One Hundred and One

As narrated by Zee:

“Basically, what’s going to happen is… the girls will plan the boys’ sleepover, and the boys will plan the girls’ sleepover. I was thinking that we can have it over the weekend, so Hamza the nerd can join us.”

Hamza opens his mouth to object, but I lift my hand.

“Nauh, you have to. No excuses. Matric is not a synonym for hole-yourself-up-in-the-house-and-do-nothing-but-study!”

“That’s a longer word than Pinocchio’s noes after he lied!” teases Dee.

I roll my eyes at her.

“Still not as long as my exam period though, yirre!” mutters Hamza.

“Don’t worrrryyy! You’re slaaayyying brotherrr!” says Sumayya.

“Now, back to what I was saying,” I start. “The girls will have their sleepover at Amz and Dee, that okay?”

They both nod so I continue.

“And us boys will be here at my place, if that’s cool with you guys,” I say, looking at Meez and Hamza for approval.

“Good with me,” says Meez.

“Yeah, if I decide to come,” says Hamza.

“You are coming, so okay, that’s sorted,” I say.

“Now, moving on.. what we’re going to do is, we’ll draw up an itinerary for each other. So starting at about 7 o’clock, everyone will meet at Amz and Dees’ place. We’ll hand over itineraries and whatever you might need for the tasks to be done, and then us boys will come over to my place.”

“Wait what do you mean by the ‘tasks to be done’? What tasks?” asks Dee.

“Hello, have you been listening to what I’ve been saying?” I ask exasperatedly.

“Yeah, I have,” she replies with a cheeky smile. “As attentively as I listen in maths class.”

“Idiot!” I say, rolling my eyes at her.

“Well, it’s not exactly tasks. It’s more like a fun activity for you to do. For example, we’ll tell you girls to style each other’s hair, and it has to been done in a certain amount of time. And you guys could tell us, okay, you’ll have to… urm, let’s say, play FIFA. And then there will be a forfeit for the one who loses.”

“Ohh, oh, yeah okay I get what you saying,” says Dee.

“Good,” I say to her with a smile.

“Now, the whole idea is to make your tasks original, imaginative, and as ridiculous as possible. I’m not giving away any ideas in my head, but keep in mind that weird is the new normal!” I say, smirking. “Annnnd, after the sleepover, we’ll see who did their allocated tasks better – as in, kept to the time limit, followed instructions and wara wara wara, and of course, their will be a grand forfeit for the team that loses!”

I am so ready to shock the crap out of the girls, with stuff they are so not seeing coming their way. Me being the one who thought up the whole idea gives us boys a much better advantage, and I totally plan on using it!

“So when’s this happening?” asks Amz.

“Not next weekend, the following weekend. Saturday. Is that fine?” I ask.

“That’s the weekend before the last week of exams. Can’t we just push it one week further?” asks Hamza.

“Okay, let’s start planning our itineraries and we’ll see from there,” I say.

Hamza nods.

“Hold up a sec Zee,” Meez starts, a slight frown on his face.

“Yeah? What did your genius brain figure out that I left out?” I ask.

“Well, my genius brain, is trying to deduce how on Earth will we know if the girls are doing or have done their stuff properly, and vice versa?” he asks slowly.

“Good question!” acknowledges Amz. “Have you thought of that?”

“Of course, you shriveled prunes! I thought of everything!” I say dramatically. “Skype!”

Dee gets up and hits my head with the cushion I threw at her earlier.

“Hey! What was that for?” I exclaim.

“Just lowering that rising ego a bit,” she answers, whacking me with the cushion again.

“Ego? What ego?” I ask with feigned ignorance, ducking the cushion.

Zee

“The same one that a girl is going to step on so badly one day, that I’ll be laughing for three consecutive days!”

“Well if I keep it high, no girl will be able to step on it!” I say with a smirk.

“Boy, have you seen heels these days?” she challenges.

“Yeah that’s because boys break their hearts and they need another way to reach cloud 9,” I reply, smirking.

“Excuse me!” Sumayya butts in. “Some of us don’t date but still wear high heels. You boys just like to make everything about yourselves!”

“The only reason you don’t date is because Hamza will end up with a lifetime imprisonment for killing the unlucky guy!” I tease.

“Woooh, shots fired!” laughs Amz.

Meez gets up, mumbling something about needing the bathroom, before leaving.

“Oh crap!” I exclaim, the grin immediately leaving my face.

“What is it?” Amz asks concerned.

“We’re talking about dating when Meez just lost his girl recently!”

“Yeah well she was an asshole so he didn’t really lose anything,” Dee says blatantly.

“Dee!” Amz and I exclaim in unison.

“What? I’m serious! He was dating that girl we seen at the mall, right?” she asks Amz.

“Yeah,” replies Amz.

“Well then I don’t take back my words. Really, Meez can do better than that!”

Hamza is looking at Dee slightly shocked and I can’t help but grin.

He hasn’t even seen how savage this girl can get!

“I still can’t believe he didn’t tell us though!” says Sumayya.

“Yeah well you’ll would have probably given the poor girl grief!” I laugh.

“How come they’re not together anymore?” asks Hamza. “And who’s this girl?”

“That Nabeelah chic, mahn. Short, round face, black eyes,” I say trying to describe her.

“Crap attitude,” adds in Dee.

“DEEYANAH!” Amz reprimands.

“Okay, sorry, sorry, I’ll shut up,” she says meekly.

I shake my head at her and she grins.

“About why they not together.. that’s Meez’s story to tell. It wasn’t too pretty. I doubt you should ask him though, because he was at fault, and the guys’ ego is still healing,” I say to Hamza.

“Zee, let’s get something to drink,” Amz suggests, getting up.

I get up and together we go to the kitchen.

“There’s milkshake in the fridge, but you’ll have to top it up. I don’t think it’ll be enough,” I say to Amz.

She nods, and I lean against the counter top as she gets to work.

I know there’s something she wants to talk about, so I wait patiently as she pours milk and syrup alternatively, trying to get the right combination.

“Zee, I want the truth, okay? No lying,” she eventually says.

Immediately my heart beats a little faster…

“Yeah. What is it?” I ask, slightly nervous to hear the answer.

“Yesterday I was on Dee’s phone, and I seen a message from an unsaved number, about me. I asked Dee what it was about and she eventually told me that you and her had been getting this message at the beginning of the year already. You’ll blocked the number and it stopped for a while. Now you’ll getting it again, but from a different number. Is that right?” she asks, turning around to face me.

So this is what it’s about…

I sigh, unsure how to answer her, the message playing in my head.

“Ziyaad Moolla, you are standing in the way to my happiness. Leave Amaani alone, or else, your happiness will be short lived.”

“Truth, Zee, truth,” Amz says, as if reading my mind.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I finally say.

“So why didn’t you’ll tell me before.. when it happened the first time?” she asks.

“Well we were pretty creeped out at first, obviously,” I say, pushing my hair off my face as I reach down to pull up my socks, trying to avoid eye contact. “And we were kinda worried.. about like, the consequences.. considering we didn’t really listen to the command…”

“All the more reason you’ll should have told me!” she says sounding a little hurt.

“Amz, listen,” I say quickly. ” There was no threat to you, so it wouldn’t have made a difference. Nothing has happened to you, nor Dee and I.”

“Were you getting the exact same message?” she asks after a moment of awkward silence.

“Yeah, exactly the same, word for word.”

“And it’s just you two?”

“Well Meez didn’t tell me anything, and he would have if he was getting a weird message about you. And same with Sumayya.”

“I think I know who it is,” she says, turning around and absentmindedly stirring the milkshake.

“You do?” I ask, standing up straight, moving away from the counter.

“There’s only one person I know who it could be,” she say, her voice sounding suddenly tired.

I wait with bated breath, but just as she opens her mouth to tell me who she thinks the mysterious texter is, a scream sounds from the lounge.

---

Hey. Hi. Hello. Salaam. Bonjour. Salut. Ciao. Ahoj. Bog. Marhaba. Ola.

Since everyone is doing this cliffhanger thing, here’s another post which will get you wanting to peek into my drafts for the next post.

Spoiler: I haven’t started typing it yet… aaaand I have a hectic week ahead, so press those sabr buttons, use those rolling pins to roll rotis, and fry yourself an egg in that frying pan you want to whack me with! 😉

 If you want a memory refresher, you can reread these two posts: 

• Twenty Two
• Thirty Nine

Comment down below who you think the mysterious texter is.

Until the next one…

Much Love,

Troubled Illusioner. ❤