She was a Mirage.

PART 6- Ready or Not...

"Hamza Omar Abdullah!"

He smiled upon her remembering him,

"The one and only"

She smiled back even wider than I thought was possible.

"Can't believe I am meeting you after so many years!!"

"Definitely a welcome surprise for me as well"

While they exchanged pleasantries, I stood dumbfounded at the strange behavior. Ayesha saw me shuffling my foot against the tiles and decided to finally introduce as,

"Hamza this is my sister-like best friend and Addy this is Hamza, we are family friends but we haven't met for like 12 years. Our parents often keep in touch and have met at functions but we hadn't seen each other for ages. He used to be my best friend when we were younger."

"We were the naughty duo, always getting around to having fun but never causing trouble."

Hamza added to the fond memories.

Then another thought struck Ayesha, "That's Ali! Our Ali?" and where is Abdullah, our trio's calmer part?" Ayesha asked with an excited voice.

Hamza however matched her energy and replied, "Yes that is our Ali and Abdullah is very well, Alhamdulillah and has shifted to Dubai a few years back, however we still keep in regular contact"

That lunch went by them just reminiscing most of their memories while I spent most of it while talking to Devika and Jennifer. I was actually very happy she had found someone to laugh so heartily with. I did feel bad about how she usually didn't enjoy and laugh like that with me but then realized that it's because of how we were always together and it had become common for us to always act crazy around each other and in fact when we did laugh, she would laugh heartily. That was the thing with her. She could have faked smiles but eithout the dimole it would never be real and if her eyes didn't crinkle while laughing, none of her close kith and kin would be satisfied with it.
The week went pretty good.Ali never troubled us again but Ayesha and Hamza became partners in class due to sitting next to each other and I got stuck sitting with Mr. Vampire. No doubt there were too many fights which the former pair  had to quite often settle but the real shocker came that Thursday when I reached home all tired from a day of back to back  classes and my mom dropped a huge bomb on me,

"Adaab, beta (daughter), your dad and I would like to talk to you about something."
I looked at Waad and his wife Amina to help me out in the situation but Waad mirrored my expressions while Amina Bhabhi had a comforting smile on her face.

"Okay mama when papa comes home in the evening, we can talk."

I couldn't stop fidgeting obviously thinking about if I had done something wrong, as if I was 15 again. No crime came to mind and that just worsened my anxiety.

Ayesha entered my house when I was coming down from my room. She greeted everyone and then sat down to watch football with my dad and brother.

"Ayesha meine Waad ko bola hai, iss bar Spain jeetega. Dekho kaise khel rahein hai."
( Ayesha, I told Waad that this time Spain will only win. Watch how they're playing)

My dad told Ayesha.

"Uncle mein toh khud keh rahi hoon"
(Uncle, I myself have veen saying that)
My mom and Bhabhi sat enjoying their conversations and seeing everyone sitting together, I fled from the scene, wanting to push "the talk" as far as I could.

I went to my room and messaged Ayesha to come up and heard her casually make an excuse about something random and strolling in my room with a bowl of homemade French fries.

She confused me so much sometimes. She didn't even seem curious about the whole situation so of course I asked her,

"Yeesha, you don't even seem curious, and here I am almost dying"

"Addy, me being curious or you being scared isn't going to help. You have no reason to be scared, just pray that it's something good because you haven't done anything wrong."

For some reason Ayesha had been someone who always knew the right thing to say at the right time. I don't know how she read people's minds but I never complained. It helped me a lot so I took full advantage of her superpowers. When she said those things I actually started to  calmed down. And just like that I was no more shaking every few minutes. She got up from my black study table chair and went to my T.V and put on "The suite life on deck the movie" and we both got on the bed and watched it till my mom called us down for dinner.

Before I could leave the room, Ayesha pulled me back, made me breath in deep and then guided us both back out.

Once reaching the bottom of the stairs, she started heading towards the Abayah holder to leave quietly and of course got called out by my mum.

"Ayesha Sulayman where do you think you're going?"

While hissing she replied, "Back to the dorms T (she called my mum T) , where else?"

"And who is going to have your portion of the dinner?"

"You can save it in the fridge. I'll eat it tomorrow when I come back with Addy."

This time Bhabhi spoke up, "Ayesha why wouldn't you just have dinner with us?"

"Bhabhs I love eating with you guys", at their questioning glance she continued, "But I realize that you guys have to have an important conversation and it should happen with only family present."

Ayesha had been considered family by my family way too many times. They acknowledged her as their second daughter but she was just an idiot who was too annoying to take advantage of it

"Ayesha meri jaan. Agar tum family nahi hoti toh yeh baat mein tumse pehle kyun discuss karti?"
(Ayesha,my life, if you weren't family, why would I have discussed about the thing with you first?)

My eyes widened in shock,

"YOU KNOW? AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?"

"Listen, I just thought it would be better if you heard it from your parents" Ayesha smiled sheepishly

Before I could start chasing her my dad spoke up, "You did good Bache (kiddo) , Adaab, come sit and everyone sit. At least have dinner without being so hyper."

We listened to the head of the family and took our seats. After everyone had food on their plates, my dad spoke again,

"Adaab before we tell you anything, I want you to know, that you can say no and we will listen to everything you say and obviously the final say will be yoursbut don't take decisions without giving it a thought or in a hurry."

I might have sported the most confused expressions because other than my parents, the other 3 chuckled at my face. Without wasting any more time my dad continued, "Adaab my boss has a 2 daughters and a son. His son is your age and he is aware that I have a daughter of a similar age. He has heard a lot about you from Waad and I." At that statement, I tried to look at my older brother who was desperately trying to find something more interesting. Ayesha tapped my knee thrice which was our signal to tell the other person to focus on the conversation because it was important.

"He asked me if I would take the offer of his son hand in marriage to you."
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