Closer to you

Chapter 5

It was Monday morning and the birds were chirping, the sun was beaming upon mine and Afifa's hijabs as we both happily inhaled a breath of beautiful, fresh air.

You thought that?

You thought wrong.

Reality is that British weather is gloomy. It's dark and depressing. Afifa and I had coincidentally crossed paths outside school and we now stood in the long queue going into the building in this very dreary weather. But seriously, what is up with the student traffic in the morning? Our school needs to invest in wider doors.

I cringed as I looked down to see the bottom of my abaya touching a puddle of water. I slightly hiked up my abaya with my hands. I peered to look at Afifa and saw she was doing the exact same as me, a grimace on her beautiful face.

"Sooo how was your weekend?" Since we're stuck stranded for a few minutes, I might as well start a conversation. I was surprised to see an excessive grin marred her features at my question.

"Spectacular-" ...which means it wasn't...

"My brother and his lovely cousins were at the house and they were oh so lovely-" I think she already said the word lovely.

"A wonderful set of boys they are, I tell you-" it's coming...

"So respectful, kind, gentle and caring-" uh oh.

"I was the only female in the house and they respected my boundaries-" is it only me, but is there more bite to her words now?

"When I said 'don't come into my room, I'm studying' they stayed away-" ok, she's going to combust any second now.

"And when I labelled my beautiful peri peri chicken burger with fries and placed it in the fridge, they definitely didn't eat it-" Ahh I see the problem now. If you ever come between Afifa and her one true love (which is food, if you didn't realise) I'm afraid it's goodbye for you.

"And not only that!" My eyes raised to hers as this seemed like the peak of her anger. Her voice lowered to a harsh whisper, "They. Definitely. Didn't. Steal. Layla."

"WHAT?" I was the one to shriek. We were near to the back of the queue so only a couple of people gave us weird glances. I gave a sheepish smile back before turning back to face Afifa wildly. "What do you mean they stole Layla?!" I whisper-shouted.

"Exactly what I said" she wailed "they...those criminals...those thieves...bloody. Cat. Thieves." her voice became progressively evil towards the end.

I shook my head in confusion but still managed to pat her arm in what I hope was a comforting manner. "How could your brother let that happen?" My brows furrowed. From what I knew about him, despite how much Afifa cussed him out, her brother seemed like a really good guy. So why would he let this happen? Why would he let his cousins steal my best friends cat?

"Because he's an idiot!"

....

"Also, you do know that when you said your brother and his cousins were 'lovely'...they are your cousins as well, right?"

"Not now they aren't!"

***

It was lunchtime, and, despite not sharing any of the same classes all morning, mine and Afifa's conversation continued where we had left it off back at the school entrance.

We were currently sat on the floor in the designated prayer room for females in our sixth form, indulging in some yummy food. The room was free to use during all of lunch time, but not many people seemed to use it. Judging by how quiet it is, it made for a perfect place to eat our food and to discuss seriously confidential information.