When The Stars Shine Bright

Chapter Twelve

"I can't believe Dad reacted the way he did Rania, I thought he would be more open-minded and give my choice a chance,but he didn't even spend more than half an hour in Mustafa's company! How can one judge someone based on a such a short meeting?" questioned Nazia gloomily as she told Rania everything that had happened during the past few days.

"Nazia you have to understand that your parents were in shock, probably still are coming to terms with the fact that you are interested in someone. You should have given Aunty a hint or something so that she had some idea at least. Telling them everything both at once and arranging their meeting with Mustafa in rush was bound to be upsetting for them," said Rania consolingly. "Added to that I can only imagine how Mustafa Bhai must have have also behaved. He is pretty arrogant and can be a bit intimidating as well. I wish he had asked my parents to go along with him, maybe Aunty and Uncle would have been more receptive to what he had to say if the elders had put in a formal proposal."

"I agree with Rania," said Hira who had been listening to the other two's conversation since a while and had just now broken her silence to support Rania's point of view. "Nazia I am in shock with all that you have disclosed just now, you didn't even share anything with me! I had no idea that you were interested in someone and that you two were so serious about each other! I thought I was your best friend and we could tell each other any and everything," ended Hira sadly.

"Oh Hira I really wanted to confide in you! I really did! But I knew you would not approve of this either!" At Hira's small sound of protest Nazia continued, "You are so straight-forward about everything and you would have urged me to either not continue on with this relationship or disclose everything to my Mom!"

"Nazia are you listening to yourself? It sounds like you know in your heart that maybe this is not the right step for you to take, yet you are still persistent about keeping in touch with Mustafa! If there was not a shred of doubt in your mind then you would not be keeping everything a secret for so long!" said Hira a little harshly for she could see Nazia was not really viewing the entire scenario objectively.

"That's not true! There is no doubt in my mind that Mustafa is the one for me! If he was not serious about me then he wouldn't have met my parents, he would have kept on stringing me along! The fact that he came to our home to meet my family shows that he is serious about making this relationship known and legal," said Nazia angrily.

"And yet he has not really involved his elders to get your parents to take his proposal seriously," countered Rania reasonably.

"Well your Dad has not really been ever supportive of Mustafa has he? In fact he would probably have refused Mustafa's suggestion outright if he had asked him to talk to my father," replied Nazia sarcastically. "He's probably responsible for Mustafa being the way he is!"

"Nazia! How can you say something like that about my father?! He's always treated you like his own daughter! Has Mustafa really brain-washed you so much that you cannot tell the difference between friend and foe now?" asked Rania in a shocked tone.

"Whatever!"

"No don't you whatever me! What has gotten into you? We are your best friends, your people and yet you are treating us like you enemies!"

"I don't know.....I don't....I'm sorry....." and Nazia broke down in heart-wrenching sobs as she realized what she had said to her best friend. "I just can't think straight anymore! I don't know what to do!" she said as fresh tears flowed  freely from her eyes.

"Oh Nazia," was all Hira could say as she hugged her friend and tried to console her.

"Listen to me Nazia," said Rania sternly after Nazia's crying had subsided. "I can talk to Mustafa Bhai and try to convince him to take my Mom into his confidence and tell her everything. If she can convince my father to talk to your parents then he will do so. If your parents are still not convinced about Mustafa then I guess you will have to move on."