i heart you

Chapter 7

Jabeen comes in front of Aabir's house. She starts pushing the bell button again and again.

Sam kept shouting at Jabeen,

"Stop it . His parents are going to flip out."

"They aren't home" she sighs

Meanwhile, Aabir opens the door.

"Jeez . What's wrong with you?" he yells

Jabeen gets inside the house pushing Aabir inside . She says,

" What the hell ? Man! ? Why aren't you talking to me?"

" What's there to talk about?" he says folding his arms not meeting her eyes.

"Why are you suddenly behaving like this?" she questions his abnormal behavior.

" Fine you wanna know?" he finally speaks looking at her

" Yes?" she says confused.

" Well , you have been my only great friend since grade 2 and I don't wanna lose you . That's not easy for me ." Jabeen came to realization.

" Oh my God . Stop being such a cry baby." she smiles sating, trying her best to avoid the emotional situation.

"I am not crying . Don't feel too special." he says laughing as his eyes started become watery looking at her.

Jabeen looks at Aabir's eyes saying,

"You look like a bull right now" she giggles

"Stop!" he laughs punching her slightly in the arm.

Aabir walks forward to sit in the couch and Jabeen imitated him as she hugged him from behind with her hands wrapped around him, keeping her head on his shoulder whispering ," I am going to miss you too."

After hanging out with him for hours and talking things through a sudden call of Sam flashes on her phone screen. Jabeen answers,

" Hey where are you?" he says looking at the time on his watch.

" Still in the house." she replies looking at Aabir closing the photo albums.

" I thought you were dead."

" You wish. ( with a sarcastic tone) " she laughs

" I slept in the car . It's been two hours. Get out now." he explains his misery.

" Okay .Coming." Jabeen takes a final look at the photograph on her hand as she hung up the call. The picture was taken at 8th grade. They were at the schools sports auditorium. She remembers that moment clearly when it was clicked. She was tired from the tryouts and kept complaining continously to go home. Aabir offered her a piggy back ride to the main building and she jumped on his back immediately. Their friend Sandra saw them and took the picture while both of them were insisting to delete it since they looked all sweaty and messy. But, who knew it would be a great memory to look back on. Who knew people can bond so fast and yet leave at the same speed.

After bading goodbye Jabeen goes out closing the door behind her and sees Sam waiting for her giving her a mad look . She gets inside the car.

" What took you so long?" he says as he restarts the car.

"We were talking." she explains calmly.

"You took two hours for that?"

"Yeah so?" she raises her eyebrows.

"Never mind."

"Anyways, you were right." Jabeen says creaking a smile as she wore her seat belt on thinking about the argument.

"When wasn't I ?" Sam says dramatically giving the 'I am always right ' look.

Jabeen gets home and the time she enters the house it was quiet silent. The lights were off and not a single whisper was heard. She says,

"Where is everyone?" looking at Sam

Everyone screamed, "SURPRISE!

The light were back on. Sam and Jabeen they were both shocked. Everyone was looking at the two of them with their happy faces. By everyone it means , every single one. There was Sam's dad in the wheel chair. Their another cousin talking to their grandmother and other relatives whom Jabeen doesn't even know. Sam whispers to Jabeen,

"Look I had no idea about this"

He then went embracing the relatives like he never missed any of these parties and like he knows them so well. Okay maybe he does? But who cares? Jabeen is still looking at the crowd and standing in front of the door alone by herself . Someone puts his hand on Jabeen's shoulder and she jumped. She sees her grandfather behind. He hugs her and takes her to a plies of presents. She keeps thinking what the hell she's going to do with these things in Boston. But just not to disappoint them she says with an overwhelming voice,

"I love it.'

The smile on his face makes her realize that it was worth lying.

Jabeen's eyes were searching for her parents who aren't at the party at the moment . She starts looking for them. She finds someone shouting at the bedroom . She starts eavesdropping,

"You need to understand Naseer?" her Mrs. Ahmed shouts.

" Understand What? Amina. She is still a kid . We can't let her go there all on her own." her dad says walkibg in the room back and forth.

"Look I thought about that too . But Sam told me there is going to be a foster family for care . I am sure they are going to take proper care of her."

" I don't wanna leave my daughter in a stranger's house." Mr. Ahmed stops looking at his wife.

" At least she's not on her own." she says explaining.

"Look I am not okay with it . If she does something horrible there, it's going to be your fault." he states angrily.

Jabeen hears her dad coming outside, she hides behind the curtain. When he leaves she sees her mom crying through the little door space. At that moment all she wanted to hug her but she doesn't wanna make her more sad. So, she goes to her room and starts packing her stuffs.

After five hours she comes out of her room . Everyone was still there partying . Seeing Jabeen they stopped having fun and stared at her liking uptairs. Jabeen says,

"Can you guys please stop it? Sam let's go."

The crowd started laughing taking it as a joke . They hugged every single person in the house while leaving except she didn't hug her dad, the man whom she loves the most . He was in his room . Her eyes were looking for him and her heart was aching bad. Jabeen's mom says, " Honey you're going to be late. Go!" She smiles and enters the car . While leaving she stared at the house thinking if she had giant hands then she could have embraced the house too. She sees Adil and Ahil outside weeping. They still think it's their fault for her leaving. A part of Jabeen knew that somehow it's true .

In the car Jabeen put the earphones in her ears and starts listening her favorite song Safe in my hands by Ellie . She is going through her phone's old pictures where she sees a picture of her and Tyler when she was in 6th grade. When Sam was teasing them because they wore the same pink T shirts, which reminded Jabeen the first time she met Tyler.

Back in kindergarten she remembers a new boy who came in her neighborhood. Sam's parents were divorced so Sam was living at Jabeen' place. Jabeen and Sam were playing in the yard when suddenly Jabeen fell in front of a car . The car stopped at the right moment. A 13 year old boy gets out of the car with his father. He helps Jabeen to get up and cleans dirt from her skirt . Then Sam comes and thanks him saying,

" They you so much for saving my sister."

" Yeah it's okay. You should have been careful."

" We will be."

Sam thanking Tyler's dad , says to Tyler,

" You are new here right?"

"Yeah." he says liking st Jabeen

"Wanna play with us?" Sam offers to be friend.

Tyler stared at Jabeen and said,

" Yeah sure."

She never knew that 11 years later she's going to fall for that same guy.

Jabeen also starts remembering when 10 years old little Papa's girl was playing with her dad's beard . Adil and Ahil playing around the house breaking stuffs.

Sleepovers with her friends, Aabir's inside jokes . All these memories brings tears into her eyes and that one song backtracking the moments. The moments she can never get rid of. Running away from these place won't erase these memories from her head.

After an hour , journey to the airport ends. Sam says, " We are here."

Jabeen gets out of the car and as soon as she entered the airport her eyes first catches Aabir. She ran towards him and hugged him tightly . She gave Aabir a letter telling him , " Don't open it until tomorrow." Aabir gives Jabeen a forehead kiss before leaving. Entering the plane Jabeen still had that one person on her mind who didn't came to see her and maybe never will.