The Girl Next Door

Chapter 8

IMPORTANT NOTE 

DON'T SKIP 

THIS CHAPTER IS BASED ON SANA AND ZAFAR’S LIFE AND THEIR BACKSTORY BOTH OF WHOM ARE A PART  OF THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY SO IF THIS CHAPTER HAS ANY THEMES OR PARTS THAT UPSET YOU OR OFFEND YOU I APOLOGIZE.

ALSO AROUND TWO CHARACTERS WHO ARE MUSLIM ARE A PART OF THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY. THEY MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED BUT I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THE CHOICES THEY MAKE THROUGHOUT THE BOOK ARE JUSTIFIED ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY FEEL AND IF YOU DONT SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY FULLY PLEASE STOP READING RIGHT NOW.

ALSO FOR THE HINDUS WHO ARE AGAINST INTER-RELIGION MARRIAGE OR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY PLEASE STOP READING RIGHT NOW BECAUSE FURTHER AHEAD IN THE STORY IF I RECEIVE COMMENTS SAYING THAT WHAT I HAVE PUBLISHED IS OFFENDING YOU I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE.

IF THAT SOUNDED RUDE I AM SORRY BUT I HAD TO KEEP IT OUT HERE BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER IN THIS STORY.

'The fuck is wrong with. Why can't I get all of that out of my head!'  Zafar thought going to his room.

After a cold shower and deleting a lot of pictures and crying over them Zafar came out of the washroom with a towel wrapped around his abdomen.

He wanted to forget all the sins that he had done and wanted to hide them from Sana but he could not and had told her everything. The conversation that he had had with her was still ringing loud and clear in his ears and had been giving him troubles each night.

"Zafar- Ya Allah what are you both doing? Zafar comes with me right now .", she said and dragged Zafar along with her.

"Yeh kya kar rahe ho tum? Itna bada haram tum Kaise kar sakto ho Zafar?", she shrieked 

(What are you doing? How can you commit such a sin Zafar ?)

"Ya Allah. Zafar wears something", Sana said entering the room and shaking Zafar out of his trance.

Zafar just nodded and got dressed and said to Sana how they should have taken different rooms instead of taking the same and how their father was still up to call his sala  (brother-in-law)  to help with renovations.

Sana just absentmindedly nodded and sat at the desk and started going through her textbooks to get a headstart on the course.

She did that for a while and then went to wash up and sat down to do her prayers (Zurah) and once she was done she went downstairs to help her mother with cooking the dinner.

Since they had not offered anything to the neighbours they thought that they would prepare Mughlai Biryani - her ammis speciality - but they did not know whether the neighbours were vegetarians or non-vegetarians so Sana went there to ask them but she did not know what to say since that would be very rude bu figured that she would ask and think about the consequences later.

“Namaste aunty,aap do min baat kar Sakti hai?” she said to the woman who had opened the door. She looked the age of her dad.

The woman nodded and asked her what it was.

“Woh Ammi biryani bana rahi hai par usmein chicken dalta hai aur hum pata nahi tha ke aap chate hai yah nahi isliye unhone kaha ke main much kar aau.”, she said sheepishly. 

The old woman chuckled and said that not all of them ate but a few did and that her mother could still send as if she was sending for the whole family since the ones that ate as if they were hungry for years when it came to anything non-veg.

Sana smiled and went to her house.

She so badly wanted to wear a hijab but her parents no longer believed in  Allah and had stopped practising Islam altogether and did not allow her or rather want her to wear a hijab anymore but they never stopped her from doing prayers daily.

They at first tried to stop 8-year-old Sana from following Islam but she did not gove up and followed it though she could not do the prayers by herself she always had help from Badi didi ( elder grandmother) who had always prayed along with her and supported her. Her badi-dadi never tried to change her parents' mind and supported them fully as well. Her badi dadi was a person who was very progressive and always accepted change around her. 

She went home and helped her Ammi prepare dinner and then transferred it to a container and closed the lid.

She made her way to the Dhavans’ residence and rang the bell expecting the old woman to open the door but she did not and instead it was a girl about twice her age who did.

“Oh, you must be the new neighbours. Dadi told me that you would be coming over with food.”, she said.

She was really pretty with black hair that had a few cyan strands and she rocked the short kurta that she wore with black jeans.

Sana handed the container over and said,” If you need more let us know.”

She then walked back to her house and happily ate a lot and chugged down glasses of the sweet lassi that her mother had made.

Sana then went to her abbu along with Zafar both of them sheepishly said that they now wanted separate rooms.

Salim just chuckled and said that he had seen it coming and said that he would call Zaydan and ask him to come over next week.

Both Sana and Zafar were happy for two reasons-

(i) They were getting different rooms and 

(ii) They would meet their favourite cousin Amreen after a long time

Happily, both of them went to their room and Sana did her prayers again (ISHA).

Sana went to bed with a big smile on her face praying to Allah to bless her with an equally good day tomorrow.

Her night had come to an end but Tarini could not wait to talk all about her night with her best friend, the only person who she trusted the most after the incident.

All she wanted was to barge right inside his house and tell him how she had embarrassed herself that evening and how she had to face that person again, every day but she could not. 

How could she when his step-mom and step-siblings were on the way to his house and were living under the impression that the girl slightly older than him was his step-mother?

She too, tired of the wait, went to bed reliving each second of the very embarrassing evening.

 
I firstly want to thank ZindagiKeRang for helping me understand the Muslim community and learn so that I don't make a mistake.
She also writes awesome stories so make sure to check them out.
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