How To Hate You

chapter 5

"You!"

~•~•~•~

April,
2015

When people tell her life plays out in an unimaginable, jaw-dropping, several minutes of no blinking way, Ikram usually shrugs it off with a respectful "uh... I don't know..."

But now she knows, and she attests. And she's sorry, so sorry to those moments she had shrugged off mind-blowing stories just because they sounded 'a little' exaggerated.

For she is now in the mansion she dropped by two months ago with the family she chatted with briefly and laughed with mildly. And they are smiling at her and hugging her and welcoming her to their family.

"Ikram, right? Wow! What a world! Come here Luv." The sweet, gorgeous mother she had sat with during her visit was Jameela, but everyone calls her Umma. She was a gorgeous Fulani woman. She had engulfed Ikram in a hug which melted all her worries away. 

Besides Habeeba, Ikram has met Suhayl, a fifteen-year-old with the brightest smile she has ever seen. He was a certified introvert. Ikram had not heard him speak after the quiet 'it's nice to meet you' he had nodded her way.

And there was the firstborn, Hamma Asif. He was the typical firstborn, calm, gentle, composed, and polite. Incredibly polite. He had helped bring up some of her stuff to her new room, along with Suhayl.

Ikram loves her room. From the dusky brown walls to the double bed and lush carpets. Everything was a shade of warmth and comfort. Habeeba was helping her unpack. The once vacant room was littered with clothes and brown boxes and moderately sized luggage.

"How do I look?" Habeeba had somehow matched her jumpsuit with Ikram's plume scarf around her neck, grey picnic hat, and sunglasses.

Ikram peeped at her from the closet. "Ridiculous." She laughed. "Super ridiculous."

"Why do you have so many black dresses?"

Ikram admires how neat she had arranged her Abayas. "I just love them."

"Do you think they'll look good on me?" Habeeba runs her hands through them stopping at the one with red roses stitches all around.

"Absolutely!" Ikram replies. Unlike her, Habeeba had supple fair skin with frickles here and there. And white has always been known to compliment black. "You should try them out sometime."

"Really? Thank you!" Habeeba's eyes light up.

"So..." Ikram is folding a striped blouse. "Where is Hamma Adnan? I've met everyone except him."

"He's at a friend's wedding. So he says. He should be back tomorrow. Or the day after. Can't be sure with him." Habeeba shrugged.

Ikram nodded once.

Habeeba excused herself when her phone begins to ring. She skipped out of the room, leaving tendrils of her bubbly voice at her wake. Ikram stares at her retreating back, she simply could not believe it. She could not believe for the first time, at twenty-two, she had not one, but four siblings.

And although they're almost strangers with strikingly disparate personalities, and they have a long, long way to go, Ikram was filled with unutterable joy for being able to relish this moment.

She pushed the curtains aside, rays from the warm sun spread themselves like troops of soldiers on a mission. She gulped some water and sits with her phone by the edge of her bed.

She goes to their chat with Adnan. A promising chain that was cut abruptly by a question from her. The two dull ticks attached to her message suggested he hadn't read it. Ikram contemplated texting again.