Dear Z,

Chapter 11

Dear Z,
We will be long gone. Our traces erased. No one to remember us by and yet we give a shit about people we care. No one answers why.

• • •
Zaid

Wednesday Evening

I watched Adrianna admire her mehendi. She looked terrifically happy. I think I have never seen her genuinely joyful for herself with a man. It makes me wonder about myself sometimes and I halt it before it washes over my head.

I turn away to reach in my pocket and bring out a small candy. I unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth. The flavor of sourness conquers my mouth as I sit on the grass, plucking the green strands with all of my cousins in a spaced out circle here in the backyard.

The Mehendi ceremony was long over. It happened mid morning today. It's actually an important ritual where women of the bride's family and her female friends gather together and a professional was brought in and draws beautiful and newest bridal mehendi designs on the bride's hands and feet. Even the rest of the party get their hands inked with mehendi for the fun of it. It's said that the groom's initials are hidden in the design and he has to find it on the wedding night. That last part I don't know if Adrianna did it. I wasn't around for it.

All day I was cooped up in my room with Wade and since we had nothing to do, we played video games. Juvenile I'm sure but I was bored.
I was comforted oddly by the sounds of guns firing through the computerized fields of dirt and splashes of pixelated bloodshed. Soon enough we were called down and we pretended to like the weird designs on the girls's hands as they shoved them up in our faces to show it off.

I lean back on my elbows, watching the evening sky turn pinkish blue. Citronella candles burned on the fences and porch. The grass was cut fresh and the earthy perfume lingered in the air.

All the cousins gabbed with one another and I looked left, like I did twenty times, watching Rose and Liam whispering to each other, near the back door. I don't even know what is he doing here. The groom and his family weren't supposed to be here.

The only reason we were sitting out only because mom's hired designers and their workers were decorating the house for tomorrow's event- Sanchaq. It's when the male members of the groom's family visit the bride's family with gifts including sweets, a bridal outfit with accessories and jewellery. This is the last pre-wedding ritual, signifying the blessing, affection, and support of the male members of the bride's new home.

In conclusion, Liam has to go. Seriously, I want to get up and grab that idiot, kick him out of the house.

I pluck out more grass, the strands tugged up from its roots making a distinctive silent sound which makes me feel unhappy and vindictive.

I bloody know I'm pretending I don't give a rat's ass but I lean towards Wade, whispering, "What's Liam doing here?"

He was talking to Gina when he stopped to turn at where Lima stood. Shrugging, he says, "Probably wanted to ask Rose out. God knows."

I suck my teeth. I take another glance at them. My throat works as I check her attire for today.

She wore black jeans that stuck to her legs, illustrating her sinuous thighs and the halter top that was tied around her neck in the back. It was dark violet. It hugged her rack. It complimented her features so well that I had to stop myself from gazing back at her but I couldn't. She had been naked last night under her bedsheet. I knew it and I felt a dizzy regret when she had threw on her nightshirt.