My Choice

Chapter Three

CHAPTER | THREE | ALIZA | POV

The next day went by pretty quick with two pop quizzes in English Literature and Math; that didn't mean that they were quite enjoyable though. Farah wasn't in school today which meant that I had spent the entire lunchtime with myself leaning against the oak tree eating my turkey sandwich, a packet of Oreos, skittles and a can of lemonade. I wasn't lying when I said I loved food.

What I don't love though was shopping! Any girl my age would love spending time outside with their friends and hanging out at the mall, but not me. I'd rather stay at home in the evenings and read or watch TV until it was time to go to the Masjid.

Looks like Mom had different ideas though. As soon as Baba's car was parked in the driveway, Ma came out and demanded me to sit in the car so that we could go shopping, obviously excited about it. I tried saying no and that I had a lot of homework for me to finish off but she wouldn't have any of it and decided to play 'You're my only daughter' card on me.         Well, it worked.

Shopping with Ma today was extra bad today because she had gotten me into every store possible and even made me try on everything that she found acceptable for me to wear; which wasn't a lot. She even made me go into Victoria's Secret. I cringed at that but kept my mouth shut. Wallah though, I thought I heard her say something about how it will please my future husband.

When she started to go through the lingerie section though that's when the fear started to creep up. I mean, what Mom could want in there. When I questioned her about it, she simply laughed and said it was for me.

*Flashback*

Me and Ma had just entered Victoria's Secret even though she knew I hated this store because it somehow made me uncomfortable standing in here with tiny bits of lace everywhere, yet she still made me come in here. That wasn't what made me confused though. My confusion was directed to Ma heading over to the lingerie isle.

"Ma what are we doing in the lingerie section? I'm sure you don't need anything from here!" I said to her in a hush whisper so that the sales lady who was giving us dirty stares from across the room wouldn't hear me.

"Ah Habibi that's funny. But no, this is for you!" It took me a whole five minutes of staring at Mom picking things up from the rack for me to understand that this was all for me. But why?!

*End of Flashback*

That daunting question was still in the back of my head even after several hours had passed and now that we were back home I still didn't dare to open the bags of shopping that we had bought today, I'm sure my eyes would bulge out of their sockets if I do.

When we had arrived back home after Baba picking us up so that we could eat dinner (Ma wouldn't let us eat in the food court) I noticed that half of my family was acting weirdly. The twins and Mustafa were their usual self, goofing around with each other, but Ma, Baba and Adam had gone completely abnormal.

Baba and Ma were more cheerful than usual and this morning was not the cause of it. When Baba had come to pick us up after school he had gone to the liberty of buying me pizza. Not for the twins, or the family, but me! I still shared it with the twins when Baba wasn't looking though, after all sharing is caring.

Adam was the worst out of them. As soon as we stepped inside the house after shopping, Adam was sitting on the couch and watching MTV but when he saw me he shut the TV off and marched up to his room without uttering a single word to any of us. That hurt a little knowing that my older brother was mad at me for something which I have no idea about.

What made things even more awkward was the journey to and back from the Masjid where Baba and Ma were constantly chatting about how important marriage was and how they were proud. I didn't get it, was someone else in the family getting married?