Accepting You

Chapter Thirteen

Sunday morning. 

After the dust from slammed doors had settled, Asiya's parents called a family meeting, and her mum used scrambled eggs, fried plantain, pancakes, fruit, and other toothache, causing foods to sweeten Aminah into coming over.

"That woman was crazy!" Kulthum sang as she drizzled syrup over her stacked plate. "You should've seen the way she kept going!"

"It was a sight indeed," Asiya muttered.

Ibrahim's mum's outburst lasted almost an hour. 

The woman eventually left, but she did not go quietly. Even as she was wearing her shoes, she continued to chant curses.

She delivered verbal jabs, striking everyone in Asiya's family, until Asiya's mum practically pushed her out of the front door.

Ibrahim's mum called Asiya stuck up. She called Aminah a failure because her marriage was not up to her standards. 

According to Ibrahim's mum, Kulthum, the teenager she had snuggled, had a big mouth and was an ashawo because she didn't wear hijab.

"Absolutely, cah-ray-zee," Kulthum repeated. "Thank God you didn't marry into that family, Asiya. Your life would've been hell! Did you see the way she was jumping around? I could feel her feet from upstairs. Thought she would cause an earthquake!"

"Kulthum, stop backbiting," Aminah scowled.

"Don't be salty with me because she cussed your ass out," Kulthum mumbled.

"None of her insults were true," Asiya's mother said as she entered the dining room with Asiya's father. "That was why we wanted to have breakfast together. Those things shouldn't have been said. It was wrong, and it won't be tolerated in this house. We won't be seeing her again."

"Period." Kulthum clicked her fingers while Aminah rolled her eyes.

Ibrahim's mum's outburst had worked very well in Asiya's favour. 

Her insults had burnt the bridge between their families and any wood that could have been used to build another.

Asiya would never see Ibrahim again, and she relaxed her shoulders whenever she remembered that.

"I do have to agree with some of what Kulthum said. See how Allah works? If Asiya hadn't said no, we may have never known what that family was truly like," her dad said as he piled food onto his plate. "You dodged a bullet, Asiya."

"Yes," her mother hummed. "But could you not have dodged it quietly?"

Asiya stuffed a pancake into her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer.

"Why didn't you tell us you didn't want to continue getting to know Ibrahim earlier? What happened on Friday could've been avoided if you had."

"I tried to!" Asiya cried with a mouth full of food.

"When?" Asiya's dad questioned.

Asiya swallowed and then pointed at her mother. "I went to mum! I told you I wasn't feeling Ibrahim, that I didn't like him. But you and those aunties at the sister's Q&A told me to keep trying with him. That a connection would eventually grow, but it wasn't that important because, on paper, he was perfect."

"That's what people are calling perfect?" Kulthum remarked cheekily. Her chuckles turned into coughs when Asiya's mum sent her a glare.

"That was months ago. Why didn't you come to us again?" Asiya's mum asked.

"I came to you then!" Asiya exclaimed.

Asiya blinked away a bulb of bitter tears as she buttered her toast. She didn't deserve the entire blame for what had happened.