Muslim Love Story (Under Major Editing)

Chapter 8 - BULLY

Edited. ✅

x HIRA x

I walked out of the classroom a short while after Amir did. Obviously I had to explain Amir's little outburst to Mrs Jensen.

Once I left the class, for some reason my mind kept replaying Amir's words. It wasn't focussing on anything else in my life that was clearly more important than Amir, but it was thinking of his words, his facial expressions, his thoughts etc.

I walked directly to the cafeteria, not bothering to put my books away into my locker. As soon as I walked in, I saw Hawwa.

She was sitting in our usual spot, talking on the phone, probably to Yaseen.

Yaseen was her husband. They met at our Jamiya and got married a couple of months ago. Yes, she is married at 18, no they do not live together.

After both of them realised that they were exactly what the other was looking for, they spoke to their parents about not wanting to wait and eventually married. Now, they're waiting for Hawwa's school to finish so they can move in together.

Yaseeen, two years our senior, had already finished school and was halfway through his university degree, allahumma barik.

I walked closer and sat down across her, looking around the cafeteria and quickly spotting Amir sitting with all of his new friends that were in the 'popular' group.

He laughed loudly, throwing his head back and hitting his palm on the table, clearly finding something very funny. Most of the table was laughing along with him while I was sitting here feeling like absolute crap for having called him a failure. He didn't look at all offended or caught up on my words though. His friends were helping him feel better, I guess.

I looked back at Hawwa who was smiling widely as she spoke into the phone. "Tell her I'll try and come but you know my parents about their dinners." She said before falling silent and listening again. "No, I don't...okay, I'll ask and I'll let you know. Tell her thank you. Okay. Alright. Yeah, sure. Wa alaykum salam." She finally concluded before ending the call and locking her phone. I gave her a small smile, shaking my head as if saying what's up.

"Mama Ayah is inviting us for dinner on Friday, that's all." She said.

I nodded. "Nice! Your mum and dad will probably only go if it's altogether." I chuckled.

Hawwa's parents had put forward conditions to Hawwa's marriage with Yaseen. One of them was obviously that Hawwa was to stay at her parents until she finished high school. The second was that Yaseen would not stop her from pursuing further studies. Three, Hawwa was to be with them for dinner until she moved out. They obviously had exceptions here and there where Hawwa and Yaseen would go out to eat together, but generally speaking, Hawwa, although was Yaseen's wife, was still living the way she was before they married.

She looked at me weirdly, clearly picking up on the fact that something wasn't quite right and she raised a questioning brow. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

She raised her brow even more. "You don't look okay. What happened?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Just said something in class that upset Amir a bit."

"And that effected you, why?" She rolled her eyes, looking at me as if I had just grown another head.

"What do you mean? I'm not used to upsetting people and making them sad."

Hawwa scoffed and looked towards Amir's table, both of them making eye contact just as he was laughing. He stopped when he saw us looking. Hawwa rolled her eyes once again, this time directing the annoyed expression to Amir.

"Honestly he looks perfectly fine. He was probably just trying to make you feel like crap."

I shrugged my shoulders mumbling 'maybe' before deciding to take one last damned look at their table, only to see him pointing at me, causing for the girl next to him to give me a disgusted glance and then make a comment that made Amir laugh loudly once again.

Well, that's nice. Not obvious at all.

I took a deep breath before looking at Hawwa.

"I think I need some air." I said before hurriedly getting off the table and speeding out of the cafeteria, later realising that I had left my books inside.

There was no way I was going to go back to get them now.

That'd be way too embarrassing. Like I wasn't embarrassed enough already.

I looked back to make sure Hawwa wasn't coming after me, but the moment I turned back, I slammed into a hard body and fell back to the floor.

"Ow." I muttered as I looked back and groaned even more when I saw that it was Jacob. I stood up as he yelled.

"Watch where you're going, loser!"

"Sorry." I said, starting to walk away, not giving him much of a glance.

He grabbed my arm and I snatched it away quickly. "What?"

"Say sorry properly! You just put all your terrorist germs on me!" He grabbed my arm once more

Was this guy serious right now? Terrorist germs? Really? Jacob was definitely a twelve year old stuck in an 18-year-old's body.

"Hey! Get your arm off her, bro!"

I looked up and saw Justin approach Jacob, his eyes narrowed as he glared at him harshly.

"You get lost, Parker." He seethed, speaking through his teeth and using Justin's last name.

Justin exhaled. "Come on, man. Pick on someone your own size." He reasoned, gesturing to my form which was one third of his size probably.

Jacob looked from him to me and narrowed his eyes further. "I'll see you soon, terrorist."

I exhaled and turned to Justin with a smile. "Thanks."

"It was nothing. Are you okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah, perfectly fine. Used to it I guess."

He nodded. "You know that he bullies everyone, yeah? It's not only you." 

"I know, I know." I smiled at him, appreciating his kindness. "I feel sorry for him actually. He must have a hard life if he feels the need to bully people the way he does."

"I guess, that still isn't an excuse to do it though." Justin shrugged and I nodded in agreement. "Anyway, I was gonna say, for our science project, I overheard you and Amir, or whatever his name is, arguing. Mine and Hailey's topic is pretty easy and since you're most likely going to be doing all of it yourself, did you want to switch topics? Me and Hailey can do yours and it'll be easier for you to do our topic."

Aw! That was so sweet! "Does Hailey mind?"

He shook his head no. "Nah, she's completely cool with it. Jensen even said it's fine." He winked.

I widened my eyes. "You told her that Amir's not gonna do anything?"

"No, man. I'm not a snitch. I just said that we all wanted to change the topics and she was cool with it."

I nodded. "Okay cool, thanks so much, Justin. I appreciate it."

"No problem. See you later." He smiled back at me before walking down the corridor.

Justin was a very nice guy. Probably one of the few friends I had at school. Even that small gesture of kindness was enough to lift my bad mood away. Alhamdulillah.

Now, one more class and then finally...home time.

Except if only I knew what was going to happen when I got home, then I never would've prayed for the day to fly by so quickly...

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What do you guys think is going to happen when she gets home? 😬

Assalamu Alaykum. ❤️