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...
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The Fayyad mansion was brimming with guests and Kaveh Fayyad found himself surrounded by the same old faces he had been seeing in every gathering. There was an iftaar party at his house.
His eyes found Salman in the crowd. He was sitting with his cousin Raad and a few other friends from high school.
Salman was happy, comfortable and smiling. Kaveh recalled a time Salman liked London as much as he did.
Last week Salman said to Kaveh, "it's our desh, how can I be happier living anywhere else?"
He didn't know what to make of it.
It was an unanimous decision among the best friends after graduation that they were staying in London. But in a few months Salman had to visit home for a crisis, and he never returned. Now he was happy to be here, apparently.
As Kaveh passed by, a few of his mother's friends cooed how handsome he was. He politely smiled at them and walked away, knowing they were whispering about his marriage behind his back.
It was almost a crime in this society for a young man in possession of wealth and a good education to remain single.
Kaveh almost snorted out loud. No matter how flashier their cars got or how faster their internet, that collective mentality was always going to remain the same.
He sat down on one corner of their living room. His house was getting hot and crowded. There was barely any space to walk around freely.
His sister's dark hair popped out of a sea of hijabis and Kaveh saw Layla amongst the Ahmad sisters. They were sitting together on their living room sofa. His eyes found her.
Dahlia Ahmad and her sister had been living in their house for the past few days.
Whereas the older sister was courteous to him, sweet even, Dahlia had refused to meet his eyes and blatantly ignored his presence.
Instead, she chose to spend her days with his sisters, and reading books in her alone time. She also watched an awful lot of Islamic lectures on Youtube.
She smiled at everyone that crossed her path and she seemed sweet and wise when she spoke. And from the little scraps of conversation he caught between her and her friends, he could tell she was also quick-witted.
Dahlia even fit with his family like she was a part of them. She was kind to his parents and always there for his sisters. His mother loved her, Layla treated her like her own sibling and Azar adored her. His father also seemed to enjoy having the Ahmads around.
"Dadimaa threw another fit last night, " the eldest Ahmad sister, Kaveh recalled her name was Zinnia, said to the group.
The Ahmad clan, as usual, was the largest and most chaotic.
