ROYAL✔️

1. /Here and There/

     Maleeka and Hanan hopped out of the school bus groggily, they've had a long day at school. Maleeka and Hanan have been friends since they were kids, and are currently in 100level, studying English Language in BGU (Birningabas university). It is situated at the far end of the town, a small town with almost everything in it. There are two bus stops, one close to the market place and the second, close to the gates of the elites in Birningabas. Students come from far and near to study in BGU. Maleeka isn't the type to make friends easily. In fact it was like she had repelling forces chasing the female gender away from her. Hanan was the only person she was able to trap. Every other girl she had met found a way to make everything about their friendship a competition. They'd always compare themselves to her; the frustrating part was she wasn't even trying to be perfect. When she realized the female company was becoming toxic to her, she backed off and found comfort in the male genders much to her parent's dismay. Maleeka and Hanan weren't living far from the market bus stop. It's a walkable distance to their various homes. Hanan was scrolling through her phone, while Maleeka was blabbing ideas about how she would do her assignment given to them an hour ago. Hanan kept mumbling incoherent answers because her attention was far away from what Maleeka was saying.

Maleeka's little speech was cut short when her phone started ringing, the name imprinted on the screen made her pout and roll her eyes. But she picked up nevertheless, said a few yes and no. Hanan had asked who it was, Maleeka's phone doesn't ring a lot, you see.

     "You're so lucky to be her friend! I could kill to be Princess Azeema's friend. She's so popular" Hanan said, squealing the last part, making Maleeka roll her eyes.
     "For the love of God, she's not my friend, she's just someone I know from childhood" Maleeka replied.
     "Explain why she called you moments ago?" Hanan persisted.
     "She's coming back to Nigeria. She needs a friend to hangout with. It's not like we are BFF or something" Maleeka explained again.
     "It's not fair that you get to meet with her and her hot brothers. I heard Azeem is a charmer. Yarima on the other hand is kinda arrogant" Hanan said dreamily. Maleeka scowled. All of a sudden they weren't talking about their studies anymore; they weren't talking about their assignment the lecturer assigned to them. They were talking about the same family she wanted to get away from.
     "I follow them on IG. You need to see the pictures they post. Their followers are wicked!! Yarima kind of puts his account private and doesn't accept requests; he kind of picks his followers. I'm still hoping he picks me" Hanan said, again infuriating Maleeka.
     "There's nothing special about them, Hanan. They have blood flowing in their veins just as you, they are humans. Why do you always look for a way to look down on yourself?" Maleeka said, making her friend gasp. She was actually telling the truth. Hanan always believed she should worship people; she was always at the beckon call of others. She was always trying hard to be noticed; little did she know she didn't need to try. Her caramel skin is more than enough to get her the attention she's in search of. Her silky smooth long hair would grab people's attention in a blink of an eye; her charming attitude is yet another accessory of hers, or her beautiful plum lips that made her perfect. Most of the girls she allows to step on her do not have half the beauty she had at her disposal.
     "You really don't rinse your words before you spew them out do you?" Hanan said scowling. Maybe that was why Maleeka never had any friends. She is definitely blunt. Say things now and regret it later. The conversation was cut short when they got to Hanan's destination. She would have to follow a narrow lane to go to her own house while Maleeka needed to go straight.
     "Bye" Hanan said without looking back. She is definitely angry. Maleeka mumbled a bye too. By tomorrow, Hanan would not be angry anymore. The girl never gets angry for more than a day. Maleeka's house came into sight. Her father's house always stood out from others in the neighborhood because of the streak of people always gathering at his front door. It's almost time for maghrib prayers, yet here they were standing patiently for their turn. She groaned for the umpteenth time eyeing the people wearily. She always gets irritated by them. Because her father is Sarki's best friend, the people of Birnin-Gabas have decided to turn her home into a counseling site. Everybody comes with his or her tiny problem expecting her father to tell his best friend. Her poor father wasn't even on the council. She was pretty sure none of the council members went through with this madness to help the poor. Her father, being a nice person, tells his friend about the common people's problems. Some of the problems were attended to, while some weren't very lucky. As she drew closer to the house, her frown deepened. It's getting pretty late and some people were adamantly seated on the floor waiting for their turn. What frustrated her most was the fact that there was no day off. They came every single day. She wanted to yell at them to take their complaints to the palace. But she refrained from doing so. Her father would bury her alive if she tried it.