RAMADAN SPECIAL

PART 1

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"Do you think I'm showing?" she had grabbed a fistful of her clothes right at the center of her back so her black abaya was clinging tightly to her midsection, especially her stomach. "Hmm?" she looked through the mirror she was currently inspecting at to her sister in law sprawled on her bed rather dramatically

Yasmin sat up and with a rather bored expression said "You're two months pregnant, of course you're not showing!"

Laila let go of her dress annoyed "Why am I not showing yet?" she plopped down on the bed beside Yasmin who didn't understand why they were having that conversation.

"You know, usually, pregnant women don't want to show"

"Well I don't understand why they wouldn't want to" she was rubbing her stomach again with that dreamy expression on her face for the umpteenth time since Yasmin came to that house

"You weren't even listening to me, were you?"

"Sorry," Laila apologized "I sort of zoned out. You were saying?"

"Do we have to go?" Yasmin groaned

"Of course, we have to go, they invited us"

"But we don't even know the owners of the house"

"Yeah but we know Maheen and she asked us to come. Besides, I want to enter that house, I'm tired of admiring it from the outside"

"Laila it's going to be so awkward with him there"

"I don't understand why you guys are being this way, I don't see the problem"

"The problem is in two weeks he's going to be in Australia and I don't want to deal with it"

"Wait. I thought you said he got admission into a university here and he was going"

"Yes then he changed his mind. Now he's going to Australia and we have to talk about it" she scrunched her face "I don't want to talk about it"

"Yeah but you have to" Laila said a hint of pity in her voice for Yasmin. She knew what it felt like to be separated by distance "You both have to understand what it's going to be like now that he's not going to be around, what you want to do about it" she paused "Do you both still want to be together or you want to take a break and see what happens"

"That's just it" Yasmin closed her eyes and fell backward unto the bed resuming her previous dramatic pose "I don't know what we want"

"What do you want"

She opened her eyes and looked at Laila before she admitted to Laila what she had refused to admit to herself. Because with Laila there was absolutely no need to pretend or lie, she wasn't that older sister that was overbearing and always commanding. No, she was the sister in law who chatted with Yasmin like she was her own sister and like there wasn't an age difference between them.

And since most of Yasmin's life the only type of love she knew was the commanding and overbearing one that came from her grandmother, her uncle Rashid and her brothers when they were making one decision or another about her life; she welcomed the type of love she got from Laila with open arms. "I love him"

Laila jumped into a squatting position on her bed and pulled Yasmin up so they were face to face, excitement oozing out of every inch of her being "What do you mean you love him?"

Yasmin was blushing and refusing to look Laila in the eye but she explained "He's so sweet and kind and nice, and despite that we've been together for months I still feel all nervous when we meet... and I love how he treats me" Laila smiled "He's not controlling or bossy or annoying; he talks to me like..." she snapped out of it and sighed "But that's just me. I don't know what he wants to do and I'm afraid to find out"