After the death of her mother, Rya, a sixteen year old girl, sets out to find her father, who she had not seen in fifteen years due to her mom's paranoia and desire to protect her.
The two finally find each other again. But, danger is always lurkin...
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Rya was homesick. Not in the sense where she merely missed her country and her culture but in the sense that went deeper than that. She was homesick for her mother, for her uncle, for her grandparents, for her old house. She was homesick for the dead and the perished. She was homesick for somethings that could never come back again.
So, she settled for doing absolutely everything she could to bury the part of her that desperately missed her dead family and focused on the other part, the one that missed her culture and the food.
That was why she had asked Sacha to come over to her apartment so that they could prepare some traditional mezzas. On top of her list of things to prepare were the taboulé, the fattouche and the hummus.
They had spent their whole afternoon simply cooking. Getting some help here and there from Chris that had wanted to learn a bit about the Lebanese cultural food– For Rya's sake, of course.
And, when the time came for dinner, they all settled down on the large table of their living room, talking animatedly together.
As she looked around the table, Rya could feel her eyes turn glassy and her smile watery as she looked around at her family, seeing the fleeting ghosts of all the missing people.
It was in moments like these, where they were all basking in each other's company that it hit her just how much she missed them, all of them. No matter how cold her mother had been, Mira was still good to her and she couldn't be more thankful for her.
Shaking her head out of those depressing thoughts she offered some more chichtawouk to Noah who had taken a particular liking to the traditional dish. It made her smile and feel elated that she could share that big part of herself with him.
Though she missed Lebanon, this was her new home, her new safe space. Next to her father, her uncle, her best friend and everyone else. Rya couldn't be more grateful for them.
"Rya?" Her father called out to her, worried because of her inanimate staring at her plate full of food.
The girl turned her head towards him and smiled lightly, shaking her head as to tell him that she was okay. She was happy in that moment, even if people were missing, she was content with the newfound sense of family she had with the new additions to her circle.
As if a light bulb flickered on inside of his head as he looked at their new piano–a used one Chris had found and brought home solely for Rya who missed hers back home–Noah pulled on the girl's sleeve in excitement. A huge grin covered his face and he whispered hurriedly in her ear, beckoning her to sing them all a song.
Rya hesitated at first, not sur if she wanted to sing in front of all of these people, only used to letting her beautiful voice out around her best friend. But, after much consideration she did. Not because Noah forced her, not because she thought he would get mad if she didn't, not to please him, But for herself.
