CHAPTER 2
AUTHOR POV:
A girl crying in her car, covering the distance of 14 hours of driving in 8 hours, running away from the place she once loved the most, the place that holds a lot of memories for her...
Crying in her car, she hiccups when she looks around her surroundings. The roads are almost empty. The highway where she had her car stopped is just beautiful in her eyes. While she is still leaning on her car steering wheel, she reads the signboard that tells her where she is now.
Karachi...
Her second home…
Her favorite place…
Her memories of the city started to make her feel some comfort, yet she was emotional. She missed all the memories she made here with her best friend.
She missed her university days when both of them used to sneak out of their hostel to have their favorite chaat.
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It was currently 11:30 pm when both friends sneaked out of their hostel to fill their stomachs with the meal they were craving…
"Oh! Come on, Hayat, how much time do you need? Let's go, it's not too cold outside," whispered her best friend as she leaned on the chair.
Hayat didn't reply, ignoring her best friend. She made her way towards her, and, hitting the back of her head, she wrapped their arms together as they sneaked out silently, trying not to make a sound and let her dean know about it...
"Could you not wear heels but simple slippers, stupid, who'll look at you at this time of the night, huh?" said Hayat, as she turned the heater on in her car.
"I'll look at myself, I need no one, okay!" replied her best friend, flipping her hair back, midway through the flip, her hair stuck in her platinum bracelet, letting out a yelp, she hit Hayat with her other hand, trying to grab her attention.
"Are you freaking serious, baby? You can't even do a single thing correctly?" Sighing, Hayat helped her out, knowing it was her best friend's daily routine to make a mess out of nothing.
After reaching the place, clicking some pictures, they screamed the songs, laughing together, making memories, they had their amazing meal...
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Remembering the memories, Hayat started crying again. It was too painful for her to let go of the beautiful past she shared with her best friend, the journey that started with a simple Salam on an online app turned their life into something they never expected...
Hayat came to Karachi while crying and, in her anger, with no sense of whether what she was doing was right or not.
She just wanted to leave the place, and she did with her new best friend, her favorite sports car, a Mercedes AMG GT...
She was driving late at night on the roads of Karachi alone, with no fear or any difficulty.
After driving for an hour, she found the road that led her toward the university where she once studied... She stopped the car right in front of the gate when Fajr Adhan started, looking at the gate and remembering all the memories. She dialed a number on her phone.
"I'm coming in half an hour." Saying one simple sentence, she cut the call and made her way toward the house she loved to go to... her comfort zone... home.
The night started to fall apart as the sunrise was approaching, when she stopped the car in the garage of her house. Coming out of the car, she saw her Chachu opening his arms wide for her to hug. (Translation: Uncle)
Hayat's hazel brown eyes started to tear up. She ran toward her uncle and hugged him tightly, crying in his embrace.
"Chachu Dadi aur Baba ne kaha ky ghar se nikal jao, tum bojh ban chuki ho humary upar kiuky tum kuch krti nahi ho bas apni maa ki tharah behti rehti ho, chachu meri ammi tou phale hi maar chuki hain tou bar bar unko itna kiu gussa krty hain? Maine tou Chachu kuch bhi nahi kiya tha mai sirf parh rahi thi, Sana ky hath se glass gira tha aur usko khud chot lagi thi, Chachu maine kuch nahi kiya hai, ap mera yakeen krein, please." Pleading, she told her uncle everything that happened there, while hiccups were clearly heard in the silence that surrounded them.
(Translation: Uncle, grandma, and dad told me to leave the house. They said you've become a burden on us because you don't do anything, you just act like your mother. Uncle, my mom had already passed away. Why do they get so angry with her repeatedly? I hadn't done anything; I was just reading. Sana had accidentally dropped the glass and hurt herself. Uncle, I didn't do anything, please believe me.)
Her uncle's heart broke for her. He had seen her going through this since she was a kid. He had seen how everyone in his family treated her. He had always loved his only sister in law, she was the one who made his life happier, she was the one who supported him to do love marriage as he wanted, she was there to help him out whenever he needed her, she was the one whom he always respect and he wanted to treasure this little warrior of hers to himself, he wanted to adopt her since he and his wife got no child but his elder brother was the proud egoistic arrogant man who tried to raise his child by himself but he never did it in a right way.
Hugging her close to his heart, he tried to comfort her, knowing she just needed some comfort, and she'd go back to her grumpy, emotionless self again.
His little warrior has always been like this, just some comfort. "Family is where the child feels safe. If they aren't treating you right, then it's their fault, not yours. My little warrior, you don't deserve it, and I have always told you to come here and live with your Auntie and me. Don't you love us, hm? Don't go to Islamabad again; Karachi is your hometown, your mother's heart. Live here with us now; forget you have a father there. He will surely regret everything, but right now you need to be strong, my little warrior. Come, let's go inside, your Chachi(auntie) is making custard for you. Don't you love it?"
Nodding her head a little, she made her way inside the home she loved... home, that's what it was for her.
It was that day itself when she decided to live in Karachi... now... till forever she lived, never going back to the house she once wanted to call her home...