A Thing, Beyond Forever

10.

"I feel disgusting" I whined as I lowered my head on to my palms.

Khadija stroke my back with her palm as if to sympathise with me. I had just finished telling them what I did to Yazan at the Supermarket. 

"You did what?" was Zeenath's reaction. 

"I know...I shouldn't have taken it this far. Now, what do I do?" I drew my eyebrows in frustration.

"I think you should say sorry," Aisha said and everyone nodded. "It doesn't matter if you both were friends or not. The point is, you took your prank a little too far and you admit your mistake and apologise to him. That's it" 

I didn't say anything because she was right. We were sitting casually in our class in the morning before the assembly bell could ring. 

"How do I do it?" I asked, looking out of the window and seeing other buses come inside the campus. 

"Do what?"

"Say him sorry! What if he is so angry with me that he doesn't want to see my face?"

"Did he say you that?" asked Zeenath. 

"No..." 

I held Noor's hand, "Noor can you please convey through Fais that I am really sorry for what I did?" 

"No, Zukroof this is not done" Noor held my hand in return. "We are your friends and we have to support you in every decision but that also means we should know when to advice you when you do something wrong" 

I nodded. I was glad for this friendship. I got up from my chair and straightened my pinafore. 

"I will quickly sneak in his class. Say him sorry and come back before the teachers start coming in"

"That's a good idea but make sure you be careful okay," everyone told and I geared up all the courage I could to walk downstairs to his class. I went in and there were a few guys along with Faisal who were quite shocked to see me enter their class taking such a huge risk. 

"I am sure you don't have any plans on getting killed so early in the morning then why are you here?" Faisal asked. I smiled in response to the way he used his humour. 

"I came here for Yazan. I had to speak to him" 

"Oh. Okay. I will just go around and see if he has come. I will bring him here" He smiled and I just  thanked him for his help. 

Before he could move out in search of Yazan, He adjusted his bag and someone else's bag on the table top and asked me to sit behind them with my face ducked just so that I don't get caught just in case a teacher shows up. 

I waited for a good fifteen minutes and then I heard Yazan's voice coming closer to the class. "I told you I don't want to meet her or speak to her. And why does she wants to speak to me? As if she hasn't done a lot already" I could feel him roll his eyes at the end of the sentence. "Just tell her I don't want to see her face"

I peaked a little moving the bags aside. He was standing with his back facing me and since I had to get this done quickly and get back to my class. I stood up and announced my arrival."Too late Mr Yazan. I am already here" I crossed my hands over my chest. 

He turned around. His mouth fell open. To say he was shocked was an understatement. His mouth went from a small 'o' to a big 'O'. He drew his eyebrows together and waved his hands as if to emphasise what big of a deal it was for me to be in his class. 

"What the hell are you doing here?!" He almost yelled but then realised he didn't want to draw any of the teacher's attention towards him. 

"Look. I know this is a helluva risk that I have taken today but it is only to apologise to you for the other day at the supermarket" I began 

His eyes grew rounder as he listened to me quietly then he wiped his face with his palms trying to calm himself down. 

"You could have messaged me too! What are you? Madwoman!" He said. He was angry. I could clearly see. But I couldn't decipher if he was angry because of the prank I played on him or because I took the risk of getting caught just to come and apologise to him. I didn't say him anything and he went on. 

"Listen," He said sternly pointing a finger at me. "You don't care about your reputation in school doesn't mean I have any interest in losing mine! Alright?" He pointed his fingers to my temples. "You might be known for going to the principal's office for various complaints but I don't want to be tagged along with you, alright?" He said. The tone of his voice was so intimidating that I had to swallow the lump in my throat and look around in the class to every guy staring at us. 

I understood why he was doing this. He wants to make me go through the same humiliation he went through in the supermarket. I didn't say a word. 

I nodded when he was done. I looked at him in the eye. "Alright. Okay. I just came to apologise to you because I thought what I had done was really wrong and I felt so bad that I didn't want to say sorry over a text message. My bad. I should have known better" I said as sternly as I could and in a way that would look like I did not feel bad about anything he said. 

His face softened as if his anger just melted. I did not want to keep our conversation going. We were even now. He played a prank on me. I played a prank on him. I humiliated him. He humiliated me. That was it. That was all. I walked past him and hit his shoulder with mine on purpose as I walked away. 

I walked out of the class. Inhaled a deep breath and without any further delay ran as fast as I could to my class.

I did not walk directly to my class because I didn't want to answer all the questions everyone would bombard on me so I locked myself in the toilet when the assembly bell rang and let the tears flow one by one. I didn't know for how long I have been holding them but it seemed like it was high time for them to fall.