No Matter What: Chapter Sixteen
Sunday, January 23, 2011
‘Congratulations’ his friends started teasing him and laughing at him as he walked into the room. ‘Congrats?’ he responded surprisingly, he had nothing to be congratulated about he thought. He was still jobless; his car wasn’t brand new neither did he purchase anything worth mentioning. He didn’t get hitched nor had a new girlfriend. He didn’t conquer new territories nor went on escapades lately. He couldn’t understand why he was congratulated for.
'To be honest I never expected this from you’ a friend said. ‘Well from your family’ he corrected himself. ‘Expect? Huh? What?’ he was lost and felt like he was in a word puzzle game. ‘I never expected you guys to mix with mogul blood’ his friend told him in a sarcastic disgusted tone. ‘Impure blood? What are you talking about? Dude this isn’t Harry Potter’ he said laughing at his friend’s stupid comment. ‘I mean…’ he paused and looked into his eyes trying to cut through the loud laugh that brought an echo to the room. ‘For your family to get involved with servants. I seriously never anticipated that’ his friend replied angrily. ‘What’s the deal with you? You know our family, we never mix with such’ he responded firmly as his temper started heating up. ‘We’ve been friends since forever and you know that about us’ his voice got louder and angrier as he affirmed that belief of his and his family. ‘We NEVER mix PERIOD’ he tried correcting his friend as he gasped for air ‘Come on, all of a sudden you decide to hide it? To save face?’ another friend of his spoke out his mind. ‘What? Hide what exactly?’ he was confused as his anger was topping off its scale. ‘Didn’t that Arabic teacher cousin of yours get married to an illegitimate bastard?’ Those words sent Hilal up on the roof. ‘What do you mean?’ he said as his voice roared across the room silencing everyone. ‘Aish my dear, you don’t know that she eloped?’ his friend said smiling wryly. Hilal hit him then and there that Noor escaped home a few days ago and efforts of finding her were a failure until this moment. ‘And how do you know this?’ he demanded as he grabbed his friend’s arm in an attempt to start a fight. ‘You forgot my father is a judge? They came to petition their case to my father who took it up’ HIlal’s closest friend shoved him away in disgust.
Hilal stormed out of the place with sheer embarrassment and anger on his face and being. His rage was indescribable; his veins felt they were about to explode. He not only lost his reputation but lost the cousin who was named for him; he would marry her as soon as he got a job. But now, all those dreams and aspirations of having Noor, his uncle’s daughter, vanished into thin air.