Contrary Love

Chapter 10

Farhan sat In the front seat with his dad, and Auntie Afreen and I sat in the back. Auntie and Uncle Khalid talked all the way, I was kind of feeling awkward.

When we got out of the car, Auntie said, "you two should hold hands!" I started to have butterflies in my stomach. I didn't make a move but Farhan did. He stood beside me and took my hand and we slowly walked to the house.

A lot of girls were crowded around the doorstep holding plates with rose petals. When they noticed us they cleared the path and then threw flower petals onto us. I walked inside and Farhan was told to sit with the men, I assumed that they were going to give him a pep talk.

I was lead by Hina into Farhan's room, well now it would be our room.

When I walked into the room I was quite surprised by the decorations. There were rose petals scattered on the bed, and on each corner of the bed were different varieties of flowers. It all looked pretty, but the downside was that I was allergic to specific types of pollen.

Hina and I talked for a bit until she was called downstairs by her mom. I sat on the bed alone waiting for Farhan. With every millisecond passing by, tension raged inside me. I didn't know what to expect.

My hair started to irritate me because strands of hair were getting pulled by my bun. I decided to open my hair and when I did, I looked like a disaster, as if I had just fought in a war. I loosely tied my hair into a loose bun. Farhan still wasn't here yet, so to get rid of all this anxiety, I decided to do a few pushups.

"10, 11, 12-" Suddenly I heard the door open..

"Umm Ayesha?" A manly voice said. While I was still in my pushup position, I lifted my head and looked up, it was Farhan. Why did I always get myself into these awkward situations?

I tried to make up an excuse. "Oh Salam, I was just looking under the bed," I didn't make eye contact with him.

"Why were you looking under my bed in a pushup position?" I mentally slapped myself. I didn't say anything. I got up and took a seat on the bed. Farhan chuckled for some reason.

He walked towards the bed and took a seat beside me, I had all sorts of feelings rushing through my veins. "Oh wait I was supposed to get something," Farhan said. He walked towards a table and opened the drawer. He took out a soft red box and came back to his seat. "Here, umm... my mom told me to give it to you."

"Oh,"  I took the box from him and put it onto the nightstand.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Farhan asked.

"Nah, I'll open it later," I replied.

"So you know how I dated and stuff?" I didn't know why he was asking that. I nodded my head in confusion. "Ya so like I just wanted to let you know that I didn't do anything bad with them."  Well at least he was letting me know.

"Oh okay," I simply replied.

"And I'm sure you've never done anything... bad... right?"

"Right," I nodded my head with my eyebrows knitted close together.

We sat there in awkward silence for a couple minutes, until I had to sneeze. I sneezed 3 times in a row, and it was because of the flowers. I could feel that my hair was in a mess. Farhan started to laugh.

"Haha! You look cute." The butterflies in my stomach started to move faster. Suddenly Farhan started to come closer. He leaned forward, and for some reason I held in my breath. That's when that memory played into my head, I was starting to tear up again. I quickly got up and exhaled.

"What happened?" Farhan asked.

"Nothing, um we should pray two rak'ahs," I suggested.

"Pray?" He sounded like as if it was the first time he's heard the word 'pray.'

"Ya."

"Okay." Farhan went to the bathroom while I went to Hina's room to get my suitcases. I did wudu and changed into my abaya.

Once we were done praying, I changed into a T-shirt and sweatpants and loosely wrapped my hijab. I came out of the bathroom and noticed Farhan was changed too. Slowly, I sat on the bed and to make things less awkward I started a conversation. "So, how many breaks did you take from work?"

Farhan chuckled. "Missing me already?" His ego was increasing. 

"Um no, I was just asking."

"Ya, I'm taking just about a week off," he answered. "We should go to sleep now, our walima is tomorrow." I layed down and sooner or later I was knocked out.

I woke up quite late to pray fajr. Farhan was still sleeping so I assumed he already prayed. I did wudu, prayed and went back to bed.

My eyes slowly opened due to the bright light coming in from the window. I realized Farhan wasn't beside me anymore. I searched the room and noticed him sleeping on the ground.

"Farhan?" I whispered. He woke up as if he wasn't even sleeping.

"Yeah?"

"Were you even sleeping? And why are you sleeping on the floor?" I asked.

"Oh I just couldn't sleep, and you took up all the space." Was he saying I was fat? I looked down at myself and realized my body was spread across the bed. I guess it was because I was so used to sleeping by myself. "And you sneeze a lot in your sleep."

"I'm so sorry. And I was sneezing because I'm allergic to these flowers."

"Oh I didn't know. You go downstairs to eat breakfast, I'll put these flowers away."

"Breakfast!" I was looking forward to helping Auntie Afreen with the cooking.  I quickly got out of bed,  went to the bathroom and changed into a simple shalwar kameez. I loosely wrapped my hijab and made my way downstairs.

"Assalamualaikum Auntie!" I said with joy.

"Walaikum assalam," Auntie said with a more quieter tone. She motioned me to come to her and so I did.

"You know Beta (daughter), you're married now, you should wake up earlier." I didn't know what waking up early had to do with being married.

"Sorry Auntie." I looked around the kitchen to see if I knew how to do something. There were a few dirty dishes in the sink and so I went ahead and washed them. Auntie Afreen didn't say anything and carried on with what she was doing.

We all ate breakfast really quickly and finally it was time for our Walima.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Question for you all: What do you think this memory is that keeps making Ayesha cry every time she thinks of it? leave a comment! Much love! <3