Why(Hausa).

Broken 💔

Zahra's pov.
Wedding! I couldn't help but yell out.
"Oh sorry, I wanted that to be a surprise for you" Papa replied.
"But papa.."
"No buts.." he interrupted.
"Of course there is, what have I done to deserve this, I have someone I love, you can't do this to me" I said as tears were threatening to fall from my eyes.
"Yes you're getting married to the person you love, your childhood crush, I know you still love him". Papa said.
"I don't even know who you're referring to, this has to be a joke or something, maybe a prank, I can't believe this" I said turning to my mom and stepmom pleading with my eyes for them to tell me this is a lie.
But unfortunately, none of them replied, they only looked at me with pity.
I ran upstairs to my room and broke down into tears.
A buzz from my silenced phone took my attention.
LEED ❤️🔐 boldly written on the screen. I picked up.

Hello Arah, I've been waiting for your call but you haven't called since.

I just felt a new set of emotions running through my mind. I couldn't even say anything.

Why are you quiet?

I just burst into new tears and hanged up. I saw 2 missed calls from before I came into the room from him.
And now he's calling again.
I didn't pick, I didn't want him to hear me crying.

A message then popped up and it said:

Please Arah, you shouldn't hide your tears from me, I'm here for you holding you close through your tears, close your eyes, take a deep breath and remember that I'm here to comfort you, protect you and fight for you. I love you and I'll always be there for you.

My lips arched into a smile. So he heard my whimpers already. I felt a bit better and I sat down and curled my legs to my chest. Old memories flushed through my mind. The last time we met in the library I'll never forget.
We both sat in a quiet corner of the library, surrounded by the rustling of pages and faint scent of old books. The dim light shined on both our faces, I looked at him and couldn't help but gnaw. From his brown eyes, all the way to his lips. His eyes were just my favorite, a brown with a shade of red, and his eyebrows were full and masculine but not rough and bushy. His jawline ticking as he was engrossed in the reading and his long nose. He had a beard that looks sculptured to his face, it wasn't long, just visible due to his dark, vibrant hair color. And in complexion, he was even fairer than me. I've never seen someone this much handsome, he is a prey to a lot of girls, I have to always impress him and fight for him before he gets snatched I thought and this is the longest I've looked and analyzed his looks. I went back to his eyes, so alluring.
Why are you staring, I'm I too handsome, he smiled shining his well arranged teeth while staring at his book. Oh no, he caught me looking at him I cursed.He looked up from his book, I quickly averted my gaze back to my book. One thing with me, I don't know why the fuck I can't look directly into a male's eye. Most especially someone with as much charisma as Waleed.
"Why are you silent" he pondered.
"Emm..emmm" I cleared my throat as I felt the heat rising from my cheeks.
"Well, I'm done with reading mine, I'm a much fast reader than you and I was waiting for you to finish so we could have a talk" I lied. We were reading the same book, a story by Nicholas sparks titled "The Notebook". And I wasn't even close to finishing it, tho I've passed half.

"You're soo bad at lying, but we could talk, the way Noah feels about Allie in this book, that's how I feel about you. Well I'm reading the book, but I imagine you and me living the life. And it feels like it's just you and me in our little world of words".

"Yeah and I'm sure you know you have a way with words right?"

"Well I don't know so, but the only truth is that my words convey what my heart tells, every word I say is what I feel here." He said putting his hand on his chest.

Getting out of my trance, one of our few moments together, I looked out the window and thought of how to deal with this.

Later at night, my Maama came into the room to console me, I know she must've done her best to console Papa.

"Yi hakuri kinji Fatima na, your father being the temperamental man he is, has not even listened to me, he said his decision is final".

Just then, my door creaked open and Ammi came to view.
"Zahra, you've not eaten supper and you're not down for dinner either, we came up earlier to check on you but you were sleeping"
"Ammi, I'm not hungry, I just don't want him, please beg papa for me" I begged before turning to Maama. "Maama, you should also beg on my behalf, please, not that I don't want to get married, I have someone on my mind.."I sniffed as tears poured down my cheeks.
"...the other day, he asked me to introduce him to this family, I waited patiently to tell papa about this but he just told me this, he didn't even welcome me properly, he doesn't love me anymo..."
"Shhhh, don't say that, he loves you and he chose the best for you, he didn't know you had someone you love" Maama said as she wiped away the tears from my face using her palms.
"Lemme bring her some food and water" Ammi said before leaving me with my mother once again"
"I thought you would like his choice too, although I didn't support him, I said nothing against it, and you know how strict your father is right, you should have told me since I'm your mother, everything that will happen to one has already been written in one's qadr(destiny). So I'll advise you to stop crying and accept reality, but be positive, I and your Ammi will talk to him about it. Maybe we'll convince him once we talk to him together".
Ammi walked in again, this time with a tray with food and water. It was fried rice and beef sauce. Something I would've enjoyed if I was in my right state of mind. They together walked to the door, Maama looked one last time at me and gave me a soothing smile before pulling the door closed. I took a few spoons of the food but it seemed tasteless and I gave up on trying to eat. I took my phone to check the time and I saw a few missed calls from Waleed and the John's landline number and later a message from Waleed.

I ignored the calls and opened my messages app.
Arah,
Can we meet please, I haven't even seen you yet my love, and I can't bear the burden anymore, there's something I need to tell you, please meet me at cilantro by noon tomorrow.
Your husband insha Allah, Leed.

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Drama and spice, this is just the beginning of the journey. Vote please.