All Boys School

CHAPTER 5

I cross my arms, glaring at Abbud. We are currently in his room and he looks no less than being tortured.

“I shouldn’t have eavesdropped,” he sighs. “But I just couldn’t stop myself! I heard my name and then I just HAD to know what was going on.”

I feel him. If it were me in his place, I would’ve gone crazy knowing someone was gossiping about me, because believe me, it is so stressful when others are talking about you.

“Then—just don’t think about it. Pretend it was Mehmat she was talking about.”

He scoffs, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, right. As if it is easy.”

“So then what is the problem!” Why is he being such a pain in the—head. “What is not easy? Why are you being so indecisive? Do you like her or not?” I lean against the wall opposite to where my brother is sitting tensed in the chair. Sweat has started to form on his forehead.

“The problem,” he starts slowly, “is that I do like her as well.” His gaze whips to me. “But I can’t have her.”

My forehead creases. What does he mean he can’t have her? If he likes her—which is no less than a shock to me since he teases her a lot—then what could possibly be the problem? It’s not like we don’t like Zainab. Zainab is the sweetest cousin ever. My parents love her a lot. I think probably more than us.

“Why can’t you have her?” I frown, studying his face for any signs of answers. Although I am no face reader or anything. I don’t know why I can’t ever act like a normal sixteen year old.

He blows out a hugeee breath, as if he had been holding it all this time. “She is so. . .innocent. So pure.” If I am not wrong, Abbud is actually imagining her right now. Her pureness, maybe? Though I have no idea how he thinks she is pure since I remember Zainab meeting a guy once, though nobody knows about it. “I like her so much it’s unreal,” he says, looking at me.

“Awn.” I walk up to him. Taking a seat in the chair next to him, I ruffle his hair and shockingly, he lets me do it. “If you like her, then what is stopping you?”

“I am not good,” he mutters. “I wish I were good but I am not. She deserves more than me.”

“I think you need to breathe properly,” I remind him when I notice no rise and fall of his chest. As if realizing I am right, he draws in a deep breath. “And, stop with this ‘She deserves someone good’ crap. You are good enough for her. And stop thinking about this pure part. We all make mistakes and we all sin.”

Abbud’s calculating blue-gray eyes cut to me. “But—just don’t tell her about any of this, okay? Don’t tell her I know she likes me. Lets pretend these past five minutes never happened, alright?”

I nod, giving my brother a reassuring smile. “Of course. I won’t tell her.” I hoist myself up from the chair, and before exiting the room, glance over my shoulder at Abbud whose head is dropped low and his hazel-ish hair curtain his face. I feel so bad for him. And there is definitely something bothering him, so I say, “Hey, Abbud?” His head shoots up. “If you want to talk about anything, you know you have me, right?”

A sad smile touches his lips. “Right,” he confirms.

Everyone is in the lounge, even the boys. I quietly tip-toe my way towards the kitchen so that nobody stops me since I don’t feel like having a chit chat with anyone.

There’s some cookies and pepperoni pizza lying on the table, and wow, I am amazed they even thought of leaving something for Zainab. She might want some milk with the cookies, and trying to escape the part of coming downstairs again for the milk, I walk over to the fridge and get a carton.

When I turn around, I am not alone anymore.

“Hey,” Zaid smiles that charmer smile of his which basically doesn’t charm me at all. You know, because I am not like all girls.

“Um, hi.” My ‘hi’ was barely a whisper. I doubt he even heard it. I do a quick work of putting the cookies from the plate in the pizza box so there’d be less items for me to carry upstairs.

And can we just talk about how Zaid’s just ‘staring’ at me while I do the work is so not being liked by me?

“I heard you started teaching at your brothers school?” Oh, so he was curious.

“Yeah.” I get two glasses from the cabinet.

“Their school is pretty weird. Who opens the school in summer break, right?”

Why is he trying to make small talk when he could clearly tell by my facial expressions that I am not a fan of him?

“I think it’s pretty cool. And summer camps are fun, aren’t they?” My question was more like a statement and I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I had everything stacked on the tray which I could carry and get myself away from him.

The next morning I was a mess. I convinced Zainab to stay the night over at my house and she agreed, which was kind of unbelievable because turns out she is more affected by my brother than I could think of.

We stayed up late at night watching some horror movie, although Abbud was watching Zainab for the most part and she was trying to sneak glances at him which was quite hilarious if you ask me. And—err—yeah I was watching this encounter between the two of them.

So long story short, we went to bed late last night and now I felt like crushing my alarm clock to pieces which showed the time 6:01 am.

Beside me, Zainab is fast asleep, and so is Awra who was forced to sleep on the ground with a mattress and blanket to keep her warm and comfy.

I check my periods on my timetable in my phone. I guess I was pretty smart to take a picture of it yesterday. Most people wouldn’t have that awesome idea.

I think the only reason I was procrastinating was because I didn’t want to come across Ahmar. No matter how much I try to lower my gaze or refrain from looking, he was still a guy and I was still a girl and we were both still teenagers.

I pout.

I need to get up!

Not caring the least about how I look, after freshening up from the bathroom, I throw on my black pants and a white shirt, and grab my same black long coat from the closet. Before putting the coat on, I do spray some mist from Bath and Body Works before heading downstairs. Halfway down, I realize I haven’t taken any scarf, so I inwardly scream and run upstairs again.

My brothers greet me when I enter the kitchen. I greet them back.

“Are the girls sleeping?” Mum asks, pouring me a glass of juice. I take a seat next to Aamil on the dining table and nod my head.

I bring the glass to my lips and take a big sip.

“Did you notice how Zaid was so much into Lina?” Mehmat says innocently.

I almost spit out the juice in my mouth.

Mum nods—and I almost feel like yelling at Mehmat for even bringing this subject up. And at 6:30 in the morning! UGH! I sometimes want to tell Mehmat that his innocent talks are really going to get me in lots of troubles but at the same time I don’t want to hurt his feelings. He is just trying to make an effort to talk, but the talks usually don’t benefit me at all.

“Yeah, well if he even goes anywhere near her, I will make sure to let him know his limits,” Aadil stabs at his cereals, glaring at all of us.

What did we all do? Though I am glad someone is this house is against Zaid coming near me.

“Thanks,” I wink at my brother who rolls his eyes but mumbles a np anyway.

I leave my half eaten food on the table and follow my brothers outside.