Night fell sooner than they expected, Kenneth and the rest of the Moores were around. Rosaline was excited, not because she was looking forward to meeting her niece,Rudy and Jordan's new born,but because everyone was together and that meant she would have more people to chat with and pretend like she didn't destroy any hope of she and Shaan getting back together just hours ago.
After dinner, the men left for Noah's Bachelor's Night, since Renee wasn't interested in celebrating and she made it clear to them by not coming down for dinner. Rosaline didn't want to be the bigger person or the peace maker, this time and she also didn't want leave the tradition unfulfilled...
"Should we go out for a picnic...i know a great spot, it's down the stream" She grinned.
"I'll pass" Catherine excused herself.
"Me too" Nara yawned.
"Me three and you four-" Beatrice cut Gina off "-close that cherry mouth of yours, they don't need the likes of you in their get-together and we still have some planning to do..upsy daisy" She dragged Gina from the couch.
"So just you guys then... Jessica?" Rosaline turned to face Jessica who had been quiet all evening.
It wasn't shocking that Kenneth was still dating Jessica. Jessica was good for him as far as Rosaline was concerned and she wanted to treat her like family even though it was bound to be awkward.
"If you guys don't mind... I'm down"
"So we cool?"
The rest of them nodded.
Rosaline smiled.
After, their picnic bag was packed , Rosaline led them to the lake , Nolan took her to. Rosaline let out a small mocking laugh, she didn't think anything Nolan had done for her would be a kind of inspiration.
In a matter of minutes, they were settled.
"Olivia is such a beautiful name" Rosaline planted a kiss on the baby's forehead.
"Isn't she the sweetest little being you've ever met....her eyes speak to me sometimes." Jordan said with a smile.
Rosaline stared at Jordan for a while, visibly disturbed by what she'd just said, then glanced at the other women.Keisha froze comically and squinted, Jessica shot Jordan a "Hell nah" look.
"Asides the fact that that is really creepy, i think you just love her a lot. She looks so much like Rudy" Zoe said as she handed David a cookie.
Shifting her attention to the small human resting on her thigh....the last time Rosaline saw David, he was only 3months old. Apart from the wedding, and Nolan's fake death....Rosaline felt bad that she was part of the reasons his 10th month thanksgiving was postponed but it couldn't be helped because her doctor had told her that her condition was "delicate" and she needed to travel less. She had to get his approval before she could come to Ohio for the wedding. Shaan had teased that the doctor had a crush on her.
Rosaline close her eyes to picture his laughing face when he teased her and how he got jealous afterwards.
"Rosy?...ROSY" Jordan and Zoe said
"Yeah.. yeah.. I'm here. What were we talking about?"
"Do you need to rest ?" Keisha said.
"No ,no I'm okay. It's just a little cold "
"Tell me about it" Zoe dragged her shawl closer to her skin.
"Should we go bac-"
"No,no I'm fine really...." Rosaline placed her hand on Keisha's to assure her.
They sat in silence, each of them with their own thoughts.
"Bea told us what happened with Shaan" Zoe said.
They looked at each other like they had planned to talk about it. Rosaline chuckled.
"You guys look like David when he has pooped in his diapers" Rosaline tittered hoping they'd join her.
Jessica's cold hand touch hers as she shook her head "it's a bad joke" she said.
Rosaline's laugh faded and the air felt heavy. Jessica's face drew a worried expression when none of them said anything.
"Did i- did i say something wrong?... I'm sor-" They burst out laughing, Jessica was confused at first but she joined in.
"Gracious....you should have seen your face" Keisha said through her snorty laugh.
"She was so scared"
"No I wasn't... it's....i wasn't ,really " Jessica's cheeks stained with a bright color of pink , the rest of her skin that was visible matched it with it's own shade of red.
They teased her and nodded like she was right while she defended herself.
"Okay okay, y'all ,stop teasing her" Zoe said.
"Right....back to you" Keisha looked at Rosaline , wide-eyed.
"Your eyes will pop out" Jordan chuckled.
"Wanna see something cool?" Keisha smirked.
"Noooo!" Rosaline waved her hand in front of Keisha's face.
The first time Keisha had asked her that question,she wasn't prepared for what had happened. Keisha's eyes had turned completely white, the network of tiny veins standing out starkly against the pale sclera. Rosaline was too weak hearted for such eerie performance in the night.
"What did she do?" Zoe smiled.
Rosaline closed her eyes, why did she forget that Zoe favorite movie genre was horror?.
" Her eyes hid it's color revealing the terrifying whites laced with blood-red veins." Rosaline did her impression of the Joker.
"Gurl, you're the last thing on my list of scary things" Jordan said
"She's not even on my list" Zoe patted Rosaline's head .
"I need to pee" Jessica said and excused herself.
"Should i come with?" Keisha said after her.
"I'll be fine" she yelled as she was already inches away from them .
"Anyways...my eye trick isn't that bad... I'll show you-" Keisha did the trick "-see ,i told-"
Jessica's scream invaded their eardrums like a thunderclap.
"What happened?"Keisha ran towards her.
Zoe helped Rosaline up and handed Olivia to her so that Jordan could get up too incase they needed to run.
Jordan quickly strapped Olivia to her chest, Zoe scopped David from the sheets. They didn't bother packing their belongings,they only took their phones.
Arrrrrghhhhh!
Came the second wave of scream, this time in Keisha's voice. They knew they had to hurry to where they were, when they got closer....
"Son of a biscuit....the flip are you guys doing here?!" Keisha yelled
"Almost gave me a heart attack" Jessica said.
"Almost gave us all a heart attack" Keisha said, then she moved back a bit giving way to a slightly muscular figure. It was Jamari, he was followed by Kenneth and Rudy, Richie almost walked into a tree, he was carring their cooler and bag of junks. Noah jumped out of the shadows like he was Batman, then he winked.
They laughed.
"The older you get,the stupider you become" Kenneth said.
"I don't think stupider is a real word"
There was no mistaking the softness,the depth of the voice that came to Rosaline's ears, like it was carved into her very being. As if on cue,the baby kicked,her mouth felt dry.
He pushed the tree branch away from his line of sight, his slender figure stepped into the light. It was like there was a halo around him, his hair had grown longer, his eyes were darker and there was something rugged in his appearance. He felt like a giant, Rosaline felt even smaller than she was.
She felt naked, shame brought tiny bumps to her skin....she suddenly felt very conscious of her freckles,and her appearance.
*. *. *.
4 hours ago
After he dropped the call with Noah,he sighed. Rosaline's small frame danced around in his mind, he wondered how she was feeling, if she was holed up in her room, crying. She was such a crybaby,it hurt him more that he wasn't beside her,but, what could he do?.
He didn't want to force her to come to him,she had to voluntarily come to him.
Thinking about how much of an overthinker Rosaline was, he smiled. He was sure ,she didn't reach out because she was probably thinking he was done with them.
Shaan turned on his phone and navigated to the airline ticket page of the flight he cancelled. He wasn't sure Rosaline wanted them to still be together when she didn't call him back to clear up the misunderstanding.
A little push from me shouldn't spoil anything right?
With a few clicks, he pulled up the airline's booking page, and began looking for the earliest available flight to Ohio...there was one scheduled for 6pm. His eyes caught the time, it was 4:37pm, he had roughly 30 minutes to pack the essentials.
"Kayid, let's get you dressed we're going to get your mommy"
Three hours later, they were in Ohio
After the long and tedious check-in at the airport,the rest of the flight to Ohio felt like a dream, every thing felt unreal. How he got to his family villa was not known to him but he somehow got through it. He had hope before he got on the plane,but what he was feeling at the moment was definitely not hope. He made a mistake, he shouldn't be here. He rang the doorbell, the door opened,his mother's tall frame appeared before him.
"You look like death" Noura kissed his cheek and took Kayid from him.
"I feel like it....love what you've done with the place" Shaan looked around, their villa. They haven't been there in a long time, it was too painful for his family ,especially his mother. The death of his father took away too much from them and left nothing, it was so sudden.
The memory of that year flooded into his lane....like a bad joke,one minute his father was on a flight to France,the next minute he was gone , nothing could've prepared him for the call he received the night before his final paper. He could still remember Abeer's calm voice when she told him their father had been murdered, like it was normal. The hired ki**er was apprehended and he told them who his employer was. It was his father's older sister, Miriam. Shaan went mad with rage when the detective told him his aunty orchestrated his father's demise... he remembered how she consoled them when she knew she took his life. Abeer had screamed, asking Aunt Miriam why she did something so despicable ,as she was handcuffed and taken away by the cops. Even with multiple visits to the prison to ask Aunt Miriam why she killed his father, Shaan couldn't find closure. The irony of life, he scoffed.
It was a soul crushing year and it was painful to be alive and well, when everything he relied on was dead and gone. His mother shut them out, she couldn't deal with his death. Abeer turned rebellious, if anyone had told him at that time that she was going to turn out the way she was now, he would've paid the person millions to never repeat themselves. Majed suddenly became quiet, he had to go for therapy, he always came back home even more broken and more quiet than he was before he left and their mother was too swallowed by grief to care.
It was up to him as the first son to pick up where his father left off. But there was something about broken things with sharp edges ,if you're not careful, you could get hurt before the job is done and bleed to death.
The day, when he finally bled dry came, rain was pouring like the tears of thousands of souls....Abeer was being stubborn, Majed was crying because he didn't want to eat the food he was served and Noura sat down like she had lost her mind. He got so angry,he lashed out at them, then ran out of their house and kept running and running till he could feel the flesh on the surface of his foot give way. He slowly walked back home, a trail of blood marking every step he took, he wanted to sleep, he felt himself falling and he let himself. Sleep came like it was going to stay for an eternity.
When he woke up, he was in a ward at their family's hospital, his mother was by his bed, she looked like she needed the hospital more than he did. To his delight the family he left wasn't the family he woke up to meet.They said he'd been in a coma for a month, they cried together, apologized for their behavior and promises were made.
Even though,they were still close as a family, some wounds stayed fresh forever...
"Faisal would've wanted it this way...."
She said with such love and certainty that it felt as though she had become an extension of him, carrying his thoughts alongside her own. Shaan's gaze softened.
"I didn't know what to do when he left us, i kept feeling like i was failing you"
He chose his words carefully not wanting to remind his mother that they took the love of her life.
"Oh ,honey.....if anything,i failed you. I left you to grow up on your own and you grew up so fast ,i couldn't keep up. And believe me, you did a fine job growing up to be who you are today and you are a good example to your siblings. I'm ashamed, because i know I wasn't part of that growth"
"No, Ma... You were part of every step"
"You've never failed me,ana fakhur fīk yā waladī, wa muta'akkid inn abūk ba'd fakhūr fīk."
{I'm proud of you my son and i know your father is too}
"Thank you Mama"
"I love you ,sweet cheeks" she pinched his cheek.
"I love you too.... why'd you decide to stay here instead of the hotel?"
"I can't mourn your Baba forever, he was my love but he's gone, i can only keep his dhikrā (memory)alive and hope to see him again in al-jannah (heaven/Paradise)and what better way to keep his dhikrā forever than to continue what he loved doing the most.... Traveling and holidays with his favorite squad"
Kayid reached for her, his chubby little arms raised, asking to be scooped up. Warmth filled Noura as she lifted her grandson and kissed his nose.
"I'm glad you've found peace" He smiled.
"And you shouldn't let go of yours" Noura gave him a knowing look.
"I haven't and i wouldn't..... I just don't feel like she wants anything to do with me" He told his mother about the call with Nolan and the brewing storm hanging over their heads. He didn't leave out what happened with Renee when they were teenagers.
"Ya Rabb, sa' idna. "
(Lord, help us)
"It's very messy and I don't know what to do"
"This is truly messy,but , you wouldn't want to leave room for regrets. Do your best and let the rest....rest"
"Let the rest rest?...are you listening to uncle Primm's podcast again?"
Uncle Primm was their neighbor, back in Saudi,who took it upon himself to share his life quotes on how to be a bum, he called it Primm's life of a NoMad. And Noura loved his podcast, although,Shaan had an intuition that his mother and uncle Primm were "getting some" from each other.
"It's really good stuff" Smiling ,she raised a pack of cheetos to Kayid, letting his chubby little hands reach in.
"You're an addict, i can see it now" Shaan yanked the pack from her hand.
"Heyyyyy! No fair....i demand ye be thrown into hot oil, what say you Cap'in?" She rubbed Kayid's tummy.
"Aye!" Screaming as high as his baby voice could go.
"I'm going to Noah's bn in an hour, gotta prep...you can skin and fry me later" Shaan went up to his room.
"It shall be the undoing of the century -" He heard his mother say ,then she and Kayid cackled.
He freshened up, wore his one of his old cargo pants and his college hoodie. Since they were going to be outdoors, he applied repellent cream ,then he put on a pair of socks. He grabbed his mom's car key from the dining table and went into the kitchen.
"I'm ready" He stretched out his arm for his mother to size him up.
"Ouu, sweet cheeks. Playing the boy next door card, too bad your hair is too long for that."
"I was thinking i was the irresistible older brother of the boy next door who's in a rock band"
"I see it now, a boy baddie"
"Goodness gracious,mama!"
Noura giggled and placed her hand on his shoulder, a few seconds of silence passed.
"Come home with the girl" She burst out laughing.
"Haha.... that's so cringe by the way."
His mother was still laughing her heart out when Majed came into the kitchen.
"Aan Brother!" Majed jumped up on him
"Easy now, one would think he just came back to life. What is this stench?" Obviously trying to provoke Noura, Abeer inhaled "Yuck!" She said.
"Like you're any better" Noura hissed.
"I thought i wasn't going to meet you before you go for the party....i have so much to tell you ,to show you Ya rabb, it has been crazy" Excitement and anticipation was evident in every word his baby brother spilled, Majed hugged Shaan again.
"Lil young Jed got himself half a girlfr-" He rushed to cover Abeer's mouth.
"It's my story to tell, sahirah "he hissed.
(Witch)
Ping!
A notification sound came from Shaan's phone, he checked it. It was a text from Noah.
"Okay okay, i love stories. Can't wait to be back home. But I'm kinda running late"
"Everybody make way for my big brother who can't keep a girl" Abeer pouted and avoided his eyes.
"Funny....cause you've never had a man and even you know you can't keep a man" Majed's tone had a mix of mockery and concern in it .
"Alright, you two. That's enough-" Noura turned to face them and looked at Shaan dead in eyes and nodded "-If it don't work out, just know it wasn't meant to be, you're better than that and we're here for you"
She walked up to him ,kissed his cheeks and pinched the spot she kissed.
"God be with you ,sweet cheeks"
"Thanks, Mama "
"Break a leg or maybe your heart" Abeer teased
Shaan rolled his eyes and left ,he could hear Majed saying " why must you always act tough , it's so sinister" which was followed by Kayid's laughter.
"That kid... laughing like he understands "
He didn't want to pass by the main house to get to the field behind the lake so he went around it which took him longer but he was finally with them. Noah was beaming with joy, it was hard to relate him to the way he sounded earlier in the day.
Shaan was surprised to see Kevin there and he was even more surprised that he accepted the invitation to the wedding despite his past relationship with Renee . Shaan glanced at Nolan who was awfully quiet,it was almost as if he was avoiding him. But Shaan couldn't wait for them to be alone so they could talk about the call and what it meant, unfortunately, he had to leave with his father and Sean when Gina called because of a wedding order he was supposed to make.
They were chatting and arguing when Jamari saw a figure in the dark beside a tree and went to check. Suddenly there were screams, Shaan stuck his finger in his ear canal .
"This should be interesting" he said under his breath.
And the next thing he knew he was standing face to face with who he loved the most and who hurt him him the most.
Her face was smaller than he remembered, the shawl she had over her shoulders didn't hide her very pregnant belly and that tugged at his heart strings. Her nose was red as usual, her red hair had a dull shine under the night light. She was fairy like,he took in her presence. And all the resolve he gathered from his mother's pep talk melted away. If it didn't work out, he was going to make it, he couldn't let her go.