My Knight In Shining Kaftan (COMPLETE)

Chapter Eighteen

Be kind to yourself.

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Salma had stepped out of the house a day before her birthday. Surprise birthday parties was never a thing in their house, but one would receive gifts from the parents. Hadiza was pretty broke so Salma was not expecting anything, she planned on staying indoors on that day and probably read a few pages of the Quran then make a dua for herself.

She needed that more than she needed screams, cake and balloons. She needed the day to pass as peacefully as it can, though she knew the day won't go by without Fatuma doing a little something for her. She would forever be grateful for being blessed with a friend like her.

Playing an audio that had been on her phone for longer than it should have been, she parked her car under an overgrown tree in a district that was nearly empty. Her heart didn't beat at the sound of the voice that blasted through the speaker, it ached instead.

"Hey.." he breathed and she closed her eyes, swallowing the painful lump that began to form in her throat. "Babe, I know this is the last you expect on this day but imma go ahead and do this anyway" he paused, dang that foreign accent! "Happy birthday princess" another short pause, "I love you" he laughed and the audio ended, leaving her to break into uncontrollable tears.

How could someone spit those words with the worst intentions, she thought he was genuine or his words were true. It was all a lie.

He sent that audio to her on her fifteenth birthday in 2017, when her father first trusted her with a phone. She was more than elated that she could communicate with Malik often than before when she only got to speak with when he went over to her school.

She recounted how that made her feel, the luckiest girl in the world. Now she had to adjust her memories, some of which she thought were her happiest are now what she wouldn't want to remember.

She wiped her tears and picked her phone with a heavy heart. She deleted that particular audio first, then searched for a picture she had held unto her heart dearly. It was taken when she was in her last year in secondary school, she stared at her face for a while and saw how happy she was then, standing next to Malik. Thinking all her problems got solved because he was a part of her life.

Pathetic.

She deleted the picture, ignoring the part of her mind that was telling her maybe, she should have kept the photo as a reminder of what her past was like, what meeting Malik had caused her. But deleting it would be better. Then the hardest part, their chats. He hadn't even replied her messages months before his wedding. The memories they shared were gone within seconds.

The last thing that's left now is his phone number that she'd memorized and now wished to forget. She knew she would eventually. She inhaled and exhaled twice, then started her car. Time to go home.

* * *

The drive back was longer than expected, her pain doubling itself as she tried to push the waswasa clouding her mind. She used all her strength and took herself home, not believing what her eyes had seen. Maybe she shouldn't have ran away from the scene and approached them before jumping into conclusion.

That moment she had no energy for another drama. Nevertheless, she didn't owe them any explanation or were they obliged to share every detail of their life with her. But she still felt backstabbed, seeing Fatuma and Sadiq coming out of a cake house together, laughing wholeheartedly. Maybe they got together, and thought hiding it would be better because she was probably ruining it.

She felt even more helpless, sinking deeper into her heavy blanket. Like she had done several times, she tried to block all the negative thoughts that flooded her mind and forced herself to sleep. Then woke up again, the first thing that came to her mind was when she let go off what was left of Malik, then her closest friends doing what her heart wanted her to believe was betrayal.