Chapter 21: Chapter 21

The lecture was over, and Ihsan looked as if she was going to sleep for the entire rest of the day if she was to be allowed. Qamrah looked at her and smiled, "Ihsan you look exhausted. Let's leave." She said, lifting herself up from the seat, just when her phone started ringing before Ihsan got to reply her back.

"Hello, Hubby. Oh yeah I'm done. You're there? I'm coming right away!" She spoke with full enthusiasm and looked at Ihsan, whom had her face grimaced, looking at her phone as if she was going to rip Sadeeq out of it.

"Ihsan, let's leave. My Hubby is here already so I'm leaving. You're staying in the females dorms right? I'll visit you some day." Qamrah said as she put her phone in her bag and adjusted her veil over her face.

Ihsan stood up and smiled fleetingly at her, "Who's this hubby you're so excited about? Is he your boyfriend?" She was curious, and the two hours they spent with Qamrah made it less awkward to ask her this question.

Qamrah chuckled and Ihsan saw a blush creeped to her cheeks. This hubby must really be loved! "No Ihsan, he's my husband. I love him soo much Ya Allah!" She palmed her face and exhaled some breaths to steady her beating heart at the thought of her Hubby.

Ihsan creased her forehead in confusion and probed more, "Qamrah, you mean you're married? You don't look like a married woman to me." She shook her head while unbelievably staring at Qamrah from head to toe.

Qamrah placed her hand on Ihsan's shoulder and laughed again, "Does it have to show on my forehead that I'm married, Ihsan? You're wierd!" She softly smacked the shoulder and laughed.

"Or are you married too?" She asked the question, eyeing Ihsan with her curious brown eyes.

Ihsan wasn't good at keeping secrets, that's why before Daada would tell her something he had to make her swear she wouldn't tell anyone or even write it in her diary. It's among the reasons she didn't have much friends in her life, only Reema in school and Manal at home. Because she couldn't live in a circle of lots of friends where they was 100% possibilities of lots of gossip.

Should she tell her that she's married? But what if she asked who the husband was? What's his age and everything? Then she would tell her it's Sadeeq Abubakar Argungun? And all they have is a difference of one year gap between them? This was ridiculous, it's even embarrassing as she thought of it.

It's better to stick to what Sadeeq told her. But what if Qamrah saw them always together with Sadeeq and suspected something? Then she would tell her he's her brother and they lived in the same house? That sounded better. And she sighed out of relief.

"Noo! How would I be married as small as I am? And I live off campus with my brother in Arab league street. Jelaiah compound 1, apartment 5. I wish to see you soon. I'll call your number when I buy a new sim here Insha Allah." Ihsan ranted in one breath and hugged Qamrah to ease her lungs. She kissed her left and right cheeks, a tradition known for Arabs and Qamrah did the same before she walked out of the seat.

"Won't you see me off? Or you have something to do here? We're done for today right?" Qamrah asked and started making her way down to the frontline of the lecture room; seeing as how Ihsan sat back in her seat.

"My brother asked me to wait for him here, you should go; Qamrah. Hubby has been waiting for long." Ihsan waved dismissively with a smile and looked down on her phone, she couldn't let Qamrah know that she was internally fuming and it's left just some minutes for her to explode.

She sat there tapping her feet on the floor, angrily looking between her wristwatch and her phone's clock to see wether it was the gadgets that lied to her about waiting for whole 45 minutes alone in a lecture room she just started attending two hours ago.

She thought she had even begged Sadeeq not to keep her waiting? But he still went ahead and left her waiting that now she felt like crying. She hated waiting for someone especially if that someone she's waiting for was an asshole like Sadeeq. Slowly, she felt tears slowly cascading down her cheeks, dripping onto the bare screen of her phone.

She inhaled a deep breath and exhaled as she completely broke into tears. She spent a long time crying that her shoulders began shaking; regretting every word her stubbornness made her uttered to Daada about her going to study abroad. She could still remember the plea in his eyes for her to relent and study in Nigeria but her stupid self was so adamant. She couldn't forget the tears in her Maama's eyes the day they told her about getting her married to Sadeeq, and Maama almost cried when she said she accepted because she was hell bent on studying abroad.

A slight tap on her shoulder interrupted her train of thoughts. She looked up and her face was dew, due to the excess crying and she now had a blocked nose. Good job, Sadeeq.

"Oh oh! Why the tears now? You're such a crybaby, Ihsan," Sadeeq asked and shrugged his shoulders emanating he saw no reason why she would drop her head to the desk before her in an empty lecture room and began crying that hard.

Not that he didn't felt bad when he entered the class and met her crying so hard even her shoulders were shaking. He felt bad because he was sure he was the cause of her tears. He felt bad because with each drip of her tears down, he could feel them directly being soaked up by his lungs that he almost gone out of breaths.

She looked at him with her bloodshot eyes and scoffed, he saw how her lips trembled to utter the words itching in them but she clasped them close. She fixed back her veil and maneuvered beside him and walked out of the lecture room without looking back at him.

She placed her back to the outer wall of the building and stared at the activities of the school down the staircases. She didn't know why, but she felt like she couldn't stop her tears, she had never been this emotional her entire life.

She felt his thumbs clearing away her tears, she looked up and their eyes met while he wiped her tears away. "Look, Ihsan, I know I left you waiting for almost an hour. But that doesn't mean you should be crying unstoppable, I'm sorry." His voice was soothing and calming, and she kept looking into his orbs but couldn't respond.

"Say something please. If you aren't talking let's leave to a nearby restaurant, eat and go buy you some books and reading materials." He was surprisingly wanting to hear her voice, just to see her talking even if she's going to be that annoyingly irritating; he wanted to hear her talking.

She shrugged his thumbs away from her cheeks and walked away from him, not looking back at him. She felt as he gripped her wrist and turned her back so she could face him.

"Say something. Talk, Ihsan." He was practically begging, and she could read the plea from his eyes.

"It's okay, let's go. I'm famished." The sentences were short, and her voice sounded strained. He wanted to ask her to speak more, but from the look in her eyes, he knew she wouldn't talk even if he was to kneel down and beg her.

Instead, he entwined their hands and he looked down on their hands before looking up. Silently they walked down the stairs and hailed a cab; which took them to the nearby restaurant.

It was a fifteen minutes drive from their school to MRA bakery and restaurant situated in markhiya street. Ihsan hadn't spoken a word to Sadeeq throughout their drive, and she intentionally snubbed the way he was squeezing their hands that were still entwined.

It baffled them both, how just because Ihsan was angry and they got this worried. Sadeeq was worried because he knew she was forlorn because of him, she cried because of him and couldn't speak because of him. And Ihsan was angry because he made it sound as if it wasn't a big deal because she waited that long. And he expected her to act all normal and talk? Besides, she's instantly not in the mood to talk.

He didn't release her hand as he paid the driver and guided them to their seat. The waiter came and handed them the menu, Sadeeq looked through it and told him what he wanted. Ihsan did same before the waiter came back with their orders.

Appreciatively, Ihsan looked up at the waiter with a fully etched smile, "Thank you." She said, with a sweet voice that sounded almost flirting to Sadeeq's heart. He understood that he craved for that voice more than he wanted to eat what was set before him. He needed that smile so his heart could pump a well healthy blood-but she is giving these out free to the waiter standing before their desk smiling back at her.