Choosing The Right Path

21) 💭▪Me, My Thoughts & I▪💭

Rubina spilled the news about Aamirah's parents ever so subtly and left the porch. I sat there, my body frozen. My limbs were stuck to my sides and I was unable to move. Aamirah Omar. My heart broke for her. All I wanted to do was apologise for being so cold and horrible towards her. Instead of being refreshing, the air now caused many shivers to run down my spine. Slowly, I got to my feet and walked back into the house. The kitchen was empty. There was a low light coming from the living room. It was probably Hamid or Shaarif watching T.V. Rubina and her sisters were finally at home for once and were probably busy in their rooms. Aamirah and her friend, whose name I found out to be Raeesa, would be together in her room. I was just alone, as usual. I decided to phone Jared.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jared. It's Azlan."

"Oh hey, what's up bro?"

"Nothing. You?"

"Just hanging out with the most beautiful girl in the world." Jared sounded like he was grinning from ear to ear. There was a low giggle in the background. Must have been his girlfriend. That girl honestly scared me. I remember the day I ran into Aamirah and caused her to fall flat onto the floor. Jared's girlfriend was the one that stood up for Aamirah. The memories brought a smile to my face.

"Azlan? Bruh? You there?" I snapped back to reality.

"Hello? Yeah. Sorry." I muttered quickly.

"Anyway, I have to go. Can't keep this lovely lady waiting too long." There was more giggling, then the line went dead. Even Jared had someone to share his time with. I trudged back into the house and sat at the dining room table and whipped my phone out of my pocket. I went to my contacts list and tapped on my chat with the sweetest girl in the world. Too bad she barely replied to me.

Me:
Are you busy baby?

No reply.

👯 A A M I R A H 👯

"Raaesa," I hissed. "This jerk texted me again!" Raeesa scrambled over to my side amd grabbed my phone out of my hands. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and began to read the message. Now that we were in my room and ready for bed, we didn't need to cover up.

"Wow. He is so lame. This guy is trying to make himself feel as if you're his girlfriend."

"Do you think this random person could be related to our attack in Seaview somehow?" Raeesa's eyes darted between me and my phone in her hands. She shook her head.

"For some reason, I highly doubt that." What a stupid question. How would Raeesa know anyway? I kicked off my slippers and flopped onto my soft bed. Yawning, I switched off my lamp and said goodnight to Raeesa. My thoughts died away as I drifted off into a peaceful sleep. I dreamt of bad boys, good girls and of Raeesa, Rubina and her sisters and I reading salah, together.

》》》

Raeesa and I read Fajr salah together in the morning. We had an early breakfast of eggs and toast and then began to prepare our lunches for school. Feeling bad, I prepared a few extra slices and shoved them into an unused lunch box and kept them aside.

"How will Azlan know that those are for him?" Raeesa whispered to me.

That was a very good question. In one of the kitchen cupboards, Aunt Husna kept a few useful things such as pens and paper and a few other odds and ends. I grabbed the notepad and a pen and scribbled Azlan's name over a small piece of paper. I then took a roll of sticky tape from the same cupboard and used a piece to stick the paper with Azlan's name on it to the lid of the lunchbox. Feeling proud, I placed the lunchbox next to the chair where Azlan's leather jacket hung. Hopefully, the lunch would be good enough for him.

Once the lunch was prepared, we ran upstairs and waited for everyone to wake up and go into the kitchen. Raeesa and I didn't want to be part of a potentially awkward situation if Azlan noticed that we prepared lunch for him too. This was the first time that I had done something nice for him, from my side. While waiting for everyone to flock to the kitchen, Raeesa and I changed our clothes for school and organised our bags. It was an absolutely beautiful morning out there. I silently thanked Allah for giving me the opportunity to witness such a day.

"Raessa, I have feeling that today is gonna be a great day." I winked at my best friend. We heard everybody shuffling around downstairs. I ran to my room window and threw it open. Below, I could see Azlan on the pathway that lead to the pavement. He was clutching the lunchbox in his hands. With his head bent low, he walked towards empty street.

"He's strange, isn't he?"

I shook my head slowly with a smile on my face. Azlan needed to know that someone appreciated him. It was not until this morning that I realised he could probably be the bad boy that was simply all alone.

✴ A Z L A N ✴

The damn tears streamed down my face as I walked towards the bus shelter. When I left home, I had no other option other than to take the bus. My parents forced me to leave my motorcycle at home. That was not the reason for my girlish tears, though. How could someone, who you always treated like crap still be so kind to you? The world needed more of these kinds of people. The world needed more people like Aamirah. The bus pulled up in front of me. I paid my fare and took a seat next to a misty window. On the opposite aisle from where I was sitting was an old man. He barely had a voice as he spoke to some other old person, who I assumed to be his friend. When the man caught my staring at him, he smiled. My puffy red eyes must have been what caused a brief shadow of concern to cloud his face. I smiled back slowly and awkwardly so he looked away, the worry leaving his wrinkled features. I had seen this man somewhere but I couldn't figure out where.

I was one of the last few people left on the bus. Walking into Delphia High earned me a few stares but I was alright. People label each other so easily. Just because I have a great haircut, good genes (yes, I know) and cooler clothing than most, they labelled me as their 'bad boy'. It was pathetic, if you ask me. I was a different 'bad boy' to these students. Instead of being extremely popular, I had one main man; Jared. Instead of being surrounded by people, I surrounded myself with my own thoughts. I could be friendly if I wanted to but people were scared of me, so they could never even say hi. Either that, or they felt threatened by me.