WALKING BESIDE FATE

When I woke up, I found everyone above my head checking me out on the floor.

I mumbled, "What's happened?"

"Don't worry; your little brother hit you in the back of the head with a rock, and you blacked out... Oh...! My son is so weak…" My mother began sobbing and laughing at the same time, making me think, "How cool is she?" and wondering whether I was her real son or not since she was enjoying watching me collapsing.

"How much did I spend this time?" I inquired as I was trying to pull my head up off the floor.

She looked at her watch and replied, "Four seconds, wait a minute, three and a half."

I finally gathered some will to lift my head, with a little help from my auntie and Tina, who didn't listen to my mom while she was trying to stop them, "Oh no, let him lay down for a bit; I like his shape on the floor." Mom looked me in the eyes with a joker's smile on her face and continued her comedy routine. "Honey, you would make a great carpet." "Please stay on the floor."

I didn't have the energy to answer her back, and I barely said, "Why do I have a feeling that you are preparing those kinds of comedy speeches just for me...?" "I want to eat something."

"OK, weaky-boy," my mother said as she stood up and walked to the kitchen.

Aunty and her granddaughter were still holding their laughter because of me and my mom.

I'm not going to lie; my mom and I have always made a great team, even though mom, like most women, always wants a little girl when they get married, and they fantasize about doing housework with their daughters, preparing meals together... Not all dreams come true, or, more specifically, not all fantasies come true.

The placement of a little girl in my mom's heart was empty, and it was harsh, even for June Assam, the superwoman of the house.

On the bright side, I never miss the chances I get, and I wasn't ready to miss the opportunity to fill the empty spot in June's big heart, so we became more connected to each other.

In the other part of the story, me staring into Tina's eyes while she kept trying to help me stand up was like pushing a button in my system because I didn't know what happened to me.

Before, she was the ugliest person I have ever seen; without offense, immediately, she turned into the cutest creature ever.

Unfortunately, none of this happened.

I ate my lunch after a quarter-hour of resting in my room because of the pain in the back of my head that my little brother has chosen to donate to me.

Since he had autism, he always did such awkward and dangerous things, and we always tried our best to keep an eye on him; plus, he never got punished for doing bad things. I'm not jealous; I'm just saying that he could consider himself a lucky guy.

The time for the afternoon classes came, and I had to get back to school. I left my room with a full stomach of Shakshuka, an Arabic platter of several veggies baked in the oven, and my mother had nailed it.

As I tried to put on my shoes, I said, "Mom!" I'm going... "Goodbye." saying goodbye to mom was and still is a sacred act.

"Aren't you and Tina in the same class?"

I answered her, "So..." I didn't like the sound of it.

"So, wait for her," my mom said.

I didn't have a choice but to wait. After a few seconds, she came walking from the other room, well-dressed, but it wasn't good enough to make her even average.

We headed to the school; it wasn't so far, about a fifteen-minute walk.

The silence was camping in the air, and I had some thoughts about saying something, but every time I found the right words, I looked at her face and immediately changed my mind.

"How old are you?" she asked me.

"I'm studying with you; what do you think?" I might let my emotions take over and talk to her in a bad way.

"It doesn't make us the same age, silly," she looked at me and answered without stopping walking; one of her eyes was 90% closed because of the bright sun.

She had a good point.

I felt stupid by her answer and confused by her face, and I accidentally activated defensive mode: "So, I've never met you before, and you are insulting me; great social skills, by the way; I'm going to live with you under one small roof; maybe being respectful wouldn't hurt."

Her eyebrows went up, and I don't think she was able to close her mouth in astonishment and say, "What are you talking about?" "Do you think the word silly is an insult?"

"Tina, it doesn't matter; it's just that maybe some of us like to have boundaries, that's all."

"Oh! Boundaries... Okay, I understand... Just say, "Stop talking to me, you ugly bit!" And be honest like a real man!" Her voice could reach the sky.

I was in shock. I never thought that ugly girls could be dangerous and loud like her; I thought that she was shy and insecure about how she looked... I was impressed and couldn't think of anything to say.

The air transformed from awkward to aggressive, and both of us kept silent all the way to class.

After the second hour, I still had time before the last bell, so I went to Moshi's class, which was crowded, and he wasn't there. "What do you want?" When a similar voice approached my ear, I turned around to see Tina; she did, however, have a lovely voice.

"I'm looking for a friend... "What are you doing here?"

"I'm... with a friend," she said, rubbing her chin.

"Did you already make friends?" I was talking with her and thinking at the same time about how her mood changed completely in less than two hours.

"Da, I live in this city; remember...? Anyway, this is Sara, my best friend," she said, taking the girl's hand in her own.

Her friend was speaking with other people, and when Tina touched her hand, she turned to us.

I realized that I was wrong; I wasn't good enough to play the role of the beast in the story "The Pretty and the Beast." However, with Tina as the beast and Sara as the pretty one, the story would be perfect.

Sara was the girl that I asked out, and she rejected me in the most awkward style ever.

"Hey!" She sounds surprised to see me again.

"Oh! Hey!" I answered while we looked weirdly at each other.

"Do you know each other?" Tina asked us.

"Do we? Umm...Do we?" Sara raised one eyebrow, waiting for me to give her a hint for the answer.

"I don't think so," I tried to say in that chilly way.

"This is Kasseri Assam; you can call him my... cousin."

"Am I?" I said while laughing, but they stared at me weirdly; it was shameful that they didn't get the joke.

The air was very awkward between us; it was the first time in my life that I was happy to hear the bell ringing.

"So... I'm going to class, are you...?" I didn't finish my speech until Moshi came.

"What's up, bro?" He said this while putting his hand around my shoulder.

"Hey Moshi, how are you doing?" I said to Moshi while I was stealing looks at Sara's beautiful green eyes, which were fixed on Moshi.

"I'm going now; see you..." I admittedly felt jealous and started walking to my classroom.

"Yeah, me too... Cousin wait!" Tina said as she followed me.

"Don't call me cousin," I whispered.

"Why?" "Aren't we family?" she said.

"Well, yeah, but we are not cousins." I didn't like being the beast's cousin. Sue me.

"Okay, okay, don't worry, cousin," she laughed because she knew how much I despised it; my eyes said it all; I was going to punch her just by staring at her.

Friendships blossomed, and disagreements emerged: Fat-boy was too cocky, but a brilliant philosopher with the freak smart-boy; two ugly bit**es with themselves; and the soccer player with the class's mouse.

Tina, the ugliest, with the sweetest girl, and ultimately, Miata, the good lad, with all of us.

The first week passed without any interesting events because I followed the same boring routine.After returning to the house with Tina, I went to my room, studied for a little while, played video games, ate dinner, and finished my day with heavy sleep.

Nothing was going on between Tina and me except for that one day when she saw me practicing without a t-shirt and couldn't hide her admiration, or so I thought.

It was the weekend; I woke up late, ate my breakfast, and returned to my dungeon, or room, and as I was about to close the door, someone put his foot down to block it. "Aww!" Tina's screamed.

"Why did you do that?" I asked her while opening the door.

"What are you always doing here alone, freak?" She stepped in, jumping on one foot while holding the other one that was hurt.

"Get out of here...! Please." I raised my voice and nodded with my hand.

"Take a deep breath... Jesus!" She inquired loudly. "Plus, I'm bored to death; everyone went out, and I'm stuck at home."

"What!" I looked all over the house for them, but they were already gone, so I walked back to my room and stated doubtfully, "So... they left you here..."

She nodded in agreement.

"Alone..." I proceeded in a slow, deep accent, and she nodded again, completely unaware of what was going on.

"With me…".