Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 3
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xoxo
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The week went by way too quick
despite the fact that I had five classes,
but I wasn’t complaining. I love
weekends, I mean who doesn’t really.
One you get to sleep in for few extra
hours, second you don’t feel bad for
procrastinating because you know
Sundays has got your back and third I
get to meet Sobia. I had to meet Sobia
today 1 pm at her bakery to help her
decorate the cupcakes for the big order.
I took a quick shower and opened up
my closet to make the biggest decision
of my life…what should I wear today. I
didn’t have a lot of clothes, even though
a lot of people assume that if you’re a
girl then you probably have a huge
closet full of clothes. This is not true in
my case and that’s because I buy things
that I actually need. So today I decided to
wear my favorite pair of boyfriend jeans
because they are super comfortable and
I hate wearing tight clothes. I paired it
with my red and white plaid shirt and
finished it off with my bright red hijab
that I got on sale. Super.
I went to the kitchen where I found a
note from my mother written on the
small whiteboard that was hanging by
the fridge. It said “Had to leave early
today, I took up another shift. Dropped
Sabir to football practice, his friend’s dad
will drop him off. Have fun with Sobia”.
My mother is so old school in the cutest
way possible. I have told her countless
time since she has got her own phone
that she can just text me if there is
anything that she wants to tell me. There
have been times where I have forgotten
to read the white board to find her
secret little messages. The thought of
explaining this whole process again to
my mother made me chuckle, she will
always leave notes at the whiteboard
instead of texting me. I took out my
phone and replied my mother, Salam
Ammi, just got up. Saw your note. I am
heading out to Sobia’s, I might be a little
late so don’t worry.
I grabbed my bag and picked up a dairy
milk chocolate bar to eat in the way
headed out towards the bus stop. The
distance between my house and Sobia’s
bakery is not too long. I reached the
bakery a few minutes early and found
Sobia carefully decorating the cupcakes
with vanilla frosting. I made my way
towards her and placed my hand on
her shoulder. “Hand’s up” I said in my
fake cop voice.
“Shut up, I saw you when you were
crossing the street, go and pass me the
jar of pink sprinkles.” She said.
“Jeez how come I always fail to scare
you? I try so hard, you should at least
pretend to be scared to make me feel
better.” I said while grabbing the pink
sprinkles.
“It’s not my fault that you are terrible at
scaring people. Now stop whining and
start helping me, we have to leave at 4”.
She said while passing the pastry bag
filled with vanilla frosting.
I opened up my Spotify app and played
the indie pop chill out playlist. The rest of
the evening passed away in a blink of an
eye. Sobia, Mariam auntie and I talked
about different things, I loved days like
this where I could just hang out with my
best friend and her lovely mother and
just talk about random stuff. Since they
had a big order today, auntie Mariam
closed the bakery so she could complete
the order without any disturbance.
At 3:45 exact, we had 400 cupcakes
finished off with beautiful creamy
frosting with different fillings and
sprinkles and had 3 layered chocolate
cake ready with light yellow icing and
caramel sauce. To add the final touch,
auntie Mariam placed small chocolate
roses at the top layer of the cake and
wrote Happy Birthday Ruba with dark
chocolate sauce. Everything looked so
pretty that we had to take a picture of it
to upload it on Instagram. You know the
drill. So after taking various pictures
with different angles and filters, we
finally got the one that fit our
expectation of a perfect picture of
cupcakes for Instagram.
We had to call pick and drop services to
deliver all the cupcakes and the cake at a
designated location. It seemed like the
Ibrahims were throwing this party at a
hall and it was quite far so we didn’t
want to rely on Sobia’s old car that often
breaks down to get the job done. When
the delivery truck arrived, we carefully
picked up the packed cake and placed it
in the back of the truck along with the
cupcakes. We were blown away when
the truck stopped front of a giant
garden. When we asked the security
guard, we found out that this wasn’t a
hall; it was an outdoor private garden. I
could see all the colorful tents and rides
behind the giant fence. With the help of
the security guard,the truck driver and
the staff working at the venue, we
successfully shifted all the dessert on the
table that was located close to the
playground. I could see all the children’s
excited faces when we opened up the
boxes to set up the cupcake stand. It
was so cute; they were all gathered
around us. After a while, I saw a middle
age man walking towards us and Sobia
told me it was Ibrahim Raza.
Ibahim Raza looked like he was in his
late 50’s. He was tall and still carried
himself quite well. He was dressed in a
gray suit and had a glass of lemonade in
his hand. He made his way towards our
table and looked at all the cupcakes and
the cake before saying anything. When
he looked up, I could tell he was happy
with our work. “Hello Sobia and Miss
Mariam, all of this looks wonderful. I am
sure Ruba will be thrilled when she sees
her birthday cake.” He said. His voice
was kind and genuine.
“Thank you sir, I hope your daughter
likes it.” Auntie Mariam responded.
“Don’t worry she will. And who is this
lady?” Ibrahim Raza asked me.
“Asalam O Alikum, I am Laila. I am Sobia’s
friend.” I have no idea why I said salam
instead of saying hello. What if he minds
it?
“Walikum Asalam. Nice to meet you Laila,
it’s good to see you here. Well I better
go and see if the caterers are here. Feel
free to walk around and eat whatever
you like; we do have some extra servers
here who will be here to help out.” He
smiled at us and took off.
“He seems nice.” I told Sobia.
“SeeI told you, but his wife is a bit cray
cray” She laughed.
“Shh you’re so loud.” I told her. Sobia is
one of those people who do not care
about her surroundings. If she wants
something to say, she says it. Loudly.
“I don’t care if she is here, you should
have seen her Laila. I mean she is pretty
and all but you can see her evilness in
her eyes.” She continued on.
“Ohkay okay you are right. Now stop
talking so loudly please.” I tried to calm
her.
“Fine, jeez you are such a scary cat.” She
mocked me.
“Sobia stop this right now, I told you to
behave. Stop disturbing my child Laila”
Auntie Mariam stepped in.
“Accha Ammi, see I told you she like you
better than me.” Sobia whined.
“Duhh, look at you.” I laughed.
“Shut up.” She joined the laughter.
“I need to use the washroom” I told
Sobia after severing cupcakes to a group
of adorable little kids.
“Why are you telling me, go find one.”
She said while handing out mini
cupcakes to a new group of 5-6-year-old
children.
“Come with me, I don’t know where to
go.” I requested.
“Aray, I am busy here and I don’t know
where Ammi took off, she found one of
her clients here. Go find the washroom, I
am sure its not too far.” She said bluntly.
“Fine, I will find it myself.” I grabbed my
bag and headed straight toward the
security guard that I spotted after
wondering around for a while.
“Excuse me, can you tell me where the
washroom is?” I asked the security guy.
“Its quite a walk, but just keep going
straight” He said pointing at a small trail
on my left. “And you that building there,
the washroom are right behind that.” He
said. He was a middle-aged white man
with sweet blue eyes, and chubby red
cheeks.
“Thank you sir.” I told him and started
walking towards the building on the left.
When I walked behind the small white
building, I spotted two small attached
washroom, I walked into women’s area
and after finishing my business, I
applied a some lip balm to my dry lips
and fixed my hijab. I took my phone out
to see if there are any messages and
saw one from my mother.
Okay bachi, take care. I just finished
worked. Heading home. Let me know if
you want me to send Sabir to the bakery
to pick you up.
I responded: No Ammi its okay Sobia will
give me a ride home.
I was so involved in the game of texting
that I didn’t realize that which way I was
heading out until I bumped into
someone and my phone came crashing
down.
“Oh my god I am so sorry.” I said
instantly to whoever I ran into and bend
down to pick up my phone. As soon as I
got up, my eyes instantly connected with
the familiar hazel brown eyes. I knew
exactly who it was and I wasn’t too
pleased. He was the same shameless guy
from my college who stole my phone
and my phone number. This can’t be
happening. I can’t let him ruin my
weekend too. Wasn’t one encounter
with this guy enough? Allah.
“What are you doing here?” He asked.
“None of your business.” I walked
straight passed him but it still made no
difference because he still followed me.
“You are at my party so it is my
business.” He said and I suddenly turned
around.
“No, this party is for Ruba.” I responded
to him.
“She is my sister.” He said smiling at me.
“She is what?” I asked just to confirm if I
heard him correctly, I wished this wasn’t
true. The guy I promised myself to stay
well away from. I was at his little sister’s
birthday party.
“My sister.” He smiled and took a step
toward me.
Before he could anything else I turned
around and started walking away. This
time he didn’t follow. I hope I don’t see
him again today or ever for that matter,
but the party just got started.
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