RIDE OF A LIFETIME [COMPLETED✅]

Chapter 10

ZIYAD

I start driving the second she buckles up. I hear her talk on the phone with her brother letting him know she was okay. I love seeing people care about each other, it made me happy. It reminded me of Noor, I'll be going to her house for lunch tomorrow.

I make a mental note in my head to call her afterwards.

I try to focus on the road but there was just something about her that made me check the rear view mirror once in a while. I wasn't staring or being creepy at all, I just felt the need to check on her every now and then and make sure she was doing okay.

I clear my throat before saying "is the temperature good back there?".

"Huh?" She snaps out of her thoughts.

"Uhm..the AC, is it okay for you back there?" I say glancing into the mirror.

"Oh yeah it's totally okay, thank you." She said.

I nod and continue driving. The rest of the drive was in silence, I notice we're almost at the location so I slow down a bit. I think that must have gotten her attention because she looked up from her phone and started putting back her headphones into her bag.

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HIDAYA✨

The car starts to slow down and I look up from my phone, I just texted Zahra to let her know I was here. I didn't want a repeat of what happened last time with her creepy brother.

But alas! There he was standing by the gate with two people am assuming are his friends.

I begin to panic a little bit but then an idea comes to my head.

"Excuse me, Mr Ziyad?" I call.

"Yeah?" He slightly turns around, we make eye contact through the rear view mirror.

"Can you please stay until I go in?" I ask.

"Uhm...I don't quite understand." He says a bit confused.

"Like..when you drop me off, just wait until you see me go inside the house then you can drive off." I say. I wanted him to be there that way Jamil won't try anything. Heck he'll think it's my brother.

"Okay, sure" he says glancing at me through the mirror before quickly looking back still looking a bit confused.

I heave a sigh and bring out my purse to bring out his money.

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ZIYAD

She sounded a bit panicked. I wonder why she wanted me to stay until she went in. I look back at the road when I sight about four guys standing outside the drop off location. It makes sense now.

I park by the house and she hands me the money saying "Thank you". Now, I know it was my money but it didn't feel right taking it from her. I hesitated before taking it with a small smile.

I lean on the elbow compartment to look out through the passenger seat window. I watch her walk past them, one of them looks at her a bit too long and it was starting to get creepy.

I didn't know when my palm pressed the horn which got all of their attention including hers. They all turn to look at me and I give her a little wave with a smile. She nods and quickly walks in. They boys give a short nod too before continuing with their conversation but the creepy guy was still looking at me as if trying to figure who I was.

I look at him from head to toe before driving off. I check my call logs for Hafiz's number and dial it.

"The number you dialed is on another call at the moment, please hold on or call back later."

The automatic voice said. I leave the phone on speaker and wait for him to finish.

"Hello, salaam alaykum" his voice came.

"Wa alaykum salaam, Sir I just dropped her off and wanted to let you know." I say.

"Yeah we just talked, thank you Ziyad. I'll rate you five stars insha Allah." He says with a little laugh at the end making me laugh too.

"I appreciate that thank you." I say before ending the call.

I receive more requests but I didn't want to accept any so I log off and drive home. I was gonna meet up with Mubarak in about an hour for our "hang out". We finally decided to go the football field and play with the guys and then head to the game bar and hang out or play pool.

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HIDAYA ✨

Am so glad we got to finish early. We were sitting on their swing outside having iced tea that we made a few minutes ago.

"You know I'm really glad we got to be friends" Zahra says taking another sip.

"Yeah, me too actually." I say smiling.

"But how comes we never met? Like ever!" She exclaims turning to face me.

"Well, fate? And I'm not really a social butterfly." I say.

I'm the kind of student that runs home the second the classes were over.

"I guess so, we should go get our hair done tomorrow. I'm due for another style." She says.

"Sounds like a good idea, but yaya is not around so I'll Uber here and then we'll go together." I say shaking my almost empty cup to get the ice around.

"No, even better! I can pick you up, the saloon is closer to your house anyways." She says.

"I'm cool with either but..." I get interrupted by my phone ringing. It was Yaya.

"Just a second....Hello yaya" i answer.

"Hey, how are you?" He asks.

"I'm good alhamdulillah how's the meeting going?". I reply

"We just finished, heading back to our hotel in a few minutes insha Allah. I wanted to check in on you. Are you home yet?" He asks.

"No, not yet. We just finished studying about half an hour ago." I say putting my cup down on the wooden table by my side.

"Okay then. I'm gonna call Ziyad and see if he can come take you home. I don't trust anyone else." He says and I laugh.

"Yaya you don't even know him yet you trust him?" I laugh.

"Well he sounded like a good person and you even said he's a good driver right?" He asks and my cheeks tingle a bit.

"Yes but then...okay whatever." I say.

"Okay then let me know when you're completely done so I can call him" He says.

"I am now, besides it will take him a few minutes to get here and it's getting dark so I can get ready before he arrives." I say looking at Zahra and she nods. I didn't want her to think I was eager to leave even though I was. Zahra is a great friend but I just didn't want to stay out until Maghrib.

"Okay then, I'll call him and let you know how it goes" He says before hanging up.

I stand up straightening my abaya. I unravel my veil from the turban I turned it into and wrap it back as a hijab.

"Let me go get my stuff then." I say to Zahra.

"I'll come with you." We grab our cups and head inside talking about our plans for the next day.