2. Fireworks

...

Salman Bashir gripped his steering wheel with both hands, clenching them so hard that his knuckles turned white. He glowered at the tiny sliver of the road he could see through the illumination provided by his headlights. The highway was nearly empty, with a few cars here and there sparsely spaced. He kept his foot pressed against the accelerator.

His chest was still violently heaving up and down with rage, his brain still clouded after the heated argument he had with his sister. It had been hours since it happened, but the anger, hurt and betrayal still felt as sore as a new bruise in his heart.

He had felt a lot of emotions in his measly twenty-six years of life - pain, longing, jealousy, love. But anger wasn't a feeling he was as familiar with.

Tonight, he was angry.

His mind reeled back to earlier that night, when he was getting ready to have dinner with his mother and sister. He peaked into Malika's room, to see what she was doing.

"Fari, I'm truly happy for you."

Were the words that reached his ears. Malika had turned around feeling his presence. Seeing him, the blood drained from her face.

She was still talking from the other end, Salman could hear a distorted version of Farrah's voice.

His face hardened.

"Hey, I need to go," Malika briskly said on the phone. "I'll talk to you later."

He had already twirled on his feet and was striding away. He was halfway through their living room when his sister caught up to him again.

"Salman, please," she pleaded. "Where are you going?"

He kept walking. He could hear the padding of her feet accelerating behind him. She clutched his arm and halted him.

"Just listen to me, please," Malika begged again.

"Let go of me, Lia," he ordered in a hardened voice.

"She's my friend too. This hurts me too. This is the first time I have spoken to her, I swear," she tried to explain.

He finally turned around, his jaw clenched. "How could you do this to me?" he hissed fiercely. "How could you betray me like this?"

Neela had rushed out into the room as well, eyes darting between them at a loss. "What's going on, kids?" she asked.

Her words were muted to them. Malika stared at Salman with utter disbelief. She was taken aback by his tone. "Betray you?" she cried. "Have you lost your mind, Salman? I'm the one who's been by your side through thick and thin." she spat. "I have supported you and this family through every claim. I took care of your heart even when it was breaking mine."

"I'm not stupid, Malika," he said through gritted teeth. "I heard what you just said to her. I know you were always secretly on her side."

"You can't do this, I won't let you do it." Malika shook her head aggressively, the corner of her eyes sparkling with tears. "I prioritized your well being over mine - worse - my baby's. I have been living in this house, keeping my newborn daughter separated from her father, just to be close to you. But I'm not tolerating your crap anymore."

Salman let out the cruelest scoff that had ever left his lips. He fixed his sister with a look. "Then leave."

"You two, stop it. Please," their mother begged through tears.

The tear that clung to Malika's lashes rolled down. The look she gave him could have put him down six feet under.

"I will, first thing in the morning. And you know what, I'm glad I talked to Farrah. I'm not cutting my best friend out of my life forever. I hope you come to your senses soon and fix whatever's wrong with you. Only God knows what's going on with you."

The words cut so deep into his soul that Salman forgot to breath. He stared at her in disbelief, hurt flashing across his face.

"How could you say that to me?" he asked, his voice straining with emotions. "You of all people should know what I'm going through."

Malika wiped her tears and folded her arms in front of her chest. "And what exactly are you going through, Salman?" she asked, her voice taking a cruel and sarcastic turn.

Neela walked out of the room, unable to take it any longer.

"Did you forget what sh-she did to me?" he asked, wincing at the mention of her. It had been days, weeks, months since she shattered his heart into a million pieces, and he still couldn't say her name without losing his voice. "She ruined my life."

She let out a disbelieving scoff. "Farrah ruined your life? Are you crazy?"

A bitter taste filled his mouth. "She left me. Worse, for him."

"She didn't leave you for him, she did it because you pushed her away." His sister pointed a finger at his chest. "You played with her feelings, gave her mixed signals, treated her poorly for years before Farrah had enough."

"I knew you're on her side," he seethed.

"This isn't about taking sides, Salman! It's about how you treated Farrah."

"I remained loyal to her." He puffed his chest. "I was ready to fight for us even after things got rocky, and I didn't run off to the highest bidder at the first sign of distress. She's the one who did."

"You're so blind." Malika ran her eyes over his features with disgust. "You can't keep hurting someone again and again and expect them to forgive you with a single, measly sorry. Sorry doesn't always fix everything. That's exactly what you did to Farrah. You drove her to her breaking point and then tried to put a Band-Aid over a fatal, festering wound like that would fix everything."

He didn't say anything. Not a single word left his mouth, his eyes were dead set on his sister.

Malika was breathing heavily now, running short of breath because of the emotions swirling in her chest. "And you still somehow feel entitled to her forgiveness and love," she snorted. "Even after everything you put her through, even after you kept her second guessing for years, you somehow think she should come back to you. Well, news flash, brother. She served her time with you, but you were too blind to recognize what was right in front of you. You missed your chance and now she's gone."

Salman broke eye contact. He picked up his jacket without a word and draped it over his shoulders. He was a ticking bomb now. It was better to put a safe distance between him and his sister if they ever wanted to salvage whatever was left of their relationship.

He headed for the door, without a single look behind. Salman stormed out of the house. Blood was rushing to his ears and his vision was turning red.

He was having trouble seeing and Salman was grasping for breath as he rolled out of their driveway. By the time Salman got back of his senses and his vision cleared, he was already on his way out of this sick city.

Salman knew he was way over the speed limit now. The roads were blurring by his window at a dangerous speed.

His mind had been going over and over again his sisters words, her screams still ringing in his ears. Her voice soon dismantled and morphed into one that still had the power to bring him to his knees.

And suddenly, it wasn't Malika hurling those painful words at him, it was Farrah. It wasn't his sister who was crying, it was the girl who broke him.

He got out of his trance when a pedestrian recklessly crossed the road. He squeezed on the brakes until his car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the highway, his hands slamming against the horn. He violently jerked forward despite the seatbelt and then landed back on the seat.

The person had safely made it to the other end. Salman rested his head against the steering wheel and let out a throaty exhale. The sudden silence after the blaring horn sounded strange to his ears. He sat in the middle of the highway for a second, wondering what would have happened if it were daytime and there were other moving cars on the road.

He turned back and drove aimlessly for a while, trying to clear his mind. Salman drove until he was speeding through a familiar street he knew as well as the back of his hand. He finally parked on the sidewalk of a familiar house, the empty street in front wrenching his heart in a painful way. He looked up at the house in front, at the French windows and Greek pillars.

Salman took a few deep breaths and got out of the car. He was in Kaveh's room within minutes.

Kaveh took one look at him and his face paled at his sight. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Salman shook his head and shuffled into the room. He sat down on the bed and dropped his head on his hands.

"How could she do this to me? After everything we've been through together, how could she leave me to marry my own cousin of all people?"

"Salman..."

He shook his head again, quieting his best friend. "I don't know what to do."

"Hey, listen to me, mate." Kaveh was beside him now, a hand on his shoulder, his brows knitting in worry. "You'll get through this, okay?"

Salman swallowed, gripping the side of the bed to stop the tilting of his world. He sat there for a while, contemplating, clearing his head and levelling his breath.

He finally looked up. Kaveh was still staring at him with same concern. Salman knew he looked like a man who was holding onto the last strands of his sanity, he felt like one.

"What happened?" Kaveh asked after he visibly calmed down.

Salman was already searching his jeans pocket for his phone. "I'm calling her," he announced.

He didn't need to tell Kaveh which her he was referring to.

"Salman, don't be crazy," he said in a reprimanding tone.

But he was already half way through dialing Farrah's number. Kaveh snatched the phone from his hand before he could finish.

Salman was about to lunge for it but his friend pressed a firm hand to his chest, raising the phone above their heads. "You don't want to do this," Kaveh said. "Change into my clothes and go to sleep." He swept the phone out of Salman's reach and put it into a drawer. "You'll thank me tomorrow."

"Give me my phone back," he demanded through gritted teeth.

"No." Kaveh replied calmly.

He glared at him, Kaveh rolled his eyes and disregarded the daggers he was throwing. Salman slumped his shoulder after a while. He didn't have anything left in him to put up a fight. He dropped down on the bed again.

"She's on her honeymoon, and you're not ruining that. Whatever you two had, it's over. You are not getting back together. The faster you accept this, the better."

There was no sugar coating, no treading water. In a true Kaveh fashion, he exposed the wounds and served Salman the facts straight up.

"She's another man's wife. Accept and respect it, Salman."

Salman lay down on the bed, his eyes darting towards the ceiling. A few moments later he felt the bed dip on the other side, he saw Kaveh sitting down on the opposite side through his peripheral vision.

The two friends were quiet for a while, their breaths the only noise heard in the room.

"She's on her honeymoon," he spoke, voice strained.

Kaveh didn't utter a word.

"She's on her flipping honeymoon with another man."