~ z a y n a ~
"Come on, finish the rest of your plate Hala," mama ordered.
"But I'm not that hungry," she whines.
Mom was about to reply when a phone started ringing.
"Who is it?" Baba asks.
A smile makes its way across her face, "it's Layla."
My head shot up at the name of Ali's mom.
"Hello," immediately mom's smile turns into a frown. "Take a deep breath, calm down...what happened?...inshallah (if God wills) we'll be there...Zayna?...I'll give the phone to her."
"What happened?" I ask.
Mama holds out the phone to me, "talk to Ali."
"What is it?" I ask worriedly.
Mom sighs, "it's his dad."
"What about him?" I tentatively ask.
"Layla says he collapsed. They called the ambulance, and he's now at the hospital."
"What?" I whisper in disbelief.
"Just talk to Ali." She says, and I grab the phone from her hand. I stood up from the table and quickly walked towards the living room.
"Hello?"
"Z?" I hear Ali croak.
"Are you okay?" I whisper softly.
"No," he sniffled. "I'm not."
"What happened?"
"I-I don't know. We were joking, and everything was fine when baba suddenly fell. Zayna, what if he is in a bad condition? What if they keep him here? What if-"
I cut off his rambling, "inshallah (if God wills), everything will be okay." I reassure him softly.
"Inshallah." He stayed quiet for a bit. "Z?"
"Hm?"
"Can you please come? I need you." He whispers weakly.
"I'll come." At that, he hangs up.
"Mama, I'm going with you!" I yelled before running up to my room. I threw on the first thing I saw, which was a pair of joggers and a hoodie. I then quickly grabbed my black hijab and wrapped it lazily.
I run down to the kitchen and see my mom putting the last food container in the fridge.
She comes up to me and kisses my forehead. "Remember, don't panic in front of him. You'll just make it worse."
"I know."
She went to get dressed while I sat down on the couch.
What if his condition is bad?
No, he's fine. Yeah, he will be okay.
Khalid appears next to me. "You good?" He says, putting a hand on my knee.
"Y-yeah," I whisper. Ali's dad has always been like a second father to me. If anything happened to him...
Stop Zayna. Positive thinking.
Baba walks in, keys in hand. "Yalla (Hurry up) ya Maryam!" Then he looks at me. "Why did you change?"
"I'm going," I say.
YOU ARE READING
Broken Promises
Spiritual"You're doing it again, Z," he spits out my nickname like it was poison. I wince. "And on the same day." He started clapping slowly. I swallow the lump and my throat and ignored the sting of the tear that slid down my face. "And when I thought we we...
