Chapter 69: "MisQuoted"

I'm so sorry!😩 I didn't plan on delaying update after 'that' cliffhanger, but . . . life!😞

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"No, no, it's . . ." Zayn blinked again to clear his head. "It's a misunderstanding. Sorry. Enjoy your gaming session!"

Zayn cut the call quickly and then just stood there, gaping at her. Salma swallowed.

"Hi?" she squeaked, unable to look him in the eye.

Zayn's eyebrows shot further up. He then let out an uneasy chuckle.

"Hi?" he echoed. "Bee – how? I – what's going on?"

"Yeah, um . . ." Salma struggled with her words. "I wanted to see you . . ."

"In my room?!" Zayn cried, astonished.

"No!" She turned to him, went redder in face and then looked away. "I thought this was Claire's room," she mumbled.

As Salma's eyes resorted to all sorts of acrobatics to avoid looking at him, Zayn finally realized his shirt was clothing something random on the floor in the adjacent art room.

Crap! Zayn cursed in his head as he turned to his very bare torso staring her in the face. Way to be as ass!

"You know, Claire's room is two doors down," he said casually as he walked towards the closet. Salma stifled a whimper and backtracked away from him, however, she stopped once she saw Zayn reached for one the shirts hanging by the closet door and popped it on. "You've been to her room before."

Salma died a little with embarrassment. Claire, you sneak!

"She told me it was the first door on the left," Salma continued mumbling, realizing she has been fooled. "I thought she changed rooms."

Salma risked a glance at him and was relieved to find him covered in a plain, white T-shirt.

"But you wanted to see me?" Zayn smiled.

"Yeah," Salma whispered.

Zayn was standing right in the middle of the way out, and her.

"Alright then, make yourself at home." He pointed in the bed-wards direction. "What can I do for you?"

What? Salma's eyes turned into saucers.

"No! No, I don't mean – I don't meant it like that --" Zayn's quick attempt at explanation halted. He swallowed, avoiding her eyes. "I just – sit down, please. . . If you wish, or not? I mean. . ."

Salma noted him closing his eyes and muttering under breath. She swallowed her growing discomfort. This was getting seriously embarrassing, really fast.

"I thought you had a thing against people sitting on your bed," she attempted a joke.

"People," Zayn said, quick to grab the opportunity to divert the conversation to something lighter, less embarrassing. "Not my Bee."

Salma's face flushed again.

"Can you not?" she grumbled.

"Sorry, my bad." Zayn laughed. "Queen Tomato Bee—"

"Just stop!" Salma cry-laughed.

When the joke died down, the awkwardness returned, at least for Salma. Zayn was just looking at her intently. Probably waiting for her to explain why she had suddenly appeared in his room to be all tongue-tied and awkward.

She took in a deep breath.

"Right." She sighed. "I just wanted you to sign this consent form."

Zayn raised a questioning brow when she took out the papers from her bag.

"What is this?" He asked, amused to realize she had covered the central portion of the consent agreement with a sheet of colored paper. He began to read out loud. "I, Zayn Stephen Harris, hereby agree to go on a date with . . ."

Zayn's eyebrow shot up and his voice trailed off. Salma felt her cheeks burn again. His eyes slowly peeled off the paper and raised to meets hers.

"You're asking me out on a date?"

"Mmhm," Salma mumbled, studying the apple green carpet in great detail. It was a very interesting carpet, especially now that Zayn was quiet and her heart was starting to pace up for no apparent reason. Also, it was green, and it was very carpetic –

"Bee?"

Her breath got stuck in her throat as his voice cut short her stupid thoughts.

"Look at me," he asked.

Salma looked up. A shiver ran down her spine to meet his golden-brown eyes. He was too close. Close enough for her to notice the freckle in his eye after a long, long time. Her breathing became labored.

"I'd love to go out on a date with you." He smiled softly.

Oh snap! Salma swallowed.

"Sign," she croaked.

"Huh?" Zayn frowned in confused.

Salma cleared her throat and tried again.

"Sign the consent form," she said, rising on her tippy-toes and tapping on the blank space for his signatures. "There."

Zayn turned back to the form. He grabbed the colored paper to lift it when Salma grabbed his hand.

"No!" she cried. "You can't read that! That bit is a --" She tried to come up with a good enough excuse when Zayn's eyebrows went skyward again. "It's a surprise," she ended up saying. "If you read it, you ruin it all."

Zayn looked at the veiled consent form, then the veiled girl, then the paper, and her again.

"You want me to sign something I haven't read?" he asked.

"Yes," Salma said quietly, realizing how stupid she sounded. "But it's nothing dangerous. Also, the sentence before that part clearly states if you want to withdraw consent, you can totally do that, right until you actually go through with it all."

Zayn's frown deepened.

"So I'm consenting but I'm not consenting?"

"No," Salma tried to come up with a way to explain so that it made sense to him and agrees to sign it. "You can firstly not consent –"

"And therefore also reject going out with you?"

"Yes, but I can think of something else and maybe you'd agree to that idea." Salma shrugged.

Zayn grinned.

"Aw, Bee, I like how you intend on continuing to try until I agree."

"No, only if you agree to the date but not this kind of a date," Salma explained quickly. "If you say no to the date itself, I'd respect that and stop pestering you."

"I know, I'm just messing with you." Zayn laughed, holding up the papers. "So what's this?"

"Okay, so you consent," Salma explained, "but you also have the option to withdraw consent. Signing doesn't make it binding on you to do anything . . . anything you would not want to do! But you cannot want to do what you want to do last minute, so you can withdraw consent even if you've signed it. It's a . . ."

Salma sighed, dropping her hands. Zayn bit his lips together to suppress an incoming laughing fit. She was just rambling.

"I understood that," he said, nodding. "better when you had not yet explained."

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh," Salma groaned.

"I wasn't even laughing," Zayn denied, his voice shaking with a restrained laugher as he walked away to the pile of stationary on his bedside table. "I was just going to sign it."

"Wait!" Salma cried, making Zayn's pen pause over the blank space.

"What else?"

Salma chewed on her lip.

"It's basically a – well, sort of like a death warrant, to be fair." Salma sighed in defeat.

Zayn looked around the room.

"That was my nikkah to you, I believe."

"No, it's actually if you die or get hurt, you don't hold the people responsible," she explained, making a mental note to question him later for calling his nikkah to her a death warrant. "It's like in extreme thrill rides," Salma added, then bit her lip. She almost gave it away.

"Oh!" Zayn's eyes widened as it dawned on him. "It's that kind of a form."

"Yes," Salma said, then walked over, grabbed the paper and lifted the colored wrap and covered most parts with her hands and but exposed the part that mentioned no liability in case of a fatal injury or death. "See?"

"Hm," Zayn said. "Not bad. I'm totally ready to kill myself for thrills!"

Salma gave him the flat-eye.

"I'm kidding!" Zayn cried, snatching the paper and signing it. "There, done! Surprise me!"

Salma blinked at the paper he was holding towards her.

"Wow," she muttered. "Thank you. Now read the whole thing. We might as well have just gotten divorced and you have agreed to be my body shield."

Zayn's smile evaporated and he turned pale.

"What?" he asked, laughing awkwardly to try to play it off. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No," Salma said. "Read it."

Zayn eyed the paper like it was a fireball about to burn him down. Releasing a breath, he closed his eyes.

"Are you pulling my leg?"

"Just read it."

"Bee, are you pulling my leg?"

"What are worried about the divorce bit or the body shield –"

Salma was shocked shut when she suddenly felt his hands grabbing her arms.

"Did you just seriously made me sign our divorce papers?" Zayn whispered through his teeth.

Salma blinked. Was he seriously buying it? She looked between his eyes. Or was it a double bluff to prank her for pranking him.

"And add a line which says you can withdraw consent?" Salma asked.

It took Zayn a while to realize what she was saying. His hands around her arms loosened and he backed off uncertainly.

"You freaking sneak!" He hissed.

Salma barely got the chance to laugh at his face when he pulled her in for a massive hug.

"You almost gave me a heart-attack!" He drew her closer.

Salma laughed.

"How can you fall for it!" she cackled like an evil witch. "I said you'd agree to be a body shield? That was a dead give-away!"

"Don't laugh at me, alright. You're just playing on my worst fears!" Zayn protested. "You said divorce and I heard nothing after."

Salma felt a pinch in her gut, but she was surprised he would take it so seriously. As far as she knew, she made it quite obvious that she was messing with him.

"Okay, I'm sorry." She hugged him back. "That was cold."

"It was downright cruel, is what it was," Zayn grumbled, nuzzling her neck.

She felt him tightening his arms around her.

"Zayn?" Salma tapped his back. "You're crossing the optimum hug conditions."

"I don't care," he continued complaining, but felt him loosening his arms to a gentler embrace immediately. Salma rolled her eyes. "I want to hold you even closer to me."

"Right," Salma muttered, unable to fight the blush creeping up her cheeks at what he had said. "About that."

Zayn chuckled, letting her go so she could sink to her feet.

"I have to go," she said, slipping the form back in her bag. "Thank you for accepting the date."

Zayn squeezed her hands in his. Salma almost jumped out of her skin when he raised one of his hands to cup her cheek and leaned in. He kissed her forehead.

"I don't want to let you go," he whispered, searching her eyes.

Her heartbeat skyrocketed.

Too close! She trained her eyes on his shirt. Dude, you're too close! Not in your room!

Salma swallowed, about to ask him to pull away when someone banged on the door. Both of them jumped away from each other. Except that Zayn had still managed to keep a hold of her hand as he walked to check who it was.

It was Claire. Eyes wide with excitement, and grinning from ear to ear, she zeroed on their hands.

"Did you guys kiss?!" she asked, thrilled at the prospect.

"What the hell?!" Zayn cried his disbelief. "Are you mad?!"

"You did, didn't you?" Jumping on the balls of her feet, she turned to a stunned Salma.

"Did you just send her to my room on purpose?" Zayn asked, sounding angry.

"Doesn't matter –"

"It matters!" Zayn cut in.

"Okay, but did it work?"

Zayn dropped Salma's hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You conniving, little schemer!" he snapped, grabbing Claire's ear.

"Ow, ow!" She winced. "I only wanted to help!"

"We don't need your help!" Zayn twisted her ear.

"Ouch! That hurts!"

Zayn pushed her out of the room and turned to Salma.

"I'm so sorry about this," he apologized to her. "I have unfinished family affair to attend to."

"Ouchi! OUCHI Zayn!" Claire winced as Zayn lead her away. "My ear! My beautiful ear!"

"Stop your dramatics." He pushed her door opened, before turning to Salma. "And Bee! This is the Schemer's room."

Pushing Claire in, Zayn closed the door shut after her.

"Are we cool now?" Claire called from the other side. "I think you twisted my ear far enough!"

"No!" Zayn replied before walking back to Salma, who was watching the whole thing, perplexed. "Sorry about that. Come on." He jerked his head towards the stairs. "Let me walk you out before another one of these idiots gets a fresh idea."

"Salma?!"

Salma turned to the stairs to see Niall looking at her wide-eyed, a headset hanging around his neck and a gaming console in hand.

"What –what're you doing here?!" he asked, looking between her and Zayn.

"What kind of a question is that?" Zayn scowled at him.

"No, I was just . . ." Niall shut his mouth, not sure how to say he was super confused that she was in their house, with Zayn.

"She was in his room!" Claire screamed from inside her room. "She came to see Zayn!"

Salma felt her gut twist as Claire's obnoxious laugher rang around the little hallway. The three of them avoided each other's gaze. Salma's cheeks heated up realizing what Claire meant and what Niall was probably thinking.

In her periphery, she saw Zayn's fists clenching up angrily.

"I'm going to –"

"That's true!" Salma smiled at Niall, cutting Zayn's angry threats. "I made plans for us but wasn't able to catch up with him to finalize a few things. Claire thought it would be funny to send me to Zayn's room, telling me it was hers. I fell for it."

Niall's eyes went between her and Zayn again. He was quickly catching up on the fact that what Salma did around their place with Zayn, or Claire was none of his business.

"Right." He chuckled uneasily.

"She's got a twisted sense of humor." Salma shrugged as they started going downstairs, and when Niall eyed her cautiously, "She mistakes crippling fear for funny. Imagine being in the same room as." She pointed at Zayn, not so inconspicuously.

Niall burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Zayn feigned offense.

Niall bade his goodbye and went on to join his friends who were so engrossed in whatever game they were playing, they barely noticed her and Zayn walk out of the house.

"Hey you might want to move my car out of the way!" Niall shouted after them.

Salma turned to the driveway to see Niall's car blocking her way.

"I'll get the keys," Zayn muttered and went back inside.

Salma fished her own set of keys out of the pocket and settled behind the wheel. While waiting for the driveway to be cleared, she dialed Sarah.

"Yep?" Sarah asked, the moment she picked up.

"Make arrangements," Salma replied. "I got his signatures."

There was a moment's silence after which Sarah whistled.

"Girl, you're fast!"

Salma laughed.

"I'll see you around."

"See ya!"

Salma hung up and shifted to drive when she saw Zayn park Niall's car to the side. He got out and walked up to her. Confused, Salma lowered the window. He leaned against the sill.

"When are taking me out?" he asked, smiling.

Salma laughed, shaking her head.

"I'll let you know," she promised.

"Okay then," he said, grinning ear to ear. "I look forward to it. Thanks for asking me out."

Salma fixed her gaze on the windshield. Her cheeks were warm again.

"You're welcome," she replied.

Zayn said nothing but Salma could feel his presence against the window sill. She sneaked a quick side-glance. Zayn was just looking at her. A small smile playing on his lips that made her heart flutter.

"What?" she cried.

"Nothing." He shrugged. "Just looking at you."

"I have to go." Salma gestured in front of her. "You want me to just drive while you're at it being a creep or do you plan on stopping at some point?"

Zayn chuckled.

"Always so sweet, aren't you?"

"Always!" Salma tipped an imaginary cap.

Zayn sobered up and took in a deep breath but did not move away. He seemed conflicted about something.

"Listen, Bee, you would probably think it childish or ridiculous but," he began uneasily, "please don't do that again."

Salma frowned, thoroughly confused.

"Do what again?"

Zayn became even more uncomfortable.

"Don't joke about us getting divorced," he said, his eyes downcast. "You might have found it funny but, to me, it's –" he pursed his lips as if the words were bitter in his mouth. He looked up to meet her gaze. "It's terrible."

Salma felt her heart sink.

"Zayn, I'm sorry!" she said earnestly. "I honestly didn't – you thought I was divorcing you?"

He said nothing as he pressed his lips together.

"I wouldn't even joke about something like that," Salma said. "It's a very serious matter. Nikkah is sacred. You can't joke about –"

Salma broke midsentence as it hit her. Her mouth fell open and a broken gasp escaped her lip. Zayn's eyes snapped to her.

"Did you really think I had divorced you?"

Zayn eyed her questioningly, saying nothing. She felt her heart stab.

"Oh no!"

"What happened?" Zayn asked, worried.

"You can't joke about it!" Salma repeated. "It's serious –"

"Bee?"

"Even said as a joke, it nullifies the nikkah!" Salma explained, panicking now.

"What?!" Zayn cried.

"Oh my God, what have I done?!" Salma turned away from him, desperately searching for her phone.

"Bee – What are you on about?"

"What did I say?!" Salma asked, sounding desperate. "Do you remember the words I used --?"

"Bee, calm down!"

"I have to call my dad." She shook her head, dialing her father.

Zayn grabbed her hand to make her attentive to him.

"Take a deep breath," he said, "and tell me what is going on?"

Salma inhaled a shaky breath as she braced herself to drop the bomb on him.

"In Islam, a divorce uttered in jest is considered a divorce," Salma whispered. "A nikkah is a sacred bond. It's a serious matter, approached with great care and respect. One literally can't joke about it! I might have ruined everything!"

Author's Note:

Ah, fresh hell, Salma! 🥴Why are you so stupid!😞

So, what now?

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Lots of Love

J.