A Game Of Obsession and Trust

T w o

I groan as I feel someone pull my leg. I wiggle my leg trying to push them away. 

“Let me sleep!” I whine.

“Inu come onnn!” I scowl as Safeer shouts. “It’s time to go to school.”

I wave him off and snuggle closer into my soft pillows.

A minute later, I feel my arm being pulled. 

“Safeer get the hell out of my room!” I yell at my eleven year old brother.

“Insha! Language!” My mom scolds from outside my room, somewhere.

“Inu, get up! We’re gonna be late for school and Papa will be late for work.” Safeer informs.

I mentally scream and finally get up. I glare at him, pushing my hair back. “I’m up. See? Now get out.”

He huffs and stomps out. I vaguely hear him complain about me to mom and I roll my eyes. That little piece of crap.

I pull myself up and go to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth, taking a quick shower and putting on clothes, I hurriedly wrap my hijab and head out with my bag slinging on my right arm. 

I am not a permanent hijabi but I feel like I am getting there. 

Sometimes I would just wrap my head with a loose scarf when going to college while other times I would properly wear it. 

“Salaam Ma!” I greet my mother as I take a seat at the dining table. I pull my sleeve of the baby blue shirt that I wore, down and place my bag next to my chair. I paired the top with white skinny jeans and a beige colored hijab.

My mom sets the breakfast down on the table and takes her seat beside me.

"Where's Papa?" I ask looking around.

She glances at me before going back to applying jam on the bread. "He'll be down any minute."

On cue, I hear footsteps and Papa comes into view, all dressed in a black suit for his office. He's a lawyer.

"Salaam Papa." Safeer and I greet. He replies with a smile and sits down beside Safeer who is sitting opposite of me.

Mama passes me two slices of bread and I start munching on it. "Oh yeah," I start, "there's a party at Warda's house again. Can I go? It's on Saturday. " I look at both of them. "Will you guys be home?"

Dad swallows his bite and says, "No I won't be. There is a new case and I need to work on that." 

"Oh." I reply. "What about you Mama?"

"I will be home. The students exams just finished so I'll be home marking their papers." My mother speaks up too.

"So that means I can go?" I look at them expectantly.

Dad pauses for a minute before nodding at last, "but don't be late." He narrows his eyes a little in a joking manner.

I grin.

•⚪•⚪•⚪•⚪•⚪•

"Salaam ladies!" I drape both of my arms over Manal, Noora, and Layla. 

"Walaikum Assalam," they reply. Manal frowns at my hand around her shoulder, and moves out of it. I roll my eyes. 

Noorie is once again, engrossed on her phone and I bump our shoulders. "Why do I always see you on your phone?"

Without looking up at me, she answers, "I'm just sending a friend yesterday's homework." She sighs. "People these days don't want to work hard. They just want the easy way out. How they're going to give their exams is beyond me."