Choosing The Right Path

30) 🙈Bubbling Grief 🙈

✴A Z L AN ✴

I opened the door to mine and Zak's apartment and walked straight to our shared bedroom. Collapsing on the bed, I let the tears pour. My parents kicked me out, the Omar's had their own lives to now focus on and the pricks at school were afraid of me. The only person I could truly count on, was Zak.

Everybody comes into our lives for a reason. Circumstances force people into our space and their impact on us can either be negative or positive. We also impact the lives of other people and the saying that what goes around, comes around, is nothing more than absolute truth.

Zak Greene was such an amazingly humble human being. Without him, I would probably have been on the streets. My one act of kindness towards him was now saving me in the long run. Raw emotion rushed through my body. I made a friend for life. We were impacting each other's lives positively and living from day to day. My mother thankfully helped me out with educational expenses and sent me a bit of money to help out with my rent. All I now needed to do, was find myself a job.

The supermarket that Zak sold his hotdogs from didn't have any vacancies so I applied around in offices and even Roslyn's Beauty Parlour. Rosa Alvarez remembered me from that incident with Daniel The Dick's crownies and assured me that she'd let me know if anything came up. My fingers were crossed. Hopefully something would come up soon. It wasn't fair of me to let Zak pay the rent and buy the groceries while I just free loaded off of him. I was going to pull my weight around and get things done. I owed it to Zak.

"Azlan? Bro are you home?"

The door of our apartment was unclocked and I heard Zak's footsteps through the tiny apartment, till he finally stopped at our bedroom door.

"What's up man? Are you okay? You seem a bit down," Zak was genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine. How was work?"

Zak didn't look too convinced about me being okay so I forced a smile and sat up. The blood rushed straight to my head and I felt dizzy. My vision blurred and I managed to steady myself before collapsing onto my single bed.

"Good. Mr. Giorvani is such a great boss and I made many sales," Zak beamed proudly.

"Well done. I made us some dinner, by the way."

Aamirah taught me how to make some easy, cost effective and halal dishes, such as biryani. I never really used to eat that but Zak really took a liking towards it. Preparing biryani was hard work. Aamirah and her aunt deserved more praise for their meals than they received. Let's just say that I tended to cook up a storm, literally.

"Great. Let's go eat. I'm starving."

👯 A A M I R A H 👯

Rubina flew down the stairs, adjusting her hijab as she did so. "Why didn't you wake me up, Aamirah?" She yelled as she bounded into the kitchen, coming very close to knocking over her mother.

Aunty Husna carried a dish of raw chicken towards the kitchen sink and dodged Rubina by inches. "Be careful Rubina!"

"Sorry," her daughter muttered sheepishly. "Aamirah, you should have woken me you know!"

I smiled, shaking my head. "No, Ramadan is coming up. You need all the sleep you can get. Keep yourself energized."

Rubina raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Waking early for sehri and sleeping slightly later because of taraweeh was sure to drain my cousin's energy and if anyone knew Rubina Omar well, it was me. I knew that Rubina would be really tired.

It is known that you cannot spend the entire day sleeping. Which is something that Rubina was likely to do. During Ramadan, you should be productive in everything you do. Now that the holidays kicked in, I was planning on focusing on charity. Aunty Husna and I planned to visit an old age home. The people there never got much attention so to spread some love that Ramadan, we were going to make a difference to their lives. Every small action makes a difference, whether we laugh at someone's mistakes or show them the right path, everything is taken to account.

After all, Allah is omniscient. He is all-knowing.

May our hearts and actions be pure.

》》》

Azlan phoned me; something he never usually did. I answered his call immediately for fear of him being caught up in an emergency. Now that he and Zak lived alone, anything was possible.

"Salaam."

"Salaam. Er... How are you?" Azlan asked awkwardly.

"Alhamdulillah. How are you?"

"Alhamdulillah. Your Uncle phoned me earlier..."

What? Why would Uncle Ismail phone Azlan? Something was fishy...

"Why? What did he say?"

Azlan hesitated. "He said that my father is his business partner and that he's going to meet him on Thursday. He's going to my house and wants me to come along, Aamirah. How do I refuse? My father doesn't give a damn about me. My mother can't care for me openly because of my father... I'm not planning to rub shoulders with people who kicked me out of their lives without even caring to understand my situation. I need your help."

This badass needed my help?!

"My help?" I squeaked. "How on earth could I help you?" My heart pounded in my chest.

Azlan seemed to draw the silence out. Or maybe I was just being a nervous wreck. The poor guy was my friend. The least I could do was hear him out. But apparently my brain turned to mush when everything that had to do with Azlan was in the picture.

"Tell Ismail that I can't make it, that I have sports or some school crap going on, please. Please do this for me. You know my story, Aamirah..." Azlan's voice shook.

Raw emotion from this stone cold boy was not something that I was comfortable with. I prayed that he wouldn't cry and that we'd simply sort everything out.

"Look, Azlan, I'll do my best. Uncle Ismail isn't a difficult person to deal with. I'm sure that he'll understand your situation-"

"No personal stories about me. Don't tell him anything. Just tell him that I can't make it. Allah... I really hope that he doesn't question them about me."

I imagined Azlan roughly running a hand through his hair. It irked me that he was so stressed about this whole thing. A part of me believed that he was blowing everything out of proportion but on the other hand, he had a right to do so.

"I'll handle it as best I can. You just stay put. We'll talk later."

We said our goodbyes. I was hanging around in the kitchen until Azlan phoned. I left my room in a hurry to check the rice that was bubbling away on the stove. The spicy scent of Aunt Husna's biryani filled my nostrils and my heart with a homely feeling. The framed picture of white lillies on the kitchen wall brought a smile to my face. I felt so at home in that moment.

And also pitiful of Azlan Jabbar.

Would the man ever experience the contentment of being part of a proper family again? Of course he would; after marriage. But a romantic relationship and the relationship between children and their parents were two completely different things. Aunt Husna and Uncle Ismail aren't my parents but they always made me feel loved and as if I belonged right in the Omar family. Not once in my entire life did they ever make me or Hamid feel discomfort, especially due to family politics. On the contrary, Azlan was a victim of exactly that. I hoped to help him even if it was just in a small way. Guilt ate away at my belief in this plan. Was I separating a child from his parents even further? Maybe Azlan needed to meet with them in order to talk this whole thing out. Azlan wasn't impious. He was simply afraid and in need of understanding.

The rice on the stove began to bubble over. I quickly removed the lid of the pot and watched as the bubbles disappeared. If Azlan, similarly, straightened out the misunderstandings between him and his parents, the angry, bubbling lava of their conflict would end.

And maybe I could be a catalyst in the situation.

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CHAPTER 30!!!

I cannot believe how far this story has actually come. It's made me realise how time truly flies.

Stay blessed 🌺.