AAHIL
The muffled voices break past my sleepy haze. I shift around in the bed, pulling the pillow closer to my chest and clutching it tightly.
What causes my eyes to blast open is the gasp. “Aahil! What are you doing here?”
It takes me a minute to register what Ma’s really saying. With my eyes directed at the unfamiliar ceiling and my back resting on a very low-dipped, not too comfortable bed, I realise where I am.
In the guestroom.
Amal is, like always, in my room. And now Ma is here and she’s staring at me like I’ve grown two heads. I groan on the inside. I really do not have time for this right now. Or the energy.
“Sleeping,” I finally tell her, burying my head into the all-too-fluffy pillow.
A throat clears. I turn to cast a look at Ma that says ‘not now’ but instead I see an
