A Castle In The Air [Completed]

30. But Things Change

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The reception which was scheduled for two days after the wedding was a blast. The whole wedding week in fact was something Zoha had never experienced before. This wasn’t how marriages were celebrated within her family or anywhere in the countryside. She hadn’t even known that the elite did it so differently, with such extravagance and entertainment. It was the first time she’d been to a luxury wedding, and it felt more like a grand party with extraordinarily fancy dresses and a lot of glitter and glamor, and the bride and the groom hardly sat on the stage at all.

Maya was springing from one corner to the order, chatting and laughing and drinking a little too much of the margarita mocktails that were served on silver platters. Maybe she was nervous about the wedding night and was simply trying to steer herself off the anxiety, Zoha thought. She didn’t dare try to approach her about the matter though, not after what Hisham had said to her. It was hard as it is to brush off the words and the tone and then his brief revelation of odd vulnerability, to venture into the ‘horrors of the marital bed’ was the last thing she’d wanted. It's a pleasure for the married, another of their mutual friends had amended without a beat to the comment made by the first one. You’d be crazy to think there wasn’t a group of friends present at the wedding and not discussing  the bride's impending loss of virginity. It’s essential, if you must know.

The glamour tore her from the misery of her own thoughts, but once the car sped off taking Maya and Habil to their new home, it returned to her in a rush - the pang in her chest, the burning confusion and the suspense of her own future.

Standing there along the gravel path with a few other friends and close relatives of Maya, she didn’t know what the heaviness in the pits of her stomach was about. That is, until her eyes caught him across the lawn, with a few other guys and Zill being among them, staring back at her. Pursing her glossed lips, she turned and stalked off in the other direction to gather her stuff and call home. If Hisham hadn’t said what he did to her in the hospital, if he had instead felt what she did, if he had been a decent guy, maybe she’d have passed him shy glances if they’d still met here, maybe they’d have shared some stolen moments. Maybe he’d have even made her some promises. But it’s all a little too perfect to be real, isn’t it? Romantic love after all is nothing but a fantasy, isn’t it? And Zoha knew that’s what the heaviness was about. She wanted that fantasy. She was secretly hoping for it. Like every other girl does. In reality though, she will end up with the match her family had decided for her, probably the man she’d never even seen, let alone know. In reality, men only desire sexual intercourse, they want nothing to do with emotions and feelings.

In the end, dreams fall apart and hopes crumble. And so girls who build up walls and present them as unavailable, girls who have eyes only for the man selected by their parents right from the beginning, are the girls on the right path, are the girls who rock life.
And that display of emotion? It had nothing to do with her. Zoha knew it was his past sins or mistakes or...murders even, that was getting back at him. But nothing to do with her, she was sure.