If It's You Then...

Blond Boys and Melanin Girls

1996
Leicester,ENGLAND.
Hidaya had been back from her assignment in Nigeria 5 years ago. Ahmad had been with her ever since, and every day, he got more mysterious.

For one, he never shed a tear since she brought him. Not even for his parents. On the day the marked their deaths, he just became more withdrawn and got a little sad. That was all. No crying, no tears.  

She thought very highly of him. He was too mature for his age. Too immaculate. Too meticulous. It was not that he didn’t show grief, he just didn’t cry about it. He channeled his grief in to his art and got beautiful results

His writings were too gothic that they seemed like he experienced death a hundred times over. His paintings would make the untrained eye think he was a twisted kid.

She still didn’t understand what really happened to his parents. But she didn’t push it. She knew better.

Her kids were, if possible, even more loving him to him than she was. Abdulmalik, Khalid, and Hanan showered him with an unending flow of love. She was so proud of them and the way they accepted him. 

According to Khalid, who was in the same class as Ahmad, it was worse at school, but he rarely gave them any special attention.

All the kids in school gave him extraordinary attention, but he didn’t mind. He just didn’t care. He didn't let it get to his head.

It didn’t matter to him. It does matter to me though, Khalid said, Hidaya remembered with a smile.

She looked at her watch and it was almost time for her next shift. Enough Ahmad for today, she thought with a smile. God knows she loves that kid.

Ahmad and the boys were hanging out in the corridor. It was the second recess of the day, signalling that dismissal was near.

Ahmad looked around, and most of the boys had their shirts crumbled by this time, but not his. His shirt was still neat, with the razor sharp lines on it still intact. Just a few hours, they all looked alike, with the same neat, crisp, razor sharp lines on their shirt.

How they didn’t have the same grace to maintain that 8 o'clock look all day will always elude him.

Ahmad excused himself to straighten himself out in the boys’ room.

He looked at himself in the mirror. Puberty had really started to show on him. The acne had cleared out though, gladly, and his moustache had started showing signs of growth. He was growing nicely.

He was 5’7”, which was not bad for a 16 year old.

He undid his belt, and slid his shirt out. His white shirts were the most precious item in his wardrobe. He crouched and drew his socks up and redid his shoe laces. He rose up to smoothen his trousers, tuck his shirt back in and buckle his belt. He double checked his fly for security measures.:).

He felt his wavy hair and strolled out the boys’ room, feeling rejuvenated.

He returned to the boy as they were encouraging James, the blondest boy in school, to go ask his crush out.

Ahmad actually thought he had lived a life with this girl, Angela, the way he talked about her. Ah, boys.

As expected, Khalid, his brother was at the forefront of the effort.

As Ahmad arrived, he was hit with the billion pound question.

You see, Ahmad was kinda like the arbitrator among them, so his opinions mattered dearly. And after weighing in,

Ahmad gave him his go ahead.

With all the encouragement he could get from his friends, James decided to go for it, so as usual, the boys went into formation.

James led the charge today. He started to make little talk with Angela.

Alfred, a career eavesdropper, sat a few desks away, listening to the conversation and giving signals on what was going.

Ollie, a ladies magnet, went to get a few of her friends away from her.

Marvin and Mike were on the lookout for any trouble, while the rest hovered around, stealing the occasional glance at James.

Everyone was in position, and after 20 long minutes, and a number of blushes from both sides, James’ whole body seemed to go red when Angela took his hands in hers.

Alfred gave quick signal indicating that he had told her that he liked her, and everyone tuned in to watch the show.

As quickly as it had started, it ended. All the red on his skin moved to his eyes, and it took everything James had to not burst in tears.

Alfred had already sent the signal and Marvin and Mike had exited. The rest of the crew were slowly creeping out of the class.
Ahmad sat back to think. He didn’t really know what happened between them, but he blamed himself.

He knew James was an emotional wreck, and he still gave him his seal of approval to go ahead. James would have never done if Ahmad didn’t tell him to.

He decided to go hear what happened before he did anything. He didn’t like seeing his friend hurt like that.

More so, because of him. He looked outside and there was no sign of James anywhere. Where was he, Ahmad wondered?  He waited for a while and when James finally came back, his pretty green eyes were puffy and red.

According to what Alfred had heard, Angela had told James that while she was flattered that she has a pretty white boy interested in her, but she wasn’t interested in a relationship with someone as tender and socially awkward as James.

It was pretty awful, and everyone was pretty stunned. They could not even tease him like they usually did.

A simple rejection would have been bad enough, but telling him no, with some half-assed sugar coated hurtful words was a little too much. 

There and there, it was decided that since everyone with the so-called social standing in the school hanged with them, nobody should even consider even being with Angela.

It was communicated to the girls and slowly, even they would began excluding her from their circles since she didn’t have a boyfriend of any standing.

Even though the whole Angela situation had left James pretty hurt and shocked, the support he received from his friends had lifted his spirits and he received an unprecedented level of satisfaction from his friends’ resolution in his support.

That incident was the first time Ahmad stood up for one his own and that event would go on to define his life in ways he didn’t imagine. Though at that moment, the only thing that bothered Ahmad was helping his friend.