Every step I took with my family towards the sliding doors of the airport made me anxious. I had been told that Bilah and her family were coming to collect us from the airport, but I did not know if I was ready to face her yet. There would surely be an awkward tension surrounding us - that's what happens when 6 years go by without any contact.

Suddenly a hand gripped mine and I looked up to see my dad with a soft expression, "try not to give me a heart attack with your pranks okay?" I chuckled lightly while all five of my brothers decided to let out an unattractive snort.

"Like that's going to happen. I bet they're going to be jumping in each other's arms as soon as they see each other." Haroon, my oldest brother commented, making me offer him a fake smile.

We had now made our way outside and my brothers began looking around for the familiar faces that could be considered family. I also looked at my surroundings, just to remember how this town looked like since the last time I had been here. A small smile graced my face just by the scenery that hasn't changed at all.

My motives for looking at the scenery soon changed to also searching for Bilah and her family, and soon enough the bustle of seven people came into view. These faces started to trigger off my memory and I instantly realised just how much everyone had grown and matured. No longer were we kids anymore.

The one person that had caught my attention though, was Bilah. She walked behind everyone else, as if it pained her to be here, and had her head down. From what I could see, she too had grown taller and even though her head was partially down I could still make out the beauty of my former best friend.

My dad was the first to speak up as they approached, "It's so good to see you! My it's been too long, look how much everyone's grown." My father hollered as he got his best friend, Bilahs dad, into a hug with a massive smile plastered on his face. The scene itself was enough to make me smile too.

Awkwardly I stood there while each of my siblings greeted Bilahs family and she too stood there, not moving. My gaze was on her but it seemed like she didn't want to see me. I brushed off the thought thinking she must be nervous like I am after all these years, and with a shaky breath I made my way over to where she stood.

We were more or less the same height now and as I approached her, I saw her finally meet my gaze. "Hey Beels." I said as I tried to keep my voice stable. The old nickname which I had given her years back was still fresh in my memory and by the surprise look on her face, I'm sure she was wondering how I still remembered.

She must have gotten out of her shock as she offered me a smile, "Hey Ells, it's been a long time." A genuine smile made its way into my face as I realised that she too didn't forget my nickname.

Just when I was about to reply, Bilahs sister, Maysun, came up to me and embraced me in a hug which caught me off guard. She must have noticed as she chuckled and let go of me.

"Eiliyah I remember when you were a tiny little rat always causing trouble with my sister." Everyone laughed at her words and so did I. Even though she was younger than us, she was always the mature one.

I sneaked a glance at Bilah to see that she was looking away before I returned my attention to Maysun, "ah well she's still here." I commented and everyone groaned, probably thinking I was back to cause more trouble.

The thought made me reminded me of the good, old days when Bilah and I would cause endless mischief, but how the times have changed though. Seeing her here outside this airport after six years with nothing to say made me realise just how far we had distanced from each other.

Eventually we all got in our cars and began driving back to the place I once called home, and I was glad to be going back. Dubai had been great but it was nothing compared to this small town of ours where everyone knew each other and was friendly.

We passed almost everything and all of my brothers began pointing at the places they remembered such as the elementary school, middle school, hospital and the restaurants. We hadn't passed high school which I was grateful for considering I had to go back tomorrow - something I wasn't looking forward to.

"Geez, you'll give a girl hearing problems if you carry on screeching." I said to my brothers and dodged the punch that Osama was about to throw at me. We may not be kids anymore, but that still didn't excuse their behaviour.

"Geez, you'll give a boy eyesight problems if you carry on being ugly like that." Hamza, the 15 year old squirt retorted, making me glare at him.

"Dad!" I screamed to my father who was listening to us silently from the front as he drove.

"Dad!" All five of my brothers copied me, making me huff and stare out the windows with my arms crossed over my chest. They really knew how to test a girls patience.

I could hear them all laughing at my reaction but I simply ignored them and looked outside until a familiar neighbourhood and house caught my interest. Suddenly I sat up in my seat and a smile broke out on my features knowing that we were finally home.

Home. That one word I desperately tried associated with in Dubai but was just never the same and could never compare to the feeling I got when I was actually here.

The car stopped and me having the window seat meant that I was the first to spring up from my seat and out of the car. My brothers and dad rolled out behind me, getting the luggage out of the boot, and even though they complained about me not helping them with the bags, I ignored them.

The same patch of flowers lined our driveway all the way to the front of our house and the familiar two story house was in front of me once again. Everything even looked clean to extent that it could make people believe that people were actually living here all this time. It made me happy to think that our house was still cared after.

After gazing at the outside of the house, I finally helped out my brothers and picked up the smallest bag there was before heading inside.

"Hey, that's not fair! Come take your heavier bags." Haroon moaned from outside but I was already inside the house and taking the appearance of it.

There were still some white sheets that hung over the furniture, but only minimal and the rest had been taken off to reveal the rest. Everything was plain but the basics were here and it felt like this was going to be a long day of sorting things out - I didn't mind though. I needed the distraction.

"Eiliyah, me and the boys are going to fix everything and you can start on dinner." Dad said as he took the bag away from my hold.

"Yes sir." I mock saluted him and watched him give me a smile with his wrinkles on show.

I moved away from the living room and entered the kitchen which surprisingly had everything stored in it. All the vegetables, meat and other necessities were put away and ready for use.

"Man, I'm happy to be here again." I turned around, half surprised at the voice, only to find Bilahs brother leaning against the doorway looking at me.

Zayan and I were never on speaking terms and that was mainly because I was always too busy hanging out with Bilah. Back then Zayan used to be with his friends, so he never paid us any attention; it was a mystery as to why he was talking to me now.

"Well I'm glad that you're happy about me being back too." I replied sarcastically with a laugh and watched as his smile fell just as the rest of my family and his walked in through the door.

"Eiliyah, don't worry yourself. You must be tired, go upstairs and catch up with Bilah while Maryam, Maysun and I make dinner." Bilahs mom exclaimed and took the tomato out of my hands before busying herself with finding ingredients.

I looked over at Bilah and I could tell she really didn't want to upstairs with the way she was fidgeting with her fingers. People could use the word pushover to describe Bilah, but she was just kind like that and could never say 'no' to people. Thus why when she was in this situation she would play around with her fingers.

"Oh no, we have loads of time to catch up." I tried reasoning but with one look I shut my mouth and sighed, walking out of the kitchen.

Mrs Maher was one persistent woman and I knew better than to argue with her, and so as I walked up the stairs with a silent Bilah following me, I hoped that we wouldn't have an awkward aura around us.

The walk up the stairs was short and I rounded the corner to open the door that I distinctly remembered closing six years ago. A bubbly and happy emotion filled me as I opened the door and went inside to see my old room with boxes surrounding less than half the space. My bed was all made up and by now I wasn't surprised as I had a feeling Bilahs family has fixed some stuff for us before we came.

"Come. Sit down." I motioned to Bilah as I sat down on the bed itself after closing the door and slipping off my shoes by the foot of the bed.

Bilah timidly copied me and sat down, leaving some space between us. I was about to speak when she beat me to it, "it's kind of weird right now isn't it?" She asked and let out a short laugh, trying to clear away the tension.

"It doesn't have to be though." I offered and she looked saddened at my words.

Bilah was always the more open out of us two with her emotions, but right now I could tell that she was keeping a lot in. It's funny how after all these years I could still read Bilah like the back of my hand, and knew more about her than I knew of myself.

"How about we start over? Take things slow and like you said, it won't be weird." She spoke up and I felt happy at her words. There was nothing better than wanting to just laugh carefree about things around us and be able to have movie nights with one another.

"You know I'll always want that. Like Hassan said, 'for you a thousand times over'." She smiled at the recall of her favourite character Hassan from her favourite book 'The kite runner'.

"You remembered." She commented with a nod.

"Of course I did."

And just like that a silence confronted us, leaving us with nothing to say, but I couldn't complain. We were taking things slow and although people would say that she's just a friend - she's more than that. Having come back here and making the promise to go back to the way everything was before was truly a blessing in itself. For surely a lot of things have happened since then, and only the love of a sister can help me - since my mother is long gone.

* * *

This ended in a somewhat sad way - not a lot, but still sad because we now know that a lot of things have changed, especially the death of Eiliyahs mother. 😭
But how was it? I'd love to know what you guys thought 💙