𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰𝒔 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅| 3

26: Makeup and Make-believe

"That's the thing about grief.
It demands to be felt."
*

Asa

"Why is Hassana sleeping this late in the afternoon?" I asked Amir, who was sitting at a corner of the cafe, a cup of coffee and plate of toast in front of him, and a calculator, a strew of physics textbooks, worksheet and graphs scattered on the table.

He looked up at me from what he was writing and shrugged, careful not to wake up the sleeping angel.

"I made the mistake of telling her that I'd be taking part in the final competitions against her school. She decided to FaceTime me yesterday and stayed up with me all night while I studied." He stifled a yawn, massaged his shoulder. "Well, it worked. I didn't fall asleep last night because, technically, she was there with me, but it's telling on her. She looked like a raccoon, this morning."

I tried to suppress a laughter, covered my lips, but the laughter still tore out of me.

Amir stopped, squinted at me, dropped his pencil and folded his arms on the table. "You're happier these days." Starry eyes melted into pools of quicksilver. "I'm glad."

My cheeks heated up. I avoided his gaze. "There's more to be happy about. Kam's doing better. He's working towards getting his life on track. There's hope for his mum, his grandfather... Things are looking up now."

I looked at him now, he was staring back at me with that attentive intensity that only he possessed. Most of his hair fell in front of his eyes, inky, dark, coily. "When are you going to tell him that more than half of the charity money is coming from you?"

His eyes widened. He picked up his pencil, effectively avoiding my gaze. "He doesn't need to know that. I don't want him to feel indebted to me. Don't tell him, okay?"

"You really care about him."

"He's my best friend."

The quiet answer was everything.

Hassana stirred from her sleep, sat up dizzily and rubbed her eyes. Yawned, blinked unsteadily at me. Yawned again and scratched her hair.

I wanted to coo at her.

"Hi, Sana."

She murmured sleepily at me, gave me a drunken smile and nodded. "Asa!" She took Amir's cup of coffee, tasted, sipped and gulped it down.

1, 2, 3 seconds, her eyes brightened.

"Hi, Asa." She smiled at me, replacing Amir's now empty mug of coffee.

Hassana was beautiful in a pleasant, conventional way. Like flowers were pretty and puppies were cute. Her light brown skin shone like polished gold, she sported a new hairdo, dark brown and curly, dripping down her forehead and back, framing her perfectly oval face brushed with minimal makeup.

"Thanks for staying up with Amir. He usually falls asleep past midnight."

Her eyes brightened. "Happy to help! I mean... Tomorrow is..." She stopped, bit her trembling lip, as if just realizing something. "Next tomorrow is the finals." She whispered, something eerie and scary, replacing the usual light in her eyes. "The last day of Dynamis." She whispered again, as if accepting the fact.

"I..." She looked up now, tears, glistening around the corner of her pearl shaped eyes. "I... I forgot what it meant. I won't see you guys anymore."

My heart dropped to my stomach. I had been so obsessed with winning against Giwa, I had overlooked how easily Hassana slipped into the gang and became one of us. I hadn't really sank into the moment and enjoyed the light that radiated out of her.