BROKEN

Pinky Promise

Tasneem came over in the morning and I had never been more happy to see her. My aunt Nadira made us breakfast and we sat and listened to my grandmother tell us stories at the dining room table while my mother caught up on all the sleep that she had missed. After a while I could tell that Tasneem had questions that she desperately wanted answers to.

"It's really nice out, wanna go outside?" I asked her. She nodded her head and immediately stood up.

"Have fun girls, be good." my grandmother said. We stepped outside and sat on the grass field outside of the apartment building.

"Your aunt has a beautiful apartment." she said.

"Yeah it's pretty nice. But I already kinda miss my house."

"So do you wanna tell me what happened?"

"Long story short, when my dad went to Somalia he met this woman and her family. They were taking care of his mother. Her husband was killed and then my father married her." I explained.

"Why would he do that?"

"I guess he wanted kids."

"But he has you and your mother Warsan, that should have been enough."

"Tasneem, my dad doesn't have any kids." I said, my eyes already filling with tears. When did I become such a cry baby?

"What are you talking about Warsan, he has you." she said while looking at the ground.

"Tasneem I'm ad-"

"Hey ladies can you please find somewhere else to sit?" interrupted a voice coming from behind us.

"Why?" Tasneem asked while turning around.

"We want to play soccer here." said a guy holding a soccer ball. There was another guy running up towards him.

"Well we were sitting here first, and we're kind of trying to have a conversation so maybe you could find somewhere else to kick your ball." Tasneem said.

"You guys don't even live here!" he exclaimed.

"And how do you know?"

"We know everybody that lives here. Right Hakeem?" he said to the guy that finally caught up to him. The sun was in my eyes and I could barely make out his face.

"Is this guy bothering you?" the second guy said to us.

"Kind of." said Tasneem annoyed, she has been waiting to catch up for days and these guys were ruining it.

"Ahmed this is Miss. Nadira's niece Warsan, she just moved in with her. And I'm guessing you're her friend?" said Hakeem pointing at Tasneem.

"Best friend." Tasneem corrected him.

"And your name is?"

"Tasneem."

"Well I'm Hakeem, I live right next door to Miss. Nadira. And this is my friend Ahmed, he lives on the floor above us."

"It's nice to meet you guys." I replied.

"Ahmed let's leave these ladies to themselves and play somewhere else."

"But we play here every weekend!" Ahmed said defensively. But Hakeem had already grabbed the ball and was kicking it across the field.

"You should catch up to your friend." said Tasneem. Ahmed took off running and Tasneem looked back at me. "He was cute!" she exclaimed.

"Which one?" I asked.

"Hakeem."

"Oh I didn't even notice."