The Unexpected Future

•CH 15: The night before -pt1•

*The night before her birthday*

Maya's POV

"Yes! We'll grab some food and go to this adorable Christmas market a few blocks away from school." Daniya shouted, her voice and movements filled with excitement.

It took her a whole day to convince me to go out tonight, to celebrate the day I was born. It wasn't that big of a deal for me, me turning 18 is cool and all and I'm glad I made it this far, AlHamdulillah, but I don't need a bunch of newly friends to acknowledge that. I love the family tradition we have going and I don't need or want to expand that now or anytime soon.

"Oh c'mon Maya, don't be so negative. I'm trying to be a good friend." Daniya added after I didn't express the excitement she was expecting.

She was right, I finally had a possible best friend and I was going to ruin that with my negative mindset.

I smiled widely and looked at her, "fine", I sighed, "but I need to ask my parents for permission first." I added.

Somewhere deep down I was hoping that my parents would forbid me to go out this late but then again I had one of the most laid-back parents in the entire world.

"Of course, go have fun," Dad said after I had asked him the question, accompanied by Daniya.

Daniya and I both cheered and thanked him.

"But," Dad added as we were about the leave his office.

Yes, we visited my parents at work just to ask them if we were allowed to go out tonight. Mom was in a meeting so we could only ask my father for permission.

We turned around and faced him, curious to where his 'but' was going.

He put down his glasses, squinted his eyes at us and drew his eyebrows together.

"Maya, you better have your phone with you all night long and you need to be home by 10pm. Also, stay away from people you don't know, don't drink something a stranger offers you and most importantly, stay together."

"Dad, we're just grabbing some food, we're not going to war." I replied.

Daniya chuckled at my reply but quickly stopped when she saw how serious my father was being.

"I'm serious, be careful." He said.

"I will," I replied determined.

He nodded and signed us to leave, "Off you go, I still have a lot of work to do, I'll let your mother know." He quickly said, putting his glasses back on.

We left his office and tried to get back to my place as quickly as possible. We needed to get ready before Daniya's boy friend and, apparently, Sameed arrived. She had asked him without my consent, she knew how awkward our last encounter was. Why would she do this to me again.

I couldn't be bothered to talk her out of inviting him. Let him join us, maybe I could make it up to him for not talking to my father about the gym yet.

We got ready in an hour tops. We put on some basic make up and changed into some more decent clothes.

We talked about Daniya's soon to be boyfriend while changing.

Everything was going great until she had to bring up the next thing.

"Omg we have a dubbel date."

I dropped my make up brush and faced her. "That's it, I'm not going, there's no way you're leaving me alone with Sameed." I threatened.

Daniya chuckled, "Did it seriously take you this long to realize what I was doing?"