A Non-Hijabi's Perspective

Chapter Four: Lower Your Gaze!

"Are you ready?" I heard my mom yell from her bedroom, as I quickly examined myself in the mirror, once more.

"Coming!" I shouted back, grabbing my purse, as I headed out my room.

Currently, my family and I were getting ready to go to a dinner at Amir's house. It sucked, I know. These dinner parties were where all of the Pakistani's would go full our with their outfits, I swear. Most of the aunties look like they are at a wedding or something.

I was wearing shalwar kameez. It was a white long flowy dress that reached above my ankles. It had red and gold detailing, and I wore it with white leggings that would scrunch together. It was full sleeves, but the sleeves were see-through. I also had a dabatta (a scarf) that hung over my shoulder. I paired it all with small black wedges.

I curled my hair, and applied some makeup, which consisted of red lips, mascara, blush and winged eyeliner.

I exited my room, and ran downstairs to the door, where the rest of my amily were.

"Jaldi karo! (hurry up)" my dad scolded, as he locked the front door behind me.

"Hurry, hurry," my mom said, walking fast to the car.

My brother just lazily followed us to the car, while I rushed with my mom.

To be honest, I was only excited for the food.

The food at Pakistani dinner parties were heavenly, I swear. They were the best ever, especially Amir's mom. She was a great cook.

We all settled into the car, and sped away, off to Amir's house.

We were always late to these type of parties. But, aren't all Pakistani families late to everything? For real, like if you invite people over at 7, they will all actually come at 8.

And that was the situation with us.

After ten minutes of driving, and ten minutes of my family complaining and fighting for the oddest reasons, we finally arrived.

My stomach was churning, since I hated coming to Amir's house, because I had to see him. We have known each other for the longest time. We used to be childhood friends, but he grew up and became all weird and stuff, so I started disliking him. I knew it was not good to dislike people, but I tried my best to tolerate him.

"Assalamualaikum!"

And I was pulled into a hug by Amir's mom, and kissed both my cheeks.

"Waalaikumassalam," I replied, grinning at her. She was actually really sweet, and I loved her.

"You look very pretty today!" She complimented smiling at me.

I smiled back. "Shukriya! (thank you.)"

After my whole family was greeted by Amir's parents, we were led into the house.

The house looked the same, for ages. It had the same black furniture as well as the same rugs and same pictures hung on the wall.

Then I saw Amir, slowly descending from the stairs, with a smirk.

Uzair went up to him and they did that weird bro hug thing.

"Wanna come upstairs?" Amir asked us.

We both shrugged.

"I guess that's a yes," he said, and we followed him upstairs to his room.

Uzair and Amir were talking about sports as we walked, and I was completely lost. I wasn't the type of person who was interested in those stuff.

As we finally came upstairs, I saw a bunch of toddlers running around and doing toddler-y stuff. One little girl hugged Amir's leg. "Do you have any games on your phone?" She asked, as she looked up at him, with a toothless smile.