A Beautiful Masquerade

3

Achoo!

Everyone looks at me.
"Are you ok?" Yusuf asks worried. Yusuf is my older sister Zara's husband. He's tall but not too tall about five eight or nine and totally adores her Zara.

Zara looks like Sara, same blonde brownish hair with green eyes except Zara's a bit more curvier.

Apparently, when my mom went to get the door earlier it happened to be Zara and Yusuf who came over for dinner today. My dad would have continued the interrogation if Yusuf wasn't here but he wants everyone to think we're one happy family, even when people suspect otherwise.

After I went to my room I took a quick shower and prayed and tried to do my homework and key word tried. All my books are scattered on my bed and nothing was done.
My mom called me down saying Yusuf was here as well so I quickly wrapped my hijab on and went to get some food.

So I'm currently sitting at the dinner table with everyone staring at me.

"Yea I'm fine allhumdulillah, nothing to worry about." I force smile because on the inside I feel like crap. I think I'm going to be sick, being out in the raining cold is not smart.

"You sure, you look," Yusuf begins but
my dad cuts him off "she's fine" he says with a final tone.
My sister Zara may have literally said that she hates my but my dad has shown his extreme hatred time and time again. At first I was surprised with all the hostility, they didn't have a reason for all the hatred but now I decided I would give them a reason. It's stupid and immature of me but then again I'm still a teenager, although it feels like I've lived an eternity.

There's an awkward silence for a few moments which Yelda decide to break by asking Mikael and Jibreal about their day and it does the trick. They go into detail about the things they did in school.

"Yesna can you please take us out to the park tomorrow, please." Both Mikael and Jibrael suddenly ask me, drawing everyone's attention back to me.

"Sure but you have to ask mom and dad." I usually don't care about asking anymore but with Yusuf here, I was being considerate.

They look at mom and dad, mom would say yes however, dad was trying to hold back but eventually gave in.
"Ok you both could go but be back home before it's too late and it gets dark." My dad said it to the kids but was looking at me with a silent warning. Which wasn't necessary.

Dinner ends with normal conversations and it's my turn to do the dishes today, how fun. Note the sarcasm.

"Yesna" I hear my older brother Suliyman call out as he walked in the kitchen.

"Yeah, need something?"

"No, I just wanted to talk." I roll my eyes knowing why he's really here.

I finish the dishes and turn to sit across from him at the kitchen island.

"Sure, what's up?"

"How was school?" He starts off easy.

"It was okay, a lot of homework on the first day back. I don't think I'll get to it today." I respond playing along.

"I remember when I used to get a lot of homework, kept me up all night sometimes, especially at college." He chuckles.

"Yea I know you stayed up all night sometimes just to finish your papers, but it was your fault, you waited till the last minute."

"Hey! You do that too, you wait till it's due the next day." He argues back with a small smile.

"Guess it runs in the family." I know I shouldn't have said that because instantly all traces of humor leave his face. I act like I didn't notice the difference.