Twice His Age

13: Unappreciated Words

"What?!" They both said in unison as their eyes bulged out as though they were  a saucer. Anas stared at them and managed to look as unbothered as he was, but his heart was beating as wildly as it had never done before. I mean, he knew this would happen, or even worse, but he had decided that he'd do whatever it was going to take to make sure he saved Sabeeha from the clutches they were trying so hard to have her locked into.

"Repeat yourself, Anas. And don't you dare repeat what I just heard from you!" Mommy thundered through gritted teeth and he looked at her with the most pitiful expression on his face.

"I said, I love Sabeeha, Mommy. And I've been in love with her for so long. And also, I'm going to marry her." He repeated himself loud and clear and watched as the two people he had loved and respected, whom he still couldn't believe what he overheard of their conversation dropped the utensils they were eating their breakfast from and looked up at him. As if they hadn't been looking at him all this while.

Meeral coughed softly and quickly gulped down a few gulps of water before she looked up at him as well. "Ya Anas, do you really know what you've just said. That woman?" She asked with an unbelievable expression. As though Sabeeha was so worthless for her to think of her as a woman or even a human being worthy of anything good in life.

He turned to her with fire blazing from his eyes. "Get your filthy mouth out of this and get the hell out of this living room!"

"Stop yelling at my daughter, you stupid boy!" Mommy thundered and turned to look at Meeral with a hard expression. "Sit down and continue eating your food, sweetheart." She said with a soft voice and turned to him with anger dripping from her eyes. "And you, if I were you, I'd simply apologize for what you've just said and go about my business."

He took the last gulp of his drink, having in his mind that this would be the last breakfast he was sure they'd have as a family. Because he wasn't going to back out of this and he was almost certain that they too, wouldn't even think of backing out and they'd try as much as they could to stop him from executing his plan.

Daddy had still not said a word, and that's what he feared the most.

"Mommy, Daddy, I mean this from the bottom of my heart; I love her. And I'm not saying this because I want to protect her from getting married to Idi, but I mean it. I want to get married to her, and I'd be so happy if you two could bless it for me and approve of it, please."

He didn't know why it was that after what he had heard from their conversation, there was something that had changed in him. He saw them from a different light and there was this bitterness in his heart that he just couldn't get out of his chest.

"Anas, get out of my sight before I lose my temper on you now, okay?" That was Mommy, and she picked her cup and sipped from her usual morning coffee.

Anas stayed there for over five minutes and when there was not a single word from Daddy as all of them continued conversing as though he wasn't even there, he knew that was his cue to leave and even if he were to stay there for the next hours left until tomorrow, which was Friday, he knew none of them would even pay heed to him.

So, he got to his feet and walked out of the living room, thinking of what to do. He sent Zaid a text message, because he didn't want to call him and interrupt his meeting and Zaid almost immediately responded.

'Zaid, none of them answered. I mean, Daddy didn't even look up at me, as if he didn't hear a word I've said. And for Mommy, she later on ignored me. What should I do now?'

'Anas, you need to be calming down in times of distress, okay? It's okay, they'd act this way and we've never imagined they'd agree, did we? And if they agreed to it then that's when we will even be afraid of what their plan is then.'