How To Hate You

chapter 2

"Hold onto me, Mama."

~•~•~•~

February,
2015

One thing her mom loved about the house was its huge cooking space surrounded by multiple cabinets and double counters. Ikram did not mind dangling her legs from above them as she took cooking breaks with her mom.  

But even more than that, her mom woke up one day and decided she needed to move to Kano so she could wake up, enter her car and take a short trip to her sister's house. Ikram knew how she had circled around that idea for weeks before she finally decided to be selfish this once. And even though Ikram hated this new place so much, she agreed to dress up today, watch her mom bake a nice casserole of fresh beef stuffed pie, and took it to the white house, the one with the young lady her age whom her mom thinks she'll get along with just fine. 

She rang the bell twice before it was opened up by a little boy. He had on a spiderman suit, with a little cape dangling behind him and his red mask clutched in his hand. "Yaya!" He hollered, eyeing the casserole in Ikram's hands. "Visitor!" 

 A fair lady in a sage maxi dress came rushing down the stairs, the hem of her dress dancing behind her like feathers in the wind. "Amman! What did I say about opening doors?" She scolded the little boy. 

"I'm Ikram, your new neighbor. From the house up there." Ikram swung the casserole in her hands towards her house. 

"Lovely meeting you, come in, please. I'm Sameera." She strapped the boy to her side and shut the door behind Ikram.

"Here. This is for you." Ikram placed the casserole in her palms and collected little Amman.

"Oh, this smells nice. Thank you so much." Then she skipped to what seemed like the kitchen and came back shortly with a small portion of the pie on a plate and a mouth full of it. "Wow, this is it! Thank you again, Ikram!"

Ikram played with little Amman's cheeks. "You're welcome." 

Ikram loved how warm and carefree she was and she thought, perhaps they will get along. Then suddenly, Sameera said, "Let's go to my room, I was just watching Harry Porter, again." 

"I love Harry Porter!"We will definitely get along!

 Ikram skipped the stairs behind Sameera and soon enough got surrounded by the pink walls of her room. There was a queen-sized bed against the right wall and a wardrobe across it. By the left, there was a small study table with a few books stacked randomly, an empty pencil case and a little pink glittery frame that said, Live, Love, Repeat. Ikram jumped into the cluster of duvets on her bed and soon got spellbound by the magical place that is Hogwarts.  

It was after an hour and a half when Ikram glanced at the dimmed screen of her phone. She thought she heard a ding. Before she could unlock it and read the notification bar properly, it dinged again. 

Nabeel: Hey.

Nabeel: Hope today isn't as bad as yesterday?

Ikram smiled cheekily at the heart and rose emojis she added to Nabeel's contact. There was something about him that made her insides twist and untwist and makes her legs all weak. 

"Aww." Sameera cooed beside her. "Your boyfriend is so sweet." 

"He's not my boyfriend." Ikram muttered, although she really liked the sound of it.

Nabeel: You there?

The phone dinged again, pulling her out of her little daydream. 

"You know, that smile on your face says otherwise."