All For What!

13

"She's Nafisa's classmate and only came to give her some of her notebooks to copy," Maryam defended when Sa'eed complained about a stranger being inside his home.

"I don't like strangers inside our house. She hasn't been in this house for too long and she's already inviting strangers into the house? What do you think will happen when she stays few months in this house? Perhaps the house would be filled with more strangers," Sa'eed complained.

"She's not a stranger, habibi. She's Nafisa's friend," Maryam attempted to calm him down.

"But she is to me. If you hadn't hired her like I—"

"Habibi-" Maryam went closer to him and held his hands. "-do we need to go into that topic again?" She asked. She knew he would just blame her all over again.

"I just don't like strangers in our home," he declared and walked into the bathroom.

Maryam's gaze trail behind him as he walked away. She couldn't pinpoint why Sa'eed disliked Nafisa that much. She was a nice girl.

~~~

Nafisa walked out of the class during recess to the cafeteria with Zeenat and they bought some snacks. Nafisa insisted on paying for Zeenat. In spite of her trying to discourage her from doing that, she still did with the money Maryam had given to her for the whole week.

"Why did you do that, Nafi?" Zeenat inquired. She really didn't like people paying her bills, except for her parents of course. She was a self dependent kind of a person. All what Nafisa did was new to her. No one had ever offered to buy things for her before, except for her parents.

"What?" Nafisa asked, nonchalantly, as she settled on her seat.

"Why did you pay before I could? I have some money you know," Zeenat said. It was not as if she was not grateful, she was, but she just didn't want her new friend to get comfortable with indulging in such things. She had to know she was okay with the little she had.

Nafisa looked up at her and laughed.

Zeenat looked at her questionably. Had she said something funny?

"Okay, I'm sorry if you feel offended. I won't do it again and that's a promise."

"Thanks, Nafi, but why did you buy so much? Will you be able to finish all these," Zeenat asked, pointing at the leather bag filled with different kinds of snacks, which Nafisa was holding.

"If I'm not able to finish them, I will just discard them. Simple. Money isn't a problem in our house, we have lots of it and I spend the way I like," Nafisa lied, whereas, the money she was flaunting, was for the whole week. How was she going to get more money to keep up her act in school? .

"But it isn't—"

"Oh please, Zeenat! Just let it go already. The way I spend my money is my business, not yours," she rolled her eyes to which Zeenat decided to respect herself and keep her own opinion to herself.

Zeenat suddenly remembered what she wanted to ask Nafisa when she went to her house and did.

"I was wondering - why do you call your sister 'aunty'?" She asked.

Nafisa let out a humorless laugh and tried to defend herself. "I'm used to calling her that since childhood."

•

Nafisa twisted the doorknob and stepped into the empty house. She was very tired and went straight to her room to rest for a bit, but she drifted off, immediately her head hit the pillow. She totally forgot to was supposed to do some house chores and cook before Manal arrived back from school.

~~~

Nafisa was awoken, by loud banging of the door. She groaned and placed the pillow against her head to make the disturbing sound go away. When the pounding of the door didn't stop after some minutes, she groaned got out of the bed sluggishly, her eyes red with fatigue. It was as if she didn't know what she was doing. At that moment, she totally forgot where she was and what her duties were in the house. She was peacefully sleeping and some idiot decided to ruin her peace.

She flung the door and Manal stood outside, looking extremely tired also.

Nafisa shot her a nasty glare, before making way for her to get into the house.

"Good afternoon,"Manal greeted.

"Oh now you know you are supposed to greet? I don't need that," Nafisa rolled her eyes. "- go to your room and get changed now."

Nafisa heaved a deep sigh — She knew she had to go into the kitchen and prepare a meal for the little brat, whether she liked it or not. Her parents would be back by evening and they both would get extremely angry at her for keeping their daughter hungry, especially Sa'eed.

She grumbled and uttered incoherent words underneath her breath, as she cooked. Why had she taken this job in the first place? She was very lazy and that was the main reason her mama loved her less among her children.

She finished cooking and yelled Manal's name from downstairs but got no reply. Her patience ran out by the time she got to her room. Manal was on her bed, playing 'Talking Angela',  game on her iPad. 

When she got closer to her, she snatched the iPad from her hold and swatted her on the bad, hard.

"Listen well, I will never tolerate such behavior from you ever again, so you better quit it. I'm not your Ummi or Abi to do that," Nafisa yelled at the little girl who was already in tears. It was the first time someone had ever hit her. The worst her parents ever did was to yell and reprimand her.

Manal opened her mouth to talk, but Nafisa beat her to it. She was sure she wanted to threaten her about telling her abee whenever he returned, so she played her own card. "Don't you even think of telling your parents when they come home, because if you do, I will tell your Ummi all the naughty things you did while she was away and not only that, I will get very angry with you," Nafisa said, hoping to have shut her mouth. If Manal discloses what she did, to her parents, she would be fired in a blink of an eye...worst, her dad would almost kill her for touching his precious daughter.

"Do you understand what I just said?" Nafisa asked, whilst glaring at her. She also didn't know why she hated Manal that much. The mere sight of her, irritated her.

Manal nodded her head dnd wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. 

"Good girl," Nafisa patted her on the head and led her downstairs to eat.

She placed her food in front of her on the table and went to get her phone in the room because it was ringing.

"Start eating before I return," Nafisa commanded and hurried to her room to get it.

When she returned, she was surprised she had not touched the food when she had specifically ordered her to.

"Why haven't you eaten your food yet," she yelled at the now frightened little girl.

"I...I don't like yam porridge," she stuttered.

"I don't care, you better eat it or remain hungry for the rest of the day. I will not prepare another meal for a foolish girl like you, so start eating Now!" Nafisa yelled louder, making the little girl flinch.

When Manal remained adamant on eating the food, Nafisa went into her room and brought out her phone charger to whip her with if she continued with her attitude.

She stood beside her, took a spoonful of the porridge and shoved it deep into her mouth.

Manal closed her eyes at the taste and spat the porridge all over Nafisa's body.

"How dare you!" Nafisa raised the wire in her hand, showing her what she planned to do with it if she didn't obey her this time. "- start eating," she commanded.

Manal didn't want to, but was very scared of Nafisa at that moment, she looked like a demon ready to attack its prey, so she started eating.

Before she could finish the whole meal under Nafisa's survey, she felt bile rising in her throat and before she could control whatever was about to happen, she threw up all over the floor and some got on Nafisa.

Nafisa seethed.