CHAPTER 6
AHAD POV:
I woke up to find myself alone in my room. It was 5 am already, I came out of my bed and went to do an ablution so I could pray.
"Oh Lord!, the pain is unbearable, I do not know what to do with this pain I've been feeling for these years, I did try to overcome them but I can't Allah, Allah please help me out, take this pain away and give me happiness or take me away" crying in front of the Almighty Allah I have found my comfort. The only solution to my desperation.
After praying the Salah, I went to my bedside table and took out the sticky notes, writing a note on it, I went out of the room, sticking it on my parent's room door, I moved towards the kitchen to get myself something, making myself some tea and scrambled eggs with bread, I ate my breakfast and got out to take my bike back home... which Ashar parked here instead of taking to my penthouse as he said yesterday…
Reaching in front of my penthouse, I searched for the keys in my pants pocket and unlocked the door. Getting inside the house, I found it cold and dark, as I silently prayed to Allah to make this house lively and happy for me soon.
Moving towards my gym after changing into gym clothes, I did some warm-up exercises. After working out for 2 hours, I moved towards the kitchen to make breakfast for myself when I heard a knock on my front door.
Diverting my gaze to the wall clock, I checked the time; it was 7:30 am already, and I knew exactly who had come to my house at this time of the day. Opening the door with a bored expression, I made my way back to the kitchen to continue making breakfast again.
"Bhai, I'll go to sleep in your room, please do not disturb me before Zuhr Salah, Shabakhair." Ashar went towards my room to sleep, while he had his own room in my house, still he felt comfortable to sleep in my room only... because yeah, I keep my room clean while he... yuck... maybe I shouldn't brief it at all. (Translation: Good night.)
I kept one plate at the microwave for Ashar while I ate mine, before changing my clothes to black pants, white t-shirts, and white sneakers with a Rolex watch, to get my bike on a Saturday date...
Taking my beautiful bike out of the garage, I decided where I wanted to go for a ride and rode to my destination.
Standing outside the large building, I waited patiently for my best friend to come so that we could go together for the ride.
"I'm sorry, I got late, bro. You know the new project I'm working on has taken more of my attention than I thought it needed." I just looked at the time and punched him in the face.
"Okay, I'm sorry, now let's go, kids are waiting for us," he said while touching the area where I punched him...
Hammad is my childhood buddy, with whom I have been together for two decades already. His time punctuality goes out the trash whenever it's time for him to join me. His being late has always been his favorite hobby; he's such a goofy person, yet he'll kick the shit out of anyone for being disrespectful towards the people he's close with, one of them is me...
I remembered how he had beaten a boy in 10th grade who tried to bully Ashar while I was away... his current girlfriend has been just with him for the fame and power he holds yet he won't understand it because he thinks she's the one he was looking for years, him and I both know about her not being the one he's looking for yet he won't accept it, maybe he's just denying the reality to move on....
"Hammad, did you get the bags that we are going to give today to the kids?" I asked, knowing very well this idiot would have forgotten it.
"Oh shoot, they are at home, I'll - I'll just go and grab it, till then you go ahead." I glared at him, pointing my index finger at him, "Thank Allah that you are my father's favorite boy in my friends circle, or else I would have murdered you, you stupid shit."
Starting my bike, I made my way to Darul Sukoon.
Moving inside, I waited for the children to come out of their classes.
"I'm here, my boy." Here comes my idiot friend.
"You finally came, sit right here with me now," I said, waiting patiently for the kids.
Meeting them and giving them the things that they were requesting last week was all I could do to make them happy... they have taught me the real meaning of happiness, happiness can be found in the smallest yet the tiniest thing if one wants to find it, yet we don't feel happy and satisfied while we have all the blessing and gifts given by our almighty Allah.
I watched them doing a happy dance as we gave them the things they wanted. My eyes drifted to the girl coming inside while having lots of bags in her hands. She wore some denim pants with a baggy shirt, hair all spread around her shoulders, as her face wasn't visible.
Before I could go and help her, I saw a teacher moving towards her. I looked away, knowing it's not a good thing to watch someone secretly, but I couldn't help but want to see her again. Resisting the urge to look that way, I engrossed myself with the kids. After spending some more time with them, we too took our leave to go home...
Hammed and I went to a nearby coffee shop to talk. "Hammed, I know you still think I should not think about the past incident, yet I can't help but think about how I could change everything and how I could be the one in that accident," I said restlessly, thinking about it again, as I held my head in my hands.
"Ahad some things are meant to happen, Allah has chosen everything for human beings, we can't change anything nor can we stop, but think about everything in a better way and believe in Allah." Hammad tried to assure me, sipping my coffee again, nodded my head, indicating I understood what he was telling me, and we talked about our daily life...
It was already Maghrib Salah time when I came home, parking my bike in my garage, I went to the masjid to pray Salah...
Finding comfort in Salah is what every Muslim needs, and I found that after her death… after I lost her forever...
HAYAT POV:
It was Sunday already, the birds were chirping, and the day started with me cleaning my room and listening to an audiobook. I'm not a cleanliness freak, yet I don't like my things here and there.
Hearing a knock on my door, I paused my audiobook placed my phone with hand-frees on the bed, and went to open the door, seeing the smiling face of my Chachi I welcomed her into my room, taking a seat next to me on the couch she whispered, "It's your Chachu's day off and I wanted to go out with him to have some quality time, will you mind it if we are late Chanda?"
She has always been the one to support me, asking me before doing anything in my matter to make me comfortable. The comfort I needed from my father, I unknowingly got from them, "You do not need to ask me, my pretty lady, I actually have some plans today too, I'll be home late, you both please enjoy."
After having a little chat and breakfast, I got ready to visit one of my and my best friend's favorite places, Darul Sukoon.
I'm here again, yesterday I came here too, and I got a lot of gifts for the kids, remembering how I tried hard to keep my pace steady as the bags were too much heavy for me to handle, as a teacher came to help me, after greeting each other, I found some other guys were there too from the teacher, as she suggested that maybe I can have accompany them to see the kids, but I denied, since I wasn't in the mood to chat with anyone.
My visit here was special, as a teacher I met yesterday told me one of the kids misses me a lot, as she was crying yesterday, not finding me there. After spending some time with them, I took my leave and visited the cafe near Seaview, getting myself some coffee to enjoy my "Me time" alone.
Parking my car near the Seaview side I got out of the car, it has become the most frequent place I love to visit in Karachi, the place itself held so many memories that I can never forget, sitting on the nearest seat I found, taking my book in my hand, I started reading it while having the hand-frees in my ears and the coffee in my other hand, the noise around me started to fade away as I kept reading the book under the shade to escape the sun.
Feeling someone standing beside me, I looked up to find Ashar, raising my one eyebrow I gave him my "What do you want" face, scratching the back of his head he embarrassingly said, "I came with my boring bhai here, and I was bored to death right there standing so I looked around to find someone I know and I found you, so I came to look for you."
I was confused about why he would look for me when we had talked only two times in my 24 years of living on this planet: "We don't know each other much for you to come up here and talk to me!"
I looked at him with a "Duh" face.
"I know, but we both have a similar love for cars and bikes, so I wanted to know what you thought about the race offer?" He questioned with innocent eyes and a face.
"I haven't thought about it till now, but I'll surely join today to watch the race," he looked at me with horror in his eyes, "NO!! You can't join today!" Startling me with his suddenly raised voice, I tried to calm my scared heart down and asked, "Why?" I'm a little annoyed by his behavior.
"Well, you didn't tell me about you joining us, so I did not make any arrangements for the car race," he said.
"I-I just want to watch the race even if it's by bike too, and then I'll think about joining," I spoke calmly, trying not to make a scene since I was reading a really interesting part in the book.
"Oh, surely you can watch it, you can message me before you come so that I'll know about it in advance," he said, making me think maybe he's way more dumb than he looks.
"We don't have each other's numbers, duh." He gave a small smile and passed me his phone for me to type my number. "I'll join by 8:30 tonight," I spoke as I stood up and made my way towards my car, getting a notification. I looked at the message.
"I'll call you Miss Hayat as you give me those teacher vibes who always give short replies and walk away, Miss Hayat, do join us, if you want to learn something new about your car, drifting or racing, do contact me on this number, THANK YOU", shaking my head a little, I smiled as I walked towards my car...
In the evening, I got myself some coffee and started searching for the best universities providing business degrees. I had gone to IBA for 2 years, and it has many of my beautiful memories, but I won't want to join there again after what I have lost. I looked for a while and got done with Iqra University.
Finalizing everything, I collected my documents and put them together.
As I changed my clothes to a beige color hooded shirt with my favorite black pants, applied sunscreen on my face with moisturizer, used my favorite perfume, and was ready to go out, I took a picture of myself, picked up my current reading book, and made my way out.
Coming out of the cafe, I felt my phone vibrate as I looked at the notifications. Reading the message, I was confused, not knowing if the message was a question, a command, or a request.
"The boy you met the other day, wants to have a ride with you in your sports car, he'll be here tonight" I wanted to ask Ashar why he texted like this but keeping it aside I thought about the boy and remembered his shiny eyes as he looked at my car the other day, wanting to make the boy memories beautiful I agreed, "Tell him I'll be there by an hour and then he can come with me."
Zeeshan and I had a lot of fun together. We talked while I was driving the car, and we had a drink together and talked about the race and all... it felt good talking to him... or maybe it felt good talking to someone after a while.
Dropping him off at Do Darya at 10 pm again, I pulled down my side window, "If you want to join me again, just give me a call, okay?" I said while ruffling his hair a little. He smiled and went away.
I looked out my front window while pulling up my window and saw the bikers, or to be more specific, saw one of the guys I saw last time, sitting on his Kawasaki Ninja H2 bike with the helmet on, while wearing a half sleeve white t-shirt and black pants, looking really amazing to my eyes.
His built body gave me a thought about his gym activities, bikers have always had a special place in my heart since I read The Predator but looking at him right now I felt myself staring a little too much, he might have sensed my continuous gaze, that he looked at my way, and I idiotically hid my face down like my windows aren't tinted black.
I scolded myself for my stupidity and embarrassingly drove away... shaking my head, trying to remove his well-built body leaning on the bike as he talked to another person out of my mind, well, I just defined him while trying to keep him out of my mind... I know I'm stupid... maybe I like-