Good Kid-Bad Kid[COMPLETED]

Chapter 25 (Laila)

As soon as I prayed fajr on Saturday morning I checked my mail for Baba's reply to my messages. It was the second I'd sent since my parents had arrived in Singapore, asking Baba how Mama was and if Niha could come over to catch me up on all the stuff I'd missed. Please say yes...please say yes...please say yes...I thought as my email loaded.
Inbox (2)
The first email was from Baba which I opened eagerly:

Dear Laila,
Assalamualaikum. Your Mama is doing fine at the moment, my friend is working hard to get all that poison out of her. However, we do still need your duas.
Niha Taufeeq is it? I know her father well- he and I were batch mates at university. I trust their family so yes, she may come, but you must be the one to escort her to our home with Badr or Yassin and take a route that will be hard to remember. I cannot let go of caution- you never know who to trust.
Take care habibti, we will try come back as soon as possible.
Love, Baba.

I couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear. I was allowed to have a friend over?! And Niha at that! We were going to have so much fun! I texted her asking her if it wasn't too late if she could come over today and that I'd pick her up.

The second email was from Latifa, which made me smile even more. It was mostly the usual; she missed me, her crush Adnan had talked to her, and she had a new part time job at Starbucks! One piece of information caught my eye though...

...There was this weird guy though-you know the body building street boxer type? He was asking around for you. Obviously we didn't tell someone like him where you are but yeah, just be on your guard? Your so far away though I don't think he'll ever find you LOL (how sad is that :( )

I carried my laptop out of my room and to Yassin and Badr who were now having breakfast.
"Morning" Badr yawned, noticing me. Yassin looked more awake and grinned when he saw my laptop, "Sony Vaio huh? Sweet"
"Look at this" I highlighted the part in Latifa's email and turned around my laptop so they could see.
"Sounds like the usual Buria macho man to me" Yassin told me after quickly scanning the lines, "they're your typical brainless idiots, right little bro?"
Badr was staring at the screen intently, reading and rereading the message.
"Not really" he muttered more to himself, "he had to be pretty smart if he tracked you to Arizona. And look here Yassin- " Badr tapped the screen, "-he was looking specifically for Laila herself. Why?"
It seemed to be a rhetorical question so neither Yassin or I replied.
"I'm going to find out"
"What?!" I exclaimed, "aren't you taking this a bit too seriously Badr?"
He grinned but it was devoid of any mirth, "your life is in danger Laila, wouldn't you want me to to take this seriously?"
Yassin took my side,  "so what? You're going to fly to Arizona now?"
He winked, "indeed"
Both of us stared at Badr in silence for a few moments. Then Yassin shrugged. "Okay, tell Amu Faris though. I have some work to do" with that he left, leaving me gaping.
Badr raised a perfect eyebrow at me over his spoonful of chocolate flakes.
"What?" he asked as though he couldn't understand what was my problem. I opened my mouth to point out it didn't really make sense to fly all the way across to Arizona just because of some guy- what a waste of time and resources? Instead I said:
"Could you pick my friend up?"
"And do what? Take her to the beauty parlour?" He snickered at his own joke.
"No, she's tutoring me- and I already talked to Baba in case you're wondering"
"Wait-Laila- are you asking me? Politely?"
"Up till now I was making a decent effort!" I exclaimed angrily and he laughed.
"Fine, Ms Mohammed Junior be ready in five minutes"
"You too? I don't want her to be scared seeing you in all this...blackness. Try something more sharif."
Badr rolled his eyes.

I decided to wear my Algeria football (Slimani) shirt, black jeans with canvas shoes and white scarf, casual but not too casual. Coming downstairs and outside to the red ford I almost choked.
Badr's idea of sharif seemed to be kind of dumb. He was wearing a black v-neck sweater, black jeans and black sunglasses. I was prepared to bet he was wearing black socks and black boots too.
"Are you sensitive to color?" I demanded as he opened the door for me, "because this is too far"
Although he looked pretty awesome and I was annoyed to admit a lot of girls would find him attractive if he walked around school like that. Or anywhere.
Ugh.
"This works pretty well for me" Badr shrugged, "sharp, clean, sharif and hey- you can't even see my pistol"
I froze, "w-what?"
He winked.

Niha lived where seemed to be in the other side of the city so it was going to take us a long time to get there. I sat in silence the whole time, too afraid to speak. Of course I'd already known Badr and Yassin weren't exactly safe and they probably carried around all sorts of dangerous things with them. But now that he'd mentioned it and there was a gun actually on him my throat was dry. I was scared of guns.
A lot.
In New Orleans, where we lived when I was around seven or eight years old Mama and I'd literally escaped by chance. Our street had been surrounded and infiltrated with gang members who I now knew to be Buria, openly seeking us. I remembered Mama pulling off her hijab and donning on western style clothing, put on intense make up and cut my hair short. We'd left that night, but I remembered seeing the flash of a shiny revolver, the bangs that ripped through the silent night air behind us, the screams of people who had to pay by their lives for us. With a jolt I realized Badr probably always dealt with this kind of stuff. Hell he probably lived in it- loved it. And that's what scared me so much. Here he was now, with a weapon that gave no one a chance.

"Laila?" He said softly after a good twenty minutes of me staring out the window, frozen.
I turned my head to face him in answer.
"Are you scared?"
I swallowed and nodded, wishing I could have confidently said no. I panicked slightly as we pulled over, across from some jam packed candles and crafts shops.
"W-what are you-"
"Come here" he pulled me out and dragged me across the street and through a gap in the wall. I followed him miserably. What have I done? Where is he taking me?
When we were well alone Badr let go and faced me, and I observed him silently.
He looked even more intimidating without his usual kind of clothes and clean shaven face. His eyes were dark and thoughtful and his hair was neatly arranged. He looked so strong, solid and...safe, yet there was that dangerousness about him that was hard to ignore.

He took a step closer.

I took a step back.

His right hand curled into a fist and his brow furrowed in frustration.
"Laila I won't hurt you"
I said nothing.
"I promise. Look, if it makes you feel better..." He sighed and pulled out something in a leather case. Something gun shaped. Before I could react he'd grabbed my hand and closed my fingers around it before stepping back away quickly.
"I won't teach you how to use it yet, but it'll come handy even if you just pull it out."
I unstuck my throat, holding the gun in both hands carefully, "why?"
"Because I need you to trust me, but you also need to be able to defend yourself. I'm a bad kid Laila. I've done things that'll scare you to china. There's a lot of people after me and I won't stay untouchable. I need you to know though, betrayal isn't really my style. I take my job seriously and currently it's to protect you and I'm not going to fail. That means I'm never going to let anything hurt you" he added as an afterthought.
My eyes started welling up as his words hit me. Assurance, relief, gratefulness all washed over me and I was sure if Badr had been a girl this moment I would have hugged her. He grinned, half relieved and half happy,
"Don't start crying now Laila" he warned.
"S-sorry" I croaked, rubbing my eyes.
"Shall we get going? Your friend is waiting"
"Yeah" I replied with a smile.
"And tuck that in somewhere"
I realized I was still holding the gun so I handed it back with a watery smile.
"There's no need for this right now"