Tumultuous Love

Chapter 5

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It is the weekend after Fatima went to visit her step family and she was neck deep into studying. It is that time of a school semester when her social life crashed; exams. Her first semester examinations were starting the following day and she doesn't want to take any chances on failing, she never took any chances even in secondary school. She always put her self away from the outer world a week before any examination so she could maximize the amount of school work she would be able to revise.

She has only seen Amina outside of class once throughout the week, she went to the library immediately after any lecture and then straight to her apartment when the sun started to set to study some more only stopping for prayer breaks, then she would eat by 10pm and go to sleep. Amina managed to get her to go to the coffee shop on campus on Wednesday of that week after guilt tripping her for abandoning her and she barely spent 30 minutes with her before going to the library. She didn't talk with Saudah a lot either, they had spoken on the phone twice, the first when she reached Jeddah to tell her she had arrived safely and then the second on Wednesday and that too because Amina wanted to speak with her. The only person that was still a constant in her life is her mother, she made sure she FaceTimed her everyday before going to sleep, it was the last thing she did before going to bed. Fatima felt guilty for abandoning most of the people in her life, but if she would be anything, it would never be a Failure and she wasn't planning to start now.

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It is already 4pm and Fatima stood up for the second time since 10am to observe asr. She is planning to go out and buy food after she is done so she won't have to spend a lot of time cooking. She had been eating take out for the majority of the past week because she didn't want to spend too much time cooking when she could order takeout and read in the mean time.

She closed her laptop and stood up to go to the bathroom. She noticed her phone flash while coming out of the toilet, it was a phone call and the call had already ended by the time she got to where it was on her bed. It was Amina who has called her 5 times in the past hour. She panicked immediately as she dialed her number, Amina never called anyone more than twice unless it was absolutely necessary, moreover, she had understood that Fatima needed to study. She picked the call on the last ring and she sounded like someone whose life was being taken out. "Fatima please come and save me, I'm going to die" she said very weakly. "Subhan Allah, what is wrong Amina? Are you okay?" She asked already throwing on an Abaya. Thank God Amina's apartment building was barely a five minute walk from hers, three minutes if she ran. She took her wallet and ran out her door, locking it in a haste. "I feel so dizzy and I need water" Amina croaked. "I'll be there in a few" Fatima answered cutting the call.

She got there in less than five minutes and had to wait for almost ten minutes for Amina to crawl to the door. "Ya Allah, your body is burning!" Fatima exclaimed. Amina weakly sat on the couch while Fatima quickly ordered an Uber and walked into Amina's closet to get her an abaya.

The Uber driver arrived in less than five minutes and in that time, Fatima had been able to pray asr, get Amina into an abaya and get her to at least be able to sit. The hospital was 15 minutes away from the apartment but it was Sunday so it took them about 10 more minutes to get there.

They were able to see a doctor in less than five minutes and he advised they stay the night, Amina was having intense period cramps and needed two bags of saline solution. Amina didn't want to miss her exams scheduled for the next morning and threw a huge tantrum, Fatima had to promise her she would write her exam tomorrow and they would go back home as soon as her treatment is done.

So Amina agreed and they gave her a room, it was already evening by then and Maghreb was about to be called in less than thirty minutes. "Are you feeling better?" Fatima asked as she took a seat next to the bed. Amina nodded weakly with a small smile on her lips. "I'm sorry I couldn't pick your call earlier" Fatima added guiltily, "it's okay, I wouldn't have called if I didn't feel like I was dying, wallahi my head was spinning it felt like my soul was being taken out, everywhere hurt so bad" and bubbly Amina was back. Fatima shook her head, "we'll you're not dead" she replied sassily. They continued talking about random stuff until it was time for Maghreb and Fatima had to go to the hospital mosque to pray since they didn't bring a prayer mat or anything at all.

"I'll put my number on speed dial, just call me if anything goes wrong, okay?" Fatima kept the phone on her chest, reluctant to leave her alone. "The nurses are outside malama, if I need anything I just have the press that button" she pointed to a red button close to the bed. "I know but call me still" she answered. "Toh naji, hurry up and come back" Amina replied slightly pushing her to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done okay" she stepped out of the room and stopped at the door to wave. "I'm not a child Fatima Kabir" Fatima heard Amina shout as she closed the door and started waking down the hallway. She shook her head at her antics. Typical Amina!

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Fatima was done praying in less than ten minutes so she hurriedly wore her shoes and started fast-walking back to Amina's hospital room, looking at her phone every ten seconds just in case Amina calls. Who could blame her? This was the first time anyone she knew had fallen sick and she was the only one there to cater for them, to make matters worst, she didn't even pick her call early. She was still feeling guilty about that but Alhamdu liLlah, Amina was better now. She would have carried that guilt for the rest of her life.

She felt herself abruptly bump into someone and her phone fell. "I'm so sorry, my mind wasn't here" she heard a muscular voice. "Oh it's okay, I wasn't looking either" she replied as she collected her phone that he had bent to pick. She examined it for a few seconds and concludedonly the screen protector was broken, the damage wasn't much so continued on her way, not minding if the guy had left or not. "Hey!" He ran to catch up with her, she stopped walking and turned to look at him. This guy was seriously wasting her time and she needed to get back to Amina. She raised one eyebrow in question. "Your screen protector is broken because of me so I owe you one" then he dipped his hand in his pocket and brought out a card, "I have somewhere important I have to be so please call my number at your convenience".

She looked at the card then at him in a slightly confused slightly irritated manner, then she nodded, put the card in the pocket of her abaya and continued walking.
One thing was on her mind as she opened the room door; She was definitely not calling some guy she bumped into because of a broken screen protector.

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I'm so sorry guys🥺 I know y'all are tired of my flimsy excuses🤦‍♀️ I'm just so lazy and I'm having a hard time putting the ideas in words. The ideas are there, but i don't know how to write it in a way that makes sense. You guys probably don't understand what I'm saying but I promise I'll try and update more often. Just please pray for me😓

Oh and Happy new month guys, I hope and pray the second half of this year will be better than the first half💗

With love,
Fatimah❤️