Journal of a Teenage Muslim.

Chapter 48 - Strength is Weakness.

"We need an ambulance," I said dialing 911, trying hard not to panic.

"Dial 1 for police, dial 2 for Ambulance, dial 3 for-" The auto-voice said..

I banged 2 on my cell phone.

"We need an ambulance,Urgent!" I exclaimed, the boy, Adrien's bleeding was getting worse, Azalea was trying to apply pressure on the wound on the side of his head. I turned away, the sight of the blood on his face and her hands were making me nauseous.

"What is the injury and where is your location?" The lady on the other end asked calmly.

"He- he has a wound of the side of his head, it's bleeding.. We're.. We're" I didn't know where we were! "We're in opposite, a umm, casino I think," 

"Ok, apply pressure to the wound, do not move him until the paramedics arrive, the ambulance is on their way." The lady assured. The calmness of her voice helped me to calm down as well.

I turned back to Azalea, her face was pale as ever. She looked at me questioningly.

"They're on their way," I said kneeling beside the boy. "She said not to move him."

Azalea nodded and carried on applying pressure to his wound.

"Maydah I think he's dying," Azalea sobbed. She seemed right, his face was almost paper white, I put my ear to his chest.

"There's a beat," I told her, but it was faint, she seemed to relax a bit. Finally we heard the siren of the ambulance. I got up and began waving my hands like crazy so they'd know where to stop. The ambulance came to a halt and a team of paramedics got out and carefully lifted up Adrien's frail body and placed it on the stretcher. The siren lights of ambulance flashed in my eyes as Azalea and I got into the back with him.

"We'll need to question the pair of you later," One of the paramedics who wasn't busy attending to Adrien said to us. We nodded aimlessly.

"We need the emergency room! Call the doctor, come on!" The whole hospital went into a frenzy as they got Adrien into intensive care.

"You won't be allowed further than here Miss," The paramedic told us. "But do try and get hold of his parents if you can.. And we've got police to question you, nothing personal, we just want to know how he got like this."

Azalea and I waited in the waiting room..

"One of the nurses know his mom, she's on her way." Azalea told me.

"Where did he get my number from?" I asked.

"I might have given it to him by accident, I thought it was mine seeing as 'Maydah' and 'My Number' are saved next to each other on my phone." Azalea explained.

I nodded acknowledging what she said.

"You've got a bruise on your face, it's swelling, do you want to get it checked?" She asked.

"No, it's fine," I said, but it was beginning to sting badly..

The police got there shortly, it wasn't like a formal questioning like you see in movies with a person sitting on a desk with a light shining on their faces and the police bombarding them with questions.

"Hello ladies, My name is Chang,"

"Hi," Azalea and I said in unison.

"Ok, so we need a bit of information on how exactly Adrien got injured so badly.. Can you explain clearly how you got to the scene and what exactly you saw?" He asked.

Azalea and I looked at  each other, as if mentally discussing who should do the talking.

"Adrien sent us a text message saying the district name and that it was urgent," I started.

"So naturally, we went over there to see what the issue was." Azalea continued.

"Who exactly did he said the text to?" Officer Chang asked.

"To me,"

"Maydah," Azalea said at the same time as me.

"May I see the message?" 

I handed him my phone, he flipped through the messages and than handed it back.

"Carry on,"

"When we got there, we saw a gang of guys beating him up," Azalea resumed.

"I see, and how did you get Adrien out of this scene?" Chang inclined.

"Well, I sort of gasped and caused a disruption which made it easy of Adrien to escape," I said.

"And how did the gang respond to you presence?" 

"They got violent, they uh, they put up a fight. But Maydah knew self defense, so we got away." Azalea answered.

"Could you describe their appearances?"

"They were masked," Azalea said.

"You didn't happen to see not even one of their faces?"

Azalea looked at me, "Maydah?"

"No, not even one of their faces," I replied.

"Thank you so much for your cooperativeness," Chang said getting up. "Would you girls need a ride home? I wouldn't fancy you take the subway at this hour of night."

I looked at my watch.. Oh Lord! Dad would kill me!

"Thank you officer, we would appreciate that," Azalea said reading my mind.

Furious was an understatement for what Dad was.

"You come home at two in the morning in a police car?!" He fumed. "Do you know how selfish you are Maydah Daneen Ahmad! I called Auntie Aasiyah and Mazin to stay up till two in the morning looking for you! They have work tomorrow!"

"Ahmad, it's fine honestly, I barely-"

"No it's not." Dad cut her off and got back to me, "You could have at least called, at least tell me where you are going!"

"You wouldn't let me if I tell you." I argued.

"That is beside the point! You have responsibilities towards me and one of them is not disappearing in the middle of the night," He stopped, holding back tears, mom had disappeared in the middle of the night... "Get some sleep, we'll talk tomorrow Inshallah (If God wills)," He said softly.

"Sorry for keeping you up Aasiyah, Mazin.. Thank you for all your help," And with that he went upstairs.

"Apologize to your Dad in the morning.. And be nice.. you were wrong." Auntie Aasiyah advised.

I nodded, unable to speak. She left closing the door behind her.

"Tomorrow you can explain your side of the story," Mazin said, seeing I wasn't in the mood of talking. "Tonight, listen to me. Whatever it is that's going on, it needs to stop. I know you feel like your playing supergirl, but this family has barely gotten over one death.. We can't handle another-"

"I saved his life!" I argued.

"Maydah, your mother was a great woman, she did many amazing things. But she also made many mistakes. And one of them was getting involved in something she knew she couldn't get out of.. Don't make the same mistake."