Fortuitous Tenderness

EIGHT.

It's been two months now and Bashir has been nothing but depressed. He has locked himself up in his room. He does nothing but look at her pictures, talk to it and cry himself to sleep.

He pushed everyone away. He never goes to work. He only eats when Maama pushes him to. He looked skinny and darker than before. He looked very disturbed.

Life hasn't been easy without Yasmeen.

He always dreams about her; she smiles at him and tells him everything is going to be alright and then she'll disappear. He's not ready to move on. He's so depressed.

Knock knock!!

He sighed getting off the bed to open the door. It was his baby sister. "Hey," she smiled at him. "Come in." He smiled back at her.

She sat right beside him on the bed. "You need to open up" she said while looking at him staring at the blank space. "What do you mean open up?" he said faking a smile.

"Firstly, have you seen yourself in the mirror? Look at your beard! Your hair! Your eyes! You look darker! You've lost weight! Yaya you have to open up one way or the other. I really care about you and I don't want to lose."

He lazily looked at Safwana. She covered her face with her palms. She's crying. He gave her a side hug, "you're not going to lose me In Shaa Allah. Stop crying please, okay? I've lost the woman I loved the most, after Maama and you. What do you expect me to do Safwana? Act normal? I can't even do that."

He inhale and exhaled trying not to shed tears in front of his baby sister. "I never thought she'd leave this soon. I don't think I'll be ready to let go. I can't!"

"Sure you can. But not like this. You've shut everyone down. We've been trying to cheer you up for only God knows how long. Please yaya you have to let go. Starving yourself to death won't bring her back or staring at her pictures all day. We don't want to lose you like we lost Yasmeen. Please..."

"Safwana!" He cuts her off. "Calm down, I'm going to be okay." He hugged her tight as she cried out her heart.

After what seems to be forever, she finally calmed down. "Promise me you'll change, from today."

"I promise." He smiled. He has to stay strong for them. "Yay! Now go take a long bath now and shave." She pulled his hand and pushed him towards the bathroom. "I will bring up your food right now. And we're going out after you eat and no buts!" She quickly walked out of the room before he could protest.

He had a long hot bath and shaved. He felt really good and refreshed. He looked at himself in the mirror. 'What was I doing to myself?'

He sighed and sauntered out of the bathroom. He applied his lotion and wore a white shirt and sweat pants.

His eyes landed on the warmers that was on the coffee table. He sat down and ate till he was satisfied.

He looked for his phones and plugged them before heading out of the room. It's been a while.

He went straight to his dad's side to greet him. He met both Maama and baba having a conversation about something.

Both of them were surprised to see him out of his from for the first time since when he was discharged from the hospital. "Bashir? How are you?" Maama asked with so much care.

"I'm fine Maama." He smiled. Baba asked about his well being too and he replied positively. He excused himself and went back to his room. He met Safwana and one of the maids fixing his room.