Paradise Chapter 15

Hey! I'm sorry I took a while writing this post, there were a lot of details to think about and I was so sleepy after such a long day.

Enshallah next post tomorrow if I can bas it would be late too cus 3nde ghabga and tomorrow is SUPER hectic after I finish uni. I'll try my best to find the time to write.

Hope you enjoy this post, I loved writing it!

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Previously in Chapter 14:

“Jawaa, 6al3eeni.”

Ignoring him.

“Jawaa, ga3d akalmch ana.”

Ignored again.

“Jawaa!”

“Shtabe?!” I snapped at him, finally facing him.

But only now that I realized that there wasn’t a mask between us.

His face was bare.

His mask was off.

I finally knew who Deep Voice was.

-

“Eissa?!” I screeched out in pure shock. I couldn’t believe it. All this time, Deep Voice was my own 19-year-old cousin I hadn’t seen for over a year!

“Al7een 9adagteeny?” He sighed, his face looked tired an worn out, all of the cruelty was washed away after his mask had been taken off, his face was gentle and kind, the face I was so familiar with. His nose strong and straight, his lips thin and pursed calmly and his dark deep-set eyes looked back at me with pure honesty.

I couldn’t believe it. It felt like my lips were stitched up so tightly shut that I couldn’t even move them to exhale.

“Jawaa?” Eissa looked down, looking purely ashamed and I simply kept on staring, my hands shaking.

“Jawaa, reday 3lay, allah yekhaleech,” he sighed and motioned his hands forward, grabbing my wrists but before he could grab them, I snatched my arms away from him so my wrists wouldn’t even be in his reach.

“Wakher, la etjeesny,” I breathed out calmly but the fury was drenched into my words.

“Jawaa..”

“Eskit bas.” I looked away, unable to look at his face with any kindness anymore. He wasn’t my cousin, he was an absolute stranger to me, family wouldn’t do this to you.

Would they?

“Jawaa-“

“Eissa, eskit.”

He listened to me, he sighed and remained silent, I could feel his eyes burn into my neck but I was looking out of the window, unable to meet his gaze or even face him.

-

-3 years ago-

“Jawaa! Tkheyelay mnu tawa ya!” Farah, my 14 year old cousin, ran up to me. Us girls were sat together in a separate room at zwara, the other room was full of adults and the diwaneya was filled with our guy cousins just playing play station and hanging out with our uncles, they would join us later in the big living room for lunch.

“Mnu?” I looked away from Ghanima, my other cousin, suddenly interested in what Farah what to say and dismissed Ghanima’s topic about her exams at school.

“Eissa!” Farah hissed, her small eyes wide with excitement. Her eyeliner was poorly drawn over her already thickly eyelash-ed eyes. Farah was one of the five cousins that have a huge crush on Eissa, he was truly the cutest cousin of all of the guy cousins we all had.

His hair was always left long and his waves were tousled, it’s originally black but from how much time he spends at the shalaih with his dad boating, his hair had turned a shade lighter to brown under the sun and his skin had become permanently burned into a bronzed tan colour, the only time we saw his lighter shade of skin was during the coldest month of winter.

“Abaih!” The girls besides me screeched, their faces flushing with excitement, a few of them got their lipsticks out, ready to look good for him.

“Oullah akher mara shefta kan eb 3id!” I couldn’t remember what he looked like but I remembered him kindly saying hi to me and asking how school was. Eissa was the only cousin that we al were kind of out of reach with, he rarely ever came to zwara and was always at the shaleih with his friends, he didn’t really bond with any of us like the rest of our cousins did, that’s probably also why most of the girls can’t see him in such a brotherly way.

“Goumaw khansalim!” Ghadeer whispered, her lips coated with brightly red lipstick, she was the eldest and was the same age as Eissa. Her hair was set in a side braid and she wore a casual white shirt and white pants, she was probably also the prettiest.

“Ka yaay hal 9oub lema yekhale9 men khwale l2na el diwaneya hal 9oub, lazm ye6l3 men hal bab,” Farah pointed towards the glass door besides the couch that Su3ad was sitting on.

“3ad shekla 7ail ghair!” Farah gossiped.

“A7la?” Ghadeer asked, excited.

“Emgare3,” Farah answered, her eyes lit up.

“Wai3 laish! A7la shay feeh kan sha3ra 3ad.”

“Banat theglaw 3ad, shd3wa,” I rolled my eyes with sarcasm, most of them went to segregated schools and even the ones who went to mixed ones like me were head over heels for Eissa, as if they didn’t see other guys everyday at school, probably cuter than the ugly ones I see everyday at school.

“Ee walla, chub, mabe yefakr ene khafeefa b3d,” Ghadeer hissed and I wondered how she was the eldest of us.

“Ahlaaain,” a voice suddenly scared us all, we were too into the gossip to notice Eissa by the door with a bright smile on his face.

He had light stubble over his skin, he had gotten older and it showed, the shorter hair brought out his strong manly features. He was also the tallest of our cousins, he had grown way taller than the last time I saw him, he was probably around 183cm by now and he’s only 16.

“Eissa! Shlounk shakhbark?” I was the only girl who spoke up, suddenly the ones next to me grew shyly quiet.

“Wallah tamam, menzaman 3ankom walla, mashallah tgheyertaw kelkom!” He said “kelkom” but his eyes didn’t waver to any of the other cousins, his eyes were deeply set into mine and I ignored them by looking away towards Farah and Ghadeer, nodding in agreement.

“Ee walla ma7ad galk ma etzour!” Farah suddenly lost her shyness and punched Eissa’s bicep with playfulness, he had grown bit muscular showing signs of going to the gym but he wasn’t that broad yet. I still saw him as the kind boy who wasn’t as jerk-y as my other cousins since he always takes time to ask each of us how we were doing, the others just fist bump us and run off to play their man games.

“Ee walla shasawe, lahait bel medrisa w kela bel shaleih m3a rab3e,” Eissa scratched the back of his neck, looking down in shame.

“Eee Khale Salim gayl ena dasheit el football club eb AKE (*AHE: American Kuwait Education – a highschool I made up, doesn’t exist in Kuwait),” Ghadeer added. Leave it to Ghadeer to know the top updates of Eissa, she had a stalker habit, she follows all of his accounts on Twitter and Instagram and keeps reading all of his updates.

I know this because her notifications are filled with his Check Ins on Foursquare, she actually turned on his notifications in the settings of the app so whenever he checks in at a place, it notifies her immediately.

“Ee, maku wakt asawe shay walla,”he smiled innocently.

“Khair, 3ndek wakt etrou7 etgiz eb 36, every week ha?” Ghadeer shot up a judgemental eyebrow at him.

“Shd3wa, menzaman mu ray7 a9lan, shdarach entay b3d?” Eissa chuckled but kind of seemed creeped out, I could see it in his eyes but he was too kind to say it. If it was any other cousin, they would probably say “ayal 7*ywana bas tg3deen etcheykeen 3lay? Walla ench fathya.”

“Foursquare, shfeek?” Ghadeer looked offended that he didn’t know that he had her added as a friend on there.

“Ee ee 9a7, walla ma at’thakar mnu emsawle add w men hal siwalif, bas adish asawe check in w a6la3, walla ma acheyk 3la a7ad.”

“Mashe,” Ghadeer muttered.

“Ee bas zourna akthar, okay?” Farah looked back to Eissa with kind eyes, she said it in a purely innocent way, not intending to charm or flirt with him. Her crush on Eissa was far more mature and reasonable than Ghadeer’s.

“Enshallah, I promise I will come for often,” Eissa grinned. “Yalla 3yal akhaleekom, baru7 ashouf el shabab w asalm 3lehum.”

He promised but he never kept it, we hadn’t seen him until another 6 months had passed and we only saw him for a few minutes during Eid, he was in a rush to go visit his other grandparent’s house so he could finish and go out with his friends for dinner.

But he would always sincerely ask about us, always take time to be kind whenever he was visiting and his eyes never wavered to the other girls, they were kept on me but I hadn’t realized why until now.

Now.

“I’ve fallen for you ever since my eyes met yours but I never knew how true it was until my eyes got a sight of your soul too.” My mind suddenly wavered back to reality to the sound of Eissa’s now more familiar deep voice; it flew off for a few seconds to reminisce.

I could now notice the familiar voice of Eissa, the deep voice was because of how he grew older and I wasn’t used to it, I hadn’t seen him for over a year.

His hair had grown out and his stubble was not a five o’clock beard, his features were much stronger and his shoulders were broad, he was probably now 194cm, a giant next to me.

“What?” I suddenly asked, not realizing what he’s saying.

“When you gave me your play station username, we used to play for hours during Ramadhan nights and we would use the headset with the microphone to speak to each other.. Remember? It wasn’t that long ago.”

“Oullah, kan maybe 7 months ago w mu shayfk men sena yemken aw akthar b3d..” I sighed, I wasn’t angry; I was just in shock and numb.

My mind suddenly travelled back to the day he asked for PlayStation user name.

-

-7 months ago-

“Jawaa wakhray, mu men 9jch, ma ra7 nel3ab Zombies Black Ops m3a bent!” Yousef cried out in annoyance, I was standing in front of the TV blocking the guys’ view of the game. We were in the large living room and we were early for zwara, Yousef, Bader, their parents, my parents, my grandmother and I were the only ones present at her house.

The rest of the family members would be coming in 30 minutes and the guys set up the play station in the large living room since the TV was much wider and no one was occupying it yet, so they weren’t at the diwaneya.

“Yalla 3ad!” I begged. “I have a PS3 too.”

“Entay bent, sh3rfch eb hal l3ba?!” Bader muttered whilst taking off his ghetra in annoyance and his super short hair was a mess.

“Wai shfeekom entow, haman banat y3rfoun shloun yel3boun!” I cried out stomping my foot on the floor, my nude Louboutins causing a loud clack! to cry out.

“Ee khair, “ Yousef laughed hysterically.

“Ma ra7 awakhr ela lema etkhaluni al3ab wyakum, shasawe ag3ad m3a khale w khalte w ohma ga3den ysolfoon 3an byout w ajar 3nd yaditi bel 9ala elthanya!”

“Entay bent, jableehum w khaleena elryayeel nel3ab,” Yousef’s chubby cheeks were red with fury.

“Ryayeel ma yekholon bent tel3ab?” I rolled my eyes, feeling my long eyelashes brush up against my eyelids.

“Offh, jad entay d3la,” Bader mumbled.

“Mnu d3la?” Suddenly a new voice entered into the wide ceramic living room, we turned towards the open hallway and saw Eissa, and he was in his deshdasha, looking dashing and smart.

“Jaw!” Bader and Yousef both huffed. They called me “Jaw”, short for Jawaa.

“Laish b3d?” Eissa chuckled, “shemsawya entay?”

“Ma saweit shay, ohma mu emkhaleeni al3a m3ahum!” I cried out.

“T3alay malsh sheghl feehum, aku PS3 thane bel 9ala ely yemna,” Eissa pointed towards the white painted hallway.

“Eissa ee wad’ha menak w red 3shan tl3ab m3ana,” Bader grinned, a dimple popping up.

“La la, bal3ab wyaha,” Eissa motioned me to follow him and I did, Bader and Yousef muttered “khal ywale” and went back to the game.

“Tara mu lazm tel3ab wyay, tgder tel3ab wyahum, shekly bared 3nd el ahal w ag3ad m3ahum aw ay shay,” I suddenly felt like a de3la, I didn’t want him to ditch Yousef and Bader because of me.

“La la 3ade, yalla khanshouf etha et3rfeen tl3been,” Eissa nudged my shoulder with his once we were in the second living room. It was a smaller one, it was like a playroom for the kids, little toys were tossed around everywhere and we sat on pillows on the floor right in front of the TV.

Eissa started the game and we both sat next to each other with lots of space next to us, keeping us apart.

We played for a good hour, he didn’t play it easy, he kept challenging me and I kept showing him my skills with the sniper during the game. He looked impressed because he would shoot me a smile every few minutes whenever I showed him a new trick.

“6l3tay mu hayna,” Eissa laughed once we paused the game after a full hour.

“And Bader and Yousef will never believe me,” I muttered.

“La la, ana bagoulehom,” Eissa gave me a wink. “3a6eene your username 3shan lema arid enkaml el l3ba.”

“Kaa, 9awer el screen 3shan ma tensa el username.”

“Yalla mashe, tara estanest 7ail m3ach,” He told me with a genuine grin on his face, his eyes held an emotion I couldn’t read.

“Eee haman ana!” I grinned back at him, this was so much more fun than playing with the idiots Bader and Yousef.

“Enshallah en3eedha mara thanya.”

“Enshallah.”

“Yalla, khan rid ensalm, atwaqa3 asma3 khwali tawhum ydshoun.” Eissa turned off the TV and motioned me to follow him, he would wait for to walk first and he would then walk right besides me, his long legs faster than my shorter ones.

We would play and chat during the nights for the next month or two, I found out he swore at the game every time someone would kill him and he would swear in such a funny way, not in a way that was pure anger and I would laugh each time.

Soon enough though, we both got busy, I got busy first and then we stopped playing daily, we would play a few times a week but then that would turn into few times a month and then it finally turned into never.

-

“Jawaa? Shfeech tena7tay?” Eissa broke my thoughts.

“Why would you do this to me?” Suddenly my eyes filled with tears, I remembered the good memories with him and I couldn’t believe such a kind cousin would have so much cruelty in him.

“Jawaa.. allah yekhaleech, it isn’t what it looks like-“

“THIS is what it looks like,” I pointed to the bruises all over me because of him.

“9adgeeny, I can explain..”

“THEN EXPLAIN,” I yelled out of nowhere and his eyes widened in surprise.

“Jawaa..” he seemed tongue-tied but the next few words that escaped his mouth only began to shock me more..

-

What do you think Deep Voice, AKA Eissa, is about to say?

Hate Eissa or love him?

Comment down below and tell me, thank you I read all of the comments and each one makes my day!