Palestwinians.

Forgive me?

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Mahatma Gandhi

Dedicated to @wittycraze for doing an awesome interview with me. Check it out, under her work 'Booklover's Talk.'

Chapter 9 - Forgive me?

“Yasmine. Please would you just stop?" 

I pushed my legs, walking as fast as I can without breaking into a jog. I wasn’t going to give in that easily. I heard Zach mumble something under his breath before footsteps began speeding up behind me. 

“Man you walk fast. And I really don’t want to run. Can you please just stop so I can talk to you?” he pleaded from behind me. I pushed down the growing feeling of sympathy towards him and resisted the urge to stop and actually hear him out. I wanted him to know exactly how much his words had hurt me. So I kept on walking, head high, arms crossed…I didn’t care if people were looking at us oddly. 

I heard him sigh from behind me and I knew just from looking at his face when I walked out of the house this morning that he regretted what he said. He had immediately run after me when I walked off, not even uttering a Salam to him and he’s been begging me the whole way through to stop and hear him out.

Only when I reached the doors of our lecture hall did I stop and turn around abruptly to face him. I must have caught him off guard since he nearly walked straight into me, not expecting me to stop. 

“Look Zach, I don’t want to hear it right now. I will forgive you…I could never not forgive you. But please…it’s just…not now ok?” I glanced at him briefly before I walked in, taking in his shocked and guilty face. I walked straight to the back and sat down putting my bag on the seat next to me. Zach understood the hint and sat in the row in front of me, rubbing his face as he pulled out his laptop. 

Salma walked in then looking like a typical student who’s woken up late. She looked like a crazy woman with a bag of manouch hanging from her mouth, hijab in disarray whilst simultaneously attempting to juggle three cups of coffee and her shoulder bag. 

I relieved the poor girl from her state, taking a cup from her hand and pulling the bag out of her mouth. She beamed at me saying a quick ‘JazakAllah’ before walking over to Zach and handing him a coffee. Zach looked surprised by the gesture, but smiled and thanked her before turning around to look at me. I moved my head so rapidly to avoid eye contact, I almost cracked my neck. What…a girls got to get her point across! 

Salma was about to put her stuff down before she realised my laptop just above Zach’s head. She raised her eyebrow questioningly, looking between the two of us cautiously, before mouthing ‘what happened?’ Since she was still standing near Zach he had obviously seen her and I resisted the urge to face-palm. She was just so oblivious sometimes. I shrugged in response and sat down in my seat, getting comfortable. It was a two-hour history lecture and I had to maintain focus, especially since our assignment was based on this topic. 

“Is everything okay?” Salma whispered, settling next to me. 

“Everything’s fine. Just had a little argument is al.l” No benefit would come from revealing what happened because either way someone would look bad. 

“Aah I see. Couple problems,” she said, giggling. 

“What?” The sugar in her coffee was obviously affecting her thoughts. 

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head vigorously. I narrowed my eyes and just before I could push her to tell me what she was implying, our lecturer began speaking. I glanced at her from my peripheral vision and could make out a small smile on her face. Frustrated, I sat back in my seat and grabbed the bag of manouch from her hand angrily. She laughed as I took the first bite and munched on it with a frown on my face.