Zahra

25: Two hijabis are better than one

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most merciful.

Have they not pondered upon themselves? Allah created not the heavens and the earth, and that which is between them, save with truth and for a destined end. But truly many of mankind are disbelievers in the meeting with their Lord (Q: 30 V: 8)

Hailey didn't come to school the next day, neither did Kamilah. Ben was still giving Adam the cold shoulder, and kept to himself mostly. Adam told me that Hailey was still ignoring him, and that he suspected that she might have blocked him cause his messages weren't going through. I just nodded and said nothing, still feeling giddy from my conversation with Hassan last night, I didn't want anything to ruin my mood so I just tuned everything out. Zayd and Lucia? Not my business anymore, Mom? She'll be fine inshallah, Nadia? I'll hear from her soon inshallah, Hailey and Adam and Kamilah and Ben? They'll figure it out. I was done overthinking things.

Adam finally explained the whole thing to me and where it started from; apparently when Hailey was younger, from kindergarten to middle school; she was pretty chubby. And that made her the target of bullies; specifically Rachael and Mira, and Valerie later on when she joined the school. He said they tormented her for years, and Ben was the only one who stood up for her, they had been friends since they were in diapers which was the reason Ben was so protective of her.

"Hailey wasn't always the strong person she is now", Adam told me, "eventually the bullying drove her into skipping her meals and starving herself, she became so conscious of her weight and did everything to lose it. No one really noticed anything until she passed out in school, she was in the seventh grade then, shortly after that she was diagnosed with anorexia"

God, I was hating Valerie, Rachael and Mira more with each passing day. What kind of monsters were they?

"They put her into therapy immediately", Adam continued, "it took a year for her to recover, it was around that time that Kamilah joined the school and met them, I joined way later after Hailey had mostly recovered. Ben felt kinda guilty about not noticing anything sooner, so he made sure to take great care of her, he was by her side the entire time", a fond smile curved Adam's lips as he said this, "he was her biggest support, still is. I don't blame him for being furious with me, I'm mad at myself too"

When school was over and I was back home, doing my homework, I received a text from Hassan. A smile automatically found it's way to my face, I was still finding it hard to believe that he liked me too, it felt like I was the female lead in a cliche romance novel.

Hassan: hey you.

Me: hey you to you too.

Hassan: wyd?

Me: homework, you?

Hassan: If I said thinking about you, what would you say?

I rolled my eyes and blushed.

Me: I would say Astagfirullah.

Hassan: Nah, you're more of a Mashallah.

Me: OMG, were you always this cheesy?

Hassan: I don't know, it sounded much better in my head.

Me: Hmm, did it just pop into your head?

Hassan: Not really, I've pretty much had it at the back of my mind for a while.