A Woman In Hijab

THE EYES

Chapter:8

Nawal's POV:

The school next day was disappointing . Zenani ma'am was absent and most of the competitions were postponed . Nobody knows why she's absent too .

We became the centre of attention with all the rumours going on , atleast that kept Irfan away from us for a while . Shaheedha and Rahila started hanging out with us . We ate lunch together in the play ground and talked . The lunch break was of forty minutes . So we ate quickly and started playing or talking , afcourse I cannot play physically , we just played some truth or dare and a few other word games . Soon , they all gathered around me in a corner and started questioning me .

"I had some minor cough ."
I said in the end . Faridha's eyes filled with doubt , she looked at me with pointed eyes that said spill the truth already .

I exhaled loudly , I didn't want to worry my friends , but I shouldn't hide this from them either . They've been with me from the start , I cannot be vague like this , they deserve to know .

"I.... I coughed up blood , the doctor examined it as tuberculosis ."

Faridha looked alarmed , but quickly kept her face to neutral mode . Thought , she kept all the shock and worry to herself and said ." Don't worry , Nawal . You'll be alright . Just keep faith in Allah ." I loved her for that. Tasneem and Nusaiba had equally troubled look on their faces .

As soon as my revelation period was over , we all walked upstairs to our classroom . We were chatting all the way to our benches . My sickness made me do everything in slow and lazy motion , it made me too tired to even breathe sometimes . One of Irfan's gang member spotted me and walked towards me . The one who was eying me carefully on that day . He walked past me and lightly bumped me on my shoulder . My tired body could barely carry me all the way to the third floor , I didn't need this extra baggage , even before I could register I was on the floor with a terrible head splitting pain on my head .

"Ooh I'm sorry." He said and gave a crooked smile .
All my friends came running . The guy helped me stand even though I declined his help . Faridha was about to slap him when , Irfan interfered and stopped her .

"Let me handle this ." This infuriated Faridha further , but she didn't say anything . Irfan turned to that guy who was most probably his friend .

"Imran , that was rude apologise sincerely and promise by Allah that you wouldn't do it to her ever again ." Irfan's voice was low and threatening , but , Imran seemed unfazed as if he's not guilty about what he did to me . Faridha had helped me sit down on a bench nearby . I was trying so hard to not scrunch my face from pain . All the others helped get me water and try soothing my pain too . But it's of no use , because as usual I started feeling afraid . My fear of men surfaced again .

Irfan wasn't smiling . And then something surprisingly shocking happened . Irfan raised his hand and with such force punched Imran on his face . We couldn't believe our eyes .

"Apologise. " Irfan said with a strong voice .

"Sorry." He said and ran away in the speed of light from the class .

"Thanks." I said to Irfan . Somehow I feel reassured that he won't hurt me . That he's a safe person .

"Anytime." He said with a genuine smiled .

"I love you so much , don't ever let that junk hurt you ." Faridha shouted at me but somehow Irfan seemed to have mistook the direction of worry .

Then the lunch bell went off and the last hour of the day started . This period was boring , because somehow the size of participants for the competition has shrunken and so only the participants were allowed to skip classes .