She was a Mirage.

PART 5- Brooklyn...

I was woken up from these memories by Ayesha handing me a cup of apple juice without moving her eyes from the screen in front of her. I smiled and realized that, that day I saw her and accepted her as the older sister I never got and I will always continue to do so.

I spent the 15 hours either sleeping or eating while Ayesha crammed every possible hobby into those hours. She watched movies, read her novel, worked on a poem, sketched on her touch screen laptop and I don't remember what else. She just couldn't sit idle. For some reason we were opposites here. I could spend hours just watching the fan move in the same direction whereas, even if she had 10 minutes of a break, she wouldn't waste  it on a powernap. She'd rather stretch and exercise a little bit. When we finally landed,she bought another coffee at Costa, giving me the excuse that it was a different day and added a sheepish smile. I was too tired and sleepy from the flight while Ayesha stood as fresh as a sunflower,it felt like I should have ordered that coffee, with extra shots of espresso

I told her to call the "lady woman human" who was supposed to pick her up from the airport while my brother was going to take me home. She told me to leave as soon as my brother arrived to pick me up and I specifically told her to shut up.

Once the 2 girls, Jennifer and Devika had arrived with little to no help from me with directions to locate us, I left her with them and went home with my brother, Waad.

That day we started our journey at University.

Obviously Ayesha had spread her magic there as well. There were still people who didn't like her yet she never gave them the time of her day.Always either smiled or just avoided any conversation. It was in this exact way however, when I met my soul mate.

One morning when I was coming out of literature class with Ayesha, we were stopped abruptly by 3 guys. The leader of the three had jet black hair and onyx eyes. His eyes held anger and frustration and his face was drawn into a frown. He had fair almost too pale skin like the one of a vampire.

He spoke, almost spat, "Where do you both think you're going?"

Ayesha calmly replied, "Cafeteria."

He continued, "You both just think of yourselves as the high and mighty. Just because you're teachers pets doesn't mean you're better than everyone else."

Now by this time I was ready to fight him, both verbally and physically, because we hadn't even done anything to anger them but Ayesha held my hand back, fortunately no one noticed this action. There was no trace of anger or fear on her face and that somehow calmed me down.

There weren't many people watching, almost as if people were used to this kind of behavior.

She looked straight at him and said, "Ali we haven't done anything to you and by no means did we ever try to appear pompous either."

I guess her voice and eyes did the same thing they did with everyone because he pushed off the wall he was leaning on and almost looked ashamed, with another low growl, he soon left while hiding his eyes from Ayesha.

We were about to leave too when we were interrupted again by a calmer voice.

"Excuse me?"

This time by someone extremely different. He had almost golden brown hair and hazel eyes. He was towering barely 2 inches above Ayesha's own 5, 11 height.

"My name is Hamza, I am Ali's cousin brother. I apologize for the way he acted with you both, he isn't actually like that, it is actually because of those friends of his. Once again forgive him"

He said all this calmly although you could detect agitation in his voice.

Even though he had been really nice to us I was ready to tell him off for his cousin but Ayesha pulled me back by putting her arm around my shoulder and softly tapping my upper arm.

"Honestly, its fine. We could tell he felt bad for doing all this. I am not really sure why he's doing it all but In Sha Allah he will be back to being him again. Don't worry."

Of course he returned the comforting smile she offered him and then with a wave and greetings we started to leave, but he stopped us again.

"Ayesha!"

Ayesha turned around and looked at him in confusion as any sane person would if someone would just scream their name after having finished a conversation.

She raised an eyebrow at him

He replied by repeating it again, "Ayesha Sulayman!"

It seemed as if hearing her full name from him caused her to strike upon a long buried memory.

Her eyes widened slightly as she recalled the known stranger in front of us

"Hamza Omar Abdullah!"

He smiled....
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