A F  I A   P A T E L

"Are you sure I look fine?" I stare at my reflection in the full body length mirror in my room, my head cocked slightly to the side. I wore a cream coloured skirt that dragged the floor every time I walked. I paired that with a maroon,long sleeved shirt and my maroon scarf. I wore cream pumps and my cream sling bag was dangling from my shoulder.  After yesterdays supper with the Khan family my mother insisted that Ubaidullah, Ahmad Saeed and I should go to the mall and "spend some quality time" together. I huffed and turned around to Yasmeen, who was lying down on my bed with her sock cladded feet resting on my white walls. She was sucking a bubblegum flavored lollipop and was humming to the song that was playing from her phone. I scowled at her and she turned her head towards me, flashing me a innocent smile. She knew I hated it if my walls were dirty. Heck I think anyone will freak if they got a stain on their white walls.

"Can you stop being a five year old for once and help me!" I joke with a serious face, trying to make her believe I was actually mad at her. She knew better though, the longest I've ever been mad at her was for about 10 minutes.

She takes the lollipop out of her-now very blue mouth- with a pop and moves her feet off my wall.

"Shush you, pot calling the kettle black. You're exactly the same at my house."

"But you have grey walls! There's a difference!" I throw my hands in the air. Okay maybe I do do the same but my walls get stained easily!

"Yeah yeah whatever,"she rolls her eyes and stands up from the bed, "Now, let's examine you." She puts her hand on her hip and circles me making noises like mhm or hmm and I see.

"You look good, for the first time ever! I'm pretty shocked to say the least." She nods her head up and down, the lollipop still in her mouth. "Oh please, like you look any better,"I playfully roll my eyes at her knowing that we joke like that. After all she saved me as Elephant on her phone. " But seriously you don't think I'm overdressed?"

She lightly smacks me on my arm before turning me around to face the mirror. I look at her reflection confused and she places her hands on my shoulders. "No I don't think you're overdressed! You look perfect. Look at that girl in the mirror, she'll probably give Ubaidullah a heart attack when he sees her. If he didn't like you then- which he totally did- then he sure as hell will like you now!" She exclaims. I groan while throwing my head back a little."I'm not dressing up for Ubaidullah, Y." I say while my lips are pulled down in a frown. I didn't need to impress anyone. I look good for myself and only myself. "Mhm and I'm the queen of the underworld." She mutters sarcastically and I giggle.

"Right now, you look like it." She throws me glare before smirking and running towards me full force. "Yasmeen!" I yell as I fall on the plush carpet with her hippopotamus body on top of me. "Get off of me, you big oak! You weigh a ton!" As I said that she faked a dramatic gasp and put more of her weight on me. I struggled to breath and with the hand that wasn't trapped under her body I smacked her back repeatedly. She scowled and moved to get off me. I grinned on triumph and she huffed."Geez women, you hit like a man."

"And you look like one."

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"Is hot dog a sandwich?" Ahmad Saeed asks from the driver seat of the car. Ubaidullah gave him a puzzled look, trying to figure out the reason for his sudden need to ask that random question. The most annoying thing about my brother was that he'll ask or say the most random things at the most serious moment. Sometimes the moment don't even have to be serious, he's just weird like that!

"No it's not Mads. Why do you think they call it a hot dog instead of a sausage sandwich?" I give him a blank stare while asking the rhetorical question, my lips pursed into a thin line. "But," he says while pulling the 'u' on the but," a sandwich is two slices of bread with something in between, and a hot dog is a roll cut in half with a sausage in between!" He exclaims while throwing his hands in the air and tilting his head to throw a goofy smile my way. I smack the back of his head while muttering eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.

"He's got a point." Ubaidullah says while squinting his eyes, like his in deep thought. I blushed slightly at the sound of his voice, sue me but I haven't gotten used to this whole "getting to know each other" thing. Plus it's practically only my first time doing this with someone -uhm a boy other than my family members or Rayhaan- and I'm really nervous because I'm pretty sure sweaty hands, heartbeats racing at 10 beats per second, and the often wringing of my fingers with each other is a sign of nervousness.

My brother taps his index finger against his temple and mutters a simple logic. I roll my eyes and focus my attention on the pass in cars that flash by. A silver car that looks like it came of a magazine cruises by and I practically jump out of my seat with my phone clutched between my finger tips. I fumble with it for a bit trying to get on the camera app- I swear times like these your fingers will keep pressing everything other than the correct thing but when you at home, looking like Godzilla the app decides to give you a sneak peak of how you look- and pound my fist against my brothers seat telling him to catch up to the car. As we come side to side with the car I click the shutter icon and the boy -who looks about 10 years old- in the backseat of the silver car notices me taking a photo and makes a goofy face. I laugh and wave at him when he smiles and waves my way. Ahmad and I have a thing from small where if we see a good car that we like we snap a quick photo and then print it out and stick in our separate books, like a scrapbook for cars. At the end of the month we compare cars and see which ones had the best ones and whoever had the best gets treated by the person that lost to anything the person wants. Let's just say he's got a lot of new vans and new watches. Each month you're only allowed to take a picture of one car and you can't take another one.

I smile I'm satisfactory and go on my gallery to see the photo. Gosh I wish I had a car like that.

"Damn Fia, I wish I got a pic of that one. Its a tough one to beat." I childishly stick my tongue out at him." I wonder whose going to get a new phone this month hey?" I try to hold in my laughter when I see him visibly tense. He immediately starts protesting." No Fia, you can't do that. A new phone!"

I burst out laughing at his constant grumbling. "Oh hush you big baby. Its payback for the last 4 months."

Ubaidullah chuckles heartily at our sibling banter and color rose to my cheeks. It completely slipped my mind that there was a third party here. I sit back in my seat and try avoiding eye contact with anybody's gaze. I look at the photo one last time and lock my phone, putting it in my bag before zipping it shut.

The car comes to a halt and I look up at the store that Ahmad stopped by. The colorful sign on top with the ice cream cone and sprinkles on top gave it away. I excitedly jump out of the car and basically run to the front of I Scream. I see them get out of the car and I waste no time in going into the store to place my order. I used to come here a lot with Yasmeen and Rayhaan when we were back in Hugh school. I sigh as I remember the good times we spent in this ice cream shop. On Sundays it was a must for us to come here and the owners got used to us always coming here.

"Two scoops of cookies and cream,please." I politely ask the worker behind the counter filled if different variety's of flavors. I look back to see that the boys are talking to Mr. Jamal the owner of the store. I smile at his familiar warm smile that always graced his face. A throat clearing makes me turn back and I see the lady holding the cup with my ice cream waiting for me. I flash her a small smile and start digging in my purse for the amount of the ice cream that she told me. I fish out some money but before I hand it to her someone's hand beats me to it.

"Ubaidullah no, let me pay." I say sternly but he doesn't budge instead he gives his order and flashes me a small smile. I can't help but return his smile in return. Butterflies start flapping their wings inside my stomach and my fingers play with the plastic spoon in the cup.

"Let's go sit there." He points to the window seat at the corner if the store. I nod my head I agreement afraid to use my voice. Mads is still talking to Mr. Jamal and I follow Ubaidullah to the booth.

We sit down and I start eating awkwardly. He clears his throat and my gaze flickers towards him before going back to my ice cream. I sigh in content as the ice cream melts in my mouth. I hear him chuckle and I blush.

"Have you been to this store before?" He asks, trying to make small talk. I nod my head and swallow the ice cream in my mouth before replying.

"Yeah my two best friends and I have been here a hundred of times before in high school. I can't believe I haven't come here at all in the past 3 years."

"So you and your best friends, how long have you'll been that?" He asks and takes another bite if his vanilla ice cream. I mentally frown at the dull flavor.

"We've been friends for pretty long. When I moved here from South Africa I met Rayhaan and in primary school Yasmeen joined the team."

" South Africa huh?" He lifts one of his brows, still can't do that. I shrug and lick the spoon clean. "No more questions about myself. Tell me something about you."

"Like?"

"Like why in the world do you like vanilla ice cream!"

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Hellooooooo!!!!! How are you'll doing today? I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

If you're like Ubaidullah and like vanilla ice cream please tell me how. I get that its tasty and I'll eat once in a while but vanilla is so...boring.

Tell me your favorite ice cream flavor in the comment section.

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Happy reading☺

Butterscotch_07