RUN

chapter two

my name is alena mouza and i am the second child of my parents... i have an older brother,
asad who lives in doha with his wife and a younger sister,nasreen who is still in high school ...
my dad is mouza al malki..one of the top business men in Qatar...my mum is a full house wife by choice i guess.

my life has always been so easy and boring but i didn't mind till i turned 18.. that was when i discovered a lot. I wanted to do so many things. I wanted to explore, i wanted to leave my safe place to know what was beyond my home and that was when i brought up the issue about going to college somewhere else.

"alena..there are a lot of good colleges around..you would love them" my dad said trying to convince me after realizing shouting wasn't the way to go.

"but dad ive been living here all my life and I'm 18 already..let me go to michigan... I'd come back for every semester break i promise" i had told him
my mum had sat there saying nothing... she didn't want me to go either but she also wasn't against it. "sweetheart i think you should let make her choices before she starts rebelling..she has promised to come back every semester break" my mum had added standing up to go sit next to my dad.
my dad had sighed but i knew right then that i had won the argument. mostly cause my mum had pitched in...he always did have a knack for doing what ever she wants.

That day had been the best day of my life. I had called aida and sophia to come over so we could celebrate.. they we'rent all excited. They didn't want to miss me but i had found a way to still assure them they'd see me more often than they'd expect.

It's ten in the night and the day had gone by faster than I'd expected..the ceremony went fine except for aida looking so unhappy throughout and right now all i want is to have a warm bath and get under my covers. I get up to go fix the bath when i hear mum calling me downstairs.

I toss a Shayla(head scarf) over myself and go see what she could possibly want.

I immediately notice the atmosphere is rather grim. My dad usually has the tv on,watching news or something and mum would either be by his side or in the library reading but this night is different.

"alena come sit down" my dad says in a low tone. Well that's strange.

I notice mums eyes are looking puffy and that's when i get  scared.

"something happened this night and i want you to be strong when i tell you about it"my dad says looking anywhere else but me.

" ok dad I'm all ears"

"your friend aida is dead...she denied her husband his rights and went into a fit and before her dad could get to the house to calm her down ,she had drowned herself in the pool"

It all sounded surreal. I want to tell my dad to cut the bull shit and stop joking with me but the look on his face stops me.

i don't know how to feel, what to do, how to react, so i just sit there,tears running freely.  someone comes to hold me, but i can't feel anything at the moment.

How was one supposed to react to losing one's best friend. The same person i had seen this morning. I'm hoping it's just a bad dream and that I'd wake up anytime now.

The sound of the adhan(call to prayer)was what woke me up. i sit up rubbing my eyes, wondering why i have a splitting headache and then it dawned on me.

I had cried my eyes out yesterday. No one could stop the tears, i had run upstairs to mourn my friend and i had fallen asleep.

A tear rolls down my cheek,the pain in my heart is unbearable,
how could she do this to me,us.

I didn't know she was in this deep. she wasn't always the same after she lost her brother. she became depressed and she started distancing herself from i and sophia. we had tried so hard to make her see that everything would be fine. we thought we had succeeded, i guess we were wrong.

sighing, i rise from my bed to go perform wudu(ablution) to pray. I want to pray for my dear friend, because all i can do is pray.

                                 ~

I really don't want to get up, i just want to be left alone. Going to her three days prayer is going to make me more depressed than i already am,but mum keeps reminding me that i have to go, to show respect to my friend and that's why I'm here searching for my black himar and niqab.

I hear my dad complaining about  what i could possibly be doing.

"yes thank God ".. i quickly put them on and I'm rushing downstairs before i make dad mad.

Aida's place is full of people and I'm trying my best to hold back tears after seeing her mum on the floor with dried tears on her face. After they'd lost imran, they had doted on aida, and now aida has joined her brother and i want to get angry at her for causing so much pain to everyone.

"alena" i feel someone hug me from behind and i know its sophia.

"i thought you wouldn't come" she says and i can hear the sorrow in her voice even if i couldn't see her face.

" i didn't want to. mum forced me" i say turning to look at her through my niqab.

" well I'm glad you did, at least to pay your respect to her"

"yea that's what mum said"i sigh leaning against the wall.

" let's go talk outside and get some fresh air" she says heading towards the back door.

I sit next to her on the grass in Aida's backyard and memories keep flooding my mind.

I remember when we'd come over and trash the whole house when her parents were out and then lose track of time and start struggling to arrange the whole place back to its normal self, and then there were times we'd sneak out and go to the lake side to talk about our dreams and what would happen in 10 years time.

"you know she told me she'd rather die than be with that man" i say pushing the hurtful memories aside.
"I thought she was just joking".

sighing , soph lifts her niqab over her head and turns to me.

" i blame her dad for everything. she wanted to do so much and he just ruined it for her", thats when i see her tears running freely. Sophia wasn't one to cry so its rather strange seeing her cry.

" i know, but all we can do now is pray for her and be there for her mum, the woman has gone through a lot".

she nods and gets up. " they're about to start the prayer..lets go in".

standing up, i head into the house with her.

losing someone is probably one of the worst kind of pain there is.

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😪❤️byee