•Aaliyah

Hide and seek was the theme of the day with aunty Raliya coming back too early. Safiya as the first runner up has dissappeared without a trace. I came in to find the living room as empty as the wild west. I'd like to think this was a set up planned by aunty Raliya and her ever so lovely Safiya but again I doubt Safiya would join her dubious plans to make me look bad.

I'll assume she's asleep in our room to avoid suspecting her of anything she hasn't done or rather not having proof of her alliance. I ran into the room we shared and she wasn't there so I just waved the thought of her doing anything deceptive against me and assumed again that she was in aunty Raliya's room.

Without a thought, I started pushing the white polythene bag under the bed but it was unreasonablely bulky so I had to bring out the bars of chocolate one by one and the wafers to push them under the bed as fast I could. In the rush of it all I found a note attached to my favourite piece of them all but I shoved it under the bed and continued with the rest of the sweets until the door was pushed open and aunty Raliya came in with a scowl on her face. She just walked towards me and took the bag with the remaining sweets and candy in them and left the room.

I would've preferred if she beat me up because her brevity scared the hell out of me. With the scowl on her face, I couldn't decipher what was going on in her mind for two reasons which were because she was always wearing a frown on her face and because of her relentlessness to always hit me without doing anything to get punished. If exoneration was a personality trait she'd be the best at portraying it with her talent of showing no mercy to anyone.

Minutes later, Safiya walked in looking like she had won a lottery with her one million dollar smile as I enquired about her whereabouts. Turns out, she went to see one of her friends who lived close by when she finished watching her movie. I suddenly felt bad about having such thoughts about her and to make it up to her I offered to share my gifts with her and she agreed happily without questioning the reason behind my intention to share.

I had already started narrating about the less important things I discussed with Bilal in detail when the Lochness monster pushed our door open without even a salam and she gave Safiya the bag she took from me earlier and claimed it was a gift she got for her from the small shopping she did when she went to shoprite today then she left after glaring at my direction, it was probably to signal me to zip my mouth as she would say constantly when someone visited and was staying longer than a week.

After she left, I didn't make a move to spill to Safiya since I had already told her earlier and I'm sure she probably understood what was going on when she put the pieces of my gist together and realised what had happened. I noticed the remorse on her face as she gave the sweets back to me but I rejected it and she accepted reluctantly after I was adamant about refusing to collect it. So she decided she would take the bag and in exchange I wouldn't share the other half I hid under the bed with her.

After eating a few pieces, I got up to go and wash aunty Raliya's clothes and her spotless bathroom that was barely used yet she made me wash it everyday for no reason and as I did my work I made a mental note to send a message to Hamza to thank him.

Thirty minutes later of sweat and fatigue, I sent a thank you message to him then went to take another shower to refresh myself.

It took me almost an hour to wipe off the fatigue under the cold shower that left me sleepy after I came out and wore a new set of clean clothes then I sat down to munch on my toblerone.

I read his note almost ten times after bringing it out from my stash of goodies. It was cute and cheesy. Made me feel fuzzy on the inside.

Cross my heart, hope to die Cinderella. To my lover, Aaliyah I'd never lie. With every truth I swear I'd try. This is my way of saying I feel something for you and would like to get to know you better if you'd let me into your world.

~Hamza

I blushed for the nth time after reading it and on cue he replied my message as if he knew I was thinking about him.

Hamza: I'm sorry what gifts and note are you talking about?

My heart deflated from reading his reply and I wanted to shrink into a hole till I was no more. I was so embarrassed to say the least.

Aaliyah: Well I got some chocolates from Bilal and he said you gave it to him.

It took him a few minutes to reply. I know he's probably thinking of what to say because I can see the read receipts had turned blue five minutes ago.

Hamza: Oh I'm sorry I forgot I did. Kiyi hakuri my queen it slipped my mind. Did you like them?

Aaliyah: It's fine. I liked them. Thank you again.

Hamza: You're welcome. It was my pleasure.

It was that moment I knew he didn't write it and was covering up for Bilal who tried to help him. And he was so bad at lieing that I caught up with the whole sham.

Aaliyah: You know what quit the charade. Nasan Bilal ne ya taimake ka (I know Bilal helped you) so you can quit lying because you're bad at it😂

To be honest, I was shocked that I wasn't angry instead I just viewed them as two fools who didn't know how to cook up the perfect plan.

I didn't waste time calling Bilal the moment I'd had enough of the lies and wanted to rant and give him a piece of my mind. His reaction was priceless and then I knew he was also a terrible liar like his friend too. He picked after two rings and that had to be the worst ten minutes of his life before he hung up because I called him during his work hours while I made it a mission to annoy him.

"Bilal so you're a good liar ko? and a great actor since you were able to decieve me into thinking Hamza gave you the chocolates ba? Both of you are in for the worst rant of your entire life kuma zan kira shi anjima (I'll call him later) and I'll finish his life too. Bari ku gani (wait and see)."

And like Hamza, he lied too but he couldn't lie again once he started laughing and knew that I was already ahead of the game.

"Ok toh I'm sorry. I was trying to help the guy out because he had become hopeless and very useless since he met you kuma I want my bestfriend back into his senses. Aaliyah give him a chance. Yana matukar son ki (he really likes you) and I'm very sure he's not going to break your heart. I trust him enough to leave you in his hands. I wouldn't think of a perfect candidate to handle your weak heart. Think about it and tell me what you feel is right. Also if he dissappoints you, I'll definitely destroy his life."

He sighed noisily, waiting to hear my response but my mind and soul wasn't ready for another three year tryst that would end up shattering me to pieces so I decided to give it a thought after looking over the pros and cons but in the mean time I'd chosen to go with the flow and see where our friendship would lead.

"See Bilal you know everything that happened between me and Abba. I'm not done healing. You know how I felt about him so please don't make me go for another guy. I'm still mourning the death of my heart. Now just tell him I'm not interested but I'd like to pursue a friendship with him and with time maybe it'd lead to where he so wishes. Remember sabr (patience) is virtue. That's all I wanted to tell you so you can leave me alone now."

He laughed at my statement about mourning for the death of my heart and took it as me exaggerating.

"Ke (you) you're not serious. Just say you're still trying to forget somebody. You're now telling me that your heart is dead. Oya die too so that I'll know it's true. Lili take your time. He'll be waiting for you till you're ready. Now I have to get back work so get off my phone or I hang up."

I laughed and ignored his rude remark me because that was our thing. I've always been better at being petty and trolling him and that was why I loved him the most in my family because we understood eachother the most.
___________________________

The daddy's girls in the building🤜🏽

~Aisha Safiyanu🥀