Saiid

We all run towards the surgery room, when we arrive we see Tariq and Rasha's friends standing outside the surgery room. ''Tariq! Tariq! Where is my sister?!'' Aliah screams and cries. She fell on her knees and kept screaming. Adnan and Tariq try to help her up, ''There doing the surgery right now, everything will be just fine. She'll be fine.''

I haven't spoken a word, I don't even feel my heart pound anymore. My whole body is shaking and I'm sweating, nothing got into my mind. ''Tariq, how the hell did she get shot?! What the fuck happened!?'' Sarah walks around, she's stressed. Tariq rests his hands on his waist, ''Rasha and I, we were taking a walk. We were talking about random stuff until we heard gunshots rush towards us.'' He stops for a breath.

''We tried to duck it, but a shot hit her arm.'' He finished. I, without thinking, pushed him into the wall and gripped his shirt, ''That's why I fucking told her to stay away from you, I know what type of person you fucking are. Now because of you, Rasha got shot.'' I feel the guys trying to make me let me go of him. He doesn't look at me, he looks away and sighs. ''The man who shot Rasha isn't someone who tried to shot me. That man was a hitman.''

I furrow my brows at him, ''Hitman, what do you mean hitman?'' I heard Yasin ask, ''We'll found out soon. My brother is at the police station right now.'' I slowly let go of him, did someone really pay a hitman to kill Rasha? But, what the fuck?! She hasn't hurt a single person.

''Ya Allah, please make this easy for us.'' Nadia prays. Sarah looks at Yasin, ''We can't tell her parents about this, my uncle will get a heart attack.''

An hour later the doctor finally walks out of the surgery room, we all rush to him. ''Doctor, how is my sister?!'' Aliah holds the doctor's arm. He looks at her and sighs, it didn't sound good. ''She kept losing blood, but everything went right. You don't have to worry.'' He smiles at us, everyone sighs with relief. I thank God a few times, I've betrayed God so many times. But still, he was on our side.

Then the doctor looks around, ''I have to ask, who of you is Saiid?'' Everything around me stops as he asks the question. They all look at me, ''I am.'' I bit my lower lip, he laughs and puts his hand on my shoulder. ''She kept screaming If I die please make me a favor and tell Saiid that I love him so much. I forgive him. He should know that I forgave him.'' He laughs again, a teardrop fell from my eye.

I didn't know what to feel or even say, I just kept staring at him, ''It just shocks me how she kept thinking about you when her life was in danger instead of thinking about herself. Take care of her.'' He claps my shoulder and walks off. My whole body froze, I don't know if it was in a good way or bad way. But I felt like I could finally relax a bit, my whole body was about to break from the fear of losing Rasha. I feel everyone's eyes on me.

I sigh and lean on the wall, god Rasha. How do you always keep up this shit?

''Saiid, are you sure you don't want us to stay?'' Adnan asks, I nod. ''Yes, go home and rest. I'll stay here. Sarah, take care of Aliah.'' I tell Sarah, she smiles and nods. ''I will, we'll see you tomorrow.'' She smiles before she leaves. I look at Rasha's friends, ''Do you have a ride?'' I ask them, they all look at me and smile. ''Yeah, Malik will take us home. Thank you.'' Donia says, she wipes a tear with her hand.

Everyone leaves except Yasin, he sits next to me on the bench. I hear him sigh loudly. ''Saiid, how? How did all of this happen? I mean, how did you fall in love with her. I never once saw you in love with a woman, never did you talk about a woman.'' He was asking a lot at the same time. I did know how to respond to all of his questions, but I just had the energy to. My thoughts were with Rasha, not how I fell in love with her.

''Yasin, It just happened. I didn't control my feelings. I knew this was wrong, and believe me. I did try to avoid her. But I just couldn't see her with another guy. Rasha, she is hard to avoid.'' I spat everything out. He doesn't respond, neither does he make a sound. After a few minutes of silence he finally broke it, ''Do you want to marry her?'' I scoff, then I look at him.

''If I want to marry?'' I shake my head, I lean back at the bench. ''I have to marry her. If I don't marry her I can't live. I don't know how I'll live without Rasha. I want to spend my whole life with her, it's like she controls my life. And if she let go of me, I don't know how I'll work.''

''And I know, I know Yasin. All of this is wrong. But still, I need her.'' He heard the pain that came out of me, it sounded very clear. I was in pain, after all of this. I was in pain, and it was the first time in my life I felt something like this. It was an awful feeling.

I see him stand up and look down at me, ''I'll see you tomorrow.'' He said before he walked away.

Rasha

next day

I slowly opened my eyes, I immediately felt the pain in my left arm. I look around, right. I'm in the hospital, I got shot. I bit my lower lip, I thought I'd die. I really felt I was going to die right there and then. It hurt me so badly, I couldn't even catch my breath. And I wasn't ready to die, I just turned 18. But who the hell shot me?

I see a nurse walk in, ''Good morning.'' She smiles brightly. She looked young, I smile back at her. ''Good morning.'' She checks something standing next to me, It looked like a long stick holding a sack of water. ''How are you feeling?'' She asks me, I sigh. ''Hm, I don't know. I feel fine, I guess.'' She chuckles. ''That's great.''

I look around again, but why isn't no one here? Why aren't no one here to check up on me? Did they all really not come to the hospital? Did Saiid really ditch me for real? Just because I said that it was over between us? ''So, no one came here to check up on me?'' I sigh loudly. Suddenly I hear a laugh, she looks at me with a raised brow.

''I don't think so, there's a man that has been sitting outside the whole night waiting for you. We offered him a room to sleep in. He didn't accept it, he wanted to sit there in case you needed something.'' I widened my eyes and tried to sit up, I felt the pain again. ''Wow, be careful.''

Saiid? Was she talking about Saiid? ''Can- Can I go meet him?'' I stutter, she smiles at me. ''Hunny, are you sure you can handle standing up?'' She asks. I nod, ''Yes! Yes, I can!'' I smile. She helps me wear my scarf, then she takes my hand and tries to help me. We slowly walk towards the door, she opens it for me. We walk a little bit towards the benches, my heart lights up. I see Saiid sitting on a bench with his legs spread. He was looking down, ''There he is.'' The nurse whispers.

I giggle, the nurse lets go of me and I slowly walk up to him. I stand a few meters from him. ''Saiid,'' I said his name like I wanted to cry, but I was happy. Happy to see him there. He immediately looks up, when he sees me he stands up and walks up to me. It looks more like he ran. He stood right in front of me, looking up and down at me. Like he can't believe I'm standing in front of him.

''Rasha.'' Tears fill up his eyes, I smile brightly at him. ''Silly, aren't you going to hug me?'' I laugh. He immediately pulls me to a hug carefully to not hurt me. I rested my head on his chest and he rested his chin on my head. ''Rasha, I thought I'd lose you. I can't believe this happened, I failed to protect you.'' He sounded like he was in pain. I pull away and look up at him as he looks down at me.

I caress his cheek, ''Saiid, my love. You did everything to protect me, stop blaming yourself. And look at me, I'm okay. I'm standing in front of you.'' I try to smile. He holds my hand and kisses it. Then he pulls me into him again and kisses my forehead, ''Please Rasha, don't push me away. I want to be there to protect you. Please.''

I tiptoe and kiss his cheek. ''I won't push you away. Never again.'' We both smile at each other. We lean in and press our lips together, god I missed this. I missed being with only him, no problems, and no bullshit. Just us, alone.

We lay on my hospital bed with our hands curled into each other. We talk and laugh about a few stuff before we heard Saiid's phone buzz. It was a call from my sister, she told him that they were on their way to the hospital. ''Do you feel like staying here a day more?'' The nurse asks. I look at Saiid before I look back at her. ''No, I'd like to go home.'' I smile at her, ''Alright.'' She smiles at me.

All of a sudden we see Aliah, Sarah, and Nadia rush into the room. Saiid gets up from the bed and nods me as a sign that he'll be outside. ''Rasha, dear! How are you?!'' Aliah almost shout. I sit up and smile, ''I'm fine, I'm fine.'' I hold her and as she sits on the bed. ''Ya Allah, I thought I lost you.'' She sobs.

I kiss her cheek, ''It was nothing, I survived it.'' I tried to calm her down. Sarah passes me clothes to change to, then she smiles at me. ''You don't know how worried we were.'' It made me happy seeing all of them worrying about me. I thought no one would be there for me. I look at Nadia standing there with crossed arms over her chest. She was crying, but she tried to hide it.

I walk out with Aliah, Sarah, and Nadia next to me. We walk towards Yasin and Saiid, they look like they are arguing. I wonder what's going on. When Yasin sees me he smiles, ''Rasha.'' He pinches my nose. I flinch, ''Ouch, Idiot it hurts.'' I hear him laugh. ''I'm glad you're okay.''

We walk to the parking garage, we stand next to their cars. ''Yasin, we can't take Rasha home, my parents don't know yet about her getting shot. If they see her bandage they'll probably ask her questions. We can't let them know.'' Aliah tells Yasin. My parents don't know? Thank god, they'd send me back to Iraq. Gosh.

''It's fine, she'll come with us.'' In someway I see Yasin look at Saiid with a strange look, why are they acting strange today? ''We can't do that either, you know how my uncle is Yasin. He always comes to us, he doesn't warn us beforehand that's he's coming over.'' Sarah folds her arm.

A few seconds pass by of silence Nadia speaks up, ''It's fine, we'll take her home to us. It's not we're going to kill her.'' She sounded a bit irritated. They look at her, then Yasin nods. ''Fine, but she won't be staying there for too long,'' Yasin says. Saiid shakes his head, he was irritated too.

We say goodbye to them and see them drive off. I feel Saiid's hand curl into mine. Then we walk towards the car and get in. I sit on the passenger seat and Nadia sits in the backseat. Saiid starts the car and drives off, I see his grip tightened on the steering wheel. God, he was furious. ''What's wrong, Saiid?'' I ask.

He looks at me, then he looks back at the driveway. ''What do you mean baby, nothing's wrong.'' He acted dumb. I shook my head, ''Alright Saiid, I may have gotten shot, but I didn't lose my brain. I know you're acting strange.''

''Yasin found out that you're dating.'' Nadia snapped. My eyes widened, I look back at her. ''What?!'' I burst out. Nadia shakes her head and crosses her arms, ''Girl, you've missed a lot.''

When we get into the house we see the boys jump in front of us, ''Suprise!'' They scream. They were holding a cake, a burnt cake. It even smelled burnt in the house, ''What the hell is that?!'' Nadia shouts. Adnan smirks, ''Shut up, we made a cake for Rasha. Don't be jealous.''

I burst out laughing, ''Guys, you didn't have to.'' I look at them. Mac cuts a piece and passes it to me. ''Girl, take a bite.'' He mimics a girl's voice. Saiid takes it from his and throws it. ''No way she's eating that. It's burnt.'' We all laugh.

Today I had been talking to all of my friends to tell them that I'm okay, I even called Tariq and thanked him. If it weren't for him I would've been dead, but I still wonder who shot me. I mean, did he have a reason for it? I walk out of the bathroom, as I walk out I see Saiid standing in front of me. I smile, ''Are you done?'' He asks. I nod, ''Where is Nadia, I'm going to sleep in her room.'' I tell him.

I see him raising his brows, ''She went to sleep, we thought you'd sleep in my room. But It's fine, I'll wake her up.'' I see him turning around to walk to Nadia's room. I hold his hand before he walks to her room. ''No, we shouldn't wake her up. She's probably tired.'' I gulp. He smiles brightly. Then he slowly put his hands around my waist. I put my right hand around his neck and we both rest our foreheads on each other.

''You sure? I mean it seems like you don't want to sleep in my room.'' He says with a seductive tone. ''No, It's fine. I'll sleep in your room.'' We both chuckle. We walk into his room, I was already wearing pajamas from Nadia. Saiid fixes the bed, then he looks at me. ''Lay here.'' He tells me. I shake my head, then I lay on the right side of the bed. Saiid lays next to me. I was kind of nervous, I mean it's the first time I sleep next to a man. I've never even slept next to my dad.

He carefully puts his hand on my check, he slowly caresses it. ''You're beautiful.'' He let out. I laugh, he leans in and kisses the tip of my nose. We lay there, admiring each other and the moment. We kept talking about stuff as he kept kissing me all over my face. ''Babe, stop. It's tickling me.'' He laughed, ''Sorry, I just can't.''

I lean a little bit into him. ''Let's sleep, I'm tired,'' I whisper. He puts his arm around me. ''I love you, Rasha.'' He whispered back. A little smile appeared on my face, I press my lips on this neck before I shut my eyes.

Saiid

I wake up from a phone's ringtone, I look at Rasha sleeping deeply. She didn't even wake up from the sound, she seemed exhausted. I look at my phone buzzing, It was 5 am. Who was calling now? It didn't say what number, It was an unknown number. I slowly answer the call,

''Hello?'' I answered.

''Is this Saiid Bashar?'' It sounded like a man with a deep voice.

''Who is this?'' I asked with my sleepy voice.

''I was the one who shot Rasha.'' My heart drops, how did he-

''Maria Adams.'' He suddenly said, Maria? What about her?

''What about her?'' I felt a hole in my stomach.

''She paid me to shoot Rasha.''

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