To The Moon and Back

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Layla felt unsure of her decision.

She felt as if she was being to hasty in this situation. But she couldn't help it, the hope on her parents faces were to hard to just ignore. Her parents had done so much for her, they treated her like a princess and she wanted, no needed to return the favor.

And although Layla was innocent she wasn't exactly blind. She had seen how people in her culture had treated women back in the day. Heck, even today so many people, not just in the Desi culture, but in other cultures were also treated bad. She was so thankful that she had loving caring parents who let her go to school, let her go to collage, let her get a degree. She was thankful her parents didn't support one gender over the other. Often times when she told her fellow peers that her brothers cooked or helped around the house, they would be shocked.

All of a sudden it all hit her. The Nikah, the marriage, her soon-to-be husband. It was overwhelming. She couldn't help but think all the possibilities "what if- what if he's a rapist or even worse, a daal lover-," now it sounded bad but Layla absolutely despised daal. It was childish really but that didn't stop her from disliking it. "Omg, what if he's an old 54 year old with pimples and wrinkles all over his face! Wait no, Mama and baba would never do that to me, right? What if he's a Mafia leader and is into human traf-," a knock one her door broke her from her 'what if's'.

"Come in," She said, after taking a deep breath. Her back had been facing the door and she was gazing out her window.

"You know, I was expecting a warmer welcome. Where you would be jumping from joy to greet me." His deep voice rang out.

"No way," she thought.

She immediately jumped up from the bed and turned around to similar light brown eyes gazing back at her. She couldn't contain her excitement. She looked like a kid in a candy store. "Abdullah Bhai!" She shrieked and ran into his welcoming arms.

He let out a little 'oomph' at the impact, but still hugged his baby sister back. "Now that's how you greet your worlds best brother," he said, chuckling at his little sisters antics.

"I missed you so much! Wait a minute-," she pulled back, "-What are you doing here?" She questioned.

Abdullah slowly let go of her "Well, Mama and Baba told me about the marriage and I couldn't just stay in the states while all of this happened," she couldn't help but notice how her Bhai spat out the word marriage. "Don't worry, I'll try to find a way to get you out of this marriage. Especially if it's that bastard your marrying," Layla gasped at the language her brother had used.

"Abdullah Bhai, don't talk like that! It's not nice and plus mama and baba were so happy with this decision, I-I can't back out now, they've already started the preparations," Layla replied.

"But-,"

"No buts Abdullah Bhai,"

"Fine, but if he mistreats you in any way, he's as good as dead,"