Battered, With Love

Chapter 19 -- It's All in the Shoes

This is dedicated to a friend who's been there for the real life Battered, With Love, someone who was there to listen to me when I felt the frustration and helplessness Eiliyah felt in this chapter. Yang, you're amazing and even though we live on opposite coasts (East Coast > West Coast), I think about you nearly every day and I wish you were still here.

Recap of the last few chapters because it's been so long!

Harun and Eiliyah discuss how they don't want to go to the same college. Eiliyah goes over to Hidayah's house to tutor her (keep in mind that Hidayah is Hamza's little sister). Hidayah gives Eiliyah some insight about Hamza's home life and situation. She also shares The Code Book with her, which is something her 27-year-old cousin Haniyah Musa-Ali put together. It's just a bunch of codes because she was really interested in that sort of stuff. She and Hamza are really close. Lastly, Eiliyah attempts to bring up the issue of going to different colleges at a family dinner, and they dismiss the thought immediately.

The memory chapter (chapter 18) is the time when Hamza and Eiliyah (they were in 7th grade) had to read Romeo and Juliet as Romeo and Juliet, in the balcony scene. They got into a huge fight that turned physical so they both ended up in the clinic and then the principal's office. Juwariyah, who was then newly married and pregnant at the time, came to pick up Eiliyah and took her to Johansen's Printers on the way home where she had to pick up wedding invitations for her sister-in-law, Razzia. Eiliyah meets Rhys there for the first time, but since they went to different middle schoosl, didn't see him again till high school.

Now onto the fun stuff!

"The sad reality is that no matter how much you genuinely change, people are going to keep seeing you in the same way as they did years ago. If you try to tell them you've changed, they think you're being fake. So don't make apologies or fall into despair about what the people say. Just work to keep your spirit alive because they sure as hell can't take that away from you." -- Ash

            Drew’s the one to invite me. “Yo, Eiliyah, the guys are playing basketball on Friday after school. Wanna come?”

            We’re sitting in math class. I shoot him a look. “Me? Basketball?”

            He shrugs before taking the derivative of the second problem we’ve been assigned. “I mean, why not? There’s no rule saying we can’t invite you.”

            “Yeah but it goes against Guy Code. Basketball is guy time and there’s no way a girl can interrupt that. You know that.”

            Drew grins. “Yeah, but you’re not a girl.” I shoot him a what-the-hell look and he just laughs, causing our teacher to glare at us. We quiet down.

            “Who’s ‘we’?” I ask.

            “The guys” is his reply.

            I gasp dramatically. “No! I never would have figured that out,” I mutter sarcastically. Drew just grins again. He’s getting a kick out of this.

            “Fine. Omar, Zayd, AZ, Amaan. So all the Khans. And then the Mehtas. So that’s AJ, Krish, Raj, and Akash. And then me, Nathan, Rhys, Jacob, Harun—”

            I glance at my brother who is sitting next to me doing his work. I tap his arm and quickly ask, “Are you going to play basketball on Friday?” He nods, and that only adds to my surprise. It’s unlike Harun to not to tell me things like this. I’m usually his ride. Did he just ask our older brothers for a ride or something?