Once Upon A Muslim

Semi-Chapter 6 | Zahra | Strained Friendships

The doctors said that Zayd will be charged from the hospital in a few weeks. In the meantime, he'll have to be in a wheelchair most of the time, since something went wrong in his spine. I didn't pay much attention to what they were saying, since my mind was only on the thought if my brother will be okay.

Right now, I'm in Zayd's room in the hospital while my parents are dropping Hafsa and Luqman off at the airport. He's sleeping right now, and the only sounds in the room are his shallow breathing and the beeping machines. I squeeze his hand comfortingly as I watch his chest move up and down slowly, as I watch how still he is.

I hear a knock at the door. Thinking that it's one of the doctors, I tell them to come in in a hoarse voice. "Um, hey, Zahra."

It takes me a second to register his voice. "Daniel? What are you doing here?" I ask, my back facing him. I don't bother to turn around. I'm too afraid that more damage will be done if I leave my brother, although I know he's safe right now.

"I heard about what happened. You didn't come to school for a few days, so I knew something was up." I don't ask him how he found out, since it doesn't seem to matter right now.

"Thank you," I reply sincerely.

"How is he?" He asks those three words hesitantly and carefully.

"He's paralyzed," I say wistfully. "But he still has to go through many tests."

"I'm sorry to hear that." The room grows silent as the seconds tick by.

"Thank you for everything," I say slowly.

"For what?" he asks, confused.

I take a deep breath as I let go of Zayd's hand. I turn around in my chair and for the first time ever since he came in, look at him. "You've been nice to me this whole time and I just... this is kind of hard for me with the whole moving thing and I..." I trail off as I struggle to form a coherent sentence.

Daniel just smiles at me faintly and says, "Your welcome."

"So, how was school for the past few days?" I ask, changing the subject. I've been absent at school for a few days since I wanted to stay with Zayd as much as possible, but my parents told me I have to go back tomorrow.

"Boring, as usual." He walks over to the door and his fingers wrap around the doorknob. "I guess I'll be going now."

"Bye, Daniel. See you at school."

***

The fact that Daniel came to check up on my brother still surprises me. This world needs more Daniels in the world: humble, selfless, witty guys. He's been on my mind a lot more than usual for the past few days. Since Kayla hasn't called me in a while, I decide to leave her alone. I don't really know what's up with her, so I just have to be patient. Instead, I decide to tell Hafsa, since she's like my second best friend and cousin rolled into one.

Hafsa, of course, was making all these assumptions. Then, she started talking about how dreamy Luqman is. Throughout the whole time, I could imagine her swooning, which was somewhat amusing to me.

Things at school have gotten better. Tanya is becoming closer with me; so is Daniel, but not quite. I usually keep my distance around him. It'd be kind of awkward to complain about my girl problems to Daniel. The girl I've confronted on my first day, Cameron, continues to shoot me glares whenever I spot her in the hallway. She doesn't seem much of a problem, so I just ignore her. She's not really worth my time.

"Zahra! Zahra! Zuzu!" When my little brother, Zubayr, was a baby, he always called me Zuzu. So, that's pretty much his nickname for me.

"What?" I ask him. Since I've missed a few days at school, I have to complete some assignments. Luckily for me, it's just a few pages.