CHAPTER | FOUR | UMAYMAH | POV

Thinking that I could have gotten better in a matter of one night was obviously my mistake because the next day when I awoke to pray Fajr, my face still resembled a tomato. To my despair, all my siblings had seen it and haven't stopped laughing. Just they wait when I'm better; they'd better be praying their heads are still intact to the rest of their body for laughing at me.

Right now mom wouldn't let me go to school either because she was worried that I would pass it on. However, the look on her face when I begged her if I could go was one to remember. Who would've thought me out of all people would have wanted to go learn.

Well learning isn't exactly why I wanted to go back, but I certainly wasn't going to be telling my mother what I had in mind! Just the thought of telling her scared me; no matter how good my intentions, she would never let me go talking to a boy.

"Umaymah, I'm going to the grocery store. Don't even think about moving from your bed." I heard a my mom shout from all the way downstairs. To be fair, even if I wanted, I couldn't move anyway so there was no point in her telling me.

Although I didn't go school today, I was still awake when I heard my siblings going out the door and not that I liked the screams that came out their mouths every morning, I was looking to see if Shoaib had come out of his house. If he did, I obviously missed it.

Just then my phone decided to ring and even though it was a bad habit, I still picked up without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice very much hoarse by the fact I'm ill.

"You do know I saw you gaping at my house this morning right? And you better say you weren't looking for me either." I didn't even need confirmation to know who the voice belonged to; it was pretty obvious Shoaib was on the other end. How did he get my number though?

"Er well actually, I was looking at my siblings walk to school?" Instantly I realised it came out more of a question than a statement which meant I didn't sound convincing at all.

"Of course you were, considering they don't even walk that way." That was another detail I forgot. "Just so you know, I'm finding your new found interest in me really annoying, so stop with the stalking." That really did it though.

"Listen you demented boy, I have no interest in stalking you no matter how hard you may find that. What I am trying to do is help you. There is fine line between those two and I suggest you understand that." I had no idea why this boy brought out the worst in me, but this was the second time in two where I lashed out on him. Should I be apologising?

I didn't get a reply for a few seconds, in fact I heard a rather loud smashing sound and it wouldn't be a surprise to me that he broke something because of what I had just said. So, I'm quick tempered; sue me.

"I don't need help, especially from you. Also that dinner you invited my family to, don't even think for a minute I'll be attending." It was harsh but I wasn't one to show him it got to me.

"Don't come then, I'm neither forcing you nor did I specifically ask you to join us. But I want to know how you got my number." By now my tone of voice had completely changed to being cold but I also wanted to know how he called me.

"There's a lot of gains leading a life like this. Maybe if you knew, you wouldn't be so damn persistent on me trying to change my ways." And that was when I had officially had enough of him. Ending the call, I fought the urge to throw my phone across the room.

It all made sense to me. If I hadn't decided to get involved with Shoaib, I wouldn't be losing my temper like this. This wasn't what I wanted, but perhaps I had to continue like this in order for him to change. If he wanted to be stubborn then two can play at that game.

That was when I forcefully got out of bed headed to my wardrobe to find clothes for me to change into rather than the pyjamas I was wearing. As comfortable as they were, I sweated in them the whole night and wasn't exactly going to go out like this.

Mom would be livid if she knew that I had decided to get out of the house. I was instructed to not move from the bed, imagine the load of screaming I would get from stepping foot outside the house; especially while she wasn't even home.

Discarding that fact, I sent an extra sweet message to my mom explaining that I was going out. In all honesty, I didn't want to see her reply and no matter how rude I was being, I put my phone on airplane mode so no calls or messages could come through.

This was a bad idea and every bit of common sense I have was telling me so. Going out the house was the first part of the plan and I had succeeded, also being very happy that I didn't see mom any where near the neighbourhood. The next part of the plan was to find Shoaib's little hideout.

Well, that wasn't the best words to describe where he could be, but considering no one knows where Shoaib and his gang of friends hang out, it was more or less true. I had no idea what I was thinking when this idea struck me, but I was obviously too angry to think about it at that time and so I just kept walking now.

"I'm so glad this is a small town." I mumbled to myself while blowing my nose on the bundle of tissue which I had brought with me. No matter how much I wished I wasn't ill, it didn't differ the reality that I actually was.

Checking through every alley way, checking every street and corner that I passed, I still had no luck in finding the boy. It had been half an hour and the town was so small that already I had managed to go through three quarters of it in that matter of time. Nonetheless I had one more street left before it just lead to the open wilderness.

I didn't notice how quiet this last street was until I was finally there. What shocked me was that all the houses here were abandoned with graffiti scrawling over the doors, grass uncut, and bits of mail everywhere. I definitely had to get mom here one day to clean up this mess.

The scene shocked me but it most definitely didn't make me stop from going in each of the houses. To any other person watching me, I would have been stupid to be walking into properties like this, but it didn't scare me. What scared me was a boy who could potentially be in one of these houses. Each house I opened was no where as vile as the outside which was sparked my curiosity even more, especially seeing no one in them. The properties almost radiated as if people lived in them; well from the inside.

It took merely two minutes for me to look around each property until I was standing right outside the last one. Taking a look I noticed it was much bigger compared to the rest of the ones on the street and by far a more dangerous aura to it. Not wasting any more time I silently made a prayer that I would find him in here.

"Hello?" I called out once I had opened the door and half of me was inside; meaning one foot in and one foot out.

I didn't see this coming, Infact any person trying to adjust their eyesight to the darkness in the house wouldn't have seen this coming. From being on my feet one minute to being dragged inside the next wasn't pleasant. I would have tried to scream but a hand was blocking my mouth from doing so.

Ya Allah, I knew this was a bad idea yet I came anyway.

"Close the door and turn the lights on." I heard someone bark an order to somebody else and suddenly light filled the once darken house. My eyes widened to see a furious Shoaib in front of me with a knife in hand. Reality kicked in and I stared at atleast fifteen boys in front of with some kind of weapon. Slowly the hand on top of my mouth also disappeared.

"Care to explain why and how you're here? Even after I told you to stop interfering with me?" His voice was calm yet no one in the room could miss the fact that he was angry.

What to respond?!

"I came looking for you. You said so yourself if I knew what you do consisted of, I wouldn't be bothering you. So here I am, enlighten me." I was confident yet my brain told me to run. I looked him in the eye as I talked yet I knew it was haraam.

"That wasn't an invite to come looking for me! Were you born dumb or -" He was cut off by one the boys coming up to him and whispering something in his ear. I didn't know what the boy had said, but it changed Shoaibs posture and his fists were no longer clenched as well as his jaw. And so he turned to face me again.

"We're going to be easy on you this time because we wouldn't want to hurt a girl." Sarcasm dropped with every word he said. "So scurry home and don't bother us again because you haven't seen what I'm capable of doing yet." Venom was now replaced by his use of sarcasm and every word he muttered was laced with it that made me want to shudder.

"Just because I go doesn't mean I'm not going to stop trying. There is nothing appealing about having to hide, threaten people or carry around weapons." With that said, I had tried to get up but someone was still holding me down. This was too messed up.

By the looks of it, no one sounded happy with what I had just said, but no one said anything either. I could tell Shoaib was the leader and the one who spoke aloud in these situations.

"Why does it matter to you?! If we have no sanity left then it's not your problem to try and fix us. Now are you going to go or not?"

"No." Was all I said.

"Give me your phone." He didn't wait for a reply and grabbed it from my jacket pocket. I looked at him unsure of what he was doing.

"Hello, I don't care who you are to Umaymah but she's at the end of Fockers street so do me a favour and take her home." Glaring at him was what I did while he gave me my phone back.

Instantly I snatched my arms back and proceeded to see who he had called; he also had airplane mode off now and I saw the text coming in from my mom which I really didn't want to see. Anger washed over me as I saw it was my dad that he had called. How dare he talk to him like that?

"I will go, but know that if you ever speak to my father like that again, I will personally make it my job to come here every day whether or not you like it." The anger was shown through my voice and me poking his chest as hard as I could. There was supposed to be no contact at all with the opposite gender but right now I couldn't see straight.

All I got from him was a snort and I took that as my cue to leave. This was definitely not the last time I would be visiting the house but I had more concerns right now. One which includes explaining what had just happened to my very angry father waiting for me at the end of street in his car.

How was I supposed to explain to dad that I had more or less just been threatened by a group of boys because of me being childish and deciding to look for them in the first place? No matter how I would try to phrase it, I knew that the blame would go back to me anyway.

"Asalaamalaikum." I said with the fear evident in my voice as I got in the car. I wasn't taking a risk to sit at the front so instead I had made my way to the back.

"Walaikumasalaam. First of all my disappointment cannot be put into words right now but I also want you to know that your mom doesn't need to know about this. She has a lot going on so this doesn't need to add to her stress." His words hit me; so did his tone of voice.

Not once had my parents spoken to me like that. Like all hope had vanished in me because of something I had done. Either way I knew I was in the wrong because I was with boys. Now that I think about it, was this plan really worth going through or did I just make myself delusional enough to think that it could work?

Whatever it was, I knew that either I needed patience to prove these people wrong and I can get Shoaib back on the Deen or I simply give up now and let fate decide what to do with the boy. I didn't knew which to choose and the car had now stopped to reveal we were outside our home.

Dad didn't wait for me; he just continued to walk towards the door and inside he went while I was still behind him.

"Umaymah what part of staying in bed was unclear to you? Also having the nerve to not reply to my messages! Is this the ignorant girl I've brought up? I don't want to know, just go up to your room now." Tears were welling up in my eyes at this point.

I didn't run to my room, instead I walked as calmly as I could knowing that I would be breaking down once inside my humble abode. Nothing came out though; no tears, screams, foul language, nothing. This was the time I needed to speak to my Lord the most and it was what I did after doing the ablution and stepping on the prayer mat.

"Ya Allah; I've brought myself in a mess which has only bought me shame in the eyes of my parents and anger from the one I'm trying to help. Please grant me patience in order to do what I need to." My Dua was short and now that I think about it, selfish too.

Normally my prayers went out to everyone and wished they would be happy and free from misery. Today it had been about me and the little struggle I went through this day. I was a sensitive girl and perhaps that's the reason I'm failing to do this job.

I shook any thoughts I had and climbed into bed. What really was it going to take for everything to be fine again? From what I saw, Shoaib had been content to how he was living and my parents were in no doubt angry at me. I could fix this though; I'm sure of it.

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A/N - This was more of a serious chapter and not really like the others I've written so far but I hope you all enjoyed! Also, do you think it's right for her to be helping Shoaib? Would love to know 😌