Beloved

5. (Hamza's POV)

'You are okay?' I couldn't help but ask her. I followed her eyes to find out what she was finding so interesting in the grass below her feet? The entire time she was here, she was looking down on the ground, not looking at anything but the grass and the small plants that were around us. Anything but me.

'Yes' She nodded.

'Can you please get me some water Haya?' I asked, and she went inside.

'Are you ashamed, is that it?' I glared at Ayat and finally, she looked up from the ground and her eyes met mine.

'Excuse me?' She seemed offended.

'Are you shying away from me because you got caught?' I continued to look at her, waiting for her to answer me but instead of answering me, she got up from her seat, ready to leave. But before she could go, I grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving. No one has ever been this disrespectful to me.

'Don't touch me' She tried to pull her hand away, but I didn't let go.

'You are not as naïve as your father thinks you are, instead of showing so much attitude, you should actually thank me for not busting your little lie in the cafeteria' I had to teach her a lesson. What did she think of herself anyway?

'Why do you care if I show you attitude or not? Leave my hand' She secured her hand on top of my grip to make me let go of her.

'Don't think too highly of yourself, there is nothing special about you' I let go of her hand.

'Sorry...it was a call from my colleague' Just then Mr.Amir came back out.

'What happened?' He asked Ayat when he saw her rubbing her wrist.

'Insect bite' I answered instead but she didn't react.

'Papa I have some work to finish...the dinner is almost done, let me know when you are ready, and I'll get Haya to serve the food' She went back inside, leaving me with a strange feeling of separation.

'It's getting a bit dark, should we go inside? You have some bloodthirsty mosquitoes here' I suggested.

'If your school is ever in need of any funding, please do let me know...' I said to Mr.Amir while having dinner. It was nice to eat proper home food after all this time.

'Thank you, but I think we are doing just fine for now. I will pass your contact information forward to our administrators if that's okay with you in case they need some support in the future' He said to me and I gave him my business card.

'They usually have late dinner?' I asked him about his daughters. Were they always like this around other guests too or just me?

'No...we usually eat together...they are probably working on Haya's assignment or something. Haya doesn't complete her work unless Ayat is around to watch her.' He told me.

'Excuse me...where is the washroom?' I asked for the way and went to go wash my hands. On my way, I heard someone let out a cry in pain. I stopped just then. Was that Ayat?

'Be careful, don't press it too hard' She said, assuming she was speaking to Haya.

'Don't stress me out...I am not a doctor...who told you to drop a pot of boiling hot water in your lap' I heard Haya.

'It's doesn't look that bad...does it hurt a lot?' Haya asked her. I felt bad eavesdropping me, but I couldn't move. Is that why Ayat was acting so weird earlier? She was probably in a lot of pain and I...dammit.

'Yea...not as much as before...but it still hurts' She replied in a quivering voice and it made me feel even worse. Why did I react so harshly? I shouldn't have said all those things to her. I was about to knock so I could speak to her, but the door flung opened before I could even decide if this was even a good idea.

'Let me get you some water and...' Haya stopped midway when she saw me standing so close to the door.

'You want something?' Haya eyed me.

'No...where is the washroom?' I asked instead. She pointed to the door on the left and walked away, leaving me standing alone in the hallway and Ayat staring at me from inside of her room.

I went to go wash my hands. On my way, I stopped by her room or whoever's room that she was in to talk to her. She was standing by the dresser looking for something, her back was turned back on me.

'Ayat' I called out her name, but it came out as a low whisper.

'Ayat' I said loudly, and she finally turned out, looking at me with surprise.

'Yes, Mr.Hamza...is there anything else you would like to say to humiliate me?' She walked towards me, slightly unsteadily.

'What? Now don't have anything to say? Now that you know I am hurt, you are not going to try to be rude to me to make me feel worse? You really thought I was avoiding you because of that small lie I told about my father about inviting you for dinner? How old do you think I am? I was in a lot of pain when I was asked to sit outside with you...I didn't want to my father worry so I didn't tell him that I...' She kept going on and on. This girl really had an on and off switch. Either she will not speak and once the switch goes off, she really doesn't know when to stop.

'Sorry' I simply apologized.

'No...see that's your problem...you...' She stopped once her mind comprehended what I just said to her. Her eyes went wide either with surprise or something else, but nonetheless, she looked a bit funny.

'What?' She said.

'I shouldn't have done that...I didn't know that you...you were in pain. I thought you didn't want me here...' I started.

'I don't dislike you Mr.Hamza' She said and now I was taken by surprise.

'What?' I asked but she looked away from me as soon as she said that.

'I didn't invite you because I didn't want to give you to think that I was trying to befriend you or anything. I didn't want you to think that I was unprofessional' She explained, and it felt truthful.

'Let's start over' I offered but she remained silent.

'Let's put all the things that went wrong behind us' I suggested and offered her my hand for a handshake. She hesitated for a bit but eventually extended her hand to meet mines.

'Ayat...this is so good...I am taking this for lunch tomorrow' Haya entered the room with a plate of food and a glass of water and looked at our hands that were holding on to each other. Ayat let go of my hand and took the plate from Haya's hands and sat down on the bed.

'I'll see you later...thanks for the food and I am sorry about earlier' I looked at her one last time and went to go say goodbye to Mr.Amir.

On my way back, I kept thinking about Ayat, there was so much to her. Was she different from the girls that I knew, or it was all a misconception? Whatever the case may be, I was satisfied with my actions, if my words and actions hurt her then I also apologized to her deliberately to make up for it. I never considered myself as a nice man, I had my fair share of flaws, but the thought of Ayat thinking of me as a bad person bothered me nonetheless. Hopefully, after today, we can both start fresh and don't hold anything against each other. Despite the bad forecast in the last few days, as I stepped out in the balcony to finish the day off with a cup of coffee, I noticed that the sky was clearing out, maybe a change was coming.

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Hi fam,

I hope you'll are doing great...life is treating you well and you are doing things that are making you happy (I know I am being cheesy) lol.

Well, I hope this chapter added more cheese in your life if it did please don't forget to vote and leave your comments. xx

See Y'all soon <3