"MISTAKES"

Zainab reached the kitchen she Aftersaw her mother sitting on the kitchen table, while Hafsa was making tea with her back faced to her mother, Zainab hesitantly made her way to her mother and sat across from her and found her mother reading a news paper so she started speaking with clearing her throat and recieving her mother's attention, "Amma can i ask you something? But promise me you won't get mad" she said with hopefull eyes, "if you are so worried about me getting mad then don't ask such a thing that could make me mad" her mother said not looking up from her news paper, "uh..huh.. yeah, so tell me have you ever been in love?" Zainab asked hurriedly trying to act subtle, this got Razia to look at her with wide eyes she was not expecting to hear this from her she thought Zainab will ask her to buy her a new dress or maybe a hijab but this was unexpected either way she replied bitterly "yes i have, with your father" , "with Abba? How can anyone fall in love with a person like Abba? Tell me the truth please! For once" Zainab insisted, "your Abba was not like this always he was different, he was loving, caring, sweet as sugar but i did'nt deserved him" her mother said her eyes now getting moist as she looked out of the small window where there were two small bowls tied to the grill, one had water and other had bird food in it, it was something Farooq Ahmed did to all the windows if the house so no bird could leave hungry from his house, the sound of cups setting on the table turned the attention of both ladies towards Hafsa who was watching them and most likely also listening to them, "tell us more about Abba i wanna know how he was when you both got married?" Hafsa spoke for the first time and sat beside Zainab, "your father was a gentleman, he took care of me alot never let me cry he was always there for me, he did everything for me, he would buy me flowers whenever we go out and take me to the cinema he did everything to make me happy to make me smile" their mother told them with a small smile dancing on her lips, "then what happened? What made him like this Amma? Zainab questioned, Again! "A mistake....which i made" now their mother was crying, tears streaming down her face and her nose red, she wiped her face with her scarf around her neck and left without looking back leaving the two teenagers confused.

Zainab and Hafsa were still sitting on the kitchen table drinking their tea their mother has locked her in her room since the "incident" and her cup of tea abandoned on the kitchen table. "Do you believe what mother said?" Zainab asked, "i do, what bothers me is that if Abba loved her so much then the mistake she made would have been very huge, because love is a very strong feeling and it is very hard to undo it" Hafsa spoke her thoughts which left Zainab to only be able to nod at her words because she was still not over the fact that her young sister is way more intelligent than her, "are you in love?" Hafsa suddenly questioned Zainab, "what? Me and love are you out of your mind!" Zainab laughed, "i saw you slipping that note to the boy next door", Hafsa said with a serious face which made Zainab sit up straight, "baji please be careful, i don't know what's going in your mind but i don't want anything bad to happen to you or to your heart" Hafsa said sincerly, "calm down, tiny iam not gonna get my broken by some guy only to get my bones broken by Abba" Zainab said laughing which made the other girl roll her eyes at her elder sister.

Farooq Ahmed came home with a bag full of apples which he bought on his way back, he was in a surprisingly good mode today because he was able to sale 10 pairs of shoes today and which was a big thing for him now because due to his rude attitude he had lost a lot of customers and his sale rate had decreased alot. Once he unlocked front the door with his spare key, he called for his wife and gave her the bag of apples, "get dressed we are going to the market, you can buy things you want and also don't forget to tell the girls to cover their head and hurry up!" He said and went to wash his face in the common washroom beside the main door, Razia was surprised with the sudden mode change of her husband but said nothing and went to give girls the good news.

They reached the market in only 10 minutes as it was not far from their house, they walked their way to the market only because the market was not far away and also because their father was unable to pay for a cab and now the family was standing infront of a hijab shop where Farooq Ahmed had bought Zainab and Hafsa so they could buy hijabs of their choice, today was one of those days where they would be able to communicate with their father without having to worry about him getting angry so Hafsa asked her father if she could also get some bangles and luckily he said yes. As they were going through the pile of hijabs trying to select something Zainab's eyes landed on a girl standing beside her wearing a navy blue colored hijab she had her back towards Zainab who could'nt stop herself from asking her "salam, i love your hijab if you don't mind can you tell me where you got it from?" Zainab taped on her shoulder and asked the tall girl which resulted in her turning around, she had raven color hair and a pair of honey brown eyes which clicked Zainab's memory but she could'nt put a hand on what furthermore the girl was wearing a white maxi with a golden belt which suited perfectly with her navy blue hijab and Zainab could tell that the girl belonged to a wealthy family because unlike her she was in a brown hijab along with a black abaya which was too old to even donate, "walaikum Assalam, Thank you very much jaana but i did'nt bought this hijab it was gift from my brother but wait i can ask him where he got it from if you want" the girl offered politely, "no no it's fine i'll try to find it somewhere myself" Zainab said and as she was about to turn to her mother and sister her father was outside beacuse he did'nt like to be in between women, the girl called her "hey! stop my brother is here i will ask him" Zainab looked at her brother and saw the same tall figure with brown eyes and raven hair and now she was able to recall her memory and the fact that why did the girl look familiar to her.

Hussain stood there looking at Zainab but what caught his attention was the old worn out abaya she was wearing, he was'nt sure why he felt angry about the fact that Zainab was wearing such an old abaya when on the other hand his sister was wearing a very expensive maxi and that's when he realized that the flips his stomach do when he see's her or the tingles on his skin was not a sign of care it was something more....something he never felt!!

Zainab mouth shaped an O when she saw Hussain and the next thing she did was turn around and left leaving the siblings confused. They bought a few hijabs from the store in different colors but plain hijabs without any sort of design because their father had told them not to buy anything fancy which could attract other men towards them, after the small shopping session Farooq Ahmed bought them back to their house and on their way back Zainab saw Hussain along with the same tall girl she met before and assumed to be his sister entering a black car and that was when she came to knew that the boy belonged to a wealthy family unlike her.

Razia

After coming back from the market they all ate and went into their rooms, the girls left and Razia went behind Farooq to give him his night dress, after they both got ready for sleeping Razia was laying on the floor as Farooq never allowed her to sleep with him after her "mistake",and suddenly a voice came "do you hate me Razia?" Said Farooq and it shocked her because she was'nt expecting him to say such a thing, "no i don't, i could never hate you!" she said "but i hate you..alot for what you did to me, i wish you did'nt did that, we could have been much happier now" Farooq Ahmed said with hurt evident in his voice and if you were able to look closely, you could see tears falling from his eyes, "iam sorry" that was all Razia said, her eyes had tears threatning to fall and she let them.....

A/N: HEY THERE! Hope you guys are enoying the chapters. And also abaya is a long loose maxi which is worn in Muslims to cover their body.