Chapter 20

S3ood accepted me in mere seconds and bbm'd me.

CR/S3ood Al-X:
Wanna know my secret?;p

Shoug Al-X:
 Eeeh! Yalla tell me. :D

CR/S3ood Al-X:
What's the secret word?;p

Shoug Al-X:
Fffh!! ;p please?

 CR/S3ood Al-X:
I have a crush on this girl..

Prickles of sweat formed on my palm, I felt a pang of jealousy.

 Shoug Al-X:
Oh really? A3rfha?

I prayed that he would say no.

CR/S3ood Al-X:
You know her reallllyyyy well. ;p

Great. I bet now he was going to ask me to tell her that he liked her.

Shoug Al-X:
Mnuu? :o

CR/S3ood Al-X:
It's you. <3

Wait, what? My heart beat started to race.

"Shoug, yalla we are home," Lisa stated. I left the car and made my way into the house while I kept staring at the words.

"Shoug? Mu 6weltay elyoum?" I heard M7md's voice, I quickly deleted the chat and tore my eyes away from my phone.

"Oh, 6ile3t mt2akhr w shifna filim. Sorry." I tried to get away but M7md stopped me.

"Shfeech msta3eela?" M7md's face turned a bit suspicious, "Kentay ga3da etkalmeen-"

"SHOUUUUG, TA3ALAAY FOUG. ABE AKELMIIIIIIIIIICH." I heard my sister's voice from upstairs, she was probably visiting. I hurried upstairs and left M7md, I smiled apologetically at him before I left. Phew, saved!

"Shouuuug! A7s minzaman ma shiftech," Reem's face lit up when she saw me enter her old room, her stomach became huge, my little future niece/nephew was in there.

"Siso! Waleht 3leech, shloun el baby?" I carefully hugged her, feeling her big stomach bump against mine.

"Ma tis2leen 3ani ana?" Reem acted sad.

"Save the last for best, right? Shlounich entay?" I laughed and she smiled at me.

"Besides that I have to pee at least 6 times a day, I'm doing great. Kent bashoufech gabel ma arou7, kent ga3da m3a omi w kent bashouf ghurfeti el 8adeema," She looked around her old room, nothing changed. Her old rusted wardrobe was in the corner, the brown rug in the middle of the room looked a bit dusty but the room still smelled like Reem's old Nina Ricci perfume that she used to wear everyday. Her bed was neatly made in the middle of the room and all of Reem's things were stripped away from the room.

da-la-ling! da-la-ling-ling! 

Reem looked at her Vertu phone, pointed to the screen and mouthed "Zouji".  I nodded and knew that it meant she needed to go now. She brushed her lips over my cheek kissing it softly before answering her phone and leaving her old room, making her way out of the house.

I rushed to my room and closed the door behind me. I looked back at the bbm convo between S3ood and I.

CR/S3ood Al-X:
Shoug?

Shoug Al-X:
Asfaa! M7md shafny w b3dain I had to talk to my sis. I'm here now. x_x

CR/S3ood Al-X:
Phew, I thought I scared you when I told you I liked you. x_x

Shoug Al-X:
I like you too, S3ood.

CR/S3ood Al-X:
Whaaaat? Can you please say that again? o:)

Shoug Al-X:
Don't push it. x_x!

CR/S3ood Al-X:
Okay okay, sorry. :$ I can't stop smiling, the guys are giving me weird looks right now.

I smiled at his message, I rubbed my scarlet cheeks and collapsed onto my bed. I switched to twitter and saw a tweet that caught my eye.

Jassim: omw to hospital.

I DM'd him:

Shoug: Hospital?! LAISH!?

Jassim: La la ma feene shay, don't worry.

Shoug: If you lie one more time then I'm unfollowing you so you better tell me now Jassim!

Jassim: I just need my meds, khale9ow so I'm going to get more.

Shoug: Meds 7ag shnu?!

Jassim: Okay so here's the whole story.. In jan 2010, I started going to the toilet like 10 times a day. G3dt 11 months 3la hal 7aal, ma kent abe arou7 3nd el doctor l2na 9adegt kalam elnas ena ma feene shay. But then I got a blood test and my results turned back and it was pretty much horrible. They thought I had cancer and I lost a lot of weight. I used to become exhausted pretty quickly. I did a colon and small intestine scope (3melyat menthar) and I found out that I had althaab in my small intestine. ;/ Fa al7een lazem akheth 2 pills a day, 7mdellah al7een a7es wayed a7san men gabl. I gained the weight back and I feel so much better. Don't worry, okay?

I re-read his message what felt like a thousand times. A few tears escaped from my eyes as the realization of Jassim being sick and keeping it away from me had struck. He had went through all of this and I didn't even know..

Shoug: And on top of that, you've been smoking?! Jassim, promise me you'll stop smoking, you're killing your lungs this way..

Jassim: Bs Shoug..

Shoug: Promise me, please.

Jassim: Inshallah promise..

I sighed and buried myself under the covers of my bed after I washed and changed. I forced myself to sleep and had countless thoughts running through my head about Jassim.


Was he keeping anything else away from me?

I heard the annoying sounds of my alarm wake me up the next morning, I smacked the alarm and it ended up falling to the ground. That shut it up.

"SHOUG! MAMA YALLA, ELYOUM ZWARA," I heard my mother yell, she knocked on my door a few times before going to M7md's room, doing the same to him too.

"M7MD, GOUM YALLA! ZWARA ELYOUM," My mom's voice faded as she went to Khalid's bedroom. I groaned and forced myself out of bed. I quickly showered and changed into my Juicy sweats.

Jassim: Hey, awake?

Shoug: Twni ga3da ;p you feeling okay?

Jassim: Of course. :D giltlch don't worry Shoug. -.-

Shoug: Sorry for caring -.-

Jassim: Haha you're too sweet :D

Shoug: Shd3wa :D

I switched to bbm and smiled to myself as I read S3ood's message.

B+F/S3ood Al-X:
Gm sunshine. ;*

Shoug Al-X:
Morninnnggg. *yawn* :c

B+F/S3ood Al-X:
Agoul, besich noum! ;p Looking beautiful as always.

Shoug Al-X:
Ey beautiful? Ma shiftny a9lan. x_x

B+F/S3ood Al-X:
After already seeing you once, I don't need to see you again to know that you're beautiful.

"Shoug, laish weyhich a7mar?" Khalid approached me and put his hand over my forehead, "Feech 7arara ow shay?"

"Haa? La2 la2, akeed 7a6a too much blush," I rubbed my cheeks, M7md walked up to us.

"Besiiich make-up, men 7alata." M7md rolled his eyes. Phew, they bought it! 

I sat in Khalid's car as he drove me and M7md, my parents had left early since we were too busy sleeping. I walked into my Grandmother's house and greeted all of our relatives warmly. I hugged Grandma and squeezed her gently in my arms.

"Woii, 7beebty walla. Walehna 3leich Shoug, shloun el medrisa?" Grandma asked, I pressed my lips over the top of her forehead, kissing it softly.

"7mdellah zain," I smiled at her, my smile became forceful once I saw Nour approach me. She took me in her skinny body and pressed herself hard against me for a hug. Her bones crushed against mine, I winced.

Nour pulled me back in before I let go, she smiled a big icey smile as she whispered the following poisonous words: "Stay away from my boyfriend, he told me that you were all over him in 360. yesterday. Face it, he's mine b*tch."