Heaven From Here

eight

And as our lives change come whatever

We will still be friends forever

Graduation, Vitamin C

Hanna waited a few feet away from the entrance of the Peggy Porschen café in Chelsea. It was 11.00am on a Sunday, 7 degrees Celcious out, and no amount of chocolate cake was worth this much effort she thought to herself rolling her eyes. This was their last girly catch up before Sana gets hitched, and because of that they had all promised to be dressed to the nines for brunch.

When Hanna got the call from Layla, her mind was so muddled that she simply agreed to the location without even checking the menu. When she finally did, everything sounded so hoity-toity that she almost backed out of it. Sana, the bride, to be had guilted her into attending the Sunday brunch as Hanna had missed the Hen-do a month ago. Hmm, a warm and greasy Doner kebab would be great right now, she thought her mouth watering, with salt and vinegar chips.

That was the only reason (and the chocolate truffle cake) that Hanna was standing, out in the cold, with her feet encased in 3 in boots, wearing a leopard print sequined skirt that she had paired with an oversized beige cable knit jumper which she had half tucked. Not that you could see any of those since she had her camel colored trench coat on. Hanna choose the closes beige colour scarf and tied it in a simple turban style, wrapping around her head and tied back like a low bun at the nape of her neck. She had wished she thought of layering up with another scarf so that she could have kept her nose warm.

Hanna was dying to go in and warm herself but she had received texts from the girls in their WhatsApp group that they just minutes away from reaching the café. Her hands warm by the fleecy lining in the pockets of the trench coat, she felt the feeling of incredulity settle upon her. I cant believe Sana is getting married, she thought to herself.

At first there was only two of them; Hanna and Layla. They were neighbours living two streets away from each other on the same street. Layla's parents were from Pakistan and were in London to pursue their Master's degree. Once they were done with that, Layla's father decided to continue with his PhD and her mother decided it was time to start a family. Layla's birth was the defining point of their lives, it was then that they decided they would permanently settle down in London.

It was the first year of the school that Layla's mum noticed a Hanna's mum. She was polished and beautiful, in her triangle head scarf that she would so carefully place on her head with the ends pinned above the shoulders. One was able to see glimpses of the fiery red hair, the same red that Hanna inherited from her mother. Alone and a first time mum, Layla's mum quickly befriended Hanna's mum, and the rest as they say was history.

Layla was family to Hanna. She was there when Hanna's first tooth came out. She was there when Hanna had her first period and was too scared to tell her mother thinking that she was dying. She was there when Hanna's mum had passed, silently holding a 14 year old Hanna as she sobbed. There weren't many secrets between the two so the fact that they still hadn't discussed Hanna's 'arranged marriage' was making Hanna's eyebrow tick. Groaning in frustration, she pressed her fingers on her eyebrow as she felt the muscles twitch rhythmically, totally out of her control.

They met Sana when they were 10 years old. Sana was the new transfer student from Pakistan; fresh off the boat complete with the oily hair in long braids hanging limply down her shoulders. No one wanted to befriend the 'Paki' with stinky hair. But a science project where Hanna was partnered with Sana started a tentative friendship. Their friendship solidified when Hanna and Layla divulged about their obsession with Bollywood to Sana. The girls bonded over their mutual love of Shah Rukh Khan, doing movie marathons and reenacting the dance sequences from the movies. Although Layla was more of a Salman Khan fan, Hanna thought rolling her eyes at this.