Broken Promises

• T E N •

~ z a y n a ~

"Mama..."

"Na'am, shoo bedek (yes, what do you want?)" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Nothing..." I said innocently, elbowing Nasreen. "You ask," I whisper to her.

"No." She whispers back.

"Zayna," my mom said, giving me a look. "What do you girls want?"

"Can Nasreen possibly drive Hala and I to school?" I ask tentatively.

She raised an eyebrow, "why? You don't like your brother driving you to school."

"I'm not saying that," I said quickly. I can tell Nasreen was holding in a laugh. "I'm just asking if Nasreen could drive us. Khalid is about to go back to college, and I don't want to bother him."

"You never seemed bothered whenever he took you last year. What changed? What are you hiding?"

"Mama, I'm not hiding anything." I groan. Why do Arab parents have to be so complicated sometimes?

"Khalto (Auntie), we're not hiding anything. Zayna just wanted for her brother to sleep in a bit in the morning before going off to college. So we thought, maybe I could drive her to school." Nasreen said calmly.

"Tayeb, habibti (okay, dear). You want to take her to school in the mornings, take her." I looked at my mom in disbelief. How can Nasreen convince her? I sometimes wonder if she trusts her more than me.

But wait, she would never agree like that.

"But," there it is, "you better not be skipping classes. And Khalid is still going to take you home in the afternoons. Understood?"

"Understood," I grin.

"I heard my name," Khalid pops his head in the living room. "What about Khalid?" He asked my mom but stole a few glances at Nasreen.

"Nasreen will take your sisters to school in the mornings. So that you can rest. Then you will take them home." Mom answered him, getting up from the couch and going towards her room.

Khalid turned towards us, "who's idea was it?" He asked, but his eyes were on Nasreen, who was looking at the ground.

"Eyes down, brother," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. No matter how much I would love them together, I still don't like it when he looks at her like that.

Nasreen's face turned red, but it was barely noticeable because of her tanned skin tone.

"And to answer your question, it was my idea." His face that was flushed a view seconds ago looked at me in disbelief. "I'm not heartless, you know. But it also wasn't la sawad a'yoonak (for the blackness of your eyes), it was so I could hang out with Nasreen more."

"Of course." He rolled his eyes and walked past me, purposely bumping into me making me stumble back.

"Rude," I mumbled underneath my breath. I sigh and turn around towards Nasreen. "Stop acting like you're shy. I saw you sneaking glances. Shame." I playfully scolded her.