It's Too Late To Love Me Back

Chapter 5

_" Rima, save the man some face.. You shouldn't be there, You are the last person he would want to be seen by in this situation." My cousin says.

But then.. I don't understand.. why am I not allowed this least? Haven't that jerk walked on my pride in front of their watchful eyes for years? haven't he made me humiliated for everyone to watch and laugh at me? why didn't Adem so heroically take just one moment of his life to stand up for me and tell him:

_" Younes, save the girl some face, kindly tell her she has no chance with you instead of feeding her false hope and having fun watching her desperation to get you."

My love started at the age of 14 when they were both well into their 20's, I was too young to know better about a woman's pride, yet instead of being good adults and talking me out of humiliating myself they think I'm a hilarious joke instead and just watch me headlessly wasting my years.

And now this two-faced cousin of mine dares tell me to save the man some face! or is a man's pride more valuable than a woman's? those little @$%&%#!

_" You disgust me, just as much as your precious friend does, you both are equally despicable." I say with a tone full of loathing.

To which Adem just looks at me with baffled eyes and mumbles:

_" What are you talking about?"

_" so your friend has a face to save and I not? for the sake of all the sh*t I had to endure because of him I deserve to see him being slapped more than anyone."

Adem kept staring at me completely taken aback.
what now? Is he expecting me to remain so blindly an idiot in love when I'm old enough to have children of my own? I finally see my worth.. thankfully.. at least my twenties won't be wasted.
Lastly I say:

_" Adem, if you're not planning to apologize for dragging me out of there for nothing then for the sake of the peace of our family let us treat one another like strangers for now, because I don't want to see your face."

As I turn and start walking away Adem yells at my back:

_" you fool! You're awfully beside the point! are you for serious now??"

I ignored him.

I went back to my room, then did the thing I've been desperately wishing to do since the start of this very long day: falling asleep.

_________________________________

_" I heard the rumors of Younes and Assala getting engaged were fake." Someone suddenly says while standing somewhere behind my back.

I was lying on a chair in the garden, bathing in the early spring's sun one  morning, few days after the slapping incident, reading a novel and just enjoying a little relaxing time when I suddenly heard these words coming from somewhere behind.

I tried to ignore whoever this is who was disturbing my peace, and wished I brought my headphones with me to listen to music and block those words I seriously didn't want to hear, but alas, when I left my room earlier this morning and decided against bringing the headphones with me I had intended to enjoy the calming sound of nature and the chanting of birds, I didn't expect nature to have such unwanted disturbances.

But I ignore whoever this person is and focus on my novel like if it was a test paper, I read it like if it was a sacred revelation, but even this amount of focusing couldn't prevent me from hearing the same person adding:

_" I heard he wasn't dating anyone in the last two years, there wasn't a whiff of a woman in his life, in case some people are having some sort of misunderstanding, I want to make it very clear that Younes is still very available."