Chapter 41

This is going to be DIFFERENT. Hope you like it. :*

 Dedicated to all the readers, thank you for all the wonderful FFs. :D I wouldn't know what to do without you guys. & Thanks to @mais_97 for writing "Read @_KuwaitBlog" on Container75's wall. Made my day, literally! :D


BYTHEWAY: GUST is one of Kuwait's private colleges, it stands for Gulf University of Science & Technology.

-

-2 years later-

"Shoug! Yalla, bser3aaa." Lulu nagged behind my back.

"Lulu digeega! Ga3da aktib my essay paper, it's due in an hour. The professor will kill me if I don't finish it." I forced my fingers to type faster.

"Shoug, mu wakta. It's Shaikha's bachelorette party, I can't believe you're doing your college paper now." Lulu shook her head disapprovingly. Lulu went back to curling the ends of my long hair as I was typing.

(* A bachelorette party is a party for the engaged woman who's about to get married soon, it's the last night of her single adulthood, where she can party with friends and have fun before committing to a marriage.)

Shaikha and M7md were engaged. M7md had stopped smoking and currently, I'm in GUST along with Lulu, Fajer, S3ood, Jassim and other friends (which I'll introduce soon). 

Basma is in Fort Collins, USA, majoring in engineering whereas my other friends were scattered around the world, London, France and the USA, studying. 

"FINALLY!" I breathed out a sigh in relief as I clicked on "send". My essay paper was quickly sent to the professor's email and now, I could stand up to slip on my dress.

I grabbed my colourful satin dress and slipped it over my body when Lulu had her back to me. Lulu had a short simple black dress that hugged her curves, my dress was a bit more flowy but it reached right above my knees. I tied the knot around my waist tightly as Lulu was curling the last strand of my hair.

(Shoug's dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3nCASYMOQekN-B570kbmAg5NvDQP5XchXrrykXmOzPTh528JGQaFeSu5jI5zdnk_8qACyrnQcEYzfBktSNNL2U8Z6ugGJv_F6iS0gtxMpi5W4oOmgTM70G2aHWhLYq-XAhx1dQuYFAqE/s400/Deena+2.jpg)

(Lulu's dress: http://www.glamcheck.com/fashion/2011/05/19/erin-wasson-for-vogue-spain-june-2011/)

"Yalla, we're the ones who planned it. We can't be late!" Lulu scolded me, we both grabbed a 3abaya and draped it over our skin baring bodies. I strapped on my nude heels before hurrying downstairs behind Lulu.

"Shoug, Lulu, wait, I want to see!" Lisa-Anne stopped both of us, with a wide grin. Lulu and I pulled the 3abayas off for a few minutes and Lisa-Anne gaped. Lisa-Anne's wrinkles were more noticeable now as she was starting to age more over the 2 years.

"Aw, you girlz all grown up." Lisa-Anne brushed off an imaginary tear. We laughed and made our way outside the house.

I gave Hussain the address and we waited in the Porsche Cayenne as he drove us over to one of Shaikha's friend's houses, where the surprise party would be.

Lulu was absorbed into taking pictures of her newly red dip dyed hair and so, I checked bbm.

S3ood Al-X -DP: Italy:
Waleht 3leich, weinich? :*

I smiled.

S Al-X ; Congratulations my baby S!:* :
Not as much as me. :* Omw (on my way) to Shaikha's surprise bacholerette, you;p?

S3ood Al-X -DP:Italy:
Omw to M7md's surprise bachelor party. ;p

It's been 2 years since S3ood has asked me the 'big question'. I remembered it as if it was yesterday.

-2 years ago-
 
"3younha?" I murmured, too absorbed into cleaning the blood off of his fist.


"Shoug." He repeated. I finally looked up to meet his eyes.


"Marry me."

I gaped at S3ood. "What?"

"Sima3teeny. Marry me." S3ood's voice remained serious.

"We're too young S3ood!" My cheeks reddened.

"So what? Shoug, I can't protect you this way. I need to be yours, officially. I can't stand knowing that one day, there may be another man that can take you away from me." S3ood's voice quivered a bit at the end of his sentence, his eyes full of jealousy.

"I didn't graduate from High School yet.. we're too young S3ood.." I repeated.

"Shoug, aghar! ... Promise me, you won't marry another man when you go to college. I'll wait for you if you wait for me. Promise me Shoug, that there won't be another guy in your life." S3ood's eyes were full of love.

"I promise." I stuttered. I blushed even further after he'd exclaimed the words: "Aghar!"

"Etha Allah katib, then I'll make you my wife one day. I'll wait as long as you want me to wait. I promise you that 7ubi." 

- Present day -

"Earth to Shoug? We're here!" Lulu waved her hands in my face, trying to grab my attention.

"Oh, tena7t. Sorry." I smiled embarrassingly. We got out of the car and approached the tall white house. We found numerous Porsche/BMW cars parked outside, probably the visitors.

We entered the dark filled room, there were lights hanging from the ceiling that Lulu and I purchased for the house, a girl DJ was sitting in the corner and there were a flood of girls sitting on the couches, chatting happily in the dark.

"Akheeran! Shaikha bitiyee b3ad 15 minutes m3a Yara." Futou7, Shaikha's best friend, approached us and told us.

We got Yara to get Shaikha dressed up, Shaikha thinks it's going to be a little hang out with her and her friends from KU college and her friends from GUST. Not a huge party with all of her cousins from both sides of her family, her high school friends and her current friends from all colleges.

"Banat! She's outside, yalla yalla!" Lulu gathered up the girls, we all huddled together in the middle of the dark room.

"Shhhh!" Hawra'a, a tall slender girl, one of Shaikha's and my friends, shushed the girls.

We watched the door open and all of the girls cheered once Shaikha, dressed in a red short tube dress walked in. She had her hair down, curled and her diamond accessories sparkled in the dark.

Shaikha's eyes turned teary, her smile from ear to ear as Yara hugged her friend tightly.

"Congratulations!" All of the girls chanted. The DJ put on some music and the party was in full swing.

"My baby is growing up!" I pulled Shaikha in for a hug, Lulu hugged her next.

"Ey baby? I'm the older one here." Shaikha laughed, hugging both Lulu and I back.

"Thank you so much girls." Shaikha kept repeating to all of the girls.

"I can't believe you're finally getting married to M7md!" I heard a girl, named Saba, call out to Shaikha.

The girls gathered around Shaikha and they began to dance together, I backed away from the group once I felt my blackberry vibrate continuously in my Hermes clutch.

I made my way down the hall till I was in the safety of the living room, which was vacant but dark.

It was an unknown number calling.

I answered it and whispered, "Aloo?"

"Aloo." A deep male voice replied. His phone was a bit sketchy so his voice would fade in and out, I couldn't recognize the voice.

"Mnu m3ay?" I asked, confused.

"Shlounich?" He asked, his tone was playful.

"Mnu m3ay?" I repeated in a serious tone.

"Mu entay Shoug? Shoug Al-X?" He asked.

"Who's asking?"

"You don't need to know now. In time you'll know who I am." He smirked through the phone.

"Don't call this number again or else I'll give your number to my father." I harshly stated before hanging up on the stranger.

"Shoug? What are you doing here all alone?" Lulu approached me out of nowhere, looking worried.

"I got a call from some number."

"Mnu?" Lulu asked, her mouth gaping a bit.

"La2 la2, wla a7ad. It was a wrong number." I reassured her with a smile before joining her with the other girls.

-

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

I smacked my blackberry, trying to switch off my alarm with my eyes closed.

"Shoug, yalla mama warach jam3a!" I heard Mom yell out. My alarm was loud, it could wake up the whole house. -.-

I forced myself out of the safety of my bed to take a long hot shower. I savored the time that I was under the warm water till I had to leave the bathroom.

I combed my hair back into a high bun after I slipped on my long beige skirt that hung on my waist, I pulled on a peachy button down shirt that was tucked in. I slept late last night after the party and all I wanted was to wear something as comfortable as possible that didn't resemble PJs.

Grabbing my folder and LV tote bag, I made my way out of the house and into the Porsche Cayenne.
Hussain was used to the way to GUST now since it was my second year, I checked my bbm messages as he drove.

S3ood Al-X DP:Italy:
Gm beautiful;* weinich? You're late;p

Shoug Al-X:
Gm love. :* I took a shower, unlike some smelly guy called S3ood. ;p

S3ood Al-X DP:Italy:
I took a shower too;( I just don't take hours doing my hair like some pretty girl called Shoug. ;p

I giggled to myself. It was our routine to bbm each other in the morning before university, we weren't able to speak in the university since S3ood hung out with a group of guys while I hung out with a group of girls.

We were pretty much segregated.

Once Hussain arrived in front of GUST, I got out of the car and made my way into the entrance doors. There were a few students hanging about outside in one of the tables, most of them were guys.

One of the guys I recognized was S3ood's friends, his name was Rakan. Rakan was tall, 7an6awy, a bit muscled and had near to black eyes that were surrounded with thick eyelashes.

Rakan's eyes were following me today as I walked passed him. S3ood's friends would usually keep their eyes to the ground whenever I passed, S3ood made it obvious that he was going to marry me soon and he made it plenty obvious to the guys.

"Shoug!" Lulu greeted me with a hug and handed me my Frappocinno from Starbucks. I took a long sip of the caffeinated drink, letting it freeze and awaken the insides of my body.

"Lulu, Rakan kan ga3d yikhizny elyoum.. shifteeh?" I asked, confused. Lulu's face twisted a bit but then she quickly changed her expression.

"Um, la2. Laish?" She asked, her tone turning a bit cold.

"Madri, isn't he your best friend? I thought you would have known why. Nevermind, it's probably nothing." I shrugged and dropped the subject.  

Shd3wa, all he did was look at you. Akeed he didn't stare, your eyes were probably playing tricks on you because of the hot sun.


-

"Shoug, psssttt. Help." Hawra'a, a new friend of mine from GUST, nudged my shoulder in class.

"Shnu?" I averted my eyes to her beautiful light complexion that was showed off with her dark navy 7jab, we kept our voices hushed since we were completing a test.

"What's the answer for question 4A?" She hissed, her pink lips trying not to move so much to attract any attention from the professor. "Futou7 won't tell me."

I turned to look at Futou7, her wavy hair messily trailing down her back as she was practically attacking her test paper with her liquid pen. I held back my laugh.

"The answer is 54,000 output and 5% is the liquidity ratio." I hissed back.

"Lifesaver!" Hawra'a gave me a big toothy smile before writing down the answer.

The classes dragged on. Fajer and Lulu had different classes to mine and so I was usually around Hawra'a and Futou7 a lot in classes.

The good thing about university was that classes could be cancelled a lot. My Algebra class was cancelled for the day and I ended up finishing early.

I was about to leave GUST alone, the other girls were in their other classes but Rakan stopped me midway.

"Shoug, digeega ni6ray." Rakan called out. I turned to look at Rakan, he was jogging up to me.

"Yup?" I noticed S3ood was sitting close by with a couple of his friends, Saleh and Ya3goub.

"I need help with Algebra, I heard you were doing tuitions with Jassim? Jassim was too busy this week to tutor me." Rakan's eyes were apologetic. 

"Isn't Lulu a good tutor at Algebra?" I asked.

"Eee bas she has that test next week, mabe ashagelha zyada."

"Um. I can tutor you tomorrow in lunch with Mariam, Mneera and Ghena." I stated, Rakan's eyes looked a bit disappointed once I mentioned that Mariam, Mneera and Ghena were going to be with us.

"Ah, yalla okay. I'll be there, just remind me tomorrow." Rakan gave me his back and walked off.

When I turned to the other direction, I found S3ood's mahogany eyes on me and on Rakan who was walking away.

At the same time, I received a message on Whatsapp. I averted my eyes away from S3ood's and checked the message.

It was from an unknown number.

....: Hii;* mabrouk tikherejtay. ;p

Shoug: Mnu?

....: No how are you?

Shoug: I'm blocking you

....: Wait!!

Shoug: ?

.....: Give me a month. After a month I PROMISE I'll tell you who I am.

Shoug: You're kidding me, right?

....: It's that or else I tell your parents about your relationship with S3ood.