Through My Eyes

Chapter# 12

"What did the doctor prescribed then?" My mother enquires, face all concerned.

"That she requires loads of liquid and rest to recover fast." I promptly reply, reminiscing Haya's worried voice from last night, in my head.

"May God help her, get well soon." She replies as she chops the coriander on the cutting board, neatly.

"I wonder how she manages, must be very hard for Haya." Zainab intrudes, eyes darted on the television screen.

"It is." I reply, while I shift in my position on the sofa.

"The next time she will call you, I will talk to her myself." My mother suggests.

"Of course." I assure her and snatch the remote from Zainab's hand, she doesn't know what to watch even. 

"Lubna?" My fathers voice from the other room startles us all and we shift our attention towards him. He directly makes his way into the living room, with Saira and Hamza running after him. They all sit, parallel to me and Zainab, on the couch.

"Look what I got here!" He announces, smiling.

"What is it?" My mother worriedly asks and moves herself from the dining table, right next to my father, coriander leaves still in her hand, peeping into his phone's screen.

Both my parents indulge in my dad's phone, admiring and appraising something, wholeheartedly. Whereas, I flip through the channels on the television screen, uninterestedly, trying to eavesdrop my parents' conversation.

"See? Didn't I tell you?" Its my mother, whispering to my dad and staring proudly at the phone.

"So prefect. Ain't it?" My father questions her, his eyes glossy.

"Show her!" She instructs him.

"Will she be happy?"

"Of course. Don't get yourself worrying over little things, Zubair. Just call her." Not once did they shift their focus from the phone, throughout their conversation. Must be something very interesting which grabbed both my parents attention at once.

"Ruba!" My dad's voice comes more of a whisper to me.

"Come have a look!" He orders.

Saira jumps from her position, and runs towards my mother, hovering over the phone as if it was her whom they called.

"Whose this, mama?" She innocently asks, unaware of what is happening around her.

This? What does she mean by who is this? Is it someones photo? I should have seen this coming.

"Let appa see it first." My mother smiles at Saira while helping her sit on her lap.

I scoot over to the couch in an attempt to be closer to my parents. My mother hands the phone over to me and the sight in front of me, nearly brings me to my knees.

The phone's screen displays a very tall and somewhat handsome figure on it. His black eyes are squinted due to the direct contact with the sun raises, (though I can tell they are bigger than mine) stretching a frowned look on his entire face, along with a long, pointed nose. His small lips are curled up in a smile, showing his perfect teeth. Whereas his jaw is draped with a french beard. His curly, short hair stand on their end and he's wearing a hooded, black, leather jacket with a pair of dark blue jeans. I just realised, I'm ogling at the picture.

"Its Tauseef." Someone tells me, I cant decipher who, my brain isn't functioning at the moment.

"Yeah.." I stutter. Oh God! what is happening to me?

"I told you already, he is exactly what every woman wishes for." My mother proudly remarks.

"Whoa. I cant believe it." Zainab awes and stuns, with her eyes on the floor and her mouth hanging open.

"Close your mouth dumbo." Hamza teases and nudges her with his elbow, to which she covers her mouth with her hand. "I think the scenery behind him is more appealing to me." My brother adds, smirking at the photo and I mentally disagree with him.

"So this is Tauseef Uncle." Saira blurts while nodding at her own words, as if she just understood what is going on, around her.

Everybody laughs at her for calling Tauseef 'uncle', except for me of course, but no one corrects her.

"Yes its Tauseef Uncle, Saira." Zainab agrees with Saira while smiling her full smile.

Tauseef's picture suddenly vanishes from the screen and my father's phone starts shining and buzzing noisily, indicating that someone is calling.

"Ill send it to you." My dad warmly smiles at me. I nod at him as he retrieves the phone from my hand and hurries inside the room, to answer the call.

Hamza and Saira depart the room shortly after my dad and Zainab hastily makes her way upstairs. I guess One Direction's new album was supposed to be out today?

"Happy?" Oh I nearly forgot, that leaves me and my mother in the entire living room.

Happy? I still dont know if that pleased me or not. I mean I am only 17? Girls at my age fantasise about going to the best universities, not deciding whether looking at their fiancé for the first time, made them happy or not. Since when have I been so ungrateful?

Well, apart from everything, I would admit that now, after I've seen the photo, there is a satisfaction deep within me, that at least, he is not somewhere near ugly. My heart is at peace now, a very strange peace, maybe its the peace before the storm?

I wont deny, he is surely more than what I deserved, more than what I expected for myself actually, I guess this the reason that there is a slight sting in my chest, that maybe he is too good for me?

The question that irritates me the most is, that a lot of my elder cousins are still unmarried, yet even engaged, so how can I, being so younger to them, consider marrying at 18?

Dwelled in my thoughts, I nearly forgot that my mother is still anxiously waiting for my reply, "Yes."

She happily turns around and scoots back to her previous position chopping the corriender on the dinner table. Everything is back to where it was 15 minutes ago, the storms have crossed, for them, its calmer now.

I wonder if Amna Auntie showed any of my picture to Tauseef?

Its still surprising, how all my thinking gets connected to him, at the end. Two months ago, if I would have been told that I would constantly think about a man whom I have never met, I would have punched them right in their face. Though its unlike me, but still.

How is this even possible? How am I supposed to develop romantic feelings towards someone whom I have never seen, never talked to and just saw him in pixels a few minutes ago? How do people do it? Do they both meet at their wedding day, for the first time, perplexedly wave at each other and stutter, "Oh hi! Its nice to meet you."

I'm sure its not going to be anywhere near 'easy'.

The loud noises of the news anchor on the television screen jolts me back from my thoughts. I leave my mother, now slicing the carrots and run upstairs to our room. I need sleep, or else, these thoughts would drain me out.

A/N: I don't have a schedule or some fixated days to post a chapter. I scribble it down and post it when ever I feel like it. Please don't hate
me for that 😂 its the way I am.

P.S: click that little star down there if you think the chapter deserved it ❤️