CHAPTER | SIX | ALIZA | POV

The rest of the weekend seemed to have pass by in a blur which amazed me because they usually dragged along and that was the worst feeling ever. Soon enough though, Monday had come around and I had found myself doing my morning routine before getting my things ready for school. I was running a little late this morning and if I didn't hurry up, I'm sure Baba would have left without me.

So there I was trying to hurry up and at the same time getting out the front door when I bumped into something hard. In the distance, I could hear the faint sound of the car engine pulling out and I groaned out load; not just because I missed ride but because the wall I had just bumped into caused pain that went through my hips which hurt a little more, adding to the cramps I already had at the moment.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't see you running out the door!" For a moment there I began panicking as to how the wall began to talk to me. Then my senses kicked in. I slowly looked up to see Isa's tall frame towering over me and his eyes glued on me intently, as if I was going to fall down in tears any moment.

"It’s okay. It wasn't your fault," I said after a minute from staring into his eyes. They were too...hazel. He began shaking his head at me and at the same time took my hand with his and began walking. 

"What are you doing Isa? I have to get to school!" I began squirming under his hold but he wouldn't budge at all.

"I know. Where do you think I'm taking you?" We stopped by his car and I couldn't help but notice how sleek it was. His voice also held that sarcastic tone that I was all too familiar with when I or the rest of the boys would use it.

"You're taking me to school? But how did you know that I needed a ride?" I asked him with confusion. I didn't ask him to give me one nor did I say to come over. 

"Well I might have told your Dad that I would be giving you a ride to school from now on," He admitted sheepishly while, scratching the back of his neck. I was surprised though that he would want to do that for me even though I had my own car to use. 

"Thanks, I appreciate it. Now we have to go or else I'll be late!" He seemed to have caught on to what I was saying as he unlocked the door with his key. I quickly went round to the passenger side of the car and got inside. By the time I got in, seated myself the car had come to life and was ready to be speed down the road.

"Someone's in a hurry to get to school eh? Considering it doesn't start for another hour or so..." He said and I kept staring at him like he was talking in another language. What did he mean it wouldn't be starting for another hour or so?

"What are you talking about? I'm la-" I stopped right there when I noticed the time on my phone. I had read the time wrong. 

Embarrassingly, I put my head down facing my lap when all of a sudden the car stopped and a hand went under my chin to pull it back up and face Isa. I couldn't tell if he was happy, sad or angry at the moment. His face was just blank.

"Aliza if I tell you something will you promise not to get mad at me?" He asked and I simply nodded at him; curious to what he had to tell me. "I don't want you looking down because it means that I can't look at your face. It sounds weird and creepy but I just don't want you looking down." I smiled at his words knowing that even if it did sound a little weird and creepy, it was sweet. Very sweet actually.

"Jazakallah. Why would I get mad at that though?" I asked because I seriously can't think of a reason why I or anyone else would get mad at something like that.

"Err, nothing," He said a little too fast which caused a little giggle to come from me which surprised me. Since when do I giggle? Well it seemed to have bought a smile on Isa's face either way.

"Since you still have some time left for school, wanna go Starbucks?" He asked after my little giggles. I couldn't say no to some Starbucks right now because I hadn't eaten or drank anything since I woke up and it was taking a toll on me. 

"Sure, I'm craving some coffee! Maybe a muffin too actually and maybe some pastry or cookies. Yeah that would be nice," I admitted as I looked up at him to see he was already staring at me.

"You sure have the same appetite as Adam, that's for sure!" He stated as he started laughing at me. I simply shrugged and held a smirk on face because I already knew that I had a big appetite for such a small person.

"It’s a family thing I suppose," I shrugged again. This time I looked out the window to see that Isa had already stopped outside of Starbucks. Without waiting for him I eagerly unbuckled the seat belt and got out the car making sure I didn't trip on my skirt and fall flat on my face. 

Though once out the car, I waited for him to come out and finally he did, looking amused like always. "Why are you always looking amused?" Before I knew it, the question had been blurted out my mouth and I face palmed myself for how blunt I was. 

He must have gotten even more amused as he was now laughing at me again. I feel like a joke book today because of the many times I've made this boy laugh at me. "I'm amused because you're really funny. Something which I didn't really expect to be honest," He said to me and began walking towards the café, once stopping to look back at me to see if I was coming or not.

I shook my head at how much I was thinking about this and lifted my skirt a little so it wouldn't slide across the floor while I was walking and made my way next to my future husband. I felt nervous when I thought about Isa that way. 

"You really need to stop zoning out," My head snapped up to see Isa holding the door open for me whilst raising his eyebrow. 

"Whoops, my bad," I mumbled while walking and thanking him for keeping the door open for me. 

"What would you like?" The person behind the cashier asked us as we came up to the front of the line. 

"Two mocha lattés, one blueberry muffin, a cookie and two Danish pastries please?" I looked at Isa with a 'What are you doing?' look, but he just shrugged and took out his wallet while our orders were being made.

"Isa, I should pay since you're driving me to school and everything," I said slowly and meanwhile taking my purse out of my bag and opening it. He hadn't said anything so I took that as a sign to carry on and take a ten dollar note out.

Our coffees and food had arrived and I gave the man the money and told him to keep the change since I didn't really need it anyway. He looked like a little kid on Christmas as soon as I said this and kept on saying thank you. A bright smile was formed on my face as I kept assuring him that it was okay and he didn't need to worry about it.

Isa grabbed the tray and we walked over to a spare table which wasn't hard to find since there was only two other people here at this time. "Why did you do that?" Isa asked after I had sat down at the table.

"Because I don't really need the money and it looks like I made his day anyway." I said pointing to the guy who was now serving a new customer cheerfully and looks like the smile still hadn't vanished from his face. 

"Now how come you didn't make a fuss when I said that I should pay for all this?" I asked and began drinking my latté while ripping off a peace of pastry and popped it in my mouth, after saying Bismillah. 

"What do you mean? If you wanted to pay for something then you can. I'm not exactly going to fight over who pays just to show I'm the man," He said and I scrutinized his face to see if he was lying. But he just carried on eating his pastry and seemed oblivious to the fact that what he said would have turned any one of them ratchet girls from saying 'All men are the same' to 'Will you go out with me?’

"You're unbelievable. Thanks for ordering everything I said though. You're making quite an impression." I said as I turned my attention back to my food that now only had become a cookie and half a muffin. Wait, half?

"Did you eat my muffin?" I asked him,

"Maybe," That's all he said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him and carried on eating without paying much attention to him. 

"So are you going to be picking me up from school too?" I finally asked him; not sure if after school I should wait for him or go with the rest of my brothers. Speaking of which I wonder why they left for school so early today. 

"I can't today but I will do the rest of the days if you want. And don't lie to yourself, you know you want me to come," What a witty answer that was and now that I had finished eating and drinking, I stood up with my arms crossed waiting for him to say one more witty answer.

"Is that your way of saying you don't want me to come? Lying is haram you know," Oh now he was just being an idiot altogether but I didn't mind. It would be quite boring if he was just nice all the time without any sense of humour or a little sarcasm here and there. 

"I'm not saying I don't want you to come. Though I am now going to be late if we don't go." Looking at the clock, I read that I only had about ten minutes to make it to school before the first bell went for homeroom.

"Well let’s go then. Don't want wifey to be late," He stood up and gestured for me to start walking out the café and to the car outside. All the way there I kept thinking about what he called me. Wifey? Did that mean he was excited for the wedding and for me to be his wife? I'm going to think of it as a yes for now.

By now we were at the car and I made way to sit down inside. "You know where school is right?" I asked him as he started the car up.

"Aliza, its the only high school in town. I think I'd know where it is," He said sarcastically. As he said that though I wondered why I have never seen him before at school. If he was Adams best friend then they would have obviously gone to school together, but I had never seen him in the hallways or cafeteria before.

"Whatever mister. But how come I've never seen you around school before?" I asked him.

"I've finished school," He said in a duh tone. 

"I know that Sherlock, but I mean last year and the years before that," I was actually curious now. 

"I went to boarding school in Venice." He replied and I suddenly got excited because Venice was one of the places I have always wanted to go to.

"Oh my God! Really? I've always wanted to go Venice! What's it like over there?" I was now jumping around in my seat from wanting to hear how Venice is like.

There wasn't much to be excited about in his answer though. "It was alright," That's it? Alright? I didn't even get a chance to say anything back to him since we were already at the school parking lot and it was time for me to get out. 

Looking at Isa for the last time I unbuckled my seat belt and got out. "Asalaamalikum Isa." I muttered under my breath as I watched him drive away and out of the school grounds, probably going back home.

From the other side of the parking lot I could see Farah with the twins. She was punching both Asif and Akbar and they were both laughing about it, something which Isa was doing a while ago, but his mood sort of changed as soon as I mentioned his school and asked about Venice.

Was it really bad over there or was he hiding something from me? Either way I want to know what happened. I'll wait until he's ready to tell me on his own, realising how deep in thought I was about this, I shook it off and made a mental note not to ask him about Venice again or perhaps his school too.

Now looking around I could tell that I was just standing in a crowded parking lot doing absolutely nothing whatsoever; so I made my way over to my best friend and brothers who were still getting punches from Farah. 

"Farah, I think that's enough don't you think?" I asked her as soon as I was in front of them with a cheerful grin on my face. Next thing I knew though I was being pulled in for a bear hug by Farah. I couldn't do anything but just pat her back since she was rambling about something too fast for me to catch, and finally she let go of me. 

"Ali you have to tell me everything about what happened on the weekend and this morning. Your brothers told me you were going to get a ride from Isa!" A shrieking Farah at half seven in the morning was not a good thing and this just proved it. 

"Farah I'll tell you everything later on. I just need a word with the twins," I assured her as she sulked, still standing by my side and linked my arm with hers. Something she did when she was impatient about something and stopped her from ripping her Hijab out in frustration. The boys turned to look at me as I said I needed a word with them.

"Did you guys know Isa was going to drive me to school today?" They both nodded. "When did you find out?" I asked them both. And together they both replied to me. "Yesterday," 

Before I had a chance to get their throats in my hands, they had both ran away from me and Farah, over to the football team. I turned to Farah.

"Those boys really annoy me sometimes. They could have told me that Isa was going to drop me off!" I said in exasperation. 

"Girl forget about that. Tell me what happened with you and Isa because now I hear that my best friend is getting married to some hunk of a man at the end of the school year!" Haram, I thought as soon as she said it but kept it to myself. 

So from the far end of the parking lot to homeroom while stopping at the lockers which took about 15 minutes, I had told Farah every single detail of what had happened on Saturday and this morning.

Nothing really happened on Sunday concerning Isa so I left that bit out. I did however tell her about his mood swing in the car when I asked about his school and Venice. 

"Maybe he was part of a Mafia there!" And I probably shouldn't have told her about it because this is what she thinks happened over there. 

"Far I don't think that's what happened," I said in a monotone voice. 

"Then what could it be?" She asked but right then Mr. Parker walked in, our homeroom teacher and silenced us all before he started to take the register. "We'll talk about this later," Farah mouthed to me and I simply rolled my eyes at her knowing that she had seen that. 

The bell finally went to signal first lesson and I stood up with Farah as we linked arms again to go to our first lesson: music. Music wasn't my best subject since my coordination with any sort of instrument was plain out rubbish. I still took it though because it was better than art where I couldn't even draw a decent flower properly. 

"Listen you have to ask him what happened over there." Farah kept insisting the same thing over and over again; for me to ask Isa about what happened while he was at boarding school. 

"Far how many times do I have to say no? I can't do that even if I wanted. It’s up to him to tell me what happened when he feels like it!" I said it again, for what felt like the hundredth time today.

Music had ended nearly two hours ago and I thought that the conversation had ended as soon as the lesson did too when we had to go to our separate lessons since we didn't have second period together. Boy I was wrong. Instead of writing down the impact World War 2 had in America, we were fighting over if I should ask Isa or not. Right now it looks like it could go either way but Farah is so not winning this argument! 

"Farah just drop it please!" I begged her but of course her being her didn't. It carried on like this till the end of lunch when I was called out of class. Farah looked disappointed when she saw that I had to go for a bit but quickly got over it when Mrs Woodfield asked her to answer a question.

I stood up from my seat and exited the classroom door and down the hallway to the Principles office but just as I was about to turn the corner, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled my towards them; their nails digging into my wrist where a little bit of my skin was showing. 

I hissed as I felt something dripping down my skin. I tried screaming but the pulling had stopped and I was now facing a girl who looked my age with dark blue pumps and a summer dress with her Hijab in a turban above her head. 

"Who are you?" Was the first thing I said to her when I finished looking to my left at what she had worn.

"You don't need to know that. What you do need to know though is that Isa is mine and always will be," She stopped talking to take in a breath and I noticed that she had an accent, maybe British. I still didn't say anything though. "I also heard about you being engaged to him. Now I don't know who you think you are but I'm expecting that little announcement to be called off!" She hissed in my face as she got nearer. 

This got to me then. How dare she talk to me like this and tell me what I must and must not do! "Well considering he’s yours whoever you are, I wonder why he asked for my hand in marriage and not yours! And you're telling me that I should call off this wedding? Hell no!"

The rage was coming in and I had to hold myself together so I wouldn't shout or else I would be in big trouble. "What did you say?! This wedding is never going to happen and if it did then I'm the one who's going to be the bride. Not. You," She spat at me and emphasized the last two words out. 

"I don't have time to listen to childish people so I'm going to go now and you best hope I don't see you again because next time I'm not going to make an effort to control my temper," 

With that I started to walk away but was yanked back by her, this time a little harder which made fall back on to the wall behind me. 

"I'm not done with you kid! You go when I say that you can go, understood?!" This made me even angrier to think she thought I was a kid.

"I am not a kid and I'm never going to listen to anything you say. I don't even know you!" I didn’t try to push past her this time because I know I would just get pulled back and end up with more bruises than the ones she's already given me with those horribly long nails of hers. 

"Being one year older than you makes you a kid for me. I'm Isa's girlfriend if you must know and I'm never letting him marry someone who isn't me and certainly not you!" I didn't say anything for a minute as I began taking in what she was saying to me. 

She's Isa's girlfriend? But how can this be? No, I wouldn't believe her, she could be lying to me for all I know. 

"Listen here ukhti, I'm going to walk away now and if you try to pull me back I will put you in a headlock and it won't be very pretty. Only Isa can tell me if you're his girlfriend or not so don't bother saying you are. As for the whole girlfriend and boyfriend thing; you have a Hijab on your head and consider yourself as a Muslim yet you still date?! I would be asking for forgiveness right now if I were you!"

I felt proud after saying that and stalked away from her into the hallway where I stood to catch my breath from speaking so fast. Two seconds later and the bell rang. I tried looking as normal as I could after having an oh so lovely conversation with Miss Psychopath around the corner by standing up straight and heading over to my locker where I could see Farah leaning against it.

I smiled and ran over to her while pulling her in for a hug. I was so happy to see her again after that painful experience. 

"Hey what was that for? And what took so long in the Principles office?" She asked as soon as I let her go.

"Farah I didn't go to the Principles office and I think something serious just happened!" I was still freaking out a little about that lady. 

"What are you talking about Ali? I don't understand." She asked a little confused. 

"I'll tell you tonight at the Masjid. I can't right now, Baba must be waiting for me." The thought of Baba being here to pick us up from school calmed me down and I opened my locker to get my things out while Farah just stood there. 

"I thought you couldn't pray ukhti." She said and walked with me towards the doors to the exit of the school. 

"I won't pray Far! I'll just wait for you to finish Salat and then I'll tell you." I told her and she seemed to understand what I was saying to her this time as she nodded at me.

We said our goodbye's as she raced to her Mom's car while I looked round for Baba and the twins; still nervous about that lady and if she was still here. 

"ALI!" I looked round to see who was calling me and I saw the twins waving me over to where they were leaning on Baba's car. I walked over there and gave them both hugs before stepping into the front seat of the car which had always been my seat since we were little because I was the only girl. 

"Asalaalaikum Habibi. How was school?" Baba asked and leant forward to give me a kiss on the cheek before starting the car up. "Alhamdulilah," Was all I said for the rest of the car ride home.

I did however kept thinking about that girl from a while ago, she somehow scared me a little. I kept thinking if I should ask Isa about her instead because to be honest I have a feeling she's not going to be letting this go anytime soon. Though how can she be Isa's girlfriend when I'm the one that's engaged to him? All these thoughts kept clouding my head up until we reached home. 

"Asalaamalikum children," Mama greeted us when we stepped inside the house. She looked somewhat more cheerful than any other day. I wished I had a reason to be happy right now, but after that incident I couldn't really think of anything. 

"Walaikumasalaam," We all said back to Mama. The first thing the twins did was make their way into the kitchen while I dropped on to the couch where Mustafa was colouring in something. 

"What you got there little man?" I asked him. Mustafa always helped cheer me up; his happiness was almost contagious sometimes.

"It's a giraffe! Look how yellow and spotty it is!" He said while putting the drawing book on my lap for me to look at. 

"Wow that's great. Did you colour this all by yourself?" I asked. He nodded as he took the book back and began colouring out of the lines of the giraffe again. I stayed still on the couch for a few more minutes and closed my eyes while my head rested on one of the many cushions our couch had. That was a bad idea.

 I kept remembering how bad she had hurt me and the way that she had talked to me. Lifting a bit of my sleeve to reveal my wrist I could see there was a cut which was a little too long with dry blood making its marks around my skin. "I'm going to go upstairs," I told my parents and they simply nodded at me while I took my bag and went up, taking my time with my bag being dragged across the floor. 

Once in my room I collapsed in my bed and just stayed there without bothering to move to change my clothes or take my shoes off. The ring of my phone had other plans though as I grunted to answer the call that was coming through. I searched through my bag and finally found the white little rectangle that was now lit up, mentioning I had a missed call from Isa. 

I wonder why he would be calling me right now, I thought he was going to be busy in the afternoon today. However, I did want to know what he had to say, so I unlocked the phone and re dialed his number, hoping he would pick it up. On the very first ring he picked up but his voice wasn't the only thing I was hearing. In the background I could hear that same cold voice which I had a lovely conversation with less than half an hour ago. 

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly. What was that girl doing over there with Isa? Maybe she was right and they are dating.

"Aliza I have to tell you something really important. Whatever Sia told you today is not true. We're not dating and never were!" That made me calm just a little but there was still the fact that 'Sia' was over there right now. 

"What is she doing with you then Isa?" I asked carefully and slowly. I didn't want to be someone who's always having doubts about someone else, but I needed to know what on earth is happening.

"Well someone has to tell her to get her ass back home, don't you think?" I burst out laughing as soon as the words left his mouth and I could hear Sia from the other side of the phone gasp to what Isa had just said. I was still laughing uncontrollably when I fell onto my bed because I was too busy laughing to notice where I was walking.

Maybe I should just talk to Isa when I'm feeling down now, he seemed to have cheered me up in less than 2 minutes and that's pretty impressive. "Thanks for that. You really cheered me up," I managed to say after my fit of laughter. "I really need to talk to you more often," Realising what I had just said my eyes went wide with shock. 

Why did I feel so comfortable around Isa? "Well you're gonna have to, starting in two weeks’ time," I could tell that he was smug right now by the way he was talking, but wait, two? 

"What do you mean two?" I asked him. I'm sure the wedding was supposed to be in a months’ time. 

"We changed the dates of the wedding. Your parents didn't tell you?" He asked as I was already thinking of ways to interrogate my family downstairs; I'm never getting told things anymore and its bothering me a little.

"No they didn't. But why are the dates changed?" Why would they really change the date though? It didn't seem likely that they would really consider doing that. "Your in laws happen to be really impatient in having their daughter-in-law home. And you probably didn't want to wait that long anyway. It’s understandable," He said. I had the urge to roll my eyes at him.

The more I got to speak to Isa the more I could see how chilled he was. Obviously can't forget about how much of a jerk he can be sometimes, but that's just him. "So when are we actually going to get things sorted?" I asked, avoiding that I really didn't want to wait a full month before the wedding. 

"This weekend we're going to have to cram everything in. Sarah and Ma is going to come round yours to talk about it. I'm not the right person to talk about this stuff," He admitted. Sarah was his older sister that had gotten married almost two weeks ago. I don't know why I had never even seen Isa when I went over to their house.

"Okay then. Well I'll leave you to whatever you were doing. Asalaamalikum," I had the urge to suddenly end the call.

"Walaikumasalaam." He said and cut the call off. As I placed the phone down on to the bed, I hissed in pain. The cut on my wrist was starting to get to me. Now that I looked at it even closer, I could see it starting to turn a dark purple colour.

Going to the bathroom, I ripped off some toilet paper and wet it with some water and began dabbing it on the cut on my wrist. I must have made a noise because someone began knocking on the door of the bathroom and asking what's wrong.

It was Asif. "Ali is that you in there?" He asked me through the door. I began nodding when I remembered he couldn't see me through the door. 

"I'm okay. Don't worry about it," I shouted back to him; must have worked because I heard some footsteps walking around away from the door. I didn't get an answer back. Turning the water off, I dropped the tissue in the dustbin and leaned against the sink. 

This last week has probably the most exciting and scary moment in my life. In a way I was excited about getting married, especially with someone like Isa who seemed loyal until it came to this Sia girl. Sia, she's the one that makes this experience a little scary for me. I still have no idea who she is and how she even knows me. 

That's not the only scary part though. I feel sort of terrified about moving out of the comfort of my home and with the people who I've spent my whole life with. Now I'm going to be spending my life with new people and adapt to their way of living. 

What if they don't like me? What if I can never be a good enough daughter-in-law? The panic was coming in again and I felt foolish for how much I was thinking about this. In a way I'm just putting myself down with all these deep thoughts I shouldn't have to worry about all these things as long as Allah SWT is with me, I'm sure everything will be fine. My duty will be to please Isa and my in-laws and hopefully I will.

***

Asalaamalaikum guys, chapter six is now here and I hope you enjoy it and I'm sorry it took so long to update when it only took me less than a day to write this chapter! However school has started now and if I lack on updates, remind me or be patient.

Dedicated to @innocentmuslim for being such an amazing person and supporting this book with her amazing comments and votes. Jazakallah Khair.

Have a Good Day and May God Bless You All.