Some Bittersweet Memories

Chapter Eight

a/n : thank you for the beautiful cover <3

Daneen Mohsin

The plan was simple; apologize and leave.

"Excuse me?" As soon as those words left my lips though, a sudden urge to turn around and run away settled in—but it was too late.

The boy with light hair whirled his head around, his curious crystal blue eyes latching onto mine. He turned to his friends and said something before heading over to me. I could see him holding back a smile.

"Um, hi." I looked up, fiddling with my notes. He nodded in response. "I wanted to uh, apologize for the other day."

"You mean when you called me an immature jerk?" He scrunched his eyebrows, pretending to be confused.

A heat of embarrassment overtook me and I pursed my lips. "Yeah." My eyes moved to the adjacent wall and I added, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were her brother."

"Because I don't look Muslim enough?"

"Yeah," I accidentally blurted again before my eyes went wide and I frantically waved my hands around. "I mean no, of course not! It's not like you have to look a certain way to be Muslim."

"I was joking, it's alright," the boy interrupted my blabbering, letting out a small laugh. "I get that a lot though. Both my parents are American reverts so people always tell me I don't look 'Muslim' because apparently, you can only be Muslim if you're Arab." He quoted with his fingers, making a funny face.

"That's stupid," I scoffed and he nodded in agreement, chuckling. "Congratulations about your parents by the way, Ma Sha Allah. And once again, I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't be." He smiled, shaking his hand dismissively. "If anything, I should be thanking you for sticking up for my sister without even knowing her. It's assuring to know there's someone who's willing to look after her when I'm not around."

I grimaced slightly, shaking my head. "Yeah, I think your sister would beg to differ. She didn't look like she appreciated my intervention." And most definitely hates me now.

The guy whose name I still didn't know furrowed his eyebrows in perplexity before his mouth opened in comprehension. "Hey, no. You got the wrong impression; my sister didn't mean a thing she did or said to you, trust me. It was her first day, she was nervous and seeing another hijabi must've startled her."

I nodded my head half-heartedly as he continued, "it's just that Nora is new to wearing hijab and people from her old school weren't the most supportive. She's still getting used to it. That's probably the reason why she was defensive around you but please don't take it to heart."

"She didn't come today?" I queried, glancing around. Why am I looking around? It wasn't like she'd pop up in front of me.

"No." The boy smiled sheepishly and I noticed a small beauty mark under his left eye. "She always gets sick when she starts at a new school so she's taking a sick leave at the moment."

"Oh, I hope she feels better soon, In Sha Allah." I dropped my gaze to the floor and the boy hummed in support.

"Yeah, In Sha Allah," he repeated after me, making my lips quirk up at his funny but adorable accent.