Chapter 9

    About a week has passed since Abdulrahman was sent to the hospital. There’s still no progress with his situation, but at least he’s still breathing, so there is hope that he will wake up soon. I can’t stop feeling guilty, I know who caused all of this, but it does not matter. Even if I do report Fahad to the police they won’t believe me especially since I don’t have any evidence. Besides, Fahad and the rest don’t even matter to me and they seldom cross my mind, because my whole life has changed.

    Ever since that day, I have been praying for Abdulraham to wake up day and night. I stopped going to places besides the hospital, school and home, of course. Even my wardrobe has changed; I only wore either black, or white. My friends didn’t matter that much to me, I only talked to them when I found them in the hospital. During school I’d always be sitting alone reading some of the books he gave me last summer. I stopped replying to my calls and texts; I only kept my phone on hoping that I would get a call saying that Haman has woken up.

    When I was at the hospital alone, Noor finally decided to show up, after not visiting for three days. I couldn’t help but notice how destroyed she looked, and how red her eyes were from crying, however I decided to just ignore her presence completely and continued praying by Haman’s side.

    “He’s gone.” Noor whispered.

    “He’s right in front of you, and thank you for finally deciding to come visit.” I replied coldly, without making any eye contact with her.

    “No, I mean Adam, he left.” She said, as she took a seat by the bed. I wanted to scream at her; I couldn’t believe her, Adam? What about the guy lying in front of you? The one who has been in a comma for the past week? The guy you dare and call your best friend? You finally come here, but instead of checking up on him, you come here and cry about your stupid boyfriend? However, I didn’t find any good from that, so I just kept my anger in, hoping that she’ll leave if I continued ignoring her.

    “Malak, what’s wrong, why aren’t you talking to me?” She nagged.

    I shot a dirty look at her, “I’m too busy praying for my best friend. You know him right? He’s the one who’s fighting to stay alive? The one you forgot even existed?”

    She shot up from the chair, but forced her anger to stay in for a while, “Look, I know you are upset, and want to take your anger out because you can’t find a reasonable reason for all of that to happen to a good guy like him. However, you can’t just dis people like that, and say false things about us.”

    “I didn’t ‘dis’ anyone besides you. That’s what you get for coming here to complain about your boyfriend, instead of coming to check up on Abdulrahman. I thought you were supposed to be his friend!”

    “I am his friend, but you-“

    I couldn’t hold the anger in any longer, “If you are his friend, then where were you for the past three days? If you are his friend, you would have been shattered by the news that Abdulrahman is in a coma! Instead of feeling sad for yourself that Adam is no longer with you!”

    She took some time to grasp my words, and then she replied in a light voice, “Do you really think that I haven’t been crying myself to bed every night because someone else might be leaving my life? But I learned from past experience that if I put on a brave face and have faith in God, things might actually turn around, and go the way we want it to. I know Abdulrahman, and he will wake up, if God wanted to.” She stopped for a second, and continued in a sweet tone, “Malak, you are right, I shouldn’t have came in here to complain, but look at yourself. You’ve been coming here everyday, and you stopped caring about your own life! Do you really think Abdulrahman would want you to just throw your life away so you could stay by his bedside? You cant just ignore your life like that, what about your family and school? You can’t just leave them, you need to include those in your life as well.”

    Her words were soothing, but I couldn’t hold the pain and tears, “You said that something similar happened to you; what happened?” I asked, hoping that her story will make me feel better.

    She sighed, closed the door, and then sat beside me. “It’s a complicated story, but my Dad could have been sent to jail if it wasn’t for Adam’s and his Dad.”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Well, my Dad was the cause for a woman’s death. He was driving in front of a red light, and when he tried to stop, the breaks didn’t respond. At that moment, a woman was driving right in front of him. His car continued racing ahead, and hit the top left corner of her car, causing her car to crash. However, that contact wasn’t enough to stop his own car, so the car continued driving away, until it crashed a few kilometers away from the accident.

    The court didn’t believe his story, but thanks to Adam’s father –who was my Dad’s lawyer-, he managed to prove that the breaks didn’t work. That is what Adam gave me the first time we talked; it was evidence that my father didn’t intend to harm anyone.”

    “Weird.” That was all I said after her complicated story.

    “What is?” She asked.

    “You’re story was supposed to make me feel better. However, that car accident sounds very familiar to the one Abulrahman’s mom was in. Your Father was the one who caused his Mother’s death.”

    She stayed quite, until I realized what I said was wrong, “Noor, I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that…”

    “It wasn’t his fault,” her voice was shrieking, “he didn’t mean for it to happen.”

    I took her hands, and put them between mine, “Noor, I am sorry. You’re right it wasn’t his fault. Things like that just happen and we can’t always control what happens.”

    “That is why I didn’t visit often. It is my fault that he’s here. The doctor said that someone probably attacked him, and if that was true, then it was probably Fahad and Faisal. If I didn’t interfere with his life, they would have never attacked him.” I felt her tear drip on my hand.

    I was shocked at how easily she figured out it was him, and me wonder if others figured it out as well, but I decided to play dumb, “I’m the one who asked you to help him. Besides, we don’t really know if he was attacked by anyone.”

    Abdulrahman’s perspective

 

    I was laying in a bed somewhere, hearing people talking, and a sound of a beep going off every few seconds. I wasn’t able to open my eyes, and I was too comfortable to move from my place. I tried to listen to the voices besides me, but the words weren’t clear. I waited a few minutes for my ears to catch at least a single word, but there was no use. I decided to at least open my eyes, to see my surroundings. It was a little hard, as if I didn’t have control over my own body, but then I finally managed to open them. I was in a closed room. I looked in front of me, and I saw a TV. Then I looked a little lower, and found wires, and tubes, all of which were attached to my body. I didn’t understand what was going on. I tried pushing myself up using my right hand, but I was only able to raise it for a second, and it fell right back where it was. Then I started hearing two girls gasping. I finally got my hearing back, I thought.

    “Haman, you’re finally awake! How are you feeling? We should go call everybody else!”

    I was confused about the whole situation, “Who are you?” I asked the two excited girls.