BFFs: finding love again

17. Family

Fatima looks at her cloth and hisses.

"Look, Aqsam or whatever you call yourself, I'm only here for therapy. I didn't bring myself here to get taught which songs to listen to, what phone to use," she flashes the Nokia 222I "how to dress and whatever you plan on changing about me. It's not going to work. Wa yaqifa inda amrihi, wa nahaihi." Fatima says angrily before taking a seat in front of him, crossing her legs.

"A'udhubillahi minash-shaydanin-Nisa'i." Aqsam whispers holding his forehead between on of his hands while pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. Unfortunately for him, Fatima heard him.

"What did you say? Minash-shaydanin-Nisa'i? Oh so now I'm the Shaydanin-Nisa'i right?" Fatima asks angrily waiting for an answer. When he doesn't answer her, she huffs before stomping out angrily.

Aqsam picks up his phone and makes a call. He can't keep up with someone that doesn't want to be treated.

Back in Fatima's room she has removed her veil and cap. How dare he?! Who does he think he is? Ordering her around, telling her what to do? If he thinks Fatima is going to take this lying down, then he's highly mistaken.

She lays on the bed and starts thinking about Amir, the one male specie she has ever loved. Not siblings love, not infatuation, not crush, actual love, and he used her. He freaking used her.

Fatima quickly clears her thoughts. She's tired, extremely tired of this world and it's countless agonies. Who has she ever offended? She still loves Amir. Why? Allahu A'alam. She doesn't even know if he still loves her.

She's brought out of her toxic train of thoughts by the annoying ring tone of the Nokia 222I. She picks the call without checking the caller ID and annoyingly mutters a Salam.

"Haba Adda Nana. Why? Why?" Afnan's voice comes.

"Who's this please?" Fatima asks feigning ignorance.

"Adda Nana do you know that Ammi had two cardiac arrests because of you? Do you know that Abba, for the first time, slapped Adda Amal twice because of you? Do you know that Abba cried in front of me for the first time because of you? Adda Nana why are you doing this? You're causing problems for us. Maybe Adda Amal was right, you really are bad luck." And Afnan ends the call.

Fatima is beyond shocked. Her Ammi, a cardiac arrest. Scratch that, two cardiac arrests, all because of her. Her Abba, cried, all because of her. What has she done? Why her? Why only her?

She quickly dials the second number she knows by heart, only to be told she doesn't have sufficient airtime. She quickly uses a code to buy airtime from her bank account.

She calls Halima once, twice, thrice, but no answer. She calls Sa'eed too but gets the same thing, no answer. She calls Innayo.

"Ammi." Fatima breathes out crying.

"Fatima, where did you go? Do you know how worried I am?" Abba's broken voice comes.

"Abba, I'm sorry, I'm catching the next flight to Abuja In Shaa Allah. How's Ammi? Afnan said she had two cardiac arrests." Fatima bursts into new set of tears.

"You're not in Abuja? Where are you?"

"I'm in Dubai Abba. I've started my therapy."

"Okay, just stay there. Why don't we switch to video call? I'm outside your Ammi's hospital room. She's stabilized now Alhamdulillah. But I'm sure she'll be way better once she sees you."

"Okay Abba. I'll call you back in some minutes." Fatima ends the call and wears a Hijab before dragging her feet to Aqsam's office. Her energy has been drained just by hearing her Abba's broken voice. She can't even imagine what he looks like, and she's the cause. She misses him, alot.

She knocks then mutters a Salam waiting for a come in or anything to make her go in. She knocks again, getting agitated. Unknown to her, the door to his office is soundproof. The reason being that whenever patients are being rid of their Jinns, they usually scream and that would attract attention, so Aqsam asked the door to be made sound proof.

She opens the door and enters. Aqsam looks up to her and notices her dressing. She must've gotten the information. He smirks. Wait, smirk? Aqsam stopped showing emotions after what happened, and here he is smirking? Wow!

"Aqsam, I need my phone." Fatima says silently. More tears gather at the brim of her eyes as she imagines her Ammi on a hospital bed with all those wires and machines attached to her. A chill runs down her spine.

Aqsam looks up to her, he notices her tear stricken face. What could've happened? Wait, why is he worried? He promised himself to never indulge in a lady's life. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and looks up to Fatima.

"Why do you need it?"

"Please." The sound of that word shakily rolling of her tongue breaks his heart. He hates saying a female in pain, it's his weakness. Aqsam never took Fatima for someone who'd beg for so something that belongs to her.

He opens the drawer of his table and brings it out. He hands her phone and she silently thanks him before walking out. As they make eye contact, he notices the agony behind those eyes. The pain, the hidden scars and everything else no one notices, he notices. But how can such a fierce and beautiful creature look that shattered and broken?

Fatima drags her feet out again and sits on the bed of her room. She puts her SIM card back to her phone and tries to connect to the Wi-Fi, but she doesn't know the password. She calls the reception and asks them the Wi-Fi password. After a little convincing, they tell her and she connects her phone before remembering that she still has her iPad with her.

She drops the phone and connects her iPad to the Wi-Fi before checking for her dad on Skype. He's online so she calls. He picks up at the first ring.

"Innayo. Fatima is on the line." Abba says and almost immediately, Innayo's face comes to view. She lets out a heart wrenching sob which breaks Fatima's heart. She can't believe she did that to her Ammi. Innayo looks so pale and broken.

"Ammi ana asif. I just thought that maybe if I leave and start the therapy early, I will stop being a burden on you." Fatima cries.

"It's okay Nana. So how has it been going?" Innayo asks surprising Fatima. Fatima thought she'll scold her for thinking that of her family. But unknown to Fatima, Innayo understands her plight. Innayo knows what it feels like to feel lonely despite being surrounded by people.

"Alhamdulillah." Fatima intentionally doesn't speaks about the details of how her so called first therapy went.

"When are you coming back?" Innayo intentionally doesn't ask about the details of her daughter's first therapy. It must've gone bad for her not to want to talk about it.

"Allahu A'alam. But I'll make sure to call you every day In Shaa Allah." Fatima promises.

"Okay. Sai Jango. I need to take my injections. Take care of yourself okay?"

"In Shaa Allah."