The Size of our hearts

13

I sat down beside an old woman then rested my back on the wooden bench to find it very uncomfortable. The old woman looked at me, I gave her a reassuring smile and looked back down at my chipped fingernails. I could still feel the old woman staring at me so I looked back over at her.

"Sorry, do you know Hamid Salem?" She asked politely

"Um.. yes," I said hesitantly.

"Can you tell me where he lives?"

Her eyes grew wide as she waited for my answer. "Um sorry, no I don't know," I said as I got up and walked away from the bench. I looked back to see the old woman on the phone speaking a foreign language, she shot me a look then turned away and went back to her phone call.

"Oya Labeeba jump inside!" I heard someone scream, I looked over at the water fountain to see some teenage girls and a very irritated Kiyana dabbing at her shoulder to dry up the water they splashed on her.

I waved to get Kiyana's attention, she looked up at me and walked over to me.

"Hey," She said as she stopped in front of me.

"Hi"

We both opened our mouths to speak and closed them at the same time.

"You go first." I muttered.

"Well I'm coming back to school"

"Really Kiyana that's great, how did you get the money"

She went silent and looked ahead and started walking, I walked alongside her and kept silent and waited for her to answer, she didn't.

"Kiyana what's going on," I asked quietly

"I took a job," She said lackadaisically

"Where?" I said trying to sound normal.

"At a club," She said a little too loud as the girls at the fountain turned and looked over at her.

I exhaled and pouted my lips to the side.

She looked over at me the nodded her head angrily and began to walk away. "Didn't you have any better options?" I tried to ask as nicely as possible.

"No Neveah I didn't, because unlike you I don't have parents to pay my school fees." She screamed as her eyes grew watery.

I began to apologize but she just held up her hand and told me she'd see me in school. She adjusted the strap of her bag onto her shoulder and walked past me. She clapped her hands and shouted the name 'Coco' as a small furry brown dog came running out of the bushes and started following her.

Guilt settled in as I realized how judged she must've felt. 

"Well guess who now comes to my favorite place." I turned around to face Hamid, I wanted to give him back a sarcastic answer but decided against it because I wasn't in the mood. 

"A woman was asking me if I knew you and where you lived," I told him tiredly. He adjusted his cap on his head and asked where she was. I pointed over to the bench to discover that she wasn't there anymore. "How did she look?" He hurried me to answer. I looked over at his worried face and explained she was old and had tanned skin and was speaking a Foreign Language. 

"Did you tell her anything?" He said worriedly.

"No," I responded impatiently.

"Ok, let's go" 

I looked at him from his head to his feet before looking back up at him and shaking my head slightly "mmmm I'm not going anywhere with you" I said as I turned to leave. "You're going to want to unless you'd like to see Jafaar again" I looked back at him in confusion, he was serious.