Let's Make it Halal

"Daneen, do you like Azaan?" I whispered as my sister and I lay head to head on a blanket stretched onto the grass in our backyard.

She sighed. "I don't know. Liking someone is different than marrying them. You like heaps of different people in your life. That doesn't mean you end up marrying them."

"Are you not happy?" I leaned up, a little alarmed with the idea.

"I have no clue. Azaan and I have known each other for years, but that's it. When we were in high school, we would have these annoying arguments all the time. I remember thinking he was the most annoying person ever. How can I marry him?" Her voice cracked.

I sat up completely. "Then that's what we'll do. We'll make sure you two get to know each other."

"You want me to date him?"

"No, I want you to get to know him."

"And how are you going to do that?" Daneen looked at me skeptically.

"Good to know my own sister doesn't have an ounce of faith in me."

"Oh please, I stopped trusting you the day you hung up a poster of Barney in my dorm room and embarrassed me in front of my new roommate."

"Chill. It was just a prank."

"I was scarred."

As we lay on the blanket, watching the sky littered with stars, I came up with an idea.

And then I went inside and called Safaa.

///

The next morning I dragged Daneen to a cute little café, resisting the urge to tell her the motive behind my efforts. And why I was making her get dressed up. To be honest, a long white sundress, with a denim jacket, and pink scarf tied loosely around her neck, and just a little bit of makeup wasn't even that fancy, but to her it was and I knew she was annoyed as I began to braid her long brown hair into plaits.

We picked a table close to the back of the restaurant to sit in and I refused to let her order anything.

"What's wrong with you? Did you drag me out here just to starve me you little shit!" She exclaimed in anger.

I looked over her head and sighed in relief to see Safaa lugging an equally annoyed Azaan towards our table, and saw his eyes lit up as he comprehended what was happening.

I got up just in time for Safaa to push Azaan into my previous seat and we both booked it.

I mocked wiping sweat off my brow as we neared a safe distance, one from where my banshee of a sister would not murder me.

"I never would have thought that would work." Safaa panted.

"Neither did I!"I smiled with glee.

"Well seeing we're already in the mall, what say you to some Halal Clothes Shopping TM?" She waggled her eyebrows trying to seduce me into the despicable idea of spending my life's savings, which were 5 dollars and 66 cents, on clothes.

"Haha, nice try bitch."

"I'll buy you ice cream".

"Where to first? Zara?"

She rolled her eyes at me as we made our way to the overpriced store.

///

30 minutes later, with an ice cream cone in my hand, and Safaa's shopping bags in the other we trudged towards her car. Dumping the bags in her trunk, I fished my phone out of my bag to answer a call.

"What do you want and when do you want it." I spoke into the phone, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Yo, stop acting like a freaking thug and get your ass down here outside the laser place. Mihirmah's gotten herself into a bitch fight and Ismael and I don't know what to do." Yusuf explained in a panicked voice.

"Cool, but may I ask, where the frick frack do I come into all of this."

"A bitch to stop the bitch fight."

"Ouch. Fine I'll be there in 10, and I'm bringing my main bitch."

"I though I was your main bitch."

"You thought wrong you ugly ass piece of broccoli." I hung up and relayed the situation to Safaa who proceeded to drive to the Laser place on West ave.

"Hurry, before the police get on this action-" I was interrupted by Safaa.

"And Mihirmah gets kicked out of school?"

"No, we lose our chance to take blackmail photos."

Safaa gave me a disapproving look as we neared the location. And like Yusuf had said, there she was, pulling some white girl's hair.

I ran out of the car and mouthed 'Take pics' to Ismael, as I pulled a struggling Mihirmah away from the girl who was now covered in bruises.  Before the girl could run after us, I shoved a resisting Mihirmah into the car and got in, with Ismael and Yusuf right behind us in their car.

"Dayum, that escape plan worked better than I thought." Safaa murmured taking a right.

"You should've let me kill her. She badmouthed Ismael, I was going to destroy her!" Mihirmah fumed. I suddenly felt super worried.

"What did she say?" I inquired.

Mihirmah took a deep breath. "She said that him being pale, didn't make him any less of a terrorist."

Silence entered the car as I took in a sharp breath.

The truth was the no matter how normal we acted, or how similar we were to the community in which we lived in, somehow there would always be hate pitted in their hearts. As we drove in silence to Mihirmah' s place, worried about Ismael, and how he felt, we couldn't shake those words out of our heads.

"It's different than regular name calling." I recalled Safaa's whisper in my ear from when were 10 years old, faced with racism the first time in our lives. "You somehow can't stop thinking about it no matter how hard you try."

And years later, I had replied to her comment. "We're not supposed to stop thinking about it. It is not supposed to be justified."

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"Betray a friend, and you'll often find that you have ruined yourself"-Aesop