Forbidden Love... In Dubai

Chapter One - The Beginning

DISCLAIMER - The main characters in this story, Afra and Farheen are in no way similar to the real-life characters. Any resemblance of this story with any published story is not intentional and is purely co-incidental.

Chapter One - The Beginning

[Afra]

I can't believe it. I refuse to believe it. I really couldn't believe that I, Afra, an 18 year old who has never been allowed to take a step outside the house without my parents, am ACTUALLY waiting at the Dubai International Airport just to catch a glimpse of the BIGGEST BOYBAND IN THIS WORLD!!

Not that I'm alone. I'd got my mum and best friend with me. I looked sideways at Farheen, she had been my bestie since we were 6, I think. She was shaking with excitement. It took a lot of convincing on her part to get my mum here. We weren't allowed to go anywhere alone. But the rules changed a bit after I got my driver's license.

We were now allowed a bit of freedom as long as one of our mums was with us. It's not that our parents were jailers.. They gave us everything we've always wanted and even more. But the only thing they refused us was privacy and independence. We didn't get even a shred of that.

But now I couldn't believe that I was actually here.. We had been waiting for the past one hour. I got my mum to sit at those corner chairs at the Arrivals waiting section, after promising her a million times that we won't talk to strangers and keep calling her every 15 minutes.

We were standing right at the front, leaning on the metal barricade since we came in early. They were at least hundreds of girls behind us, and even many more waiting outside.

I looked at Farheen again, her pink skin shining in the airport lights. She was beautiful, way more than me at least. The best thing about her was her smile. There was a 'homey' feeling about her smile. Something that made me feel that she will always be there for me.

She had fair skin while I had a fair olive complexion. Her hair was jet black and very curly, while mine was wavy brown. I don't know what shade of brown my hair is - probably chestnut brown, oh wait, I don't even know what a chestnut looks like.

I didn't think I was that good looking or anything. I was just normal. Normal face, normal smile, normal eyes, etc. Nothing like Farheen atleast. But she always called me beautiful and I called her gorgeous, so we comforted each other by saying that we both were pretty..I smiled. We were extremely close.. I could hide nothing from her and neither could she from me. We could communicate with each other without speaking.

Our obsession for One Direction made our friendship even stronger. We never knew about One Direction until we signed up on twitter. It had been a year after they were formed. We first listened to some of their songs after getting suggestions from many people on twitter. What followed was different stages of fangirling... Learning their songs by heart, watching the video diaries and every other video of theirs on YouTube, learning their inside jokes and so on. And then.... we ultimately became insane directioners.

We couldn't buy their posters or merchandise or anything even though we really wanted. One can imagine my mum's reaction if I put on a poster of five sexy boys in my room. She would FLIP out.

"Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming," I said.

She pierced her nails on my arms fiercely.

"Ouch!! Why did I tell you that?," I screamed, rubbing my arm.

She giggled and adjusted her scarf. She was wearing an abaya with burgundy Swarovski stones while I wore the same with emerald Swarovski stones.

"How much longer?" she whined.

"Shhh!!" I signalled as soon as I heard the announcement go on.

"The British Airways flight, No 435 flying from London to Dubai has just landed."

The girls behind us were screaming "They're HERE!!!" Farheen screamed at my ear.

I quickly called my mum to tell her that the plane had landed.

"Keep your camera ready," Farheen told me, holding hers ready.

"I hope we get to see them up close!!" I said.

"I just want a glimpse of that sexy Irish leprechaun! My life will be made!" she said dreamily.

I laughed. Farheen adored Niall.. I didn't have any particular favourites. I loved them all equally. But Farheen always said that I had a soft spot for Ziall. I thought she was right. I'm sure that girl can read my mind sometimes!!

***

[Farheen]

I was shaking with excitement. This was something unreal to me. I mean I'm just a normal teenager. But normal was the last word that could describe me and Afra.

I loved Afra to bits. She was way too special to me. We were really close. Afterall, we were friends for more than 12 years. She was more than a friend to me. She was my sister, a part of my family. That didn't mean we didn't fight with each other. Once, we didn't talk to each other for two days. That was a record.

At school, we were inseparable. The other girls even shipped us as 'Afreen'! We were THAT close! We weren't like all those other girls who had sleepovers together, went on shopping dates or movies. We were never allowed all that. We didn't need friendship bracelets or matching clothes to tell that we were best of friends. Our friendship was way above that.

After finishing high school, our friendship threatened to loosen. We didn't go to university together because of co-education. We both started home-graduation. Fortunately, we both took the same subjects, so we could hang out at each other's house frequently, pretending to have a study discussion.

Afra brought in a lot of change on me. I transformed from being a shy, introvert girl to a cheery, outgoing personality. Afra seemed to have the reverse effect. She was rather quite now, except with me of course.

Afra was extremely skinny. Sometimes, it scared me. She was like those size 0 models that you saw on TV, with only skin wrapped around their bones. But, oh, was she a foodie! She could never control herself in front of food! She was one of those people who never grew fat no matter what they ate.

The most striking thing about Afra was her eyes. They were this beautiful rich brown which always seemed to sparkle. I still remember the first time we met, back in Grade 1. She was new to my school, and she sat right beside me. Her eyes were shining with innocence. And that's when those brown eyes met my black ones, and a whole new journey started.

I still remember the first we came to know about One Direction. We were both in my house, checking twitter and found out about this British boyband. When I first saw Niall, I knew we were meant to be together. He had me head over heels for him. My heart fluttered whenever I heard his name. I always told Afra that one day, I would meet Niall. I would tell him how much I loved him. And then we would get married, have cute blonde children and live happily ever after. Afra always laughed at my dream. But once she told me that she would be the kids' godmother, to which I willingly agreed.

Afra loved all the boys. She always said that she couldn't choose among them. But I knew she liked Ziall. I could see it in her eyes....

I tapped my perfectly manicured nails on the metal barricade.

"How much longer?" I complained again.

"I think 15 more minutes. The plane landed half an hour ago," she replied.

"Do you really think we will see them up close?" I asked her.

"We will..." she smiled assuringly at me.

***

--- Author's Note: This is my very first fanfic, so I need a lot of feedback readers! How was the chapter guys?? Did you like it?!! Vote pls if you like it!! And pls pls comment! ---