Walk Of Shame (On hold)

Part 13

"How are you doing?" Zayn asks me for the third time. We were parked right outside the gate of my father's house for the past 10 minutes. Zayn wants to make sure I am fine before we went in and I appreciated it. And the truth is I am...

"Not good. I feel like I'm going to throw up"

"Listen mama; the worst is over in sha Allah. You made a mistake and you paid for it dearly, still paying for it to be honest. Plus it's really between you and Allah and if he forgives you then to hell with anyone else. But don't tell them I said that I'm trying to get them to like me" I laughed a little, feeling instantly lighter.

"Thank you Zayn" he nods curtly with a small smile.

"Shall we now?"

I was about to reply but Rya chose that moment to remind us of her existence.

"Nom-nom dada"

Zayn laughed.
"I guess princess is hungry. So let's go before she has our heads"

***

Nothing had changed except for a couple of new cars in the garage. Typical of my dad. The paint looked fresh and the flowers look healthy and green. Everything in tip top condition like I left it. My palms were so sweaty it was ridiculous.

They were both in the sitting room when we walked in. It got awfully quiet, worsening my impending panic attack. My mum looked nervous and my dad looked almost happy. Are they actually happy too see me?
Rya screamed, reminding me that she was hungry. My mum laughed a little, stood up and started walking towards us at the door. My heart was running a marathon.

She had tears in her eyes and after years it's still hurt like hell to think about all that happened, probably because this entire ordeal is opening up a wound that never got to heal. My mum wrapped me and the baby in her arm and began to fully sob. Zayn proceeded into the room and I saw him shaking hands with my dad. This is going...surprisingly well?

My parents were both behaving like it all never happened? Like I never got pregnant or left the house? They were behaving like I just brought a suitor home after years in school or something, nothing underlying. Habib joined us soon and some of the tension was eased from the room when Rya practically ran squealing to him. He lifted her and threw her up and she giggled hysterically.

We ate dinner that night like a normal family, Zayn included. Is this how they're going to do this? Pretend? Is the performance for Zayn?

The introductions held the next day. A few of Zayn's uncles and a few of mine. I stayed in the room all day with the baby until Habib told me they had left. I was getting married to Zayn in five days. Surreal doesn't even begin to cover it.

"Are you nervous?" Zayn asks calmly, staring into my soul later that night.

"You should be, I bite" he says with a hedonistic grin. I couldn't hold the chuckles.

"That is just creepy. Normal people don't admit they bite you know"

"There's no fun in normal mama"

"Okay scooby doo" he chuckled himself.

"How dare you" I laughed and hurried out the front door because he was coming closer. He was leaving for the hotel where he spends the night. On our first day back, I was going with him because I didn't know how welcome I was in my father's house. Maybe me staying the night will trigger the true reaction I was expecting from them. Habib had appeared at the front door just when I was about to enter the car.

"Layla where do you think you're going?"

"They can't possibly want me to sleep in their house"

"Except It's your house too Layla, and we do"
mama says joining us in the patio.