The Perks of Being a Hijabi

Chapter Eleven

Everyone left after the sleepover. Last night was so much fun with my best friends. I sighed as I picked up my phone from the nightstand near my bed. I scrolled through Facebook until I came to a sudden picture posted by Stephanie. It was me. Well someone who looked like me from the back. This mysterious person was wearing my clothes, my hijab, my everything! Who could this person be? The comment below the picture was Stephanie saying "Zainub hugging new boyfriend?!ðߘ˜Ã°ÂŸÂ˜Â±" What did this girl have against me?! Underneath Stephanie's caption, people commented things like: "Isn't she already married?😷😷" What if Hussen saw this?! How could I explain this to Hussen? What was I gonna do now?! I sat on my bed crying and praying to Allah that I would find a way out of this mess.
After I wiped my face clean from tears and changed into an abaya I went downstairs to eat breakfast. I would be going to the masjid right after breakfast for the Jummah.
"Come on Asim, I don't wanna be late for the lecture!" I plucked the muffin in Asim's hands and shoved the entire muffin in my mouth grinning.
The car drive to the masjid was silent, I knew I would see Hassan there, he never misses a Jummah Salat.
When we got to the masjid I noticed my friend Sumaya sitting down and reading Quran in a small corner. After I placed my blue flats on the shoe rack outside the door, I approached Sumaya.
"Asalamualakum Sumaya!" She quickly finished the ayat she was on and stood to embrace me.
"Wa alakumusalam! Long time no see." she hugged me and kissed both of my cheeks, Arab style. We both sat down, and she put her Quran away so she could talk to me.
"How is life so far?" I asked her as she grinned widely at me. Her large dimples at the side of her face shone brightly, she was very beautiful.
"Well, I just got engaged, and I just heard you got engaged as well!" She clapped her hands like a little girl as her brown eyes sparkled in the dim light of the masjid.
"Yup, I'm getting married a week after I finish my senior year of high school." Sumaya already finished high school about a year ago.
"Really! Wow, you have really grown so much habibti." She quickly adjusted her mint green hijab, and continued talking. "I'm getting married in a month!" Her face lit up like the Fourth of July.
Sumaya and I talked a little more about our families and our new husbands, her husband's name was Yassin, it was an arranged marriage and so on. We ended our conversation when the hootbah began. The imam spoke coincidently about marriage and of the duties of both the husband and wife.
Soon the hootbah (lecture) ended and we prayed Jummah salat. I was really glad I was missing school for this.
I looked around the masjid to find Hussen, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I waited outside of the masjid for Asim. As I waited I noticed Asim was speaking to someone familiar. Zayed.
•Flashback•
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His eyes were the color of a lush green forest, his laugh seemed to make angles surround him, he was perfect. My first love. For years now I had been crushing on my best friend's brother. No one knew, or even suspected that I was in love with him. He never did return the feeling I had for him. I don't know why but he would always inhabit my dreams, my nightmares, he always made some kind of impact on my daily life. I sat down at the lunch table thinking about him. All of a sudden I see him walk into the cafeteria, I perk up. But to my dismay, he is walking with a girl. A non-Muslim girl. How could that be? I thought he was a good Muslim, not a Muslim who messes around with girls. The girl and him held hands and were in a deep conversation, I remember them sitting down at an empty table. Zayed leaner towards the girl's face and whispered something that made her giggle uncontrollably.
I felt sickened by the scene. And right when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the love of my childhood leaned closer and crashed his lips into the girls. My heart shattered into pieces as I ran out of the cafeteria, holding back tears burning behind my eyes.
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•End of Flashback•
I quickly look away from Zayed as my flashback ends. I briskly walked over to Asim and Zayed, praying to Allah thrat Zayed wouldn't recognize me.
"Yalla Asim let's go!" I gesture for Asim to come, he says goodbye to Zayed and walks toward me.
"That's Zayed, do you remember him?" Here we go.
"Of course I remember him! He was Halima's (my best friend) brother." I said a little too defensively.
We sat in the the for a good long five minutes, I thought of Zayed those entire five minutes. Fortunately by saddening thought were interrupted by Asim's complaints.
"Can we go now?" He glared at me with an irked look on his face. I started the engine and drove away from the masjid away from Zayed, away from pain, to my humble home.