C24 Twenty four

The next morning was a rush, Anisah and Waleed were already at the airport. They were at the checkpoint and ready to board the plane. Anisah was excited going back to Nigeria even if she didn't get to explore the great city of Paris. Paris was not even her favorite place in the world, she loved Mecca and New York more. So one day when she becomes wealthy enough, she will travel to each and every county she had ever dreamt of going to.

In less than twenty minutes they were all seated on their respective seats. Waleed immediately dozed off in ten minutes and Anisah played Music on her phone. She listened to the playlist of James Arthur.

***

Waleed inhaled deeply the Air of Nigeria as he stepped right out of the plane along with Anisah. She couldn't help but chuckled at how he had spread his hands wide in the air, he looked like a cute Little boy.

"Let's go" He said to Anisah and she stepped down the stairs slowly but suddenly she lost her balance and fell onto a man. A man whose smile sparkled as soon as he set his eyes deep into her blue ones.

"Woah Mi lady, be careful" He said and Anisah chuckled at him. He was nothing above his late Twenties. Waleed on the other hand walked over to them immediately and cleared his throat.

"Oh I see you are here with your boyfriend" He winked at Anisah.

"He's..." Waleed cut her short and said.

"Yeah, let's go baby. We are running late" He sent the other man daggers.

Anisah couldn't comprehend what had just happened. She frowned her face as Waleed walked along with her down the airplane stairs.

"What was the For Waleed?. He was only being a gentleman" Anisah said.

"I know men like that, All they want Is a woman to destroy" He said. The man was only being nice, Anisah thought but didn't respond to Waleed and instead trailed behind him over to where their car had been parked. Waleed hopped in and drove them straight to his house. In not less than twenty minutes they arrived. Immediately they arrived, Anisah ran to her mothers house. She knocked on the door and it was opened by her mum who immediately hugged her tightly.

"Anisah!" Her mother said happily while hugging her.

"I heard you and Waleed traveled abroad. Why?" Her mother immediately asked. Ever since she had heard that Waleed had traveled abroad with her daughter she had felt very uneasy.

"It was for a business trip" Anisah lied. she sat on the sofa in the living room. She asked where her dad was and was told both him and her brother had traveled.

"Is he treating you well?" Her mother asked. Everyone knew that Waleed hated Anisah.

"Of course, he is" She half lied, because Waleed had been treating her well in Paris. After some minute of talking and catching up on stuffs, Anisah decided to cook and clean her mothers house. She did everything in an hour and had even served the dish of Fried rice and Chicken.

"Your cooking has improved tremendously" her mother remarked and she smiled.

"Thanks mum" She said while sipping a cup of zobo. They started discussing about the university she wanted to attend and her mother was happy to know that she had chosen uniAbuja in other to be close to the family. And she also told her mum that she had manage to gather about 400 thousand naira from the payment she had gotten from working for Waleed. Her mother was happy that her entire school fees would be covered.

"Asalamualaikum" When they were cleaning up the house, they heard waleeds voice. He immediately gave Anisahs mum a hug, he had been told several times that he isn't permitted to hug her but he never cared. To him, she was also his mum.

"Mum I've missed you" He said. Anisah couldn't help but chuckle at how he held her mothers arm lovingly.

"My son I've missed you too" She said. They offered to give him food but he immediately declined saying he wasn't hungry.

"Anisah shall we go now, or do you wanna sleep here?. I'm okay if you wanna though" He said to Anisah. She looked at her mother and immediately nodded.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" She asked him and he nodded. When he had come in, she had noticed how stressed he was but immediately he had hugged her mother, it all varnished. But yet again as he was about to depart, the same stress appeared on his face. He looked really troubled and confused but managed to hide it.

"Of course I'll be okay" He assured her and she smiled.

"Okay then. I'll come back home tomorrow afternoon" She said to him and he nodded. He gave her mother one last hug before he left. Anisah couldn't help but chuckle, they looked so cute together and she loved how much he loved her mum. An inappropriate thought popped into her head and she immediately declined it, she thought what if she and Waleed got married. Of course she knew she was foolish for thinking about such a thing.

He had left her and her mother alone. He drove slowly which was so unlike him, his head felt heavy and his mind felt drifted away. His mother's announcement to him had left him sad. His mother was crazy, he thought as he alighted in front of his house. He stepped down from the car and Jaja immediately greeted him but he didn't even notice. His head was extremely heavy and he felt as though he would fall. Maybe he hadn't fully recovered, he thought. It was getting a bit dark so he decided to observe all his salat before going to sleep. But he couldn't sleep, his head wanted to fall of and his body temperature was so high. He felt as though he would die at any moment, he reached for his pills and took it, the pain subsided a little for about an hour but soon returned. He was very tired so he instantly fell asleep on his mat immediately after Isha (obligatory prayer).

***

In the dead of the night, he was still asleep but not deep into sleep. He could feel a presence sitting besides him. He freaked out a little when he had opened his eyes which were still heavy from sleep to stare at the person seated on the floor besides him. The funny thing that he didn't understand was that his head on was on the persons lap though it was on a pillow. His eyes felt blurry so he couldn't see, his head felt very heavy from the headache he was experiencing. At this point he knew men could also cry from pain but he forced it in. He opened his eyes fully and the persons face came into view, it was Anisah and she was asleep. He was confused as to how she had gotten in, or was he hallucinating due to the high fever. He thought. Soon, he placed his hand on her arm and it was real. She was alarmed by his movements and immediately woke up.

"Waleed" She called. He sat up though he was feeling ill and stared at her.

"I thought I had left you with your mum, what are doing here?" He asked very calmly.

"I had remembered you had just recovered and I didn't want to leave you alone. So I came inside with my spare key" She explained.

"But I'm okay" He said.

"You don't look okay though, tomorrow we will go see the doctor" She announced.

"I'm okay Anisah. There's no need for that" He protested.

"Waleed something else is wrong with you, what's wrong?" She asked.

"It's nothing. Go get some sleep, tomorrow I'll be okay" He Assured her so she got up and went outside. She didn't really go to her room. She stayed outside Waleeds room where she had placed her head on the wall and slept. She wanted to know Incase something goes wrong.

Waleed on the other hand did not sleep, he wondered what was wrong with Anisah but he soon shrugged it off and slept. Though he was very much in shock that she had come back for his sake.