A Promise to Aabidah (#1 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

          "DID YOU FIGHT WITH AABIDAH?"

The query was direct. Straight as a bullet to the gut. There was no beating around the bush, that was the sort of guy AbdulWahid Haroun was — at least when it came to other people's business.

AbdulAzeez choked on the tuwo he was eating. "What do you mean? You're in Canada, how did you hear about it?" He shot after taking a gulp of water from the cup his mother passed him.

A sigh, thick and laced with fatigue reached AbdulAzeez through the phone he had pressed to his ear.

"So, you did fight with her."

AbdulAzeez shook a finger in disagreement to his friends conclusion, realizing he couldn't be seen, he curled the finger back in with a sigh. "I didn't fight with her," he amended, "we only had an argument."

An interjection followed with a groan came from the other end of the phone. AbdulAzeez heard the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, he looked up and saw his mother had stood up from her seat. Her lips were pursed in disappointment as she shook her head once before leaving the kitchen with her daughter-in-law in tow.

"What is the difference?" The caller asked.

"An argument is less violent than a fight."

A harsh sardonic laughter emitted from the phone.

"There's nothing like that in a relationship when words are exchanged," AbdulWahid stated. "People only say they had an argument because they don't want others to know what they were actually fighting about. But they know! And they get hurt in a way during what you call an argument."

AbdulAzeez pushed the rest of his food away from him, his appetite suddenly gone. He called out to Khalifah, told the boy to share the rest of the food with his sister, and resumed his conversation with his friend. "I told you that wasn't the case, besides where did you get this information from?"

"Nooriya. She told me." There was a pause then an exhale of frustrated air. "Actually, more like she yelled at me and told me to warn you to stop making her friend miserable. I'm getting tired of taking the shots for you. What did you say to her?"

AbdulAzeez clammed his lips shut in shame. "I told her that I was tired of living up to her brother's expectations."

"Is that it?"

"There were a few other words." AbdulAzeez confessed sheepishly.

"Inanillahi!" AbdulWahid exclaimed. "Who would want to be with a guy that tells them they are tired of their family? And why would you tell her something that wasn't even meant for her ears in the first place?! I would break up with you if i were her. Did she ask you to live that way? Did anyone actually tell you that life would be easy if you did as Sulaiman said? How naive are you?"

AbdulAzeez breathed out through his nose, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. For a moment he wished he could see the look on his friend's face but as he listened as he was chastised, he figured the look would only be a mirror image of his mother's feelings.

"You're doing exactly what you did back then, do you know?" The question came faintly, as if the speaker had moved far away from the phone, but AbdulAzeez heard the words clear as day. The next time the voice came, it was bold and clear. "What you did years ago that made you lose her. Kasan mene ne wanan?"

It seemed to be a rhetorical question but AbdulAzeez muttered no still.

"You're being a stubborn coward." His friend stated blatantly. "You were a coward back then and you still are. Don't you know in Islam nobody can stop two people from getting married unless that person has a valid reason? Bringing up the past and telling Aabidah what you felt might seem like a relief to you, getting all that hurt off your chest, but you also need to consider the fact that the other person has feelings too.