My Choice

Chapter Five

CHAPTER | FIVE | ALIZA | POV

All night my thoughts had been only on one thing and one thing only. Isa. I wondered if it was haraam to be having thoughts of your future husband; I hope not because I ended up thinking about him until it was time to pray Fajr.

It's a lucky thing I don't have any bags under my eyes or else I would have had to use an ounce of make up to try and cover it up. Doesn't mean that I didn't have to wear any anyway. Ma is now in my room looking for something for me to wear while I'm taking the longest I possibly can in the shower so that I don't have to go in there and let her do her 'magic'. By magic, she means make up.

I had no intention of making my face look as if it had been raped by a pack of Crayola crayons but apparently I have to look 'nice' when I'm about to meet my future husband. She's obviously trying to say that I look ugly every day. I noticed.

"Habibi hurry up. You've been in there for over half an hour!" I faintly heard Ma shout from the other side of the bathroom door.

Without replying back to her I shut the water off and wrapped myself in a towel that I had hung up by the sink. The boys and Dad went to the Masjid at the weekends to pray Duhr as they couldn't go during the weekdays because of school and work, so I could safely walk to my room in a towel.

Still not sure though if they were going to walk back in the house and up the stairs any second, I dashed to my room at the end of the hallway while hoping my towel wouldn't slip off or that I don't get the floor wet. That wasn't going to be a pretty sight if Mom saw.

"Ma where are you?" I asked as soon as I entered my room and had closed the door behind me shut. It was starting to get a little chilly.

"Over here Habibi. I think this will look nice on you today. No discussion. I'm going to make the rest of the food downstairs and you need to get ready," Ma was speed talking now and I was lucky enough to have heard what she said or else I wouldn't have known what to do.

As soon as she left my room I went over to my where my outfit lay. A bright blue maxi skirt with a crème crotchet and a full sleeved black shirt underneath. There was no Hijab laid out so I guess I'd have to venture for one myself in the mess of my wardrobe.

I have no idea why she thought I was going to argue about her clothing style because when I put it on I looked pretty good Mashallah and all that was left was my Hijab, shoes and the makeup which was Ma's job.

Opening the door to my room I went over to the edge of the stairs and called Ma up to do her stuff. "Ma I'm ready. You can come to do your so called 'magic' now!" 

While waiting for her to come upstairs, I went back to my room and looked at my shoes wondering which one I could wear that Ma would approve of. Sandals? No. Heels? Don't own any. Flats? Too worn out. Finally I saw my blue and white checkered Vans and slipped them on with the first pair of socks I found in my drawer.

By then Ma had already walked in my room. "Ma do you think these will do?" I asked her, hoping that she wouldn't tell me to take them off and make me wear one of her pairs of heels that she seemed to own a lot of.

Instead she smiled and nodded at me which took me back a bit but didn't show any sign of it. Ma was being unusually quiet today and I don't know whether it was we had guests coming over or that her favourite character in her musalsalat (Arabic for soap opera) died last night. What a mystery.

I shrugged it off for the moment being and headed to my wardrobe to fish out a matching Hijab that would go with my outfit. Hmm, looks like my burgundy one will have to do. Slipping my hair into a bun and making sure my Hijab had a bit of volume to it, I wrapped the Hijab around my head and with a pin, placed it all in place so that it wouldn't fall off. Looking in the mirror I would say I looked pretty good Mashallah.