in things to her but with her pregnancy she did not wanted her to stress about something she shouldn't. She sighed and closed her eyes. Rehan's face came infront of her. She opened her eyes and bite her lips. She remember promising him to speak to him about her problem, about her pain but she was hesitating. She was not sure about speaking to him. She trusted him, she trusted him more than herself but she did not wanted him to know the part of her that was always hidden.
She sighed and gazed the clock. It was now 4 in the morning and sleep was still miles away from her. She got up and headed to the washroom to do the ablution. She stood in front of the almighty praying the prayer that she always loved. Tahajjud. She went into sujood and this time she cried, but not for her heartbreak but because she felt at rest. She didn't knew why but she felt at peace, maybe because she had realised that the nights that she had cried wasn't worth it.
She sat down on the prayer mat after she had done praying. She raised her hands up in the air to do Dua. Her hands were trembling and her eyes were shedding tears and her lips moved slowly. After she was done praying she got up and walked out the balcony. She sat down on the chair that was laced there gazing at the moon and the stars. She has always loved the dark nights. She was always a moon person. She smiled a small smile a mind wandering.
She had lost the track of time but she was startled when she felt a hand on her should. She jumped a little and turned around to see Aafia standing there looking at her with worried eyes.
"Rida what are you doing here and when did you come in the room?" She asked taking a seat opposite her and Rida looked at Aafia who was wrapping her hijab.
"I just prayed tahajjud and I couldn't sleep so I am sitting here." Rida answered the first part of her question ignoring the second and Aafia nodded her head.
"I'll just go pray and be back." Aafia said and got up and Rida nodded her head and turned back to doing the thing she was doing.
After 10 minutes Aafia came back with her phone in her hand smiling at something. Rida raised her eyebrow at her and Aafia sat down besides her showing the thing that was making her smile. It was a meme on Instagram about a small kid saying something in the lines of 'peeche dekho'. He looked quiet adorable in the picture.
"Isn't he cute?" Aafia asked and Rida nodded her head smiling at her. They continued scrolling, laughing at some random memes while ignoring some till the time of Fajr. The adhaan went off and both the girls got up and stood for Salah. The prayer lasted longer than usual both deep engrossed in praying. They did not even talk after the 2 rakaats and even after they were done making Dua, they started doing tasbeeh. After done, Aafia laid down on the prayer mat while Rida looked at her confused.
"I am exhausted." She said and Rida looked at her bewilder.
Aafia hadn't work much and she was surprised to hear her say this.
"You did not even do a single thing!" Rida exclaimed glaring at Aafia and she smiled sheepishly.
"What? Don't give me that look." Aafia said avoiding eye contact and Rida smirked.
"What do we do now?" Rida asked bored of sitting in the room and she knew if even she tried, sleep would not engulf her.
"How about some more sleep?" Aafia asked popping on the bed and Rida shook her head.
"You have your good night sleep, I'll go take a round and come." Rida said and Aafia was surprised to hear those words from Rida. She got up from the bed and walked to Rida. Rida raised her eyebrow counting her every move. Aafia started checking Rida's temperature. Annoyed, Rida moved Aafia's hand and asked her what's the matter.
"Are you the same Rida who use to love sleeping?" Aafia asked and Rida shook her head understanding what she meant.
"I am the same old Rida who loves sleep even now but currently I get myself freshen up because I have a presentation to complete and I don't want to it in the mehendi ceremony." Rida said and Aafia formed an oh mouth. She now felt guilty because she was the reason behind this.
"Do you need my help?" Aafia asked and Rida smiled at her care. She shook her head and told to go back to sleep and that she could handle it. Nevertheless Aafia slept and Rida walked out of the with her laptop in her hand, her hijab safe and secured on her head. She knew the ladies will be in the kitchen by eight and that she had plenty of time to complete her work. She sat down on the floor and worked on her presentation. It was hardly 20 minutes in her work when she heard a noise. She looked up to see Aafia's mother walking to the kitchen. She looked at the time and closed her laptop and went to the kitchen.
"Assalamualaikum Chachi." Rida said smiling while Aafia's mom turned to look at her surprised.
"Rida!?" She exclaimed and smiled at her before replying.
"Walaikumassalam beta, what are you doing up so early?" She asked turning to the induction and keeping a vessel on it.
"I had my presentation to complete." Rida said her eyes moving with Aafia's mother's hands. Rida looked at the water boiling and then sugar being added and then tea powder.
"Should I help?" Rida asked when Rida saw Aafia's mother standing near the milk to let it boil.
"No beta, you go and do your presentation, I can manage here." She said but Rida did not listen to her and walked to the refrigerator and removed Amul butter and a jar of jam and kept it on the table and started making sandwich.
They were working in silence, when all the ladies entered the kitchen. They were surprised to see Rida in the kitchen and they tried telling her to leave but she did not resist. They shook their head and glared at her with a smile and patted her head before heading to their respective work. Since there were a lot number of people in the house, the ladies of the house had decided to make one dish each every time they would sit to have food.
It was almost half an hour later that all the girls joined the ladies in the kitchen to help, but because of the noise and the chaos, the girls were thrown out of the kitchen but not before they had a piece of mind by the ladies. Rida was done with the sandwiches so after they were kicked out, she and Aafia both walked to the living room to take Rida's laptop that she had left it there.
They both were busy talking while walking to the living room when they heard a loud noise. They looked at each other with fear in their eyes and ran to the living room to see what had happened.
They entered the living room to see all the boys laying on top of each other. Aafia and Rida exchanged worried glance and looked back to see Khalil at the bottom of all the boys trying to push them all while the boys enjoyed, doing their best to not let Khalil move them. They were laughing loudly while Aafia tried her best to control her laughter while Rida was still overcoming the sudden shock.
Khalil got up throwing all the boys on the floor while Aafia unable to control herself ended up giggling. The boys now got up completely pissed off and glared at Aafia who was laughing her head off. The boys looked at each other and smirked. They turned to Aafia and Aafia stopped laughing analysing their minds.
"Don't." She said and moved behind while Rida tried her best to hide the smile on her face.
"What happened sissy?" Hamza asked smirking at her while all the boys took steady steps towards her. Without any reply she ran out the room while the boys followed her. Rida giggled and turned around to see the fun that was now taking place in the backyard.
Rida walked towards the backyard to see all the girls present too. They all were now running around the backyard and Rida couldn't understand what was happening. The girls were now throwing water at the boys while they too had water bottles in their hand and instead of throwing they were trying to duck the water the water that was coming their way. Rida giggled a little looking at Aafia who was now drenched in water by Fahad. She stopped giggling when she felt his eyes on her. She avoided looking at him because she could feel him staring at her. After 10 minutes the game ended when the mother's called them to have their breakfast. The boys started moving while Rida made a little space and lowered her head to let them walk past her when she heard a voice that was hardly audible.
"Good morning." She looked up through her eyelashes to see Fahad smiling at her. She did not reply back and completely avoided his greeting and smiled at Aafia who walked towards her with Sakina giggling.
They both were completely drenched in water. Rida looked at them and giggled. They both looked at each other and back at Rida. Her eyes widen when she realised what they were upto but before she could do something she felt water droplets on herself. She took a deep breath at the sudden attack and wiped her face and looked at the two girls who were rolling on the floor laughing. She glared at them and ran towards them and started hitting them but ended up giggling with them.
Indeed, Family and Friendship is the greatest blessing in one's life.