A Pride & Prejudice and Little Women retelling
Farrah Hussain spent a lifetime hating Salman Bashir. At least that's what she liked to believe. When one fateful summer Salman changes his bad boy ways and comes back a new man, Farrah can't stop the l...
A/N: Dedicated to Loverockers for beautifully breaking social stigmas! If you guys haven't read her book Woven yet, please go check it out.
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Farrah lay in Layla's bed, Dahlia's high pitched voice playing in the background.
"Ibrahim was being a drama queen again," her friend said, rolling her eyes. "He was whining so much about how conflicted he is about attending, he pissed Lily off and got told off by her."
Farrah thought about how she herself was conflicted about going to the Rahmans' event, and then was pissed when her mother didn't give her an option. But now, whenever she thought about the rest of the night, there was a fluttering in her chest.
She felt anxious every time she thought of her encounter with Salman.
It's like every time she met him, he did something unpredictable - like shove her into the Fayyad's pool, lure her into a cupboard and lock her there for two hours, give her mixed glances and then act nonchalant.
And when he said that thing - welcome back - it almost caused her heart to stop.
Farrah had never officially left. But whenever she looked back, there was a clear line between her high school and University life. Not many had noticed how she had cut off her life at home. Not her mother or family, not even herself until a certain point.
But he had.
She wondered if Salman just said that or if he actually noticed her absence. Farrah felt dazed and fuzzy, her heart thumping in a way she had forgotten it could.
She had been in love with Salman once upon a time. Farrah felt even embarrassed to admit it to herself. Her Salman, she used to call him.
That wasn't the case anymore, though. She had thrown away these feelings a long time ago, stacked and tucked them in a small compartment in her heart and locked them away.
But things were never simple when it came to Salman.
When Farrah realized three pairs of eyes were staring at her, she broke out of her thoughts, flustering at the content of her musing.
"Why are you... sighing?" Dahlia asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion.
"I, uh, I was thinking of how thick my mustache has grown," she lied, mentioning the first thing that came to her mind. Guilt settled in Farrah's stomach as she said those words. It was a lie after all, not matter how insignificant.
"Oh." Dahlia raised her eyebrows.
"It doesn't matter," she quickly said. "Speaking of Ibrahim," Farrah started, lifting herself to a sitting position. "What did you say about him getting angry again? Sorry, I zoned out."
"Yeah, he just got so mad at me last night," Dahlia repeated. "After I approached him and that group of men, I'm not sure why, he just got all worked up and told me that I should have known better than to approach him in that situation. I just called him because Maa asked me to," she said exasperatedly, turning her hands. "What else was I supposed to do? It would have been absurd to use cell phones when he was just a few feet away."
