Hanging Tree

Chapter 25

Violet

The week went by in a blur. It’s already Friday which meant I would have to go to Zayn’s house again. I walked in the parking lot of my school as I reached my car. I got my keys out and started my car. I jammed the keys into the ignition and started it. I drove down the street to Zayn’s house and parked opposite his street. I saw his car was already parked in front of his house, which was a good thing, because it meant he was home. I walked up to his door and knocked on it. His little sister, Safaa opened the door. She smiled brightly and said, “Violet!” I smiled down at her and was caught off guard when she hugged me. My heart warmed and hugged her back.

“Zayn! Your friend is here!” she shouted as she ran inside.

Zayn appeared and looked at me. He obviously didn’t know what to say. I saw Waliyha watching the television. She turned around and greeted me. She must’ve noticed the scar on my forehead because she said, “Hey, what happened there?”

I turned to Zayn and noticed that all the blood drained out of his face. He couldn’t even bare to meet my eyes. I turned back to Waliyha and said, “Oh, its nothing. I just had a small accident.”

She nodded her head and turned away. I looked back at Zayn and he finally decided to speak to me. “Let’s go upstairs to get our work done.”

I nodded and followed behind him like a lost puppy. On the way upstairs I met the girl I met the other day. I guess her name was Doniya or something. Zayn turned around and introduced me to her. “Doniya, Violet. Violet, Doniya.”

She didn’t even seem bother to look at me. She just nodded her head and walked away. Well there’s another one like Zayn. I wasn’t too bothered about her lack of response. I think I heard Zayn mumble, “Sorry about that.”

But I wasn’t quite bothered because that’s exactly how he is. We went upstairs to his room and got our work done. But we realized since our lack of progress, we wouldn’t be able to get our work done by next week.

“What are we going to do now?” I asked Zayn.

He shrugged his shoulders which caused me to roll my eyes. “If you don’t want to do it with me, I’ll do it myself.”

This got Zayn’s attention because he looked at me then said, “Um, can you come over during the weekend?”

I thought about this for sometime. Did I honestly want to come over during this weekend? I mean its not like I had anything to do but I didn’t want to see Zayn on the weekend. He’s the last person I would like to see. But at the same time, this was about school. If I didn’t come over this weekend then we wouldn’t be able to finish it. I sighed and answered Zayn.

“Yea, sure. Same time?”

“Tomorrow, yea. But I’ll tell you about Sunday tomorrow.”

I nodded and got up. I slung my bag over my shoulders and waited for him to get up.

We walked downstairs and just as I was about to leave I heard Safaa call out my name. Me and Zayn both turned around and stared at her. “Can she stay for dinner?” she asked Zayn.

Zayn crouched down to her level and said, “I don’t know, you gotta ask her.”

“Can you stay?” she asked me. Her pretty brown eyes staring into my green ones. She was so adorable I don’t think there’s a way I can say no. So I agreed. I didn’t know if Zayn was okay with this but I guess now he had to be.

All of us gathered around the dinner table and ate silently on the food that was served in front of us. Well it wasn’t exactly silent, Zayn and his sisters were talking among themselves I just didn’t know what to do. Doniya seemed as if she wasn’t really keen on liking me. She hasn’t muttered a word to me or even looked at me. I guess I was fine with it.