ZAID AND MARYAM ~ Their Story

7 - For Her? Absolutely!

--- ZAID KHALID ---

"Sue them."

My words took Amr by shock. He looked at me as if I was not spurting out dumb things. But I was serious.

Amr laughed. "Zaid, they're just college students trying to get some fun out of their stupid lives." He looked at his phone. "They'll probably forget it by a few days when something new comes up."

My decision still hadn't changed. I said, my hands gripped the steering wheel, firmly.

"I don't care, sue them."

"Look, I know you like her Zaid but --" Amr started but I stopped the car at once. Thank goodness we were not in a highway. Like her? What do you mean like her?

"I do not like her." I said, firmly once again. I never thought of it myself. Surely I have never thought about anyone like that before. Not since eighth grade. I restarted the car. It gave a bit of a noise and glided smoothly once again.

"Then why are you so crazy about suing some people you don't know?" Amr fired back.

"She was insulted, Amr. She was insulted because of me. I can never forgive myself if anyone, especially a women at that, ever lost their dignity because of me." I made this decision a long time ago and I meant it word by word. It was one of those things my little mother had taught me back in Turkéy.

"A woman's dignity is worth more than her life, Zaid. You must promise you shall never break it." Her sweet, gentle voice caressed my memory still.

Amr seemed to understand what I was saying. "I'll call Uncle Malik immediately."

He typed something on his phone and put it on his ears and quickly explained everything to our Uncle, who was a famous international lawyer and took things quite seriously, but didn't reveal Maryam's name or her identity.

"Would a publicly written apology do? I'm sure that'll be more humiliating than they could ever express," asked Amr, looking at me.

" But--, " I protested.

"And a ten thousand dollar fine if anyone ever brought up her, or the subject again," he said with eyes wide for me to close the deal. I nodded. It was good enough.

"How do you feel now?" Amr asked, quitting the call.

"Never been better," I grinned.

We both sat in silence for about an hour, Amr reading his E book, me listening to the Quran. The afternoon was quite splendid enough for a drive. I thought about what Amr said about me having a thing for Maryam. Have I thought about her like that? I can't quite tell. Sure, I caught myself sheepishly laughing when I think about her doing something silly in class. And how I also started deeply admiring her emerald green eyes that flashed when she got mad.

"Oh I almost forgot to ask, did anybody from the family call?"

Amr's words broke me from my reverie. Yes, thinking about her makes my brain go mad.

I shrugged. "Not that I know of."

"Its your birthday in the fall, you do remember that right?" Amr looked at me questioningly. A lot of birthdays occured every month in our family, that it hard to keep up to date.

Just yesterday my Cousin Sophia posted a picture in the family group, posing with a sleek red Ferrari that she got for her thirtieth birthday.

"Yeah, but we still have a month before that." Whats the point of discussing this now, anyway?

"Your dad wants to do it different this time. Host a big party and all,"said Amr.

I scoffed."Like every other year?"

"Yeah, but a week long party at that! He wants to invite every old friends of his and have a huge blast."

I put a finger to my chin. "I wonder who's birthday it is?"

Amr groaned as well."He probably has big plans. "

"Yup." I painfully agreed. Whenever my father had big plans, it was never okay.

Oooh, We're on to something big!😏
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Word count : 679