Lost

Chapter 45: The Never-ending Chase

Yesh! I made it. An early and lengthy chapter ;) Shower me with votes and comments, you lovely lil losties :P (Come on, I deserve it!)

Salma's P.O.V.

"Mum said you had passed out on the prayer mat in the morning." Asim said. "If you're having dizzy spells or --"

"I'm fine," Salma reassured her brother, "honestly."

Asim stared at her for a while as if he did not quite believe her. It seemed that he suspected her  of hiding something.

"Look, I don't mean to pry, but I heard you last night on my way to get some water . . ." Asim began cautiously. "You didn't get much sleep, did you?"

Salma stiffened.

"Just had a bit of a bad dream is all." She smiled uneasily, avoiding eye contact.

Salma could almost hear Asim's follow-up question forming in his head. A bad dream that made you cry? However, her brother seemed to know better than to put her on the spot like that.

"Look, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, but if you need to talk about it . . .?" 

"I know. Thank you." Salma quickly said, knowing she would never be able to open up to him on such matters. Not at the moment anyway, when what was causing her anxiety and loss of sleep was something they believe did not happen. "I am not going to lie I have a lot on my mind, but I'll be fine."

Asim opened his mouth to argue but the door was thrown open, cutting him off.

"And so I rudely bang on the – Oh, should I say barge through the door of my lovely --" James stopped when he saw the two siblings sitting on the bed.

His eyes traveled from Salma to Asim, and then back to Salma.

"What's kept you up here?" he asked, inviting himself in and completely disregarding Asim's presence, "I thought you said you were about to pray?"

Salma gave Asim a side glance. He had gone quite tense in James's presence. Not wanting to start a fight she bit back the retort she had at the ready for James.

"I was about to pray, but something important came up," she replied and turned to Asim, "Sorry to worry you. We can talk about this later if you want?"

Just to get the message across, Salma pecked her brother on the cheek. He made a face, bothered by the unnecessary affection. Salma got up to spread her prayer mat. From the corner of her eye, she saw James scowling at Asim as she started praying.

"Are you going to be alright if I don't kiss you, baby boy," James mocked a sorry tone, "I hope you weren't expecting that."

It took everything in Salma to not break her prayers and kick James out of the room.

***

The next day, Salma got ready for university, much to her mother's disappointment. 

"I thought you would be taking a few days off?" Alley frowned.

"I feel fine." she gave her mother a reassuring smile. "I'll take days off if I find it overwhelming."  

Salma refused to miss her classes. Partly because she did not feel like messing the new semester right off the bat, and partly because she wanted to distract herself. For some reason, after meeting Zayn, Salma had started having nightmares. It was triggering her anxiety and she wanted a break from it.

"I almost forgot," Asim said as he parked the car. He took a small envelope out of the glove compartment and held it up to her.