Nazım

Neredesin?// where are you?

Short chapter, I know, but don't worry, I think it'll be fine alhamdulilah.

N E R E D E S I N ?

{where are you?}

"There's two hours until Fajr!" Anne had shouted at him once he stepped in through the door. The late night haze had given them strange silhouettes. "Where were you?"

What felt like a long time ago, Nazım was seventeen and rebelling against every single authority he could possibly think of.

"I was out," he replied, and tossed his jacket to the floor. Nazım was on his way upstairs when his father had stopped him by slow steps downstairs. Nazım stepped back.

His parents were always thinking of ways to help get him in line. Unfortunately, it never worked. And of course, nobody expected it to.

Nazım looked straight into his father's eyes, giving him a cold glare. "What do you want?"

"I want to know where you were," his father said stiltedly. He sounded angry, and Nazım thought it to be a pleasant surprise if he took it further.

"It's okay. You won't need to know," he replied. "You go out every night and come back just as late as me but none of us ever ask."

"That's different!"

"No it's not."

The purple vein was popping out on his father's forehead, and Nazım smirked. "Something wrong, Baba?"

In less than a second he found himself twisted on the floor with a hand on his cheek.

From the things Nazım used to see of his father, it was those things he would copy. The late nights, the vague responses, the lack of respect towards some people. Especially the lack of religion. Nazım took it to a new extreme, and it caused him to get expelled from two schools. He was lucky he even got to study what he wanted.

However, it wouldn't have guaranteed him the job he'd wanted.

"Nazım!" his mother exclaimed, coming over to help him, but he had already gotten up.

"Don't you disrespect me in my own home!"

"Well you're the one who-"

Nazım narrowly missed another strike to his face. "I don't know why you're so mad!" he shouted.

"MY SON IS A GOOD FOR NOTHING DELINQUENT!"

"YOU'RE A GOOD FOR NOTHING FATHER!"

There was a reason many of the people of the town talked about the Şahins. It was their children and their father's actions that led them into sometimes being the talk of the town. The rumors would turn into gossip between old ladies just to pass the time.

Nonetheless, the Şahin family, they would say, was a family of misfit people, and it was best to stray from their path. And that their son Nazım was a dangerous delinquent with no sense of God consciousness.

"Emir! Nazım!" Anne had come in between them and pushed them both apart.

"Why don't you do something that matters?" His father bellowed, still focused on Nazım. "Become something that matters!"

"SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!" Nazım roared.

All the commotion had stopped once they heard the tiny voice that shook Nazım. They all looked down to their right, each of them breathing a little harder than normal, and saw Murat staring at them with wide, confused eyes.