The Perks of Being a Hijabi

Chapter Twelve

"Salamualkum Zainub!" Samia's image pops up on the screen of my phone.

"Wa alakumusalam Samia, why are you calling?" I ask my friend. She looks reluctant and nervous to answer my question.

"Well, uhhh. Can I come over to drop off your clothes?" She looks scared. I make a puzzled face at her, then I remember the clothes she had asked to borrow the last day of our sleepover.

"Sure!" I reply and end the FaceTime.

When Samia arrives at my door, she has a worried look on her face again. I ask her what's the matter as she walks into my house, but she shakes off my question with a shrug.

"Here," She hands me a grocery bag of clothes. I take the bag of clothes.

"Umm, okay I should go now." Samia rushes out of the door. Weird, she would usually stay for tea or lunch. I shrug off my suspiciousness, 'cause well, suspicion is haram.

I go back upstairs and place the clothes back in my drawers. As I placed my clothes away I noticed something. The clothes that Samia have me were the same clothes in the picture! That's why Samia was acting weird! She was the one who pretended to be me! She is hanging up with Stephanie to ruin my marriage! I felt overwhelmed and betrayed. How could this happen? Samia has been my best friend since we were really young. I sat down on the edge of my bed and just cried. Tears were flowing down my face like rivers.

"Ya Allah!" I grabbed a pillow and screamed into it, to release my anger and frustration.

The next day, I still couldn't believe what had just happened between me and Samia. Had done something so wrong that she had to sabotage my marriage? Astafyrallah!

I ran downstairs to see that both my parents and Hussen's parents were seated at the breakfast table drinking tea.

"Asalamualakum Hala Zaria and Amu Omar." I greeted both of my in-laws.

"Come sit, we need to talk," Hala Zaria calls out Hussen's name. He walks into the kitchen with a grim looking his face. I try to smile at him but he scowls when he sees my face.

"Hussen found a picture of you on the Internet, and you were with another man." Ummi looked at me with pure disappointment.

"M-may I see the picture?" Baba hands me a phone with the same terrible picture of "me" and some dude.

"This isn't me," I look into Hussen's eyes as I say this, he looks away scowling. My heart is literally shattered.

"This IS you! You just donut want to admit to your parents." Hussen yells from across the table. I feel shocked by his words.

"Do you really think I'm that low?" I sneered back.

"Well, you've done something like this before!"

"Oh my God! That was Stephabie trying to get at me! Can't you keep up with what I tell you?!" The argument goes back and forth for a really long time. Ummi and Baba and Hala Zaria and Amu Omar wait patiently until we end. By the time the argument is over, tears are streaming down my face.

"It was Samia," I peep out at the last minute.

"Oh so now you're going to blame someone else!?" Hussen sneers at me.

"I swear I'm not lying! You see those clothes? She asked to borrow them last week, and the clothes she borrowed are the same clothes in the picture. My best friend is the one who is trying to sabotage our marriage." Hussen looks defeated.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," He looks down at the table.

"I forgive Hussen." I smile at him, but my smile doesn't get returned, to my dismay.

I'm not sure how I'll address Samia at school tomorrow. It's still hard to believe that she is the one behind all of these schemes.