Mending the Broken

Chapter 6

AMAL

Aania lives in a small, lively house. Her parents are both doctors and extremely hard-working. Her brother is also becoming a doctor and believe it or not, it really is his wedding on Sunday––a whole week from now.

They gladly welcome me into their house and Aania is of course super excited. I offer to help the whole family with all the work that needs to be done.

Soon, I’m given the task of finding the best florist in Lahore and contacting them. It doesn’t take me long to find Blossoms––the best florist in my opinion––and I make the arrangements.

I am no artist but I can appreciate a good piece of art or flowers or anything of that sort. Call me boring but I actually find studying fun. Exams suck but the learning experience in general is something I love.

I’m not sure what I want to be but if I were to choose a subject, I’d probably choose Chemistry. Although it has more to do with the fact that my chemistry teacher is better than the rest and less to do with the subject itself.

Summer break is about to end in less than a month and then I’ll have to choose what to do in University.

I sigh, blowing out all the depressing thoughts.

“Amal!” Aania calls me just in time. I don’t shout back since it’s highly inappropriate to do that in somebody else’s house.

She comes into the room, throwing the door open with no regards to the fact that I don’t have my niqab on and all her cousins are roaming freely around. I squeak angrily and she gets the meaning, closing the door behind her.

“We’re going shopping, hurry up!”

Great. I LOVE SHOPPING!

Not.

“Do I have to?” I ask, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Yes, of course! We need your opinion on Maira’s shoes. Plus, you still haven’t gotten anything for the wedding!”

I cover one of my ears. “Stop shouting, first of all. And secondly, I don’t want anything. I’ll wear that blue jilbab that I got made last year. It’s stunning,”

She grudgingly agrees. But of course she still needs my opinion on the shoes we have to get for the bride.

Another thing about me: I hate all sorts of shoes except for my signature Nikes and I hate shopping for them even more.

“This is so exciting!” she sings, motioning me to wear my niqab. “I’m telling you, Amal, you’ll love it today. You know why?”

Although I don’t want to know, I still mumble, “Why?”

“Because you’re going with me!”

“Yay,” I deadpan.

“Oh, come on,” She places both of her hands on either side of my shoulders, as I tie my niqab. “Don’t be a party pooper. And who knows, maybe you’ll find your future husband there,”

“Doubtful,” I say, fixing my niqab and making sure my eyebrows can’t be seen at all.

Aania shoots me a teasing smile. “Inside you’re all hopeful, aren’t you?”

I hate how she knows me so well.