Did you know? [Part 2]

1 year, 6 months Earlier:

"Faj2etich ??? men meta 7a6a eb rasech tabeen tadreseen barah rayoona?" was the dreadful sentence Um-Nawaf had told her daughter while setting the dinner table. Um-Nawaf was an old-fashioned mother. She married her first cousin, and still complains about the Iraqi war. “Saddamo allah ekhesah” was the beginning of almost all of her conversations. Rayah was her youngest and only daughter after Nawaf. "Mama, 7ayati, sem3eeni" she said trying to butter her up.. "6oul 3omree 3aysha bel kwait yuma, derast hnee, 9ayaft hnee, o la safart, wain re7t? Dubai?? mama wedy ajareb el 3eesha barah, wedi ajareb a3temed 3ala nafsy for once" pleaded Rayah. After a long conversation, Um-Nawaf agreed to talk to Rayah's father, and that was the little smidgen of hope that made Rayah run to her small room and dial the number she had dialed over a thousand times.."Barrak, Ga3ed?" she breathed into her phone, hoping he was..."Ee roro, shfeech?" his tender voice gave her Goosebumps."Umy, qana3t'ha! el7ean el7ean ga3da etkalem uboy! mestaw3eb???" she whispered lying back on the fluffy pillows on her bed. "9ej walla??! enshalla yertha, goolay enshalla!" he chuckled. She can hear the happiness in his voice, and that made her happy.Barrak and Rayah had been in the same high school, for two years. Rayah was a year younger than him in school, but 3 years younger than him in age. She was 16 when he came into her life, he was 19. They hadn't noticed each other the first year, but his senior year was different. All he could see was her; all she could think of was him. He cared for her in the many ways her father or any other man, for that matter didn’t. And when he told her that he had to study in the states, little Rayah promised to follow him when she graduated without thinking twice. She trusted Barrak, and she knew that she wanted to be with him..

[Naïve much? Rayoona, you should have known better 7abebti.. Men are pigs. You’re probably wondering who I am, you can call me the narrator, but that’s sooo grade 10 English class. You can hear me as an over-voice like the suicidal on desperate housewives, but for now, let’s just say I’m someone who can say “I told you so” later on…]

Rayah said her goodbyes soon shut the phone, afraid Nawaf would barge in and see her talking and get suspicious. Yes, Nawaf was the Overprotective kind of older brother. She laid her head softly on the pillows too excited to sleep. For soon, she’d be off to the states with the only person she wanted to be with, and not stuck in this little old bedroom with no privacy at all.

And, for the first night, in 17 years, little Rayoona slept with a light heart and a heavy head of thought...