Broken Promises

• F I V E •

~ z a y n a ~

"Hey, guys," Nasreen and I sat down at the lunch table.

"Hey," Sara and Hayley say at the same time. Hayley was reading a book, and Sara was on her phone.

"How was your day Zayna?" Sara said, putting her phone down, popping some chips in her mouth.

"It was fine," I said, picking at my lunch food.

"Uhu. Your mood in the hallway would say otherwise. What happened?" She narrowed her eyes at me.

"It's nothing. I wasn't looking in front of me." I try and act casual about it.

"If something's wrong, you'd tell us, right?" Hayley said, looking up from her book.

"You guys, nothing is wrong. And of course, who else am I going to tell?" Sara and Hayley just nodded. Nasreen looked at me from the corner of her eyes.

"I heard we were getting a new student," Sara said, finishing her bag of chips.

"Girl or boy?" Nasreen asked.

"Girl," Sara answered. "Maybe she's nice, and we could have another person at this table." It would be nice to have someone new in the group. We continued talking about random things and joking around until the bell rang.

~•~

The bell had finally rung, and I ran out of the torturous science class. I walked up to my locker to only find two boys already standing there. Ali and Yaseen.

Yaseen was standing in front of my locker, blocking it. "Excuse me," I said.

He turned towards me, "oh sorry." He moved and stood on the opposite side of Ali.

While I was putting up my stuff, I notice Yaseen and Ali whispering. Yaseen kept looking at me then back at Ali. I just ignored them and put up my notebooks.

After I finished, I walk to the front of the school. It was pouring rain outside, and everyone was crowded in one area, trying to get to their cars. Despite the crowd, I found Hala standing on the side with Saba right beside her.

I was about to walk over when I felt someone tackle me from behind. Immediately I knew it was Nasreen, from her laugh, and I managed to keep her upright on my back.

She giggles, "onward." She put her arms around my neck, choking me a bit.

"Nasreen you're too heavy for me. I can't walk with you on my back."

"Nope. You still owe me a piggyback ride for when I gave you one."

"My ankle was sprained that day," I argue.

"I don't care. Move forward, peasant." I shake my head and manage to carry her to where Hala and Saba were standing.

She gets off my back and stands there grinning like an idiot. "Don't ask," I say to Hala and Saba, who looked at us weirdly.

"Where's Khalid? He's usually here by now." Hala asks, reminding me why I came up to her.

"I told him to stay home, and we would walk home." Hala looks at me with a raised eyebrow as she points behind her. Huh? There's not behind her but puddles from the rain... That's when the realization struck me. I mentally facepalm. "Oh no, its raining."