Chapter Twelve - Confessions

Sabrina's head swirled with crazy thoughts. She shook them out, took a breath and steadied her nerves. Grabbing her coat and her purse, she sprinted out her bedroom, while she hastily wrapped her hijab around her head. She found her mom sitting in the living room, watching an Indian drama on T.V. She looked up abruptly when Sabrina came barging in.

"Sabrina?" Her mother asked, getting up. "What's wrong? You look like you just saw a Jinn!"

"I..uh...need to go to Leila's house right now." Sabrina stammered, kicking herself for lying - and so badly too. 

She just wasn't used to it and she could tell by her mom's face that she didn't believe a word that was coming out her mouth. Sabrina went on, trying not to look away from her mom's face.

"We just remembered that we have this huge test and yeah, we need to study for it." She explained, not very well.

"Right now? Its almost Magrhib." Her mom said, her eyes narrowing. "It's too late for you to be out."

"But mom...the test." Sabrina whined. "Please."

Her mom stared at her while Sabrina tried to hold her gaze. She was on the verge of spilling out the truth when her mom reluctantly agreed. Sabrina thanked Allah for her moms obsession with good marks and hurried out the house. Still, she felt bad for lying, something she did next to never.

"I trust you Sabrina!" Her mom called, making guilt surge through her heart. "That's the only reason I'm letting you go."

This better be worth it, she thought, lying is something I so do not want to get used to. She got in the car and was off, weaving through traffic and praying Leila was alright.

* * *

"Oh my Allah." Sabrina gasped as she pulled up near Leila's house. 

Near because the road in front of Leila's house was packed with cars, teenagers streaming out of them and fooling around on her yard. A full on party was blasting inside, music screaming at full volume causing the neighbors to peek out of their homes with angry faces. Sabrina's mouth was hanging open when Leila came running towards her.

"You're here - oh thank -"

"What in the world is going on!" Sabrina yelled over the music.

"I swear...I only invited ten people - girls - but someone didn't get the memo and ugh...there was beer and crack and now there's people in my-" Leila explained, hysterically.

"Emaan?" Sabrina asked, iterrupting.

"Her parents wouldn't let her come over." Leila answered, looking around as if she expected her mom to pop out and ship her off to India.

"Speaking about parents - where are yours?" Sabrina asked.

"They left for some meeting...oh Lord...when they come back..." Leila gasped, on the brink of tears. "What do I do?"

Sabrina thought for a moment, watching the hormone infested teenagers gulp down alcohol and dance with complete strangers. She shook her head at the immorality of it all and then an idea popped into her head. She mulled it over quickly, deciding weather or not it would work efficiently enough and then decided to go for it because it was the only option available. 

"Okay...I got an idea." She announced while Leila wriggled impatiently. "But it might not work and if it does you'll probably be hated...uh - forever."

"JUST TELL ME!" Leila cried, "right now I could care less about being hated...my parents are probably on their way home right now!"

Sabrina explained her plan and watched as Leila's face grew even paler. She agreed when she finished, though, accepting the consequences.

"Okay...lets do this." Sabrina declared.

She walked into the house, past dancing teenagers who seemed to have no values by the way they were grinding against each other. Sabrina averted her eyes and tried not to puke out her dinner as she made her way to the middle of the living room. The air was clogged with smoke, making her cough and causing her eyes to water. As she stood in the middle of the joyous crowd she looked around for Leila, spying her across the room. She gave her a thumbs up signal, which meant Leila was to fulfill her part of the plan. 

Leila did so by turning off the blasting music and sending the crown into confusion. Sabrina took the silence of the crown as a chance to start screaming on the top of her lungs. 

"EVERYONE GET OUT NOW!" She yelled. "THE POLICE IS COMING, SO UNLESS YOU WANT TO SPEND THE NIGHT IN JAIL, I SUGGEST YOU ALL LEAVE!" 

The crowd protested, jeering and booing at Sabrina, swearing in annoyance. They threw down their drinks and left, some eager to get out before the cops arrived and some taking their time as if they were declaring that they had nothing to fear. A boy with raven black hair yelled out, stuffing mysterious packets of white substances into his jacket.

"Who called the cops, man!" He asked, irritated. "That ain't fair!"

"Yeah? Well you know what else isn't fair: life." Sabrina countered as she gestured to the door. "And if I were you, I'd leave just in case the cops stopped by and assumed all that "sugar" in your pocket is actually crack."

The boy swore, and reluctantly left, grumbling along as he did. His buddies followed him, eyeing Sabrina as they walked out. The police's arrival was a lie, of course, but it might as well have been true because the music was loud enough to cause complaints that could result in them arriving. Sabrina sighed as the last of the crowd disappeared and turned to Leila who was standing beside her.

"My parents are going to kill me." Leila said slowly, her eyes scanning the room.

Sabrina couldn't disagree, as she also studied the complete mess that had been left behind. The carpet was stained, furniture and lamps were on the floor. A roll of toilet paper had been generously distributed throughout the room. Scattered all over the sofa were feathers - which Sabrina didn't understand until she saw a limp bag of what used to be a throw pillow.

"Oh God...what a mess." Sabrina stated, shaking her head. "How did this all happen again? And...if you invited like ten people...why didn't you invite me?" She asked, slightly offended.

"Cause you always say no." Leila rolled her eyes, but turned back to the room with a worried face. "You're gonna help me clean this, right?"

"Whoa? I never said-"

"Please!" Leila cried. "You have to! My parents will be home any minute and they'll skin my hide for this!"

"Okay, fine." Sabrina sighed, making Leila squeal happily.

"Let's start outside cause that's the first thing my parents will see." Leila said, heading out the door.

The yard was - thankfully - less messy than the interior so Sabrina and Leila got to work picking up bottles and cans of half full beer. There were also some mysterious pills lying about which made Sabrina wish she had a pair of gloves. She'd never touched drugs in her whole life and doing so now felt as if she was doing something dirty. She shuddered, as she deposited them into a trash bag when someone bumped into her.

Sabrina looked up and almost groaned as she realized it was Leena, her face streaked with mascara. She teetered on her heels, wobbling even though she was standing on one spot and Sabrina concluded with a start that she was drunk. Leena squealed in laughter when she saw Sabrina and pointed even though Sabrina stood right in front of her.

"YOU!" She laughed. "What are you doing here?"

Sabrina - who was getting over the shock of seeing Leena drunk - turned in annoyance. She wasn't about to engage in a conversation with an intoxicated Leena, but before she could walk away, Leena grabbed her arm and pulled her close. Sabrina gagged as she caught a whiff of Leena's drunken breath.

A few boys who had been standing nearby and laughing loudly, looked over and elbowed each other, as they eyed Leena in her snug little dress. They creeped closer, probably curios to see if the result of Sabrina's and Leena's little...encounter would be a cat fight. 

"Wait - are you here cause of Khalid?" She asked, her eyes burning. "Ooh..you aren't as pious as you think, now are you?" 

Sabrina hadn't even thought about Khalid, but now as she pondered over it she wondered: was he here? And as the group of boys who were inching towards them hooted at Khalid's name and turned to a blue eyed boy who stared at Sabrina, she saw that he was, in fact, here. He stared at her with eyes as cold as ice.

"No!" Sabrina denied, forgetting about the fact that talking to people who couldn't even walk straight was a waste of time.

"Oh yeah," Leena went on, not noticing the boy who she had been stalking since grade three standing a few feet away. "You should just give up you know. He doesn't like you."

"Oh and the same can be said about you too." Leila retorted, coming to Sabrina's rescue. "Last time I checked, he declared that he never would, in fact."

The boys cheered, laughing as Khalid rolled his eyes and basked in the attention all his buddies were paying him. Sabrina couldn't understand how Leena was not able to realize that Khalid was standing right there, literally three feet from them. She figured she was too drunk to care. Leena on the other hand was fuming which made her nearly lose balance. She stumbled as she tried to get in Leila's face.

"He'll never like her either, and he hasn't since I told on him."

Suddenly, everything went quiet.

Sabrina looked over and saw that the boys surrounding Khalid were all muttering in confusion and turning to Khalid who stood still, an unreadable expression on his face. Sabrina turned back to Leila giving her a what in the world look. A small smile spread across Leila's face at her look and she immediately spoke up.

"Oh and why's that?" She asked, feining innocence and effectively making Leena snort.

"Cause," Leena began, proud of her dirty little secret - which she was unknowingly confessing to Khalid. "After I told the principle that Khalid did drugs, I knew he would turn on Sabrina cause she was the only one who knew."

"Oh and how did you find out?" Leila pressed, her smile growing wider.

"Oh," Leena waved her hand as if it was nothing. "I saw him hide something in his backpack once and so I looked into it when he wasn't watching."

"Wow...that's sorta shady..." Leila muttered, through a sneaky smile.

Leena looked around and hiccuped.

"How?" She asked stupidly. "The sun isn't even out."

Sabrina rolled her eyes and risked a look at Khalid. He was standing there, his buddies talking furiously around him but he ignored them, staring straight at Sabrina, his blue eyes glittering dangerously. His hands were curled into fists and his expression was twisted in rage and disbelief. He looked torn. 

See, I told you, Sabrina thought silently. I told you it wasn't me.

He turned away then, as if he had heard her and didn't want to accept it. He stalked off, his friends following and disappeared into the night as Sabrina stared after him. His expression was burned into her mind. She vaguely heard Leena's attempts at getting her to back off Khalid - which Leila snorted at and told her to go get a life because Khalid wasn't going to be hers anytime soon - or later.

Finally, Leena stumbled off, and Leila rolled her eyes at the drunk girl, every time she lost her balance. Sabrina helped Leila clean up the rest of the yard in silence and the two girls started cleaning the inside of the house. They were halfway through rubbing the stains off the carpet when a knock on the door made both of them jump.

"Oh no!" Leila cried, scurrying around in random little circles. "They're here. I'm dead cause they're here!"

"Calm down." Sabrina whispered and inched towards the front door. 

She opened it, prepared to face Leila's parents, ready to see the color wash out of their faces as they took in their ruined living room. Instead, she opened the door and came face to face with her mother. 

"Salaam, Sabrina." Her mom said calmly, her eyes wandering until they set upon the living room.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, I see. No wonder you were so eager to get here." She said staring at the disaster behind Sabrina. "So what are you two studying again?" She asked sarcastically.

Sabrina, who's heart was just about ready to burst, stared up at her mom with wide eyes. Oh Lord I'm doomed, she thought. She opened her mouth to commence to the sobbing and apologizing part when Leila spoke up.

"Auntie," she said, using a term that pretty much all Indians used for their friends' mothers. "I can explain."

"Great." Sabrina's mom said. "I'd like to hear it."

After they were done explaining how the party was all an accident - and not something they planned or intended to throw - Sabrina's mom sat back and regarded them with a stern gaze. She finally cleared her throat and turned to Sabrina.

"I want you to make sure you never lie to me again." She stated. "I know you did it to help Leila - but a lie is a lie."

"And you." She turned to Leila. "Please make sure you invite people who you are certain of and wont invite others over."

Leila and Sabrina nodded their heads, and stared at the floor. Sabrina knew it wasn't their intention to hold a huge, raging high school party but they both had something to ashamed of. Especially Sabrina who had lied knowingly to her mom's face. Her mom stood up and sighed. 

"Oh and I want your phone." She said to Sabrina. "Sorry, baita, but I need to make sure you understand the severity of what you did."

Sabrina suppressed a groan and fished out her phone. She handed it to her mom, silently wishing the useful device goodbye.

"Well, lets get this place cleaned up." Her mom said, looking around.

________________________________________________________________________

Hmm, I wonder what will happen now that Khalid's found out about Leena. Oh and do you think Sabrina should have lied? Even if it was to help Leila?

Dont forget to share you thoughts and vote!