BFFs: finding love again

18. Conflict

Lying down on the bed, Fatima lets out a sob which she muffles with one of the pillows. She lets out all her frustration on the pillow - shouting in it, slapping it, hitting it with fisted hands. She can't believe she's the reason why her own mother had had two cardiac arrests.

Why does she always have to be the reason for her family's melancholy and forlorn? Why can't she make them proud like Sa'eed has? But wait, she can make them proud. By going through with this therapy and getting rid of the Jinn despite disliking the therapist, she'll surely make her parents proud. Then and there, Fatima vows to go through with the therapy and make her parents proud.

Aqsam tiredly walks out of his office to his room. That boy's Jinns sure are stubborn. Just as his hand touches the door knob, intending on twisting it, muffled sobs reach his ears.

"Who is crying?" He mutters tiredly and moves in the direction where the sobs are coming from. He peeps through the peep hole on the door and sights Fatima laying face flat on the bed her head and face hidden in a pillow. She hits the pillow hard with fisted hands countless times, surely the pillow, though a nonliving thing, must be feeling the pain.

"What could be wrong with this one?" Aqsam mutters.

He places his hand on the door knob but decides against entering the room. He just says a prayer for Fatima, begging Allah to ease her pains and those of other Muslims.

But that doesn't mean he would let her be. Oh no, that'd be the last thing he'll do. He isn't the type to just forgive and forget. She shouted at Muhammad Aqsam Abubakar right? She's going to regret it.

Amal sits in the restaurant waiting for Dhun-Nurayn to come. The other day when she had met him around midnight, he got called home even before they could get anywhere. So here she is now patiently waiting to sight his handsome face.

"Boo!" someone says in Amal's ear. She in turn, screams attracting other costumers' attentions. She smiles an apologetic smile and sets her face in a frown before turning to look at the most sensible person on earth. Note the sarcasm.

"What are you doing here?" Amal asks Hamza resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Mama traveled so I'm having lunch here. What are you doing here?" Hamza questions dragging the chair beside her so he can sit.

"I'm here to see a friend." Amal curtly answers getting irritated at his interrogation. He's too nosy for his own good. But it's only fair if he asks her the same question she asks him. Moreover, he's just trying to strike a conversation with his future wife to be In Shaa Allah.

"Oh, can I meet this friend of yours?" Hamza grins, his side dimple that has gotten deeper over the years showing, his vampire teeth showing themselves. Hamza sure is handsome.

"Hamza please." Amal pleads. Hamza's face falls and he stands up to leave.

"Amalee so you're going to let brother-in-law go without introducing me to him?"

Hamza turns in the direction of the voice and sights a young man of about twenty years, slightly dark, not too muscular, wearing a track suit and a face cap which allows his brownish curly hair to show.

Dhun Nurayn stretches his hand for a shake and he entraps Hamza's hand in his, with a wide grin on his face that Hamza surely wants to wipe off.

"I'm Dhun Nurayn, Amalee's distant cousin." Hamza eyes Dhun Nurayn skeptically as if looking for any faults in him before withdrawing his hand from the shake.

"Saddiqa has been waiting for you since forever. She has turned me to her chauffuer." Hamza rolls his eyes.

"Can you believe this girl, nikam let's go so that I can pick her from the salon and drop you guys. But, I'm not picking you." Dhun Nurayn says.

" Okay, I thought she was coming here." Amal says. They both know they're lying but they have to do it.

Dhun Nurayn leads Amal to his car and starts to drive once they are both in. He stops in front of a building and turns to Amal.

"Aisha Abba Sulayman, I need your help with something." Dhun Nurayn says.

"How?"

"I know you hate Fatima, your sister."

"Who doesn't?" Amal asks rhetorically rolling her eyes as she scrunches her face up.

"There might be someone out there that loves her. I need you to help me stop all chances of her meeting such person. " Dhun Nurayn says a sly smile adorning his dark face.

"How?" Amal asks, ears perking up from her turban.

Azanraba or as he likes to be called Muhammad stands as his mother thunders insults in Koro - a language known to people who live in the village part of Abuja and Niger state, Nigeria - on him just because he said he wants to make a move on Fatima.

"Azanraba, you said you want to be a Muslim, I allowed you. Rabani is here, why do you want to break her heart? Because of someone that doesn't know you too?" Muhammad's mother says making Rabani who has been hiding since almost jump in excitement.

"Maa, do you love me? If you do please allow me to get married to the woman I love. Rabani is not the one for me, Fatima is." Muhammad says making Rabani growl silently. She hates it whenever Muhammad forces his Maa to do things she doesn't want to because of emotional blackmail.

"But Azanraba..."

"For the umpteenth time Maa it's Muhammad! You see why I need Fatima in my life? Only she will be able to understand me because only she knows what it feels like to be a sore thumb among your own family. Rabani has been a mummy's girl since birth, she'll never understand me.

"And moreso Fatima is a Muslim like me. Maa try and understand, I'm just one hundred and fifteen years old but yet here I am dealing with conflicts between my mum and my potential wife."

"But Azanraba... "

"Maa make your decision. Either you accept Fatima wholeheartedly and love her like you love Rabani or consider yourself a woman with no son!" Azanraba concludes and walks out leaving a gaping Maa with tears in her eyes.

What am I going to do now?