*not edited I think...*

Chapter 5:

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One second.

One swerve.

One blink was all it took for all chaos to break loose.

Thousands of feelings occupied my brain all at once. Shock, sadness, grief, and regret fell into the pits of my heart as the rain pounded against me. I tried to make sense of my surroundings but it was all too much. The loud roars of the ambulance, the traumatizing scream erupting in my ear, the blood oozing from my head. The lights.

Lights came from all directions as everyone yelled above me. Bright lights, yellow lights, red lights, all sorts of lights beamed through my eyes like fire soaring through the sky. The world was spinning every time I tried to open my eyes. I groaned and stood up but sat back down when the pain in my head became too much to bear. My head felt like a sack of potatoes were being pounded against it. I covered my eyes as lights were shoved in my face.

"Sir, sir can you hear me?" I lifted my head to see the person talking to me but yelped when the pain doubled. I felt like a force was pulling me back and collapsed in my seat. The leather cushion plummeted under my weight as I screamed out in pain.

The blood drained from my head and left me lightheaded. My vision blurred and all I seen was men in suits rushing towards me. Their helmets clunked together as they rushed towards me, the rain falling behind them, the lights shadowing their every move. My breaths became short as I frantically blinked for the blurriness to fade, but it didn't work. A heavy fog seemed to cover everything.

"He's had a concussion-"sweat flooded my forehead as my hands felt numb and foreign. My eye lids became heavy as the world around me plummeted into a pool of darkness. I struggled to comprehend what was happening around me but failed when sleep over took me. I was falling in a pit of darkness as the noises around slowly faded away like echoes in a dark cave. I finally closed my eyes and sighed as I gave in and fell.

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"Imran, bro. do you hear me?" I frowned as my eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. The sleep was soundless, dreamless, and wonderful. The beautiful science was endless and I didn't want to leave.

"Mr. Osman, I'm sorry to say this but we can't determine when he's going to wake up. It's up to him. I don't want to keep your hopes up for nothing." I heard someone sigh loudly and move towards me.

"Waiting isn't going to do anything. There's only one way this guy is going to wake up." I sighed and tried to remember that voice. Salma. Eye. Stick. My eyes flew open and I jolted up and protected my eye.

"I'm up! I'm up!" a sudden silence covered the room. I looked around as the doctor froze and mom gaped at me. Jafar, Hana, Anisa and Abdullah's jaws dropped in shock. I blinked and waited for something to happen when Salma busted out laughing.

I glared at her and covered my eyes from the sun as it beamed through the wide opened window. The smell of medicine and cleaning wipes filled my nose instantly. The bed felt warm as white liquid poured through my arm in steady paces. There were tissues and flowers on the table next to me, mom must of gotten them from the shop. I turned to Jafar who slowly walked towards me and crushed me with a hug. Everyone around me cheered and laughed as Jafar's laugh drummed in my ears.

"Man you scared the living day lights out of me. You okay?" I smiled and opened my mouth to respond when I was wrenched from his hold and shoved into mom.

"Sweetie! Alhamdullilah you're okay. You had me so worried!" I chuckled and tightened my arms as far as the cord connected to my arm would let me. Mom released me and kissed my forehead.

"Son, how are you feeling?" I smiled and rested back down on the bed.

"I feel okay. Kinda dizzy and fuzzy but otherwise alhamdullilah I'm fine." She smiled until someone cleared their throat behind her. She looked up and quickly moved out of his way. I sat up and nodded my head at the doctor as he gave me a creepy smile.

"Nice to finally meet you Mr. Mohamed. I'm doctor Cade. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to answer them honestly okay?" I nodded and awkwardly looked around. All eyes were on me and I was only wearing the doctor gown. Abdullah smirked when he noticed and turned to everyone.

"Hey guys there an ice cream shop downstairs, who wants to join me?" anisa turned to me and blushed madly. Seems like she just noticed too.

"um....I'll come." Abudllah grabbed hana's hand and walked out with everyone behind him. Anisa gave me a shy smile and grabbed Salma, who stood there mad.

Mom sat down next to me and held my hand. Ja'far stood behind the doctor and shook his head, as if to tell me be wasn't leaving. I grinned and turned to the doctor.

"Imran, you've been asleep for two days." My jaw dropped as I started at him in shock.

Two whole days!

Mr. Cade gave me a stern look and gestured to the clock. "Ever since the car accident, you've been here unconscious." I shook my head and frowned.

Car accident? I was in a car accident?

Mr. Cade noticed and gave me a grim smile again. "You may not remember but you got in a car accident last Tuesday. Now, there are many side effects of concussions. You may have a tough time remembering stuff, dizziness, drowsiness, and lack of energy. I'm going to need you o rest these up coming days. No physical activities of any sort, full on rest. Do you understand? It's highly important that you don't tier your brain or body. Concussions could either be mild or deadly so I need you to promise me. Fully rest until you're healthy. Okay?" I kept quiet until mom squeezed my hand.

I sighed and sat up in my bed. "Sure. I promise." Mr. Cade nodded and smiled one last time before he left the room.

"You really don't remember the car accident?" Jafar asked me and sat down next to me.

"No, I don't remember that much. I mean, I remember hitting my head and-" my eyes widened as I gasped and jolted up.

"The boy! The little boy! Is he dead? Did I kill him? Ya Allah! Did I kill him?" I didn't wait for them to answer and shrugged of the blanket and tried to run for the bathroom when Jafar grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down.

"Imran...what boy? What are you talking about?" Mom's eyes widened as she watched it all unfold.

My breathing became hard as I sat down and frowned annoyingly at him. "What are you talking about? The little boy I hit Subhana'Allah!" Jafar's eyed me and sat down slowly. Mom looked down and shook her head.

"Look man, you didn't kill anyone. He's...He's not dead." My mouth automatically shut as I watched him and silently. My heart pumped in my chest, my fingers slightly numbed and my eyes became watery. Never in my life had I ever gotten in a car accident. My mind when on override as I thought about how his family might feel right now. How could I ever live with myself?

Jafar looked away and sighed. "When you seen him, you stopped the car and slammed into a pole. You nudged him with the car and he sprained his leg. That was basically all the damage you caused him, besides all the trauma. He's fine now. His mom didn't press charges since she let him outside in the cold, by himself. If you didn't hit him, it would have been someone else. Don't worry about him" I sighed and rested my head on the pillow. Alhamdulillah he's okay.

I heard someone sniffling and frowned when mom hid her face. My heart clenched when I noticed that her eyes were beat red and her nose was pink. She looked like a mess. Her hijab wasn't fixed like it always was and she looked tiered and worn out.

I sat up and lifted her chin. "Mom. Mom, what's wrong?" she sobbed silently and shook her head.

Jafar put a hand on my knee and shook his head. I nodded when he stepped out and closed the door. I turned to mom and cupped her face.

"Ummi. Why are you crying?" she sobbed harder and pulled her head to my shoulder and cried her heart out. The room suddenly grew warmer as my eyes clouded with unshed tears. I pulled her head closer to me and hugged her tightly. Her shoulders shook as her sobs filled the room.

I hugged her and watched the window as she cried. The sun looked fresh so I guessed it to be around duhur. There were no trees near the window, so we were on the higher floors, but that wasn't what I noticed first.

My eyes automatically noticed the white, fluffy clouds that filled the morning sky. The clear baby blue sky looked so fresh and clean that I only guessed the rain stopped a few hours ago. The sun rose to its peck and shined light into the room and gave it the homey look.

I looked down at mom and pulled away. Tears stained her face as her sobbing slowly came to a stop. I gave her a small smile and cleared the tears away with the tips of my thumb. "I'm sorry if I scared you mom. I'm okay now Alhamdulillah, please stop crying." She smiled back warmly and peered into my eyes.

"That's not why I'm crying son. I'm crying because when they called me, when the police officer called me, I remembered your father. I remembered the moment that the shahadah left his lips. I remembered all the days he laughed with us, smiled with us, and read quran with us, and in that same second, I remembered the look on his face when he told me he was going to return to Allah. Ya rab Ya Rahman. After all of that, I thought and begged Allah that if you were dead that you died like your father; proclaiming the shahadah until your last breath. The reason that I was crying son is that I wouldn't have been there to help you, to see you. I wouldn't have ever known." With that said she pulled me into a hug and wiped her tears.

A silent cry left my lips as I hugged her and patted her back. I was unaware that I was crying until I felt cold tears trailing down my cheek to my chin. Mom pulled away from the hug and wiped the tears with her hands and smiled up at me.

"Rest. Your not going to school tomorrow and the day after that is break. That's plenty of time to rest." I shook my head and shrugged off the blanket instead.

"No, it's okay mom. I rested plenty the past two days. I'm okay now." She eyed me and laughed.

"Stubborn just like your father. Okay, but we'll have to ask the doctor." When she walked out I sat down on the bed and sighed while wiping the tears. I hated crying. It's a weakness, plus it ruins the whole manly look I had going on. I looked out the window and sighed.

This is going to be the most boring days of my life.

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"No, Imran you're not going. Go back to bed and rest." I sighed and grabbed the phone out of her hands.

"Mom, please. Plus I could stay there and rest. I mean when you think about it, what's the worse that could happen at a flower shop; an old lady busting a hip while picking flowers?" I grabbed her face and smiled at her.

"Please let me go. I'm an eighteen year old man; I can handle myself if something happens. Hana needs you here, so I'll take over the flower shop for these four days. Okay?" She sighed and starred at me before cracking a smile.

"Oh fine! But you better take good care of my flowers or else I'll feed them to you for dinner!" I laughed and kissed her nose and gave Hana a quick hug.

"Okay mom! I have to go. See you tonight Inshallah!" with that said I grabbed my jacket and keys and ran to the car. It's been a day since I woke up and Alhamdulillah I'm feeling much better. There's no reason why I had to stay cooped up in the house. It's a beautiful, sunny day; no one should be inside right now.

The flower shop was situated in a not so popular area of town and I liked it like that. The only people that ever came here were old ladies, and men who were too cheap to get richer flowers for their girlfriends. I loved it. No craziness, no fuss, no nothing.

I parked right in front of the building and turned off the engine. The shop looked exactly the same from the modest, small look, all the way down to the sun flowers that were show cased in the window. Dad thought that it was great to put sun flowers on the window so they can capture people's attention when they first see the building. Mom never took them down since.

I walked out of the car and slammed the door shut. Mom and dad had an agreement that since dad chose the design of the building, Mom would choose the name. She named it 'Blossoms and Blooms' and I liked it. It sort of went with the simple design that dad chose.

I walked to the door and started to unlock it when someone patted my shoulder.

"Son! Your back" I looked up and smiled when Old Richard smiled down at me. I stood and laughed as he gave me a small hug.

"Richard. How are you? I haven't seen you in forever!" he chuckled and patted his overgrown stomach.

"I've been around. How are you son? I seen your mother yesterday, but I haven't seen you in a long time." I smiled and opened the lock and door.

"School became busy and I had a lot to do after everything happened." His smile died down as he gave me a grim smile and flipped the close sign for me.

"I know. I'll see you later son, and know if anything happens or if you need anything, I'm next door. Bye Imran." I waved and started to move all the pots and flowers around the room.

Richard was a good friend of dads and treated us like family. He's been here ever since I can remember and I looked up to him. He was a great guy. I started to open all the windows and gave attention to each flower. There were roses, tulips, sun flowers, orchids, daisies, and all types of flowers that mom loved.

I started by first putting them in sections and then giving them enough sun light. Mom always stressed about the amount of sunlight, which I thought was absurd. Why have a shop if they need sunlight, just stick them in the ground where they are suppose to be.

After about twenty minutes of moving, sectioning and giving sunlight; I started to water them. Each and every slower needed enough water so mom gave me a spray and each flower only needed to sprays of water.

Now it was already 2:00 and I had finished everything. There were only two customers so far, two of our regular customers. The sun beamed through the front window and gave the sun flowers enough light, and the lilies and violets were on the other side under the room light since they didn't need a lot of light. The roses and every other flower were in the middle of the room where the soil was fresh and clean.

I sighed and wiped my forehead and grabbed the flip board. Now for the easy part of the job.

Inventory.

I walked around the pots and seed section and checked each and every plant in. We had about a dozen of each flower, trust me that's a lot.

After I checked the lilies I went to check the roses when the bell on the door chimed. I smiled and marked off the last rose. I loved it when a customer came in to buy stuff.

"Welcome to Blossoms and Blooms, how may I help you today?" I heard someone laugh and looked up from the clip board to find Jafar and Abdullah smirking at me.

"Watching Imran act like a little old lady never gets old." I rolled my eyes and walked behind the counter.

"What do you need guys?" Abdullah sighed and admired the flowers, where as Jafar stood in front of me with his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

"Oh nothing just came by to say hi with Grant. He's next door visiting his uncle next door." I nodded and smacked Abdullahs hand when he tried to touch the lilies.

"Dude what s wrong with you? That's special inventory your messing with. This flower is fragile and can break easily." Abdullah smirked at me and shook his head.

"You really need to get out of here before you sprout long hair and an attitude problem. You've become a girl man. Since when do you care about flowers." I snorted and shrugged.

"Ever since I became man enough to have job." Abdullah glared at me and I smiled back cheekily. The bell chimed again and Grant loud voice filled the room.

"Imran my man! What's up dude?" I smirked and uncovered the blinds.

"Nothing much grant, just helping mom out." It was already asar time and I had to get home before mom got mad at me. Abdullah started to help out by moving the flowers with me, but Grant just continued talking.

"If you're done we could go to the party we were talking about at school." I frowned and turned towards them when Jafar sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.

"For the last time man were not going to your party." I smiled and crossed my arms when Grant sighed too and gave me a pleading look.

"Look, Alex and Chad are having a party and they wanted me to invite you guys. You gonna come?" I sighed and shook my head. I've never been to a party, and I don't want to.

"Sorry dude. Were just not the party type." Grant groaned and shook his head frantically.

"There's no alcohol or drugs I swear. It's just a normal party." Jafar snorted and shook his head.

"yeh, and hell is just a sauna." Abdullah snorted and covered his mouth to hide his laughter where as I chuckled and shook my head at grant.

"I'm sorry man, I can't come. I've got to go home. See yah at school?" He sighed and shrugged.

"It's not going to be fun without you guys but okay, see you guys at school." He nodded one more time and he left the store. I sighed and flipped the open sign to closed. Jafar walked to his car and gave me a wave and drove off.

I bent down and closed the shop just as the sun started to dim in the sky. There was a slight breeze in the air and I wanted to be home before it would get cold and dark just like I promised her. When the shop was locked and properly closed I walked to my car and frowned when I seen Abdullah still standing at the shop door.

I walked up to him and looked at where he was looking and sighed. Next door, Richards's grand kids ran to him and hugged him. The little kids laughed and smiled as the sun shined at them. They looked like the perfect family.

I sighed and rested my hand on Abdullah's shoulder. He turned to me and gave me a small smile.

"What's up Abdullah? What's going on?" he sighed and walked to my car and sat in the passenger seat.

"Nothing man it's just...it's just that I miss the moments when we were a family like that. Mom and dad hardly talk to each other anymore. He's always busy with work and she's always at home with liban." I started the car and swerved out of the parking lot.

"Be grateful man, at least you have a family." He nodded his head and just looked out the window. It was fall and the leaves were starting to fall off the trees.

"I know. I feel like an idiot for saying it but...I wish we were a proper family like before. I just don't want them to get..." he quieted down and just watched his hands.

When we parked in front if his house I stopped the car and faced him.

"You're afraid your parents are going to get divorced?" he nodded his head and sighed loudly and rested his head in his hands.

"Look, Adbullah, your parents love each other. They may fight, but even if they do its normal. All parents argue. Your dad works and he's busy supporting the people he loves. Your mother knows that and respects it. Its going to take a while for you to realize it, but you're a family. Family sticks together no matter what. Your mom and dad love each other, and you love them. Treasure these moments with your dad, even though he's busy because soon its going to be too late." He looked up at me and slowly nodded his head.

Slowly the corner of his lips formed a smile and he opened the door. "Thanks man. For everything. Its asar time and I have to go inside, want to come in?" I shook my head and started the car. It's getting late and mom is probably waiting for me.

"I'm good, but thanks" he nodded slowly and closed the door and inside.

I drove silently to the house and just thought about the irony in it all. He was the one who told me those exact words when dad was dying in the hospital. Subhannalh.

I walked to the house door and took off my shoes. "Mom, I'm home." No one responded so I walked to the kitchen and found a note on the table counter.

Imran,

We went to Aminahs house, see you soon Inshallah.

~Khadijah

I smiled and shook my head in amusement. What happened to be home at time?

I walked to my room and changed into better clothes and prayed asar. A calming silence filled the house as I closed the windows and started the heater. There was food in the microwave so I went to start it when my phone rang.

By the time I got to it, it was already at voicemail. Jafar called. I turned it on and put it on speaker as I ate.

"Hey man, it's me but I wanted to tell you, come to our house tomorrow and bring the will. Abdullahs coming too. We could do the ayat tomorrow. And bring pizza; I've been craving it for a while now." There was yelling in the background and I smiled when Hana's voice came through the phone.

"I love you Abdullah! Were coming home soon so don't touch my cookies! I counted them so im going to know if you ate them!-"

"look man, bottom line don't mess with the princess cookies. Come tomrow and bring the will! Salam" and the voicemail ended. I smiled and noticed the box of cookies on the table with the word 'Hanna' written across the bag in messy handwriting.

I washed the dishes and walked to the living room. Dad's kitab was on the table so mom must have been reading quran today. I sighed and slowly picked it up and opened it to surah baqarah. Its been days since I read quran and I had to catch up. I took a deep breath and began to start reciting the ayat and silently thanked Allah for everything he gave me.

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Sorry for the late update, I'll try to go faster Insha'Allah. Comment, read and like. Jazakallah and Salam.