Chapter 4 – Small Steps

I went down to the kitchen where Layha was sipping  her morning coffee. Every part of the kitchen was covered in flower arrangements and ‘I’m sorry’ teddy bears. Even though she was surrounded with such beautiful flowers she sat and sipped her coffee in a daze.

“Layha, is there something wrong?” I asked.  

“You wouldn’t understand, you are not married.”she sighed.  

I could see something was drastically wrong. The ever so dolled up Layha who is always lecturing us about dressing to kill was now sitting in her pj’s having a very bad hair day. This was proof that all was not well in the fairytale castle.   Her usually immaculately made up face looked like she had been crying all night long.

Concerned I rushed to tell Aneesa  how miserable Layha was looking.

“Who cares, she has the perfect life and whatever the problem is, clearly Aslam is really sorry about it.” replied Aneesa.

Not offering Layha a shoulder to cry on would come to haunt me later.

Layha came upstairs to where we were sleeping and blonked herself on the bed.

“Aneesa, Faheem is much older than you, he is doing very well for himself driving that fancy car. His family are very well off. You really need to wake up and shake up. Your dressing needs to change. You can’t be  social diva and rich man’s daughter in law dressing like a poor ninja all the time. You need to show some skin, shorten that dress a bit” scolded Layha

“I desperately need a new wardrobe and a makeover, so Faheem can agree to have the wedding before final exams.” admitted Aneesa.

I couldn’t believe she agreed, I felt like I had no idea who my best friend was anymore. Nothing  she said anymore made any sense to me.

Faheem arrived after Maghrib.

“Well oh well, someone’s been shopping” he growled as he looked at Aneesa like a hungry wolf. Aneesa felt like a million bucks dressed in a her very very short sleeveless shimmering gold Selena Gomezish type party dress with shimmering gold laced up gladiator sandals.

“Well let’s go have some fun girls!”  he said as we drove off to Fordsburg.

“I need to make a quick stop in Newtown and drop off some cash and collect some stock.” said Faheem casually. He stopped the car in very dingy part of town. The building was old an dilapidated.

“He is taking ages, I am hungry now, how long does it take to just pick up stock and pay someone” I moaned

Almost an hour later he emerged carrying a black bag. “1 hour for that small black bag, I am really curious to know what is inside there that he left us in dark alley for so long.” I whispered as he approached the car.

“At least he is earning his own money” retorted Aneesa

Supper was great, we went to some lardy dah prawn place. My grumpiness vanished once Shaheen joined us.  He was looking as handsome as ever with those big brown adorable eyes, and perfect smile. Life was perfect! Shaheen and I spoke a lot more at supper and I could finally find my words calmly. Who would have thought that  behind all that perfection Shaheen was also a dreamer.

“Let’s do something fun tonight.” said Shaheen excitedly.  Faheem’s face lit up. No warning bells were ringing. All I could see was a chance to live a little for a change.

We went to Melrose Arch to some hyped about restaurant for coffee. Faheem came to sit next to me. He opened my hand gave me something.

“Doll, learn to live a little and stop being such a holy moly.” he said sarcastically.

  I looked at Aneesa horrified. 

“Oh Fati if yesterday you thought you were high,  this you will love Fati, this is exactly what we need to calm us before finals.” she said convincingly. 

Naively,  I slipped the little pill in my mouth and waited.  You wait for something as if it’s about to be an epic journey straight into a matrix movie type scene or something. When things started  I felt like I had no care in the world. That small high tricks you to believe you are queen of the jungle and you are ultimately drawn to the feeling of calm.   I was truly deceived at the overconfidence it made me feel that I could do anything, be anyone and I had the future in the palm of my hands.   

We stopped at Faheem’s friend’s house and he mumbled something to me but I was too high to care.  It was getting very late.  Amazingly  I demanded we go back home to Layha’s castle. At least  I still had some common sense left even in that zonked state.  I fell in the deepest sleep I had ever had as soon as  I hit the bed.  I slept till late in the morning deluded to think it was the best sleep I ever had.