A/N: the dress Amara is wearing will be attached at the end if the chapter! :)
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Amara's POV
The dress I chose turned out to be even more comfortable than I thought, it feels like soft silk against my skin.
"You look gorgeous, Amara!" Zoya squeals. "Mash'Allah!"
"Thank you." I smile. "You guys look like models, like always."
"Amara always gasses us up even when we look like we haven't showered in weeks." Beena says, making us all giggle.
She grabs the car keys, "I'll drive tonight."
We look at her, blinking at her in confusion.
"What?" She looks back at us innocently.
"Don't act all naive. You never want to drive." Zoya says as Dina and I nod.
"I thought I should give Amara a break by driving her once in a while." Beena explains.
"I like this royalty treatment." I grin.
"Well, don't get too comfortable." Beena chuckles. "You'll be back to being a driver tomorrow."
And with that, we head off to the event that will make me feel worst than I already do.
• • •
"The food is great." Zoya says as she munches on the samosas. "But where's the couple? I'm seriously bored. I want to go home and watch a movie or something."
I shrug my shoulders.
I sort of lost my appetite in the beginning but the second the food arrived, I felt like I could eat up everything.
"You're really enjoying the roast chicken, I see." Beena grins.
"When do I not enjoy chicken?" I point at the mashed potatoes. "Try it with that. It's heavenly."
Dina starts giggling. "I'm glad you're still you even after everything."
"Am I mad at the food? No. Why would I hurt food's feelings?" I chuckle.
"Amara! Dina! Zoya! Beena!"
"Mrs. Bilal, good afternoon!" I try to greet her with my mouth stuffed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I should've waited until you finished eating. I'm so glad you could make it! Sarah was hoping you girls would join us." She says apologetically.
Zoya starts choking. "Sarah?"
"Yes, she really wants to get to know you girls. She was telling me how Amara seems like someone she knows so she wanted to talk to her." Mrs. Bilal smiles.
The three girls stare at me, as if they're waiting for me to explain this.
How would I know what's going on? I don't know Sarah from anywhere. I've never seen her before until the day of the charity event.
"Uh... I don't remember Sarah from anywhere. Maybe if she jogs my memories, I'll be able to remember." I say.
"That would be great! In fact, she called you up to talk to her. She's getting ready in a spare room. It's up the stairs to your right." Mrs. Bilal points at the spiral staircase.
"Is it okay if we join Amara? She might still be a little ill from last time." Zoya links her arm with mine.
"Yes, of course. You girls go have fun and get to know each other." Mrs. Bilal nods enthusiastically.
Mrs. Bilal waves at us as we walk up the stairs.
"I'm glad you guys joined me, just in case Sarah turns out to be a murderer." I joke.
"We weren't going to let you go unless she let us come with you too." Zoya winks.
When we reach the door, my nerves start to act up. I breathe in and knock on the door.
"Come in!" Sarah's chirpy voice calls us in.
We open the door and to my surprise, she looks like she'd been crying.
"Oh my God, are you okay? We could come back later." I quickly say, she looks rough.
She sniffles a few times and shakes her head. "No, no. This is fine."
"Mrs. Bilal said you wanted to talk to me." I say softly. I didn't want to come off as rude or anything, poor girl looks like she's already having a bad day.
Sarah looks at my friends and I realize she probably didn't want them to listen.
"I'm sorry about the big crowd! I brought them along because I usually get really nervous talking to new people!" I make up an excuse but in reality, there's some truth to it.
"No, that's fine. Maybe they can give me a helping hand too." She smiles.
Helping hand? We've barely met. What can we help her with? Whatever it is, it looks to be bothering her because she must've been crying about it.
"I know about you and Peter." The second the words come out of her mouth, my breathing stops and I accidentally grip Beena's hand too tightly.
She quickly snatches her hand away while mouthing ow.
I start fidgeting as I quickly stand up from my seat. "I... I'm so sorry. I knew I shouldn't have showed up. This is so embarrassing. This was pretty low of me–"
Sarah places a hand on my shoulder, gesturing for me to sit back down. "I don't want to marry him."
"I'm so ashamed—wait, what?" I stare at her, blinking profusely, trying to process what she just said or if I even heard correctly.
"Come again?" Beena asks along with me.
"I don't want to marry Peter. I'm madly in love with someone else. Besides, I'm not blind. I can tell he's head-over-heels for you already. Entering this marriage will ruin both of our lives." She giggles.
"I don't understand... what do you need me to do?" I ask, still not being able to understand anything.
"She wants our help to break off the marriage, duh!" Zoya says as if it's that simple.
I become speechless. This isn't what I was expecting at all, I didn't think of this in my wildest dreams.
Is this a God-given chance?
"How come you don't just tell Peter?" I ask.
"I did. But he thinks this arrangement is best for our families." She grabs both my hands. "If I don't break this off, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I'm ready to just elope at this point but I don't want to do this without officially breaking it off." She sighs.
"But Peter doesn't want to break it off?" Dina asks.
"Are you sure he likes Amara...? He doesn't seem too eager to get out of this." Zoya seems suspicious, not on Sarah's end, but on Peter's.
"I'm sure of it. He looks at her as if her eyes hold the secrets of the universe or if he's literally staring at the stars on a clear night sky."
"That's very poetic." Dina says, impressed.
I'm still not able to wrap my head around what's going.
"Let me get this straight: Peter's fiancée wants my help to get out of this arrangement because she's in love with someone else, plus she thinks he likes me but he doesn't want to break off this engagement."
"Yup." Sarah grins. "The only reason he doesn't want to break off this engagement is because his parents really want this to happen. He's a bit of a rebel child, so he just wanted to listen to his parents for once."
"Why don't you break it off by telling your parents?" Beena asks.
"I told my parents but they said that breaking it off without both parties agreeing to it can cause a huge problem for our family's image... You know how it is, society would rather see the guy break it off than the girl." There's sorrow in Sarah's tone.
"You got that right." Beena agrees. "We'll help you. When do you want to do this?"
"Now." She says firmly.
We stare at her in disbelief.
"If we don't break it before the ring ceremony, it'll be too late." She almost whispers.
Ya Allah! What are we about to do?
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A/N: Amara's dress, but more covered around the arms, of course! ;)
Next Update: Friday, August 9, 2019.
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