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

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

        IN THE MIDDLE OF WORK hours, Aabidah reread the message her friends had sent her again for the hundredth time. The fear and shock that had come the first time she read the message was still as prominent as ever. But there was something hung else.

As she skimmed her eyes over the words and the blinking cursor, she felt a huge ball of disappointment settling in the pit of her stomach. She hadn't replied to her friends messages because she had nothing to say. She hadn't even known about the accident or that AbdulAzeez was back in town, so how could she possibly know how he was faring?

She recalled the conversation she'd had with Zaynab the night before. Suddenly the strange behavior and refusal to divulge more information became clearer.

But why would she hide such information from the person her brother-in-law was in a relationship with? Well, she did say AbdulAzeez told her not to say anything. But why?

Aabidah's forehead wrinkled in deep concentration as she tried to understand what was going on. Coming up with nothing, she sighed out in resignation. Idly she scrolled through her contacts, pondering upon how good of an idea it would be to call AbdulAzeez. She was still debating with herself when a customer walked up to her.

Offering a smile, Aabidah greeted the older woman before asking her to take a seat. Glad to have something to distract her, she pressed down on her power button and watched as the screen went dark, then kept the phone aside.

After releasing a breath, she placed her hands on the table of her new desk and steepled her fingers together before enquiring, "What can I do for you?"

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     During her lunch break, Aabidah got in her car and drove down to her friend's place of work. Basmah had a free period, so they had half an hour to try to relax.

Aabidah parked outside the school compound and waited for Basmah to come out. Certain that her friend would take at least a few minutes before she came out, Aabidah slid a finger across the screen of her phone to unlock it.  In need of something to lighten up her sour mood, she went straight to YouTube then searched for a tutorial video of a snack she would use to coax Bilal into telling her why he had fought in school.

Bilal. She sighed. She still hadn't been able to get a word out of the boy. He was sealed shut and determined to stay that way.

She was halfway through the thirty minutes tiger nut pudding tutorial video when she heard a knock on her window.

Aabidah lowered her phone to her laps and turned to the passenger's side. Outside, holding up two small white polythene bags with a massive grin on her face stood Basmah.

"Let me in."

Aabidah smiled and did just that. She unlocked the car and then leaned across to the passenger's side door to open it.

"Anything interesting in there?" Basmah asked as she threw her bag to the back seat and passed Aabidah one of the plain white bag.

Aabidah accepted the bag and looked at her phone. She shook her head. How could she tell Basmah that her mind was filled with thoughts she couldn't understand nor explain? Or that a cooking tutorial video did nothing to fade away the whispers in her head?

"Abs?"

Aabidah jerked her head up. "Uh? What?" she sputtered.

"I said, anything interesting in there?"