You're my dawn

2.Is this your first date?

He had just woken up, when his phone went off, he looked at the screen with knitted brows and received the call. "Assalamualaikum, baba."

"Where are you? Why didn't you come home last night?" 

"Baba, there had been so many days in the past when I didn't return home but you have never cared then why now?" He didn't want to dig into the past but the memories of his teenage years flashed in front of his eyes, when he had worked late night shifts and sometimes slept in the store he worked, to fulfill the expanses of his studies but his father never felt his absence. 

"I was busy with work, it wasn't easy to make ends meet for the family of seven." He defended himself and Arsh rolled his eyes at the word family. Hira and he were never included in their family. 

Jafar continued after a pause "Your study was quite expensive if you remember." 

He scowled at that. He remembered, whenever he asked for money from his father, he asked to take it from Tehmeena because She was in charge of money but  it was Tehmeena he was talking about hence, he didn't even get a penny from her, "Of course, I remember, I had to do two shifts of part-time jobs to pay for it." 

Jafar angrily spat because he didn't like Tehmeena to be blamed for anything."I never got to know why you are so ungrateful."

He quipped. "Maybe because you never tried to know."

He knew Jafar was barely holding himself from shouting at him and he also knew why he was containing his anger because it hadn't been a hard task for him in the past to vent his anger on him.

"Come home this evening." Commanding, he cut the call and Arsh stood there clutching the phone tightly as his veins bulged in anger.

"I know you and your wife want me to marry Roshni but trust me baba, that's not going to happen." He murmured while typing an application for leave, furiously.

***

Since his work was almost complete and he never got any off days, he was instantly granted leave for fifteen days. 

The first thing he did was to ask his grandmother for a meet-up with Sehar which she gladly agreed to. Hence, he was there in front of her college to pick her up. She was informed as well because he saw her coming out of the college gate and wandering her gaze and as she spotted him, she swiftly moved towards him with firm steps, without an ounce of surprise.

As she reached him, he opened the door for her while greeting her.

He jumped on the driving seat and twisted the ignition key to start the car.

"How are you?" He asked while smoothly coasting through the busy road.

"I'm good," at her reply he looked at her for a brief moment and found her sitting tensed and upright.

He fixed the shades on his nose with his index finger and cleared his throat. "You can relax."

"Huh?" she turned to him while chewing her lips and rapidly blinking.

"Calm down," he gave her a friendly smile. "Is this your first date?"

She frowned but her gaze fell on his playful smile, she broke into a smile too, for a moment but it didn't go unnoticed by Arsh.

He pulled his car in front of a nice vintage-looking restaurant.

***

As they walked inside, she could feel her legs shaking in nervousness.  

He pulled a chair for her and she smiled at this for a second. Nobody had done that for her. Ever.

"You might have an idea about the reason we are here today?" He began solemnly, after placing their order and she nodded, meekly, looking somewhere over his shoulder, not meeting his gaze. "Erm, yeah."