Converting the Bad Boy ✔

Chapter 49

So after all the comments I've received on the previous chapter, I'd just like to let you guys know that there WILL be an epilogue and bonus chapters, and at the moment, it looks like it might be a bit longer than 50 chapters, so calm your farm🐑🐷 and hold your horses 🐎 - I ain't going anywhere anytime soon. 

Now without further ado - the chapter...

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Mariam's POV

"Is this you?"

Yasmine pointed to the photo hanging on the wall of a little boy with messy hair, blue eyes and a cheeky gap-toothed grin, holding his muddy hands up to the camera with pride.

Damian sighed. "Yep, that's me, in my prime years."

"You sure liked getting your hands dirty," Theo commented.

"I still do," Damian replied with a cheeky smile not too far from the one on the wall.

Damian had a nice house. It was big, but homely, with plush sofas and fluffy rugs and plenty of pictures on the wall, depicting a family that seemed perfect inside the frame, but outside...not so much.

"Anyone want something to drink?" Damian asked as we all took a seat in the lounge. Theo and Denise snuggled on the loveseat while Yasmine and I shared the couch, our knees bumping the coffee table that was covered in a layer of dust and scattered with a few coasters.

"I'll have some juice. Any kind," I replied.

"Water would be great," Yasmine requested. I shot her a surprised look. "What? I'm trying to be healthy."

"Good for you, Yaz," Denise beamed over at her. "I'll also have a water."

"I could really use a coke," Theo rasped.

"Coming right up!" Damian swiftly left the room, leaving us all to take in the rest of the room. It was clear that not much cleaning was getting done now that Damian's mother was weaker than usual. But Damian's aunt did swing by most of the time to help out, as she was today, helping her sister shower while we waited.

Damian brought our drinks, giving me guava juice, which was coincidentally my favourite flavour. Once he set down the glasses, he bowed majestically and said, "Bon appetit."

"Aren't you having anything?" I asked him, noticing his lack of glass as he sat in the armchair, crossing his legs.

"Nah, I'm good," he responded, just as his Aunt Kate came in.

"Damian, can you come with me for a sec?" Aunt Kate beckoned him out of the room, leaving us once again.

"I wonder what they're talking about," Yasmine whispered.

"I hope it's nothing serious," I said. But everything was serious now. We had all freed up our Saturday to come visit Damian's mum, being the awesome friends we were, and we all knew it wasn't just a regular visit.

Damian returned, telling us that we'd have to come to his mum, since she was too tired to leave her room at the moment. We all exchanged looks as we got up, leaving our half-drunk glasses of various beverages so we could see Karen.

I wasn't surprised to see her looking thinner than last time, but it still brought a hitch in my throat as we entered. She wore a loose grey scarf around her head and still managed a smile at all of us. "Peace be upon you all."

"Peace be upon you too, Karen," I answered with a bright smile. "How are you?"

"Alhamdulillah," she replied genuinely. "I can only thank God for how I am, no matter how weak."