Road to Jannah

Chapter Eight • Stay

Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving, 'cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving.

Not really sure how to feel about it, something in the way you move, makes me feel like I can't live without you, it takes me all the way, I want you to stay.

—————

~ J A N N A H ~

—————

This is the most uncomfortable moment I've ever experienced in my life. Both my parents are sitting on the sofa opposite mine and looking at me intensely, waiting for my answer as if it was a matter of life or death which for me, it was since my mom will probably kill me if I give the wrong answer.

I wish Umma had talked about this with me alone before involving my dad. But she probably knew that if it were only me and her, I would've just refused straight away so she took this step and trapped me.

Though I am a daddy's girl and Abba could be extremely flexible when it came to me, I also know that he had a breaking point and there were times when he put on his no nonsense face. Unfortunately, this was one of those times, and even more unfortunately, the subject was Faisal.

That guy had been after me since that accidental meeting last Monday so much so that he had gotten our parents into this. Apparently - according to her after I had threatened to show Yasin one of her ugliest pictures - Maryam had given Faisal my mom's number and over this weekend, he talked with her on the phone and told her how serious he was about wanting to marry me.

Of course I had suffered a heart attack when I had heard that. Just moments ago after I was done with breakfast and was about to head out to the university, Umma cornered me and brought me to the living room where Abba was sat with a grave expression. I felt like I had done something majorely wrong and was about to get the scolding of my life only for Abba to ask me if I was ready to marry Faisal.

That guy is a total nutcase. I've been avoiding him since we met but he still hasn't gotten the signal and he still got me into this mess. It's all Maryam's fault for giving him my mom's number and I am so going to get her for it. Yasin is so going to see that picture of her with her something disgusting dripping from her lips and her whole body looking like she's just swallowed a whale.

"Ko baki ji ni ne ba?" Abba snapped me out of of my evil plans for Maryam.

"Yes I heard you Abba," I answered gingerly, I couldn't even raise my head to look at him. "I just don't know what to say since I don't even know the guy. He took me to an ice cream place once and then he calls me everyday but I rarely even pick up the calls so it's just surprising to me that he actually officially asked you for my hand when he didn't even ask me first."

Abba removed the intricately embroiderd cap from his head and hung it over his knee. A posture I'm afraid of, he always did that when he wasn't pleased with something and in this case, I know that something was me. I wonder what all Umma has been telling him about me "chasing her perfect son in law away."

"Kinji ko Salma? (Have you heard her Salma?)" he addressed Umma in our language. "Kinji matsalar yaran nan na zamani ko? (You've heard how the kids of this generation are so problematic?)"

Abba then suddenly turned to me, his voice alarmingly strict. "So what if he approached us first before talking to you? Isn't that how things are done in our culture? And even Islamically? It even shows how mature and responsible he is! And about you not knowing him, if we know him and we approve of him; his character, his manners and his religion, isn't that enough for you?"