Choosing The Right Path

23) 👔The Interview👔

The weather began to get better. The cold was dying away and the heat was taking over. I put on a white and grey tunic and sat down on the beanbag in my room. Raeesa sat across from me wearing a vest and long shorts. Haha. Long shorts.

We hadn't confronted Azlan about his message. I had just read it and archived the chat. I was too shy to reply to him. Luckily, my shyness saved me a whole lot of trouble. Earlier in the day, I was going through my archived chats. I had nine. I noticed two separate chats from unsaved numbers. Confused, I ignored any messages that came from both anonymous senders; the lunchbox person and the flirt. Somebody was definitely pranking me, I knew that for a long time. However, it wasn't until this glorious day that I realised there was a prankster.

"Just block their numbers, Aamirah."

"Yeah, I will." I sighed and did as Raeesa told me. I felt bad. Now my life was going to go back to boring. It was nice to get texts like 'hello beautiful' and 'have a day just as lovely as yourself'. Now, that would come to an end. The fact that the numbers were now blocked would make it even harder to find the pranksters. Oh well.

"When will Rubina be ready? What's the need for all that make-up? It's just a short interview."

"If I knew, I would tell you. Is your bag packed?"

"Yup." Raeesa shook her backpack, indicating that it was filled with everything that she may have needed for our interview.

"Good. So is mine. All we need to do now is change into more appropriate clothes and leave." We weren't just gonna sit around in the heat while waiting for Rubina, though. Raeesa and I had ice-lollies. They tasted amazing. Strawberry was my favourite. For some reason, Raeesa liked apple but to me, that flavour tasted poisonous.

"You're just weird. Apple is too sweet."

"That would explain your bitter personality then." I nuged Raeesa and she tickled me in response. Our happy moment ended when Rubina stomped into the room.

"I'm ready to go... Seriously?" When Rubina saw our messy state, she sighed and tutted. "You two can be so immature sometimes. Hurry up, you're wasting precious daylight hours."

Once we were ready, the three of us left the house. Azlan was busy reading something on the porch. It looked like a comic book. When he noticed us, he yelled to Raeesa and I. "Don't go and get kidnapped now. You've got my number. Text me if need be."

I did? I had Azlan's number? Rooted to the spot, I took my phone out of my satchel and made a whatsapp call to the first unsaved number on my whatsapp chat. Azlan's phone began to ring. He cut the call and gave me an awkward stare before going back to reading his comic.

"Raeesa, look at this," I hissed. "Whose number could the other one possibly be?"

"Can you two stop with your whispering? We need to get going. Mr. Ali will be expecting us."

》》》

Mr. Ali's house was like a little cottage. There was a little garden of plush green grass and a overhang above his doorstep. The house had blue tiling on some parts of it that made the white paint stand out. I was falling in love with the place, already. Rubina literally stood filing her nails, waiting for someone to open the door. Raeesa had rung the door bell.

"Assalamu Alaikum, please, do come in," Mr. Ali coughed and spluttered. His voice was going. There was something wrong, I could sense it. I made up my mind to ask Mr. Ali about it later. I entered the house first and Rubina and Raeesa followed.

"Wa'alaikum Assalam." My eyes scanned over the open plan kitchen and lounge. The house was so beautiful, yet so homely. It seemed strange that Mr. Ali may have lived there alone.

"Grandpa, who is it?" A male voice called.

"A few students,  Khalil."

A tall man appeared. He must have been Khalil. Khalil had bright blue eyes and blonde hair. Mr. Ali looked like he probably had blonde hair when he was young, as well. I averted my gaze and glanced at Raeesa. All I could say was that Khalil had very good genes. Rubina, surprisingly enough, didn't notice Khalil. Raeesa and I exchanged greetings with Khalil and followed Mr. Ali to his living room. I introduced him to Rubina and Raeesa and we we sat down and relaxed for a while.

"Petunia! Can you come here for a second? Girls, I want you to meet my granddaugter, Petunia."

Petunia was a lot like her brother. Bless the Ali parents.

"Aamirah, Rubina and Raeesa, thid is Petunia. Have you met before?"

Petunia seemed surprised to see us but smiled warmly. "Assalamu Alaikum. You must be Hamid's cousin, right?" Petunia looked at Rubina. Rubina's popularity perks sure kicked in when she needed them.

"Yeah. And you are?" Rubina eyed Petunia's long-sleeved, white short and blue jeans. Petunia felt intimated and the discomfort was evident on her face.

"Just a friend of Hamid's." Then Petunia turned toward Raeesa and I and smiled shyly. I recalled the awkward moment in KFC. "I have seen you two before..."

"Oh of course you have. That's Hamid's sister, Aamirah and that's Raeesa, her best friend." Rubina's sappy voice caused Mr. Ali to chuckle.

"You are one funny character, aren't you? Well, let's get down to business with this project, shall we?"

Time flew. Working with Mr. Ali was great. We had a fun time and he was clearly amused by some of the questions; Rubina had decided to set some questions of her own. Raeesa and I were glad that she wanted to put a bit of effort towards our project so we didn't object.

I was concerned when Mr. Ali started coughing really badly. Petunia had to come out to the patio and take Mr. Ali in to help him. After we had done the interview, I decided to speak to him.

"Mr. Ali? Can I have a word with you, please?" We stepped aside for a while. Mr. Ali seemed tense. "Mr. Ali, are you alright?"

"Yes, dear. I'm fine, thank you. Don't worry about me." Mr. Ali coughed again. Something was not right.

Another incident that stood out for me was when Mr. Ali asked Rubina why she dressed the way she did. He also told her to have some pride in herself. That was just before we could leave his home. Rubina, in a fit of anger, stormed out of the house and went straight for Mr. Ali's garden where she trampled his flowerbed. Khalid rushed outside.

"What the hell have you done? Grandpa puts so much of effort into his gardening. You know what, Rubina? You're gonna make up for that or we're gonna sue for damaging this property," Khalil turned to his grandfather. "What punishment would you give her, Grandpa?"

"I wouldn't take it as a punishment if I were you," Mr. Ali said directly to Rubina. "I quite like your presence besides for what you have just done and your unbecoming attitude so, everyday you can come over to my house and we'll have a game of chess. Do you know how to play?" Rubina shook her head. "Well, we can always teach you, right Khalid?" Khalid nodded reluctantly, a grim expression on his face.

"We're sorry about her behaviour, Sir. Thank you for your time." Raeesa smiled at Mr. Ali and shot daggers and Rubina.

"It's a pleasure. Please, do come again." Just before we could leave, Khalid walked up to Rubina. He towered over her. He could be quite intimidating.

"Grandpa has made his decision about his punishment. If you don't show up here, I will personally sue you, got it?" Rubina simply nodded. She didn't have a choice. Now that we were eighteen years of age, Rubina could get into huge trouble with the law. However, I felt that she deserved this. Mr. Ali was right about her inappropriate dressing, among other things.

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This story has come such a long way 😭. I'm really enjoying writing it. Does that make me weird?🙊

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