Against The Tide (Formerly Two Tribes)

38: Lovey Dovey

As soon as Jameel left the room, Afrah released her pent-up emotions. Her chest felt so tight, she couldn't breathe properly. Tears prickled and welled up in her eyes; a gigantic lump jammed in her throat.

If Afrah could, she would take back her words—not because she regretted them, but because they hurt Jameel much more than she had imagined. She made him feel she was pushing him to Najah because she didn't have feelings for him anymore. She had explained why she did what she did but it all went in one ear and out the other. Afrah shook her head at how he just made up his mind and stuck completely to it.

"You did the right thing," Afrah whispered to herself as she wiped the tears that were running down her face. "He's going to come around sooner than you think."

That night, Afrah didn't sleep a wink. She kept tossing and turning in bed; Jameel's words repeating themselves in her ears like a mantra.

•

Afrah's alarm woke her up for fajr. She checked her phone to see if Jameel had left a message like he always did every morning but to her disappointment, she found none. "I guess he is still mad at me," she muttered to herself as she made her way to the bathroom to perform ablution.

After praying, Afrah checked her phone again, hoping to see Jameel's text but again, all she got was a disappointment.

She hummed, an eerie feeling brewing in her mind. It was weird for she had hardly witnessed Jameel'd anger. It was always her. At that moment, Afrah would do anything to take a sneak peek into his mind. "Should I call him to come here?" She vehemently shook her head. "No! I shouldn't do that...I didn't do anything wrong. He should even be the one trying to win my affection after what he did to me. Serves him right! Hmph!"

Afrah started to watch a movie on her phone, all to distract her from thinking about Jameel, but her effort only yielded futility. She put aside her phone and rose to her feet. "I should prepare breakfast...let's see if he will see me and still choose not to speak to me."

Walking out of the room, Afra bumped into Najah, knocking off her phone. "Sorry," she intuitively apologized and crouched to pick up the phone.

"It's fine..." Najah's voice trailed. "I'm sorry too, I wasn't looking."

Afrah stood up and stretched out the phone to Najah. "It's not broken."

Najah heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God, I just got the screen guard changed yesterday."

Afrah restricted herself from rolling her eyes at the needless information.

"Where's Jameel?" The question emerged from Afrah's mouth before she could stop it. She mentally cringed and hit herself on the head for being so senseless.

"He's—"

"Nevermind!" Afrah quickly cut her off. She wasn't mentally prepared for what Najah's response would be. It would indubitably break her heart to know that he had spent the night with Najah as she wanted. "I thought he left for work."

"No, he hasn't," Najah responded. "He won't be going in today. He said he's under the weather, so he called in sick."

Her words were confirmation to Afrah that Jameel indeed slept in Najah's room. It was a bitter pill for her to swallow. "I see."

"Do you—"

Afrah did not wait for Najah to complete her statement before walking away.

All she could think of on her way to the kitchen was what Najah had told her. "He called in sick? How'd she known that if he didn't sleep in her room? Does this mean he...he," she gulped. "And here I was thinking he was mad at me for pushing him to her, not knowing it was what he actually wanted and was only putting on airs. I'm so stupid!"