Scented Roads

(21) She's lovesick

Ala

love sick

Perhaps we were all born in this world to experience the beauty of love. For some, this sentence would belittle their existence. However, for people like Ala, who were filled to the rim with emotions, it seemed to be true. 

Born at a time when technology evolved in this world, our generation has seen more romances than any generation before us. We read romance, watch romance and therefore imagine romance governing our future. Ala has done just the same. In her own imagination, she has made an entire world of romance ever since she welcomed her teen years. 

So here she sat, smiling at her own little romance that she started with Ayaan, knowing only what the books and the shows have taught her. For her, she has started living the life she always imagined to live. Not a second has been boring since she met Ayaan, and not a second has been slow. 

Ala's smile widened as she saw the sweet text message Ayaan had sent to her earlier today. 

If I were to describe Ala's feelings towards Ayaan, it would be enough to say she is 'lovesick'. 

Ala absolutely adores Ayaan. She sees in him everything she imagined for in a guy. At first look, he looks like a charming person. It looks like he works hard at everything he sets his mind to, and it seems as if having conversations with him is so easy. She never has to try to make something work when she's with him, everything goes smoothly without any efforts. 

Her crush on Ayaan intensifies after every meeting. Sometimes he fools around by teasing her, sometimes by pranking her, and sometimes by saying the sweetest but darnest things Ala can imagine. 

Ayaan is Ala's perfect dream.

But with this perfection, there's a cost Ala fails to realise. 

Ayaan's perfection has been created by Ala. She sees only the good, and her mind converts this good into absolute perfection. The moments she spends with Ayaan are highly influenced by Ala's own internal thoughts. She believes them to be more special than they actually are, and this is what creates a problem in many people's lives. What people don't understand is that love starts of as an emotion a person experiences, and in the very beginning- this emotion is highly manipulated by our own thoughts and understanding. It's not an exact reality in the beginning. Therefore, love doesn't happen when we think we're in love. Love happens suddenly, after spending years with a person. Suddenly, we're truly in love. 

In the beginning, love is replaced for a word often written as 'attraction' or 'fondness' in dictionaries.

And it's high time we realize this.

Love, truly, happens after years of spending your life with a person. When you break for that person and that person breaks for you. When you give your all, and he gives his all. Love happens in the middle of sacrifices, and tears, and happiness, and acceptance, and so much more.

So,

let's all get married to people we are fond of, who we can tolerate and who can tolerate us, and then experience love with them instead of seeking it outside marriage. At least as muslims, we are lucky enough to know that Allah has written for good women, good men and for good men, good women. 

Let's try to make ourselves a good person, and pray for our future with another good person. I truly believe, that it will be enough for us.

On this topic, Ala continues to differ in opinion, and continues to understand love with a different definition. The definition that was created through her books, the television and her own imagination. It's not wrong, but it can hurt some people.

Ala looks at Ayaan's texts once again. She keeps smiling while reading them over and over. She wouldn't have stopped if not for Azhar to slam the door open to Ala's room.

"How many times should we call you for dinner?", he screams at Ala, clearly annoyed at her ignorance.

"Scream at me once more and I will make sure Amir teaches you some manners after dinner." She says sweetly yet sarcastically, her smile still intact. 

"Sorry, just come for dinner so that mum let's me eat in peace." 

Ala quickly locks her phone, keeps it near her bed and walks out of her room. As she is at home, she doesn't have her hair covered, she only has a scarf around her neck. 

She rushes downstairs to the dining area, suddenly realising how she hasn't eaten all day and is starving. She is about to enter the dining area, when Habeeba stops her in her tracks.

"Mum got some guest home, it's a guy and he's going to eat with us", Habeeba whispers. She motions Ala to look inside the dining room and points towards the guest.

Ala's eyes widen, but she is not all too surprised to see her mum's favorite person in the world *que eye roll* sitting right beside her father on the dining table.

Fur-qan

She roughly pulls her neck from her scarf and messily wraps it around her head. 'damn it' she whispers, for having to wear a scarf in her own house. It's the most frustrating thing in the world to have a non mahram in the house. 

She goes inside the room, sits on her usual place, and says salam before serving herself some food. 

To her surprise, Furqan doesn't even look at her once throughout the entire dinner. 

She doesn't bother thinking why he could be here, as she knows all too well her mother's love towards this boy.

"Amir, Allah really helped me. I got so much stuff for the house but your father had to leave all of a sudden and then this sweet man helped carry all the stuff and even gave me a lift! Allah, Allah. This is what you call good upbringing." Ayesha says, smiling ear to ear.

Ala laughs in her head. She is a hundred percent sure her mother made her father leave her in the grocery store after spotting Furqan, and planned the entire thing out such that Ala could see him again. She doesn't understand what her mother wants her to see. And sometimes, mums can go overboard and be wrong in their judgements of people too. So Ala just cannot get herself to see through the eyes of her mother.

At this point, she just ignores Furqan's presence altogether. Ayesha can try all she will but Ala already knows the type of person that is her type. The type of person Ayaan is. 

Confident. Handsome. Playful. (If he playful around every girl, he playing you sis)

Definitely not a shy yet particular about everything kind of a person.

(if you're a shy and a particular person just know that you're awesome and Ala doesn't think of you as her love interest but you will find someone who does. Don't have self esteem issues, trust yourself and your fate. KthanksBye)

Dinner goes well for everyone. Ala glances at Furqan a few times, because of the funny things her mum says that would make their guest feel absolutely embarrassed, and surely Furqan was all hot pink throughout the dinner. Ala for the first time feels bad for Furqan. Ayesha can really out anyone in a tough spot without realising it, and today that anyone is Furqan.

After peacefully eating her dinner, Ala gets back to her room and prepares herself for sleep. She thinks about the few things she has to do the next day, gets distracted with Ayaan's messages and falls asleep.

All the while not knowing what a tough situation and discomfort Furqan just put himself through, just to try his way into her life. 

But what is true fondness anyway, if not effort? 

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I pray your day goes well dear reader

Love, Umaima