Chapter 38: "Public Embarrassment"

Hiyyo Losties! Been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, munch it up! And post your comments as you read, Pretty please?

May 30th, 2021

Salma followed Zayn as they walked around the corner towards the entrance of the dormitory building. A small smile was still playing upon her lips. She tried to fight the bad memory from overwhelming her by reminding herself that there was a good laugh waiting for her at the same spot where Zayn had cussed her once.

"What's going on?" She frowned at the small crowd ahead of her.

"Something I didn't forsee," Zayn muttered, chewing on his lower lip.

Confused by his vague reply, Salma inched towards the crowd by the dormitory building and stood on her tippy-toes to see better.

"It's episode two of Super Bee!" she cried in surprise to see the poster on the wall.

"It seems. . ."

Salma turned to him.

"Why's it on the wall?" Salma raised a brow.

Zayn pressed his lips together. Her eyebrows shot to the heavens.

"You put it up there?" Salma pointed at the drawing.

Zayn said nothing. He seemed to be second-guessing his decision to have put up the comic on the wall for everyone to see.

Glancing at him, Salma stepped closer to the crowd to read the comic. Most of the paper was covered by the drawing of the Super Bee, in all her glory of the superhero costume and the blazing fires, smashing Zayn's teeth out with a baseball bat mid-dive.

"You said what?!" Her charged bubble screamed. "I didn't hear you?!"

Salma stifled a chuckle to see two cartoon girls jumping away from Zayn. She figured it was Charlayne and Lena moving out of the Super Bee's way.

"I see," Salma hummed to herself as she turned to read the smaller three frames on the top left corner. "Sarah's idea of me after . . . you know?"

"This one, I believe is quite an accurate representation, considering how mad you were even later."

Salma smiled. It was true, she thought as she read frame one where an innocent, unsuspecting cartoon Salma was asking Zayn for a word.

Frame two showed him saying the horrible words and Lena latching to his side with a smug look on her face. Charlayne seemed shocked as she covered her mouth with her hand.

Then in frame three the storm happens as Salma's eyes flash in anger, and Super Bee mode is triggered. Charlayne can be seen watching her with a mix of shock and awe.

And then came the Super Bee's Baseball Bat assault with a full page covering

It would have been lovely had she actually smashed his teeth back then, Salma thought to herself. Oh well -

"Anyone got any idea who this is about?" someone asked.

Salma turned to the source of the question.

"Don't know, but if you find out, I have a baseball bat and would gladly let the Super Bee borrow it to recreate the scene for us!" a girl replied.

"I wonder if I should volunteer." Salma smirked, pretending to contemplate it.

Zayn gave her a panicked side glance.

"I would very humbly request you not to," he replied, pursing his lips.

"Ah, I suppose all of us know how to turn down humble requests, don't we?" Salma raised a brow.

Zayn gulped. Salma snickered. She was not sure if he was actually concerned that she was about to out him for being the cartoon character getting battered, or if he was just pretending to be scared.

"I'll go easy on you then," she muttered, amused eitherways.

"Thank God!" He let out a sigh of relief. "Now lemme go get you your comic."

Before Salma could reply, Zayn started shouldering his way through the joking, chattering crowd around the poster.

"Excuse me, excuse me please. Move," Zayn kept saying as he made his way to the front. Salma looked around her and then quietly stepped away from the crowd. She figured the people were about to realize who the comic was about when Zayn started taking it down, and she was not keen on them drawing similarities between the innocent cartoon Salma and the self-doubting statue standing near them in real life.

As Salma stepped around the hedges, taking a seat on the edge of the pavement on the other side, she heard the people talking to Zayn.

"Why're you taking it off – wait is this about you?"

"It looks like him!" Someone laughed.

"Let me see the figure again?"

"Oh my God, it is about him!"

The crowd burst out laughing and questioned him some more.

"Dude? Who did this to you?"

"Are you going to be okay, my guy?"

"Better yet, why were you being a jerk to her in the first place?"

"Man, they did you dirty taking it next level!"

"Please tell me she actually took your teeth out!"

"Guys chill out, it's a joke! Leave him be"

"Or is it? Love the graphics anyway! I'd pay to read more."

The questioning and the commentary continued for a while, and then it slowly died down. Salma was certain Zayn had walked away. He was now probably looking for her.

Her phone beeped with a text.

Zayn: Where bee you?

Salma laughed at the silliness of the text as she stood up. Most of the people had left. Only a few were standing around in two's and three's here and there. Salma walked past them, hoping to not catch attention. She saw Zayn waiting for her a distance away from the building. She jogged towards him.

"For you M'Lady!" He handed her the rolled-up poster. "Served with some spicy commentary from the crowd."

Salma chuckled. She unrolled the drawing to take a quick look.

"Thank you," she said, rolling it back. "Where to next?"

And on they went, to a few more spots, to leave a few more laughs, to deal with the demons of their past.

"Oh no!" Zayn stopped suddenly, frowning as he shuffled through the last few comics. "Hell no."

"What happened?"

"I messed up," he said, leafing through the comics again. "I forgot a spot – an episode."

Salma's brow furrowed.

"You what?"

"I thought I had them all done, but . . ." he trailed off, reading the last comic and sighing. "This place. I forgot we had an . . . well, an ugly interaction here too. I don't have anything to co-write it."

Salma looked around her and remembered. The place where Zayn and James had had a fight after Zayn had found her with the boys and started yelling for no reason.

Salma took in a deep breath.

"I think it's alright," she said after a while. "James did the honors of punching your face in shape, so I suppose Super Bee was never triggered to respond."

One corner of Zayn's mouth tugged into what was supposed to be a smile. He looked away, embarrassed and miserable the loud and angry ghosts of their past screeched at them.

"Don't Zayn me!"

"Answer me!"

"Why? Got tired of playing games, have you?"

"I'm sorry," the words escaped Zayn's lips on their own. "I . . ."

He swallowed. Salma was not sure what he was sorry for, missing on co-writing one of his screaming sessions, or actually screaming at her and beating James up just because he could.

"I'm sorry for a lot of things," Zayn finished softly, staring the bunch of papers in his hand and realizing he really had given her a hell of a year. "I wish I was not such a jackass."

"Me too," Salma agreed. She could almost feel the light-hearted and relaxed air around them unable to hold as the suffocating silence and discomfort started seeping back in.

They stood there, not quite sure how to wade through the sudden tension and awkwardness that had surrounded them once more. Salma took her phone out just to do something.

"Dang!" she cried, making Zayn turn to her. "Is that the time? I'm late for my class!"

"Let me walk you to --"

"No need!" Salma said quickly slipping the rolls of comics she was holding into her bag and turning to leave. "I gotta jog!"

"Will I see you after class?!" Zayn called after her.

"I'll text you!" Salma yelled over her shoulder. "Thanks for laughs!"

She missed it as she turned over her heels and raced towards her class, but a smile was playing on Zayn's lips as he watched her go.

"I should the one thanking you," he muttered to himself, "for being you and giving me a second chance."

***

First draft: April 22nd, 2021

Salma: Sorry, I had somewhere to be and left in a hurry.

Salma: Maybe some other time.

Hitting 'send' once more, Salma slumped on the seat in the back of the car. Her clothes drenched in sweat and muscles groaning in pain. Eelay had been super tough that day. She had started giving her hand-to-hand combat lesson and Salma found herself more on the floor with her world turtled, than on her feet. Thank God for the mat that cushioned Salma's falls but she was still aching all over.

Spogmae took a seat behind the wheel. She grabbed a water bottle from the dashboard.

"You might want to stay hydrated," she said as she held the bottle behind her. "Those cramping muscles would make Eelay's lessons seem friendlier."

"I doubt that," Salma said, reaching for the bottle. "Eelay's lessons are friendly. Just that I'm not build for that kind of fast movement."

"No one is," Spogmae replied. "She builds you during the process. Anyway, I see you plan on going home. I believe Zayn was expecting you at the campus."

"How do you even know – nevermind." Salma closed her eyes in frustration. One of those nosy agents was probably keeping an eye over them throughout her and Zayn's walk around the campus. They had also practically yelled the question on whether or not they would be meeting after her class. "No, I informed him that I'm unavailable."

"Informed and unavailable," Spogmae said with a slight smile. "You'd think it's an office meeting you're skipping."

Salma chose to ignore the comment. She had more pressing matters to discuss.

"Speaking of Zayn," Salma said. "I'm guessing you were one of the agents who shadowed me last year. Were you the one who told dad I liked him?"

"You're still stuck on that?" Spogmae laughed as she switched gears.

"Yes," Salma said out loud, then added in her head. I wanted to know the idiot who could not read a woman's emotions.

Spogmae snorted, making Salma pout and avoid the agent's gaze. She did not like the idea of the Green Coat Lady thinking she was petty, but she still wanted to know who told her dad she liked Zayn.

"Tick me off your stupid list," Spogmae said. "I wasn't the one who told your dad you like him."

"What did you tell him?" Salma asked.

"After I, and the school at large, witnessed a very explosive confession of love from Zayn, I told your dad you did not reciprocate his feelings for you," Spogmae said.

"Oh my Allah!" Salma whispered, aghast. She let her hastily reddening face take refuge behind her hands.

"I informed him that your response to the declaration was with hysterical crying," Spogmae continued, much to Salma's embarrassment.

"You've seen it all?!" Salma's cry of shame came out muffled. "This is so humiliating!"

"No, it isn't," Spogmae replied casually. "It's understandable, you were scared. You did not know how to respond to his confession."

Salma chewed on his lip and pressed her fingers to her eyes.

"It's true," she admitted quietly. "I was terrified."

"And to help you on your quest to know who did it, it was Burak."

Salma frowned. dropping her hands

"That can't be," she said. "I heard Burak Kaka tell Zayn that he was totally against the marriage --"

"Yeah, that was after he found out that Zayn had mistreated and manhandled you. On the night, he was totally impressed and he sent your father a report stating, the man values her a lot and he did not hesitate to rescue her with no regards for his own life and safety. Burak also suggested that Zayn could be of valuable and secure company around you because after he disposed the bodies of the Tor Guls that attacked you, Burak came back to see the place flooded with Federal Agents. He figured Zayn being in touch with the local authorities meant greater protection for you, and of course, himself. At that point Zayn was not a Muslim so no one suggested marriage as a solution to counter Agha Gul. However, your father, at the time, was engaged in business in Turkey, so when he read Burak's report, he wanted to see Zayn's deal for himself and followed him to LA.

"You kept quiet. You didn't anyone that Zayn was the one who had attacked you --"

"I told James," Salma said quietly.

"He's not a Green Coat. Not someone we can find out things from. As much all-knowing as we may seem to you, we aren't. We have our limits. Private conversations stay private – for the most part." She added as an after-thought. "Regardless, your father did not know. He followed Zayn from LA to Atalanta and then the accident happened and then your father found out that Zayn had reverted and was quite impressed by his conduct as a whole. His anger management issues that we had witnessed before seemed to have dampened, almost disappearing. We figured his frustrations were mostly because of his past and because of the FBI agent's continuous pressure on him to provide information.

"Then when Agha Gul's problem began, your father saw in Zayn a solution to almost all the problems. He was someone who loved you, and someone established enough for Agha Gul to think twice before taking him out," Spogmae continued. "However, once after your nikkah, it was revealed that Zayn had violated you, Burak deeply regretted whatever praises he had written in his report about him, and also why he cannot forgive either himself for it, or Zayn."

"And yet dad went with Zayn as an option the second time around?" Salma asked.

"Because he's socially and financially very well placed," Spogmae explained the obvious. "Things are horrible. Agha Gul is becoming bolder. Zayn is not someone you'd find in a bodybag and nobody would bate an eye. All hell breaks loose if he goes missing from social media even for a few days. His fans notice and they question his silence. Agha Gul likes to operate in a subtle, almost unnoticeable manner. Imagine trying to take out someone like him! Then he's tight with the FBI so his security isn't that big an issue. Also, it was convenient that he really, really loved you."

Salma rubbed her shoes together anxiously. Every time she was reminded of Zayn's feelings for her, she felt like that limping person that was slowing their partner down.

"You know, it'll get a lot easier for you if you understand your own emotions first," Spogmae began. Salma eyed her questioningly in the rear-view mirror. It seemed that Spogmae had picked on her anxiety. "Have you ever tried analyzing why his confession scared you so much?"

Salma thought about her question.

"I suppose it was because I did not expect someone to fall for me like this - or I for someone, for that matter." Salma struggled with her words, feeling a little uncomfortable and exposed talking about her feelings, especially with Spogmae. "I thought it would – however it would happen, I thought it would be a proper, normal acquaintance before either of us gently warmed to each other and eased into that feeling, you know. I did not expect to get knocked off so hard, hurled down a cliff, go wilding in some forest, and then madness followed; hit and chase, bullets, yelling and screaming. So when he yelled it in my face, I – I did not know what to do about it?"

"So what do you know now?"

And Salma was quiet for a while, thinking. She wondered where Zayn stood in her books now. Her phone beeped with a text. Zayn's name appeared in her notifications.

"I think he is on square one," she said finally, staring at the notification. "Really early on in my timeline where we're just getting to know each other and we've realized that we can be a pleasant company."

Author's Note:

Do you think Zayn would be pleased to know he's on square one with her? Or is he going to be like, "Whaaaaat? Back to square one?😱"

Anyway, vote comment and share.

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Lots of Love

J.