Can't Let Go

twenty one

A few months later!

Walking down the hallways, Malaika had a gloomy look on her face. She has finally finished her bachelor's degree, last sem examination and technically she should be jumping in joy and feel relieved. But she does neither. Scoffing angrily, she gets into the car and asked the driver to get going. Her elder brother Fahad is finally getting hitched and she tried hard to be happy for him at least but failed big time.

She still remembered that day, how heartbroken it felt as the memories flashed back in her brain. The good and the bad. She remembers everything. Making it all the more difficult for her. Even if she wished, she couldn't get herself to hate Arsalaan now, and that bothered her a lot. Because she should be hating him, he ruined her life. But why the hell was she not able to hate him?

The devastated look on Arsalaan's face as she pushed him away on that day as he held her in his arms trying to shake her awake, still haunted her at times. It was as if he knew this day would come and he gave her a bitter smile in return and asked, "should I ask my driver to drop you or ?" to which she cut him off with a cold nod. That was the last time she has seen him or ever heard from him. It's been months now.

Arsalaan never contacted her. And that bothered her so much more. She hoped that at least he'd ask one sorry, try and win her back? Something... She wanted something from his side. But he just vanished from her life as if their time together meant nothing to him. Months ago, that was exactly what she wanted but now it annoys her to know that he's not even trying to take her back in his life.

Malaika now became so different from her usual self, worrying her family. They couldn't do anything knowing how stubborn she was being, and she had every reason to stay away from him. And they did support her in all the decisions. She didn't want to talk about Arsalaan Baig and they left it that way, which continued for months.

It was her routine these days, getting lost in his thoughts unknowingly; of how nice and caring he has been during their together time which would be replaced with the memories of how cruelly he had married her and then she'd become blank when someone asked something in between. She was a lost soul. Utterly clueless about what is happening around her.

It was a shocker that she has been able to keep a straight mind and give her exams. She still had her fifth-semester backlogs that were missed due to her memory loss, which can wait. She couldn't care less. The only reason why she gave her exams was her annoying mother, who always had a knack for making things happen her way.

"Ma'am we're here." the driver's voice brings her out of the daze, as she got down from the car and saw her cousins waving at her enthusiastically from outside the mall's entrance. That's right, she was forcefully dragged into the mall for wedding shopping. Faking a smile she waved back at them.

Zayn was busy with his phone while Inaya looked equally uninterested, Sara is staying at home as her due date is in a few days.

Her cousins; Asad, Amara, Shehryaar and brother Fahad, looked eager for being there though. Heaving an inward sigh, she walked towards them.

The elders were looking after the decoration stuff, leaving the shopping to them.

"How were your exams?" asked Asad, since the rest of them studied medicals or engineering, they didn't have their exams at the moment, but only Malaika was tortured to study all the time. She was exhausted with everything and her mother doesn't seem to understand her. No one understood her anyway.

"Good," she replied in a monosyllable, while they all walked in and looked at the jewellery section first.

Amara being the only girl took it upon herself to pick everything nicely, they didn't have any hopes from Malaika anyway and Inaya didn't want to be involved either. She was happy about it too. As long as they left her alone, it was all okay.