Guilted: Wars Against The Past (Editing)

T h i r t y - T w o

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Sahar quietly asked as she mumbled against his chest. She hugged him tighter and cuddled in his arms comfortably. Abed's hands were lazily draped around her as he was busy watching something on his phone while his earphones were glued in his ears.

"Abed?!" She raised her voice a little and Abed removed one of his earphones and asked without looking at her,

"Hmm?"

"I want to ask you something, but you might not want to talk about it."

Abed tore his eyes from the phone and glanced at her, of course he knew what she had in mind. It's so obvious of her.

"Ask." He muttered and went to watching the video on his phone.

"Tell me about Taraa." Her voice was low and nervous, and she could swear that she felt his heartbeats accelerate upon mentioning Taraa.

His features turned cold that he furrowed his brows and shifted up making Sahar rise up from him and they both sat. He kept the phone aside and sighed.

"That's not a question." He looked at her with his dead eyes.

Sahar moved closer to him and asked, "Tell me about your last memory with her." She was nervous and hesitant as to how he might have reacted.

Abed looked away because there was nothing much to tell.

Because that night when he had went to visit her, she didn't even want to stand the sight of him.

As he was about to tell her, another memory hazed up in his mind before he could have even spoken. He scrunched his brows and wondered why that particular memory wasn't like the other ones?! Why did it stay hidden and why on earth did that particular memory didn't stay in his mind until now?!

Of course, as when you are consumed with darkness, there will be no room for good and the light.

And memories are stringed with the heart, not the mind.

And that memory of his, was of light and nostalgia.

He was enjoying watching a movie on his phone as he was sitting on his Ford truck's hood. Suddenly he sensed someone entering the place through the gates and he looked up. As when her eyes met his, he gulped as shivers and the eternal shame settled within him. He saw how pale and weak she looked, how the bags under her eyes were prominent, how torn and broken she looked, how pained and sorrowed her eyes screamed, he almost felt this strange tug in his heart and for a moment of time his heart kind of ached for her.

He wasn't sure what he was feeling.

It was strange, just like how she was a stranger, not only to him but she was a stranger to the world.

Instantly she stopped in her tracks and winced in pain as her hand stroked her outgrown belly and he came down from his truck's hood. He just stood there, not knowing what to do because it's so obvious that Taraa hated him. She then shook her head and went inside the house.

The Adel house.

Abed followed her and closed the main door of the house behind him. He was just unacquainted and stood still while he watched her search for....maybe father and definitely Esta.

"Dad's at work." He slowly said, observing her.

Taraa opened her mouth to speak but Abed was quick to read her mind, "And Esta is at her sister's place."