Chapter 25

I admired a girl's outfit from far away. I watched her long skirt flow dramatically as she walked with her H&M plastic bag in her hand. As I was sliding my eyes back and fourth between people, observing them. A pair of  brown eyes had caught my attention, those eyes found mine and stared back into my nearly black eyes.


I nearly gasped out loud once I knew who the owner of those brown eyes was.


It was Ali.


I quickly turned my head away.

"Oh no," I stuffed my face into my hands and groaned. A pair of hands tried to pull my hands away from my face,

"Shoug, shfeech?!" They were Lulu's hands, her hands were still sticky from the cheese but I didn't mind. I looked back at where Ali was standing and he wasn't there anymore. Yes! He left!

"Ma feene shay al7een," I smiled at her in relief, she looked at me with a confused expression. I heard a male cough behind me. I ignored it but he kept coughing, you know the type of coughing where your friend in line up in school is faking, just so she can get your attention without actually speaking? That kind of fake coughing.

I turned around to shoot the guy an annoyed expression, I gaped once I found that Ali was now sitting right behind me. His back was close against mine and he looked into my eyes, daring me to look away. I had to turn back around, I couldn't have a staring contest with a guy in the middle of Avenues! -.-

I saw Lulu's OMG expression, she had spotted Ali behind me. Lisa-Anne was too busy nibbling on her burger to notice Ali, the guy she had nearly killed with a shoe. My chair was pushed forward, I didn't move but I knew that Ali had extended his foot backwards to move my chair around. He was trying to annoy me. It was working.

I ignored him but I could feel the back of his shoe up against the steel of the chair, threatening to push the chair sideways to make me fall over. I felt the nudge of his foot, he was getting ready to push my chair forward again. I wasn't about to let him get away with it easily, once his foot pushed harder against the chair, I lifted the chair up with my legs and his foot slid under the chair. I pushed the chair back down so the steel leg of the chair landed right on top of his foot.

"AYYYYY!" Ali sat up in a hurry to get his foot out of my chair, it was stuck. While he stood up super fast, his drink had slipped and dived into his lap, the cold 7up had made his shorts wet. It looked like he peed himself, I tried as hard as I could to hold back my laughter.

"Umbey!" I stood up and faked a sincere worried expression. I gave him a look that said; "What was your foot doing under my chair anyway?" This turned a few heads and I noticed his cheeks flush in embarrassment. It had looked like a guy failing at flirting with a girl. Success! 

Lisa-Anne's head shot up quickly and found Ali's, her expression turned livid once she noticed him. She was about to stand up and shout at him, I saw her veins pop out of her neck, daring to inch out of her skin. Ali stormed off and pulled his friend a long with him, who was probably ordering before Ali had grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt.

Lulu started laughing, holding back her stomach. Lulu could never hold back a laugh, even when it was in a very embarrassing situation, a smile would always creep onto her lips, betraying the strong act she put on whenever we were in public.

"Please don't tell me you just did that on purpose!" Lulu kept laughing, the other people returned to their meals, not paying any more attention to us.

"Okay then, I won't tell you." I teased. Lulu gasped at me once she realized that I had embarrassed Ali in public on purpose.

"You have balls!" Lulu high five-d me across the table, Lisa-Anne was already stuffing her mouth back into her burger. Lisa-Anne loves burgers as much as she loved octopus and shrimp noodles. (*true fact. ;p)

"Bs isn't it kind of weird we see him everywhere? I think he's stalking you..." Lulu continued.

"You're right... but how? He's not on my bbm list anymore and he isn't on my twitter either." I tried to find a solution to this but my brain wouldn't budge.

"Umbey, digeega!!" Lulu had cleansed her hands with the wet hand wipe the Shake Shack worker had given us a few minutes ago before pulling out her blackberry, her fingers easily swiped along the buttons of her phone.

"NO WAY. How did I not notice this before?!" Lulu smacked her forehead multiple times.

"Lulu, shfeech?!" I looked at her, shocked at her sudden action.

"Shoofay!" Lulu pushed her blackberry forward till it was in front of my face. I saw Lulu's list of 200 followers and one of her followers were Ali.

"He's following the rest of the girls too!" Lulu gaped. It suddenly made so much sense, whenever me and the girls went out, they'd tweet about it and put my username too.  Like; "360 w/@Shoug**** &..etc."My friends were tweetaholics, they would most likely tweet where we went in the mall too. It must have been easy for Ali to follow me that way.

"Bsr3a, block him w goulay 7ag el banat!" I panicked, he could have been following the other girls too. Who knows? Lulu typed as fast as she could and sent out the warnings to the girls. They replied just as fast and each one of them were shocked to find Ali was amidst their other followers. They weren't the types to check each new follower, most of them had public accounts.

"Lulu, you're a genius!" We high five-d again and giggled. After the incident with Ali, embarrassing him in front of everyone, my mood got a lot better. Lulu sure knew how to cheer a girl up.

We walked around the mall after finishing lunch. Lulu and I went into a sunglasses store and tried on funny looking shades. I picked the biggest pair and put it on, it made me look like a bee. The shades had a huge shape and it covered half of my face. Lulu started to giggle uncontrollably but stopped abruptly once the Asian salesman approached us. He had a cheap looking tucked in shirt on, with a coffee stain right over his purple tie. He had a bald patch over his head and oily looking skin, his face was stern and not even close to playful.

"That is a Chanel piece, it's a limited edition. The price is 220 KD." The salesman stated, Lulu had gaped at him and quickly put the sunglasses in her hand back on the shelf, carefully adjusting it onto the wall. I kept my face expressionless.

"Oh, 220 KD? Is there a sale or something?" I shot my eyebrows up, acting like 220 KD was far too cheap.

"No Ma'am, it's still new. There is swarovski crystals added, that is why the price is very high," His name ID had the name "Hyn Myn".

"Crystals? Eugh!" I put the sunglasses back into its slot, not bothering to be careful about it. I pulled Lulu closed to whisper into her ear, but loud enough so the salesman could hear every word.

"Makes sense why it's so cheap, Lulu lets go to Van Cleef & Arpels instead, the one in Sal7eya. I told you we shouldn't shop in Avenues for markat," I rolled my eyes at her and pulled on Lulu's arm, forcing her to walk next to me. Lulu still had a surprised look on her face.

Once we were out of the store, I let my expressionless face dissolve and I started to giggle.

"Oh my god.. did you see his face?! You should be an actress! Even I bought it..." Lulu still looked shocked for a few more seconds before she started to laugh with me.

I didn't receive a text or call from Reem about any update about my Dad so we decided to go into other stores, the highly expensive ones that didn't have a famous or very trendy name. This was a game I liked to play a lot, with any of my friends. I loved watching their shocked expressions.

"Oh yes, these boots are on sale. They're last season but they're totally worth it! Only 100KD each." The Lebanese woman stretched her fuchsia lipsticked lips and smiled forcefully at us. Her eyelids were covered with bright blue eyeshadow and her black shirt was too tight on her.

"Wait, last season you say? Eugh! Misheina Lulu?" By this time, Lulu had memorized her role perfectly. It was:

Go into a high end shop.
Look at the most expensive dresses.
Keep saying "Ahh" and "Ooh" whenever salesmen spoke to her, trying to woo her into buying the product.
Wait until I said "Eugh! Misheina?"
Make an excuse why she wouldn't buy that product. (For example: "Naah.. I have the same dress but from Chanel and it cost me double, far more better than that one. Thanks anyway.")
Follow me out of the store with an unsatisfied look.

Lulu and I would always come out of the shop, walk till we were out of sight and let all of our bottled laughter pour out. Lisa-Anne was used to my crazy behavior after 20 years serving in my house, but I remembered the first time I tried messing around in an expensive shop like it was yesterday.

I was with Fajer in 360 mall and we didn't have much to do after watching an early film. I decided to walk into Cartier on a week day with Fajer, at that time, there weren't any workers there who knew my parent's faces or mine. This hadn't blown my cover. I walked into the cream rugged store, inhaling the beautiful smell of their latest perfume. I love the colour red and Cartier's signature colour was red. I had digested the beautiful decor of the store before staring at the gold, rose-gold and silver jewellery protected in the glass boxes.

"Hello, can I help you?" An Indian woman smiled sweetly at me, she looked down at my Cartier bracelet and took a liking to me. I was 170cm, tall for a 15 year old girl and my long hair had always given me an older age than 15. I also tended to not speak like a child, as many had said about me. So to her, I looked probably around 20 (at the latest).

"Can I see that one?" I pointed to beautiful rose-gold ring with Cartier's signature brand symbol, there were sparkling diamonds in each little circle, enhancing the ring.

"Ah, perfect. This is from our Love collection. I think this is your size." The saleswoman carefully placed the ring over the tray that had a soft material on top of it to protect the ring from getting scratched. She slid the ring onto my finger, I looked at the gorgeous ring in wonder. I knew that one day, this was going to be my engagement ring. Fajer had already known I was just in Cartier to waste time, however, Lisa-Anne didn't.

"How much is this?" I asked confidently. She had given me an expensive price and I kept my expressionless face intact. I didn't dare show any widening of the eyes or a little parting of my lips to indicate a shocked expression, showing that I couldn't afford this ring on my own.

"After discount?" I bargained.

"After discount Ma'am," She looked surprised, she wasn't going to get away with charging the full price.

"Mhhhm, I don't know." I tilted my head a few times, looking at the ring in different angles. Lisa-Anne had hurried over after she heard the price.

"Shoug! NO!! Your mama and baba will kill you! You crazy?!" Lisa-Anne exclaimed, looking bewildered that a ring could be priced that high.

"Lisa-Anne, calm down." I whispered between my gritted teeth, she was blowing my cover. The saleswoman looked at my nanny and then back at me, I could see the wheels turn in her head. She finally saw me as a young teenager than an adult. She looked like she wanted to force the ring off of my finger.

"I was actually looking for the diamond filled ring, the new one I saw in London in the summer?" I lied, I saw that expensive ring on the Cartier site.

"Oh, sorry Ma'am. We haven't received that ring yet." The saleswoman looked more relaxed.

"Awh.. It's too simple for my taste," I looked at the ring again, it was breathtaking but I had to make up an excuse. The saleswoman looked shocked at my statement, I smiled apologetically at her and slid the ring off, placing it right back onto the tray.

"WHAT? ANOTHER RING?!" Lisa-Anne had overheard me, her voice was too loud; "It iz your funeral!"

I smiled again at the weirded out saleswoman before motioning Fajer to follow me to the direction of the door of the store. We left as fast as we could, I explained the situation to Lisa-Anne and she dramatically swiped a hand over her forehead and breathed out in relief.

"Shoug?" Lulu waved her hand in front of my face, causing the memory of that day with Fajer and Lisa-Anne fade away.

"Oh, tena7t!" I laughed.

"I noticed," Lulu laughed, we were already in the parking area waiting for my driver to show up. I checked my blackberry again but I didn't get a call from Reem. I checked my texts and my eyes bulged out once I saw Reem's name.

Siso Reem;* : Shougg! Tabeen tiyeen, t3alay. Obouy ga3ed. Royal hosp, rm.1004, level 10.

Akheeran!! 

Hussain finally showed up, I was so impatient onto seeing my Dad that I asked Lulu if it was okay that Hussain dropped me off to the hospital first and then he would drop her back home. She encouraged me to do so and I hugged her tight, thanking her. My heart was grinding up against my rib cage, trying to tear through my chest. I felt like my heart beats were screaming through my skin, I was so nervous onto finally seeing my Dad. I had anticipated this moment for hours, long dreadful hours.

Our SUV drove into the road that connected the main road with the entrance road that guided you over to the hospital. Hussain stretched out his foot and stepped onto the break, parking in front of the Royal Hospital entrance. Lulu gave me a long hug before I exited the car, I blew a kiss at Lisa-Anne so her worried face would turn into a smile instead.

I hurried inside and walked past the reception desk, I slid into the elevator and waited.

Ding!

Level 1.

Ding!

Level 2.

Ding!

Level 3.

I wanted to punch the elevator's robot female voice. I tapped my foot impatiently as I watched the numbers change on the little elevator screen.

Ding!

Level 10.

The doors swiped open and I walked so fast that I nearly slipped on the glossy marble floor. I could hear my Mom call out "Shway shway!" in my head. There were colourful flowers outside one of the rooms and big pink balloons that said "It's a girl!"

I suddenly wondered if my parents had gotten those kinds of balloons when I was born.

Umbey, Shoug. Your Dad's in the hospital and you're thinking about balloons?! 

Room 1001, room 1002, room 1003.. I counted the rooms in my head when suddenly, I found myself standing in front of room 1004. There weren't any balloons or any sort of indication that this patient was spending the night here for a happy occasion. The door was plain white and it looked as depressed as I felt right at that moment.

I took a huge breath and pushed the door open. The decor of the room was as simple as the door, but it looked lush and elegant. The floor was plain glossy white, the wallpaper had a simple pattern but the portraits hung on it were beautiful drawings that I wished I could draw one day. I found Reem laying down on a grey couch, her baby bump showing through her clothes. Her eyes were closed and she looked tired. I couldn't find M7md or Khalid, they either didn't know yet or probably visited him already and had left a while ago.

As I took a few more steps, I found my mother sitting on the chair next to my father's bed. I took my time, I didn't want to look at my father yet. I was too scared to face him, I couldn't break down in front of him. My mom had her eyes closed as well, I was guessing that both my sister and mother had stayed up all night. I tried to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn't interrupt Reem's and Mom's time of rest.

I finally shifted my eyes towards my father, he was covered in a white soft-looking blanket, there were multiple wires connected to him. One was in his nose, in his wrist and a "kamam" (a plastic thing that supplies you with oxygen for breathing problems) attached to his face. I could see his chest moving upwards and backwards, him taking long lungful breaths. His eyes met mine, there were hues of yellow in them and faint red little lines that had been connected into his pupil. His face looked frail and weak, I was frightened with touching his cheek. I was afraid I'd hurt him with a simple poke.

"Yuba?" I weakly called out, my voice was cracking. I felt a lump rise in my throat, I pushed it down. I'm not going to cry!  Dad pushed the "kamam" aside so he could speak, I rushed to his side and put it back onto his mouth.


"La la yuba, khalek! Ha.. you're looking better.." I lied, I tried not to stare at the plastic bag on top of him, containing different kinds of medicines inside that was absorbed by my father's body. He pointed a finger towards a table that was hanging over him, there was a water bottle on top of it. I quickly obeyed and twisted the cap off of the bottle. He pushed his kamam aside and I pressed the head of the water bottle against his lips, tilting it so water could slide into his mouth and make its way down his throat, hydrating his thin body.

He took small sips before pushing the bottle away. I looked away as I felt the tears starting to cloud my vision. Whilst my father was trying to put the kamam back on, I swiped the back of my hand over my eyes, pushing the tears away. I caught Reem looking at me, with a sad look on her face. I turned away quickly, I planted a soft kiss over the top of my father's head.

I heard the door open and a female doctor had entered, she was wearing a white coat and had her hair put back into a neat ponytail. She looked American.

"Hey, how are we going today? I got the results back." Her American accent was intact, my mom quickly pulled herself up, patting her ruffled dara3a and looked at the doctor eagerly.

"What? Please say it's good news," I heard the traces of an Arabian accent in my mom's English, she sounded worried but hopeful.

"Well.." The doctor flipped over the pages, reading over the results.

"What is it?" Reem asked impatiently, standing up and walking over to us while she had a hand over her baby bump, as if she was shielding the baby from hearing any bad news about his/her future grandfather. My father's eyes were closed, he looked asleep but from experience, I knew he was just trying to shut out the world.

"The results say..