Road to Jannah

Chapter Four • Changing All the Time

So you caught a glimpse of someone you once knew, and you seem to find it hard to face the truth. But that don't make it right, to be wanting me tonight, when your thoughts on love keep changing all the time.

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~ J A N N A H ~

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"Ahmad freaking Sambo!" I screamed at Maryam who looked back at me with a surprised and confused expression. "Why didn't you tell me that the so called 'special' participant I was supposed to orient today was freaking Ahmad Sambo, Maryam!?"

"What the hell? Which Ahmad Sambo?" Maryam screamed back at me and I was convinced it wasn't just an act, she really had no idea too. "How was I supposed to know that? And the special participant I was talking about is the daughter of one of my mum's friend, Fatima Ibrahim, haven't you seen her?"

I remember the bright and jolly looking eighteen year old girl I had oriented after I was done with Ahmad Sambo. She was accompanied by her brother that introduced himself as Faisal Ibrahim and they both had been super nice. I guess the daze of having seen Ahmad Sambo had made me completely forget about them.

"And are you sure it was really him?" Maryam adds and I snap out of my thoughts.

"It was him Maryam! He's blind and he was on a wheelchair too..." I sigh and sink down on my bed, sitting next to Maryam with a thump. "How can Ahmad Sambo be blind now? How's it even possible?" the sadness and shock I had felt seeing him in that state washes over me again and I hold my head in my hands, cradling it as I try to control the tears that were starting to form. "I really just can't believe this you know, how did all this happen to him and I never even knew."

"Excuse me, how would you even know? Who are you to know anyways? The girl who has had an obsessive crush on him all her life but he's never even knew she exists? Or the invisible girl that has been in the same class as him for more than ten years but she's never had the guts to say so much as a 'hi' to him?" Maryam sighed too and I felt her hand going in circles on my back as her voice adopted a more soothing tone.

"Look Jannah, I really liked Hamdan cause when he entered your life, this ridiculous and creepy thing you had for Ahmad Sambo greatly reduced. Like you didn't even notice he dropped out in that final year and didn't graduate with our batch till our convocation ceremony was over. And it was all thanks to Hamdan, he might be an asshole for dumping you when we all thought he was going to propose, but at least he was always real, someone that was probably more interested in you than you were in him unlike this Sambo, I hate that guy for never noticing you.

"I hated that even though he didn't know it, he had so much power over you. That when he wasn't in his usual hormonal teenage bad boy mood and he actually seemed happy, you were too. That when he showed up in school with those scars and injuries only Allah knows from which of his brawls he gets them from, you lock yourself up in the toilet and cry your heart out. I just hate that he made you such an idiot, you know that right?"

I nod slowly. I hate Maryam so much for saying all this right now but I loved her for it as well. This isn't the first time I despised as well as adored her for fulfilling her duty of being my best friend and blurting out everything to my face, with no filter whatsoever.

"Well you know that I never don't had much liking of him and though I can't deny the fact that he's super hot, he's also massively arrogant and Allah forgive me, but I think if he really is blind now, he deserves it for everything he has been putting you through."