...

Salman Bashir looked up at the Fayyad residence. The Azan for Maghrib was echoing throughout the city, basking the large house with Greek columns in a peachy glow, the plain white building with large French doors now resembling a golden mansion from fairytales.

He entered the house and weaved through the familiar crowd. Salman found his boys soon, his friends and cousins huddled in one corner of the house. He went to join them, sitting down besides Raad on a sofa.

"Has anyone seen Kaveh?" he asked.

There was a murmur of denials and shakings of heads.

"He sat with us for a while but then disappeared," Raad replied.

Someone placed a plate on his hands with an atrocious amount of food and Salman broke his fast. The boys were still hanging out when two girls sauntered past them. Salman's brown eyes twinkled with recognition as he saw Farrah's face.

"Aye, Fatty!" Fardin cried out.

"Still eating, I see," one of the other guys snickered.

The girls shot them looks filled with annoyance and despise. Layla huffed in disgust.

His friends broke out in laughter at their own comments.

"If you can still dare to eat with that dad-gut, I think Fari's good," Layla retorted as they walked away.

The guys whooped and cheered. They chuckled harder at their friend's stumped face. "She burned you good, Fardin," one of them cried while clapping his back.

"I heard Fatty's becoming your sister-in-law soon?" someone asked Raad.

The smile in Salman's face faded. "It's just talks," he quickly added. "It's probably not even going to proceed any further than that."

"Yeah, my parents were just thinking about it," Raad agreed.

Some of the guys got up and headed towards the door. "We are going out for a smoke, wanna join?" one of his cousins asked him.

Salman shook his head, annoyance appearing on his face. "You know I'm trying to quit."

"The Sasquatch has done quite a number on you." Fardin shook his head with disappointment and left.

Salman and Raad got up themselves to pray. His eyes swept over the crowd again in search of Kaveh, but there was no trace of his best friend. The guys went to Kaveh's bedroom and prayed. When Salman returned to the living room, someone placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Come with me," Ibrahim Ahmad whispered ferociously in his ear and grabbed his arm.

Before Salman could wrap his mind around what was happening, the Sasquatch clutched both his shoulders and spun him around. Salman blinked and realized he was facing almost the entirety of their society's uncles.

"Salman!" one of the men bellowed.

"Heard you've started working for Ershad?"

"When are you starting a family?"

"He's too young, Yasir."

"Listen, young man. Don't get married until you've achieved every success and lived life to the fullest, your wife won't let you do any of that afterwards."

There were so many male voices shouting at him that Salman lost track of who was speaking. Ibrahim looked down at him with a forced smile plastered to his face.

"Sit down, boy," one of the uncles ordered.

Salman freed himself from Ibrahim's clasps and glared at him. "You monster," he hissed under his breath, sitting down on an empty spot on a sofa.

"If I'm suffering, you'll too," Ibrahim retorted, taking his neighbouring seat.

"Heard you've grown that for Islamic purposes," one of the uncles intervened, pointing at his beard. "Listen, forget all these extremities and just remember God in your heart from time to time. That is enough."

"No, no, Muhsin. I have heard young men keep beard these days as fashion statements."

Salman searched the room desperately for Kaveh, hoping he - or anyone really - would come save him.

His eyes stilled when Farrah came into his view, standing with a smile on her face. In front of her was Raad, the two discussing something.

Salman's eyes lingered on them for a split second before he lowered his gaze and looked away. He quickly got up to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Ibrahim hissed under his breath.

Salman briefly glanced at him and then looked back at the scene in front of him.

Across the room, Farrah lifted her face and saw his crestfallen face.

Farrah looked at Raad for a split second and blinked, and boom - Salman had disappeared.

Her mind clouded and the image of his face was stuck on her head.

Why was he looking at her like that? Why was he upset? Salman was never upset.

Farrah realized Raad was looking at her expectantly. She smiled like an idiot, no clue about what he had been saying to her. She briskly excused herself and walked away from him.

She headed towards the elaborate tea station she had seen near the entrance. The aroma reached her from a distance, and the delicious steam from the liquid gold was already starting to melt the tensed knots in her back.

Farrah reached for a cup and her fingers softly brushed against something. She looked up to see Salman's startled face.

His hand was extended towards the same cup, his knuckles slightly tickling her skin.

Farrah retrieved her hand like it was on fire.

Salman took a step back when he realized it was her, his gaze dropping after a moment of lingering on her.

"Fari," he breathed.

"Hey," she said, her heart still doing weird things.

He took a step backward and nodded his head. "You go first."

Farrah moved her feet towards the tea table again, suddenly not in the mood for it anymore.

"Heard wedding bells have been chiming in the Hussain household?"

Farrah stilled for a moment, the word 'wedding' exuding unease on her. His tone was teasing, as usual. Any sign of brooding she had witnessed on his face was wiped away. Salman sounded like he did on any good old day. She fumbled with the cup in her hand, trying to steady her heart rate.

"Where do you hear these silly things, Salman," she reprimanded, her back still to him.

Salman let out a soft laugh. "I have my sources."

Farrah whipped her head to face him, annoyance coursing through her veins.

He had that stupid signature lopsided smile on his face. The one that fogged her brain and thudded her heart as if she was fifteen again.

"Well, then you need to stop listening to the wrong sources," she snapped.

At her vexation, Salman's grin widened.

Farrah turned back to the cup in her hand. She heard shuffling behind her. Salman had stepped around her and trailed his fingers over the little cups again. "You didn't deny it," he said under his breath.

"My life is none of your business," she said, her tone polite yet firm.

At that, he raised her brows at her mockingly. "Is that how it is now?"

"We shouldn't be conversing so freely without reason," she muttered. "We're grown ups, we both know better. Excuse me," she muttered and brushed past him before giving him a chance to respond, losing her temper each second because of that smug look on his face.

Farrah practically sprinted to Layla's room. She was fuming by the time she shut the door behind her. She was furious at him. After all these years, it's like nothing had changed.

Even when those stupid boys made that weight related remark, Salman was sitting amongst them, laughing.

Nothing had actually changed.

She thought she had long ago stopped letting Salman's words affect her like this.

But now, after all these years, Farrah suddenly had the urge to lock herself up in her room again and never show her face to the world.

Dahlia walked into the room and broke Farrah out of her trance. The girl was in a worse mood than her, if possible. She wordlessly entered the room and softly closed the door behind her.

Dahlia looked at her, eyes full of frustration, and started stepping towards the bed. Farrah wondered with astonishment how her heels never made any noise.

"What happened to you?" she asked, seeing the look on her friend's face.

"I keep seeing-," she stopped with a sigh. "Never mind. I also ran into some of your mom's friends."

Farrah threw her a look of sympathy. "That must have been rough."

"It was alright." She rolled her eyes. Then a sneaky smile appeared on Dahlia's face. "To save my own skin I may have redirected them towards Lily and Poppy."

A small chuckle escaped Farrah's lips. "Don't know who I feel worse for - your sisters or the aunties. Lily can be vicious when she wants to be."

"Definitely the aunties. I mean, I can't say I feel too bad though. Lily's the only one who knows how to give them a taste of her own medicine." Dahlia shook her head laughing, any earlier signs of distress had wiped off her face.

Both jealousy and admiration rose to Farrah's chest. Dahlia was an expert at handling unpleasant words. She never let them bother her for too long.

"Yeah, anyways." Dahlia glanced at her and her look turned worrisome. "I heard what those... those idiots were saying. I hope you're not in here because of that."

Farrah flinched. She wanted to die. Who else had heard them? How was this nonsensical scenes repeating themselves even after so many years?

She felt like she was fifteen again. Vulnerable and broken.

Farrah thought these things no longer affected her. She had learned to control her emotions, and grown to love her own body and feel comfortable in her own skin.

She no longer let Layla's long and slim legs bother her, or Malika's beautiful face make her feel awful about herself. Farrah had long ago accepted that she would never look like them, and certain parts of her body, no matter how much she tried, would always be curvy. And that was okay, she was finally okay with how she looked and learned to be happy for her friends too.

Hearing those awful words leave the same lips again made her revisit her childhood insecurities.

However, it wasn't even all those idiots that had drove her to hide herself, it was one in particular. But she wasn't going to discuss that with Dahlia. So she raised her shoulder and let it drop. "It kind of is."

Her friend was enraged again. "Those idiots!" Dahlia cried.

Farrah swallowed. "It just gave me high school flashbacks."

"I'm so sorry." Dahlia shot her a sympathetic look. "What on earth is wrong with these guys?"

Without waiting for a reply, the hijabi let out a sigh. "Is it just me or are these men getting more terrible as they age?" Dahlia asked. "Can't believe they're all adults now and somehow still as dumb."

Farrah lips broke into a humourless smile. "Did you expect these men to get better?"

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging. "But I sure as heck could tolerate them a lot more when I was younger."

"I think it's we who have gotten smarter, Dels." Farrah said. "We can now see right through their crap."

At this, the she let out a loud laugh. "True that. And hey," she said, lightly bumping into Farrah's shoulder. "From one smart girl to another, Fardin is such a douchebag. Whatever he says is not even relevant."

Farrah graced her with a smile once more, a genuine one for the first time that evening. "A massive douchebag," she affirmed.

"The biggest one."

The two friends made eye contact and started giggling. Farrah's heart lightened. "I'm being so silly." She shook her head, swallowing the last bit of her laughter away. "Getting upset over something like this."

"You're not," Dahlia said. "Fardin shouldn't have said those things."

"Yeah, but I should know better than to take it to heart."

She glanced at the clock hanging over the door, the ancient hands ticking away. Farrah realized she had been at the party for only slightly over an hour, but she was already over it.

"I really should get going," Farrah spoke, getting up. "It has been a long day." She looked at the clock again for added effect

The two friends bid good bye and Farrah headed for the door.