#tasneem

That was my clear sign to give up on her. My self esteem surely was not as low as to attempt befriending her again.

I kind of settled on getting by instead of having a great time. It was my last school year anyway and I was sick on starting fresh over and over.

Being alone was better than this drama. Less risky in general.

After school I was mostly at home, retreating to my hobbies. If I was in the mood for it I would also go out on a walk.

I needed the time to reset after the stressful school week.

Unfortunately my mom did not understand that, or most likely did not care.

She took me to one of her events, underlining how much it would hurt her image if I did not come along and behave.

After all there was going to be a kid in my age as well and we were supposed to spend time because our parents knew each other.

I would probably never get this logic, but I did not have a say in it anyway.

So reluctantly I tagged along, not wanting my mom to make my life even more of a hell for missing out on this event.

It was pretty fancy or in other words boring and fake.

I caught myself wishing for the person my age to make all of this more bearable, until I reminded myself that I did not even know who it was.

After about ten minutes my mom talked to another woman who suggested that I should go out with the other girls as the area was supposed to be popular around teens and they wanted to talk about business.

Why did they drag as along if they did not want us here?

I agreed, assuming time would at least pass faster.

But I regretted that quickly as I got to know that her daughter was Tasneem.

It only seemed to get worse as I found out that she had invited Hiba as well because she had not wanted to be stuck here on her own.

I hated my luck.

The smile on the faces of the girls faded for a second when they recognized me, although they immediately put on a fake one in front of our moms.

As soon as we were outside and had put enough distance between us and the restaurant the event was at, they stopped and turned to face me.

“I can't believe they forced us to go with you”, Hiba stated, her voice dripping with disgust and annoyance.

“You don't seriously think I'm happy about this, do you? I didn't wanna come in the first place”, I complained.

“Why don't we just split up then?”, Tasneem considered.

“To get into trouble because she screws it up in some way? No, thanks”, Hiba proposed. “Let's just go into some stores together to pass time.”

Of course they wanted to go and try on some clothes. Another time I did not get a say.

I had to follow them around.

In the beginning I dared to pick up some clothes myself, but the way they were whispering and laughing in my direction made me put them back without trying them on.

Instead I was scrolling on my phone to zone out.

It worked out pretty well until I felt my phone buzz inside my pocket when we were walking down the busy street.

I stopped in my tracks and took it out, not daring to walk while looking down with all those people around.

Great! My phone had died on me. Apparently my scrolling had been more excessive than I had thought.

Suddenly I realized that I was not wandering around on my own and looked up to search for Hiba and Tasneem.

No sight of them.

I groaned in frustration.

Could this day get any worse?

I walked around in the attempt to find them, which was pretty ironic as I was usually avoiding them.

After a while I gave up, sitting down on a bench, close to the main street.

I was still scanning the crowd for the familiar faces though.

To my surprise I was able to spot Hiba a few minutes later.

She was turning around wildly.

Was she searching for me? She did say that she did not want to get into trouble …

It was still weird to see the worried expression on her face replacing her usual scowl or mocking smirk.

I made my way over to her, tapping her shoulder.

She turned around immediately, anger and confusion evident on her face.

I could hear her mumble my name, although it was almost drowned out by the noises of the people around us.

“Where the hell have you been?”, she ranted. “Why didn't you answer your fucking phone?”

“I got lost in the crowd and my phone's turned off. It's empty”, I explained calmly.

Her behavior was irritating me to be honest.

Hiba moved her hand through her hair, before she sighed and called Tasneem to tell her she had found me.

We all met up and decided to get some ice cream to calm down.

For the rest of the day I could not help but wonder about Hiba's strange behavior. Tasneem had been way more casual about the situation.

What was wrong with Hiba? It was not like I owed her to know where I was.

It all did not make any sense.

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Hey guys! I know it's been forever since i last update for alrawabi. Thank you all for your patience! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Feel free to make suggestions for the following chapters.

“What is taking you guys so long? Are you okay?”, Tasneem interrupted her.

“Yeah”, I claimed and used Tasneem's appearance to flee.

Hiba had just been searching for a gentle way to let me down, which was absurd in itself. After all she was not one to take care of other people's feelings. So I must have seemed extremely vulnerable.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful as Tasneem had canceled the game after the call with Omar.

After playing some more games with less drama, we decided to go to bed. Now I was regretting settling my stuff right next to Hiba's because I had to lay down next to her after the awkward ending of our conversation.

I purposefully turned my back toward her to avoid looking at her.

But after a felt eternity I still was not able to fall asleep, the day spooking in my mind.

I almost cried out when a hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer. It could not be anyone else but Hiba.

I figured that she was asleep, but that quickly turned out wrong when she started whispering in my ear: “Hey, I know you're still awake. You've been ignoring me.”

I stayed silent.

“Why did you run away when Tasneem showed up?”, she inquired.

“We shouldn't talk about it here. What if anyone hears? It's already been bad enough for me”, I considered.

“They're fast asleep. Trust me”, Hiba proclaimed.

“What do you even want?”, I questioned.

“Finish our chat from earlier?”, she supposed. “I didn't get to say what I wanted.”

I could feel her breath on my ear and it was driving me crazy. Why did she have to be such a tease?

“Don't worry about it”, I assured her. “You don't have to let me down slowly.”

“I never intended to, anyway”, she noted. “I've been having my eyes on you for a while now, but I always thought you were with one of the boys.”

I could barely breathe at her words, struggling to process everything she was saying.

“So what do you say?”, she wondered.

I loosened her grip on my waist to turn around and face her. The sight of her was reminding me once again how stunning she was.

“You like me, too?”, I uttered, not sure if I could trust my mind right now.

Her eyes moved from my eyes to my lips. “Yeah”, she confirmed.

A bright smile captured myself, making her chuckle quietly, before she closed the gap between us to kiss me.

At first it was shy and hesitant, but it quickly turned more passionate and desperate as we had waited for so long.

When we parted again, Hiba was grinning at me, pulling me back into her arms.

The next morning I woke up in Hiba's arms. So it had not been a dream after all. I smiled at the memory of last night.

The others had already gotten up, leaving us behind to sleep in.

When I turned around to try regain the feeling in my arm I had apparently laid on for way too long, Hiba stirred awake as well.

“Who turned on the sun?”, she grumbled.

I could not help but laugh. “The others are probably eating all our breakfast”, I assumed.

“Don't care”, Hiba mumbled, burying her head in the crook of my neck.

Hiba was probably the worst morning person I knew. So I granted her a few more minutes before getting up.

“So you two have finally gotten out of bed as well”, Enas pointed out as soon as we entered the kitchen.

They were already finished with breakfast, just like I had figured.

“You two were so cute by the way”, Tasneem remarked grinning.

She pulled out her phone to show us a picture of us sleeping in each others arms.

“Give that to me”, Hiba demanded, snatching the phone out of Tasneem's hand before she could react.

“Hey, don't delete it”, she complained.

But Hiba had not deleted it. She had sent it to herself, which I only knew because I was able to get a peak.

Later that day the boys picked me up to hang out.

“You guys would be so dead if the night had turned out any different”, I enlightened them.

“What exactly are you talking about?”, Noor questioned.

“What do you think I'm talking about? Your stupid call! Do you have any idea how awkward that was?”, I ranted.

“Hey, don't make her angry!”, Yasser scolded him.

“Nah, you're all off the hook because Hiba's my girlfriend now”, I announced.

“She is? Congrats”, Safaa exclaimed and patted me on the shoulder. “Though I gotta say that I'm a bit jealous.”

“Watch what you're saying”, I warned him, but my serious attire was quickly replaced by laughing at his horrified expression.

No matter how much shit these guys were getting me into, I just could not be mad at them for long.

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Since it was requested, here's part 2. I hope you all like it!