Zahraa was sprawled across Miriam’s bedroom floor, utterly exhausted. She had spent the day working and running errands and had come over, before the afternoon ended, to visit Miriam. Miriam, who worked as a journalist for an online newspaper, had taken the week off and had been begging her friends to come and spend time with her. Today Zahraa and Hafsah had finally obeyed.
“I’m telling you guys” Miriam complained. “I have absolutely nothing to wear to this stupid thing.” Miriam was searching through her cupboard for something appropriate to wear for her brother’s wedding.
“Ugh!” she screamed in frustration “I give up. I’m just not going!”
“Oh thats great!” replied Zahraa sarcastically. “You can just skip your brother’s wedding. And if they ask you why you didn’t come then you can just tell them ‘well, because I had nothing to wear!’ We’ll see how well Ahmed deals with that.”
In a little less than a month, Miriam’s brother Ahmed would be getting married. Both the bride and groom had insisted on a small and low key function.
The problem with Miriam was that she was trying her very best to find an outfit that she could wear, in order to save her from shopping, which she absolutely dreaded.
Miriam grabbed one of her dresses and flung it at Zahraa and Hafsah. “Why don’t you two get off your lazy backsides and come help me find something nice to wear. You know I’m terrible at this!”
“Oh come on Miriam.” Zahraa said. “There must be something nice you can wear in there.” With that Zahraa jumped up from the floor and made her way to Miriam’s cupboard.
“Okay” she said to her. “What do you have in mind?”
Miriam replied gratefully: “Well, anything simple will be good.” I mean its going to be a simple thing right, with just close family and friends. It’s not even in a hall! My clothes kind of need to match the setting, right?
“Okay” Zahraa said. She ruffled through the clothes for a while until her eyes fell across a beautiful dress nestled between a big fluffy jacket, and another fancier skirt. “Well looky here” she said. “This looks good, where did this come from Miriam?”
Miriam had to search her mind before she could place it. “Oh ja! I forgot about that! I think it was a gift from my aunty! That’s perfect. It’s not too fancy but not too plain.”
"And" Zahraa continued, "You can match it up with this bag and these shoes."
"I agree" said Hafsah. "That outfit will be perfect Miriam."
“So what are you guys wearing?” Miriam asked the two of them. “Oh, I’m sure I’ve got something nice at home” Zahraa replied. And I actually love shopping you know? Anyway, I don’t have to stress. It’s your family thing right, now that you finally know what you’re wearing, I’m glad too. I don’t even know why you’re invited Hafsah and I anyway. We’re not even close to Ahmed.”
“Well you close to me” Miriam snapped. “And I had to have someone there that I actually like!”
To that Hafsah and Zahraa both giggled.
Miriam was toying with something in her mind and so she was quiet for while. After a few minutes she said to Zahraa: “Hey Zahraa, I need to tell you something and I don’t know how you going to react.”
“Well then” Zahraa said jokingly, “Tell me and then we’ll see my reaction.”
“Okay fine” Miriam said. “Well, you know that Ahmed is friends with Zaheer right. And well, since its Ahmed’s wedding, you know that Zaheer will be there right?”
Zahraa remained silent.
“Well, I mean , I don’t know if he will be there,” Miriam continued. “But he is invited, and he’ll probably come. I just thought I’d warn you beforehand”
Zahraa didn’t say anything for a while. Eventually she said:
“Well, what I must do about that right? He’s free to do whatever he wants. I’ll just steer clear and make sure I don’t have to see him. Besides, it won’t be a problem since he clearly wants nothing to do with me.”
“Really Zahraa” Hafsah said to her: “I’ve told you before that I don’t think it’s even like that. Its not like he dumped you, he clearly liked you. It’s not like he said he wants nothing to do with you. Actually, that’s what you said to him.”
“No, its not!” argued Zahraa. “I told him my reasons for staying away from him and I gave him an option. He didn’t care enough about me to take the option and he let me go. After all his promises and all his words he ended up being just as full of it as everybody else. Clearly he didn’t mean all that he said.”
“Zahraa” Miriam said to her: “You gave him only one option and that option was marriage. Which person would jump at that?”
“A person who cared enough about the next person” replied Zahraa angrily.
“Believe me” Miriam replied: “Zaheer cared about you!”
Now Zahraa was struggling to hold back her tears as she continued to argue. “How can you say that he cared about me?” she asked Miriam and Hafsah. “You guys were there when I was crying. You were there when I was waiting for him to call or sms, to send some sort of message to show that he cared. I got nothing. After that night, after I told him my feelings, he just simply ignored me. Who does that? The truth is that I gave him an easy way out. I provided the perfect solution for him to end it all. And that’s fine, really, I get now that it wasn’t meant to be and that he’s not the one I’m meant to marry.”
Zahraa stopped talking, trying to catch her breath. Miriam looked at her apologetically, regretting that she had to bring up this obviously painful subject.
“Anyway.” Zahraa said, trying her best to bounce back from her sudden outburst. “That’s all in the past anyway! Zaheer and I are done and when I see him at Ahmed’s wedding, well, I plan on ignoring him. I won’t waste my time crying over some guy.
Afraid that she might actually end up crying, Zahraa quickly changed the subject.
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