Letting go of the past.

Armaan didn't want to be held in the past as it had started to affect her health and this didn't go unnoticed by her best friend Inaya who would try everything to cheer her up.

"Ina, I think you are right about letting go of the past. And that means letting go of Yusuf. Besides, he let me go first, right?" Armaan asks her best friend who was stunned to hear those words from her.

"Are you sure?..."

"Yes, because it is starting to affect my academic performance and I don't want that to happen. Because being a doctor has always been my dream and no one can take that away from me and definitely not even Yusuf," Armaan replies to her with determination in her voice.

But Allah knows best.

Armaan stood up from her bed and walked to the closet where she had kept a shoebox of memories. A show box that has her past with Yusuf.

She smiled sadly while opening it. Inside, there was a piece of paper with an email address on it. When Armaan removed that paper, she saw something that made her tear up.

It was a scrapbook that was filled with their childhood pictures, and memoirs that their parents had collected for them whenever they were together.

"Aru, you don't have to do this, if you don't want to..."

Armaan turned to her friend with fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I know but I need to. For my sake. Plus I think that Dad will be happy if I got rid of this box, don't you think?" She asks Inaya, smiling through her tears. "And someday if we meet in shaa Allah, I will be stable enough to ask the burning questions that are in my heart. But as for now, it's time for us to have a bonfire..."

Inaya quickly stood up and hugged her friend who was crying in her arms.

I will have to talk to that guy again because my sister can't go on like this, especially when she worked hard to get into this university. He will get it from me.

"How about I go and destroy it for you?" Inaya asked Armaan hoping that she would say yes.

"Are you sure?" Armaan asks her while wiping her tears.

"Yes, and I know that you won't be able to bear it, if you were there with me," Inaya says lying to her best friend hoping that she won't catch the lie.

"Okay, but don't get caught," Armaan says laughing.

"Don't you trust me not to get caught?" Inaya asks mischievously, remembering how many times they were almost caught by Fahd while playing in the garden in the rain.

"Okay," Armaan says. Then she gathered the contents of the box and put them back inside and then handed it to Inaya. "Here, don't get caught, best friend," she added as Inaya took the box from her hand.

I am sorry for this, Aru. But it's for your good. And it's because you have done so much for me and I love you very much as my sister.

Inaya took the box and put on her hijab to go and see through her plan. Hopefully, he would be awake and not asleep as it was past 9 p.m.

Thankfully, Inaya had Emad Ahmed's number because of the project they were doing in class, which required them to study together.

She anxiously dialled the number and waited for him to answer.

Inaya didn't even greet him when she told him to meet her at the library as it was always open to the students who use it.

She quickly walked up the stairs to where the library was located and waited for him to come hoping that he wouldn't take long because Armaan would ask her questions that she didn't have answers to.

What seemed like an hour, when Emad Ahmed showed up looking worried. He walked to where Inaya was sitting and noticed that she had a shoebox with two names on top of the lid.

"What's the urgency?" Emad Ahmed asked as he took a seat on the empty chair opposite Inaya.

Instead of answering him, Inaya pushed the box towards him.

"This is a memoir of the two friends we have. Yusuf and Armaan. She wanted me to destroy it but I couldn't bring myself to do it, because I knew that someday she might regret it. I called you here because I want you to give it to your friend..."

"How do you even know that he is my friend?" Emad Ahmed asks her.

"Remember the first time we met, which was at my high school graduation? I saw you and him together while he was looking at Armaan," Inaya explained to him. "I knew it was him because of the scar that he had on his shoulder. It was caused by him falling on a stone at a birthday party. It was the last time that I ever saw my friend smile like that again," she added, sadly remembering how much Armaan would wait for Yusuf to reply to her emails every single day.

"Okay, you know who he is. So will you tell her?" Emad Ahmed asks her.

"No, because if he wanted her to know, he would have shown himself to her already. But that isn't the case, right? To me, Yusuf Faiz Khan will always be a coward who doesn't deserve my best friend," she tells him. "Give that to him, and let him decide what he wants to do. If he doesn't want anything to do with my friend, then he should burn what is inside there so that they could both move on, instead of telling her a fake name," she added, surprising him when she said the last part about faking his name.

"I will and Inaya, take care of her," Emad Ahmed says, taking the box and standing up to walk back to his dorm where Yusuf was waiting for him.

As soon as Emad Ahmed opened the door to their dorm, Yusuf knew that something was up, especially when his friend walked in with a shoebox in his arms.

"What's going on?" Yusuf asked his friend who just handed him the box.

"I think you will know when you open the box," Emad Ahmed tells him. He then took a seat beside Yusuf. "You will understand who it is from when you see the contents inside," he added, nudging Yusuf to open the box.

Yusuf nervously opened the box to find a picture of two toddlers who were sitting on the swing. He picked the picture and turned it over to see the date, time, and the two names.

Yusuf & Armaan.

It was one of the last pictures that they took together before he left the country. And his mother made sure that she made a copy for him to keep for his scrapbook.

"She still kept them..."

Yusuf kept the picture aside and started to look through the box. He was shocked to see how many mementoes Armaan had collected during the time of their friendship.

"What are you doing with her box?" Yusuf asked his friend, feeling confused. "I know that she won't have given it to you," he added, waiting for Emad Ahmed to answer.

"Inaya gave it to me. She says that Armaan wants to destroy it and she offers to do it," Emad Ahmed explained to him.

"Why did she give it to you instead of just destroying it?"

"I think it is because Inaya knows that if this box is destroyed then Armaan will have regret in her heart and mind," Emad Ahmed explained to him. "If you dont want it, I could keep it for her until you are ready to go and tell her who you are instead of lying to her," he added and leaned toward to take the contents of the box and put them back inside when Yusuf stopped him.

"I will keep it, but I dont think I will be able to tell her anything for now," Yusuf says while gathering the contents and putting them back into the box. "I will be right back," he added, leaving with the box in his hands.

I guess Inaya was right especially when she said that he was the only one who could keep the box safe until he was ready to tell Armaan who he was to her and hopefully soon.