My Best Friend's Brother (A Muslim Love Story)

Chapter 3

His voice clouded my mind. It's seemed familiar yet so strange, like one of the faces in a crowd of one thousand.

I turned to my left, mentally prepared to make light conversation with Sabir.

Let's do this.

"So how's your day been up to?"

Oh wow, Saniyah. Perfect English. Way to go.

He covered his uncontrollably contagious laughter with his palm. At least he had the decency to.

But soon I joined in.

"My day's been up to good. What about you." He returned my terrible attempt at sentence making which made me chuckle.

It's good to know he grew up. And he isn't the spoilt little brat he was.

"Oh....you know." I laughed nervously.

He was about to say something when his phone rang and he suddenly took off.

Good. Leave.

Oddly, the apartment still smelt of him, high in cologne.

I took a moment and just inhaled it. Like the weird stalker I am.

But I was proud of myself. First attempt to make conversation with the male species face to face was a success....kind of.

*time skip*

It was about a week after.

Hafsa seemed different. Every night she locked herself in her room and i could hear laughter.

She constantly kept her phone with her.

"Hafs?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah I forgot to tell you. My bro said salaam." She said nonchalantly.

My cheeks flushed. I usually get this odd symptom when I'm nervous : my fingers itch like crazy.

"Sabir?" Sabir mentioned ME?

"Huh? No way. My other brother. Remember Amir? He was the one that went away when we were 16." She looked at me expectantly.

My mind went blank. Was I supposed to know him?

"Oh. Tell him I said salaam. So he's the one you've been talking to these past few days?" I nudged her.

"Yup. He came back to the states last week and guess what?"

"What?"

"He's teaching here! Can you imagine! ? My brother's gonna be my teacher! He better give me better grades......"

She went on rambling about it.

But I really couldn't remember Amir.  At all.

"I'm so proud of my big bro! He's only 21 and already has a job! And at my school! wait....that's not really good on my part is it? What if....."

She continued rambling.

I waited until she settled and returned to human speech.

"So we're walking today or taking the bus?" I asked. Usually we would walk back to the apartment but sometimes the classes weigh us down (we get lazy) and take the bus.

"Oh. Sabir said he'd pick us up." Her statement shocked me to no end.

"Sabir!? As in your brother Sabir?"

"No. My great aunt Sabir. Of course my brother, Sabir." She said sarcastically. I tapped her lightly on her head.

A grey sports car pulled up and the front window unwound automatically.

Sabir's head popped up. It felt like those cliché movies yet I was still amazed.

Well, if you guessed, his car was a two-seater. So either this was going to be hella awkward, or I'd have to walk.

"Get in." He said softly yet demanding.

I stood immobilized from the shock that he actually had a cool car. That dork!

"Come on, girl! Hurry up I'll get a parking ticket!"

Way to ruin the moment.

"So, how's this going to work?" I finally asked.

"One of you has to walk." He said coolly.

"If Saniyah walks, I walk." Hafsa defended.

"Well I guess I wasted my time. Shoo!" He joked.

And then he drove off......okay....maybe he wasn't joking.

"Jerk." Hafsa whispered." I'll just call Amir."

After a few minutes on the phone she declared he'd pick us up half hour later. So we went to the library. Like the big nerds we were. Cool nerds. All nerds are cool. But Hafsa thought different.

Somebody's pulling on my hijab.....

"Sani....wake up. Wake up!"
Hafsa whisper-shouted.

"Huh? What?" I fell asleep?

"Yeah. Smarty pants."

Something banged against the table. Again with the palm-slamming thing, Sabir!.

"Okay! This is the last straw! First you abandon us. And now, at the worst time ever, you show up. I literally just woke up, cranky as ever and you come making loud noises disrupting the library and myself. Get it together dude!" I shouted. Not realizing I was also disrupting the library.

I looked up to see his expression. Except,  it wasn't Sabir.

He looked like him except he was taller and he had a slight beard. His hair was thick, brown and mussed and his eyes were emerald.

All I could think was wow. And then, astaghfirullah.

"Umm....sorry?" He said nervously.
"I'm here for Hafsa. I didn't mean to disturb you. Sorry. Oh and salaam." He smiled cheerfully revealing a dimple on either side of his creamy complexion.

That voice. So similar.

I raised my head to observe him. He didn't look familiar at all but when he saw my face his eyes widened.

"S.....Saniyah?"