Chapter 14

The boys sat on a large table of the food court. They ordered food for everyone and chatted a little while waiting for the girls and the food.

“Yar! I just remembered! Who is gonna pay for her clothes? I don’t think she had any money with herself and the girls have also not brought money!” Zayn said suddenly. This made them think that they should went back to the shop to pay for hana’s clothes but Zamid still being angry at the Zubair and Hana incident, did not want to have Zubair anywhere near Hana.

“Only one of us should go and pay for the bill and then bring the girls with you too! Daniyal should go!” Zamid said moodily.

“Hey! I don’t have money with me! Bhai should go and pay!” Daniyal said while pointing towards Rayaan. Before Rayaan can say anything, Zubair stood up from his seat.

“You guys should sit. I’ll bring the girls and also pay for the bill!” Zubair said while getting out of the table.

“No! You should stay! I’ll go!” Rayaan stood up from his seat and said in a no-argument tone. This made Zubair to sit back down and Rayaan went to the shop.

After a little while, Rayaan came back with a shopping-bag in his right hand and the girls following behind him. All of the girls sat down with hana sitting in the center of Zamid and Daniyal.

Suddenly, hana stood up from her seat.

“I think I left my phone in the shop! I’ll go and bring it!” Hana said softly and got out of her seat and walked back to the shop after getting a nod from Zamid.

The food was on their table while hana was fetching her mobile and everyone started eating their food. Zayn saw hana coming back while looking at her phone. As she was not looking up, she bumped into two boys that looked the same age as hana. She said sorry without looking up and was still looking at her phone and was making her way to the table. Zayn saw all this and became very angry. His overprotective brother mode was getting turned on. He angrily stood up from his seat and took another chair from the back table and put the chair beside his.

When hana reached the table, Zayn grabbed her hand and made her sit on the chair beside his. All of them were looking at Zayn in confusion.

“You will sit here and will remain by my side till we reach home!” Zayn ordered to a confused hana.

“Okay!” Hana replied meekly as she become scared that Zayn will also insult her now in front of everyone. Zayn was always better with hana, only Zamid had loath for hana but she never questioned about it. She thought that all the brothers are like this so she remained quiet about their behavior.

Everyone dismissed this and went back to eating their food. Hana saw that there was pizza with mushrooms so she did not touched it as she was not a big fan of mushrooms. Then she saw that there were some burgers but they were being devoured by their masters. There was only an extra drink on the table that she took and drank.

“Eat up! Or I am gonna eat all of the pizza! I won’t wait!” Zayn said jokingly.

“I don’t like mushrooms!” Hana whispered to Zayn.

“phir kiya khain gi ap maharani jee!? (Then what are you gonna eat, princess?!)” Zayn asked sarcastically. Hana remained silent. There was a tray that was placed on the table in front of hana by a kid of 13 or 14. Everyone looked at the boy questioningly.

“Hana baji ka order! (Sister Hana’s order!)” The kid said smilingly.

“Thanks beta but we have not ordered it!” Daniyal politely said to the kid.

“Order kernay ki zarurat he nhi h bhai jee. Hana baji yaha ati hain to wo yahi khati hain to me lay aya! (There is no need to order, brother! Whenever sister Hana comes here, she always orders this so I brought it!)” the kid said to Daniyal.

“How do you know hana?” Zamid asked seriously.

“Wo baji har bar hiba aunty k sath ati hain yaha to meri un say dosti ho gayi! Hena Hana baji? (Actually, sister usually comes here with aunty hiba so we kind of became friends! Right, Hana sister?)” The kid said and asked hana sweetly.

“Yes! Thank you Danish!” Hana said to the kid and he went back to his work at the counter to serve other customers.

“ab ye to kha lo gi na tm k ye b nhi khati? (Now you can eat at least this na, or not!)” Zayn asked hana about the food. The tray contained a small pizza and a strawberry milkshake.

After that, they ate peacefully and chatted with each other. Hana was only listening to all of them.

Hana drank the milkshake and was scrolling through her phone without paying much attention to all the others.

“From the looks of it, I don’t think you want to eat the pizza or maybe you don’t know how to eat a pizza?” Daniyal said mockingly while taking a slice of hana’s pizza. Everyone laughed at it. At everyone’s laugh, hana looked up and saw Daniyal with half of her pizza.

Hana gasped loudly which made everyone to look at her questioningly.

“What?” Zayn asked with a little concern.

Hana just pointed at Daniyal’s place which had half of her pizza.

“Oh! The Pizza! You were not eating it so I thought why not I eat it for you so that the food may not go to waste!” Daniyal said with a chuckle.

“Yeah! Let him eat it as you don’t seem like you like to eat it!” Samman said on behalf of Daniyal and all the others nodded.

“Per ye mera hai! (But that’s mine!)” Hana whined softly with a frown on her forehead and a pout on her face.

“Tou tm baki khatam kr lo na! agar or khana hua tou naya la dain gay tmhay! Abhi ye khatam kr lo jaldi say! Chalo shabash! (You should finish the rest of it na! If you want more then we will order some more for you! For now, finish this up! Come on, hurry up!)” Rayaan said politely so that to not make a scene.

“Menay ab ye bhi nhi khana! Ap log hi kha lain! (I will not this too! You guys can eat it too!)” Hana replied sulking-ly and pushed her tray away from her in front of Zamid as he was sitting directly in front of her.

“Ye kiya fazool harkat h! nhi khana to chalo! Khatam karo saray ye pizza or hana ko nhi dena ab! Bachi tou h nhi ye ab jo is ki baatain nazar-andaaz ki jain! (What is this nonsense? Everyone, finish this pizza and no one should give her this now! She is not a kid now that we can ignore her mistakes like this!)” Zamid angrily said to hana as he was getting pissed off by her tantrum even though she was not being a brat.

“Pehlay tou tm badha share krti thi! Ab kiya hua? Mjhay nhi pata tha tm sharing me esi ho? (You were always the sharing one, before! What happened now! I did not know you were like this in sharing!)” Zayn said to hana.

“10 saal! Hmmm! Ap ko kesay pata ho ga! (10 years! Hmmm! How would you know!)” Hana said softly and went back to her phone. The table became quiet after hana’s last comeback. They cleared hana’s pizza and stood up from the table. Rayaan went to pay their bill and all of them made their way to the parking lot.

Hana was again walking very slowly, away from the others with Zamid and Rayaan, again at the back of the group. Zubair tried to walk with hana but Zayn being the overprotective brother, he came and held hana’s one hand while in other she was clutching her phone that she was constantly scrolling without looking where she was going. Zayn dragged hana behind him and made them join the others and Rayaan and Zamid also speed up their pace as they were only walking slowly because of hana.

When they reached the parking lot and stopped at their cars, hana bumped in the back of Zayn’s as she was still looking at her phone.

“Ye kiya dekh rahi us wakt say apnay phone pr? Is tarah chalti ho isi liye to atay jatay logoon say takrati ho! Samnay dekh kr chala karo! (What are you looking at on your phone for all this time! You walk like this, that’s why you always bump into people! Look in front of you when you are walking!)” Zayn scolded hana as he remembered when the two boys bumped into hana earlier at the mall. Zayn did not liked people touching his sister, female friends or female cousins. Now, he is becoming even more protective because he is noting that hana is a very small girl and their age-gap is also very huge so he was getting the protective feeling for hana. Hana was a very small girl of 5.1”. She was very short and also very weak that made Zayn to get over-protective of hana.

“Ye kiya parh rahi ho? Dikhao zara mjhay! (What are yo reading? Show me!)” Zayn again said to hana and took her phone in his hands.

“Ya Allah! Ye kiya parh rahi ho? (Oh my God! What are you readiing?)” Zayn asked after reading what hana was doing on the phone. Hana was reading a novel and the scene was of a little kiss between the couple. This scene made Zayn to become a little flustered.

“Kyun? Kiya tha? (Why? What was it?)” Zaroon asked after seeing Zayn flushed face.

“Haan Batao! Kiya tha? (Yeah! Tell, what was it?)” Hala also asked when Zayn did not answered.

“Ap hi nay liya tha phone meray say! Menay to nhi kaha tha k lain! Novel me to phir esay scenes atay hi hain na! (You took the phone, I never told you to take it! Then again, there are these type of scense in all every novel!)” Hana said with a small and barely hidden smile.

Everyone became even more curious after hana’s remark. They wanted to know what it was that made Zayn so flustered as he does not get embarrassed that easily.

“Per ye to English me tha! Tmhay English samajh aa jati h? (But that was in English! You can understand English?!)” Zayn asked after getting over his embarrassement.

“Jee! Meri English kafi achi h! (Yes! My English is very good!)” Hana said proudly.

“Mjhay to laga tha k tmhay English nhi ati ho gi! Issi liye to main hamesha urdu me baat krta hn tm say! (I thought you would not know English! That’s why I always talked to you in Urdu!)” Zayn exclaimed.

“Pakistaniyo ki Americans say zyada achi English hai! Ap meray Pakistan ko esay kesay underestimate kr saktay hain! (We Pakistanis are better in English than you Americans! You can’t just underestimate my Pakistan like that!)” Hana said with a hand on her heart in a dramatic way.

“Acha Acha ab bas karo tm dono or betho garhi me! (Okay, Okay! Stop it you two and sit in the car!)” Zarmeena said from Zamid’s car. All of them were intently listening to their conversation as it was the first time that they actually heard hana talk too much.

Both of them took their seats in the car with Zayn in the passenger seat again and Hana again in the back seat. After 15 minutes in the drive, the car stopped. Hana looked out the window and saw that they were outside a small stall where 17 girls were sitting on small plastic chairs and Mehndis in their hands. Every girl was in Abaya and there was a chair in front of every girl. Some of the chairs were already occupied with customers that were getting beautiful Mehndi designs on their hands.

All of them went out of the cars and the girls made their way to the girls. Hana was not sure what to do as all the seats were filled so she stood by the car alone as the boys were talking in a group in front of Rayaan’s car. Hana just decided to sit on the bonnet of Zamid’s car and again scrolled through her phone. Hana was just sitting and looking at her phone and occasionally rubbing her eyes. The boys were looking at hana from time to time to check on her. Zayn made his way towards hana and just took her phone out of her hand. Hana became shock with the sudden move and she attempted to get her phone back but Zayn just put it in his jeans pocket. Hana just looked at Zayn’s face and made an ugly snarled. No one else was able to see hana’s reaction, only Zayn can. Zayn became a little shocked with hana’s ugly face but then he started to chuckle.

“What are you yar? Just what are you larki (Girl)?” Zayn laughingly asked.

“Khudi to kaha abhi ap nay (You just answered for yourself)! I am a girl! Ek to sawal b puchtay hain or phir jawab b khud hi detay hain! Badhay ajeeb hain ap Zayn Bhai (you ask question and then answer them too! You are very weird, Zayn brother!)” Hana said with a cheeky face.

“Bae mjhay to pata hi nhi tha that my sister is so funny and her sense of humor is so good! Pr lagta hai ab maza anay wala h! (I never knew that my sister is so funny and her sense of humor is so good! But it looks like, its gonna be so much fun now!)” Zayn said while hugging hana from the side. The boys looked at them and were astonished that Zayn was laughing and even hugging hana as it was not a secret that no one liked hana in their family. Only hana’s parents loved her dearly but no one else. But now looking at Zayn and Hana, it looked like Zayn had finally warmed up to Hana after all these years. Rayaan was very happy as he always thought that it was very immature and stupid of his family to ignore hana like that.

With this whole past year that Rayaan got to spend with hana, it showed him that hana was a wonderfull girl with a forgiving personality. He had always voted for hana and now he can see the acceptance in Zayn’s behavior towards hana. He now got hope that Zamid will also warm up to her. All the cousins just teased and mocked her but Zamid was the only one who actually hated her. Zayn just followed Zamid’s footstep because Zamid was the oldest and intelligent. But now there was hope that these siblings can actually get in good terms with each other and finally bond.