IMADE AND JAMAL

JAMAL.

"Can you tell me why in the world you had to approach these hooligans?" I yell loudly at Natasha, who still wore a stunned expression on her face.

"Hais, stupid! I hope you know we can still hear you loud and clear and if you dare repeat that word again, I will not hesitate to throw another cup on that empty skull of yours." The psycho who threw an ice cream cup at me, hitting my chest directly, yells at the top of her lungs, attracting more attention from other customers.

"You listen carefully to me your stupid ass bitch, if you throw anything at my man one more time, I will not hesitate to lock your sorry ass in jail." Natasha replies her defensively.

"If dem born you well, if you know say na your mama and papa born you, try am first. I will throw a thousand cups on this hypocrite's head and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it." She fires back instantly and I just could not believe how irritating she was actually being. What exactly did I do wrong? I don't even know her.

"Angela, please enough of this now. I already told you I don't want any trouble so please stop hurling words at them and let's go." Imade quickly chimes in, trying to hold back her friend.

"Imade, leave me o! Leave me o! You do not know why I'm angry so you better leave me alone. If this stupid useless bastard does not publicly apologise to you today, I won't let him go scot free. He can do his worse for all I care but today today, you must apologise to my friend." The Angela responds aggressively and I furrow my brows in confusion.

"What the hell do you mean by apologise? What should I be apologising for? You're the one who owes me an apology for publicly harassing me even though I don't know you, so why the fuck should I apologise?" I reply defensively and she chuckles but remains quiet.

"Listen Angie, whatever it is he did isn't worth this embarrassment. This douche isn't even worth fighting. So how about you just take a chill pill and let's just go home. Huh?" The other friend with Imade, standing on her right hand side tells her friend and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how petty they all are. Did they really think I cared about their petty insults? How foolish.

"Listen carefully Imade, you better drag your friend out of this place if she doesn't want me to make her regret ever raising her voice at us and for your information, lady with the scarf, you three are the ones not worth fighting with. We do not know you and yet your friend attacked my boyfriend and you both stood there and watched her hurl insults at him and that alone makes you just as guilty as she is and we could get you three arrested." Natasha fires back in my defense and although I was still mad at her since all this is her fault in the first place, I was still thankful to her for defending me.

"You better shut your mouth, you this skinny thing and back to you Jamal, how can you be so heartless and wicked? How could you have sat down comfortably watching Imade cry and you still had the effrontery to gulp down a drink. Is that how shameless you are?" Angela replies, this time facing me and now I'm even more confused.

"You know what Tasha, let's get out of here. I can't be dealing with crazy people on a fucking Saturday." I say to Natasha who immediately agrees with me.

"Oh, so now you want to run away? You dare not you fool cause if you don't apologise to Imade, I will not hesitate to give you a huge bump on your useless head." She goes at it again and I roll my eyes. "If you're refusing to speak clearly then you and I have no business together and if you in anyway try to physically harm me, I will put you in jail immediately. Have a good day." I reply her quickly, before turning around to walk away but I stop when I hear someone call out my name.

"Jamal, please let's talk privately." Imade requests and I stare back at her with raised brows, wondering what she would want to talk about with me.

"What exactly do you have to say to him that you can't say right here?" Natasha chimes in before I could reply.

"No offense miss Natasha but it's absolutely none of your business what I have to say to Jamal. I just need him to agree to talk to me." Imade replies her calmly and I could already see the fury that burnt in Natasha's eyes. If there's one thing Natasha hated, it's getting politely insulted.

"Imade, before you think of saying anything to this guy. Remember when I told you someone assisted you at the bar the other night? Well guess what, that person was actually sitting with this useless fella here which means he must have witnessed everything that happened and was still heartless enough to ignore you. This guy here doesn't deserve a second of your time because he's a heartless sicko! Tueh!" Angela blurts out and I'm confused for a while before finally connecting the dots and understanding what she was talking about.

"Oh, so that's why you threw a cup at me? Because I witnessed what happened? How the hell was that supposed to be any of my business?" I ask nonchalantly and her jaw drops.

"You saw and most probably heard everything she said and you still dare to ask how it was any of your business? You sick bastard!" She yells furiously, about to throw another slightly fuller cup at me but Imade was quick to stop her.

"Stop it Angela! Stop it! It's not necessary, trust me. You don't have to go this far. I'm fine and I will always be fine, so just calm down and let me talk to him." Imade pleads calmly and I could tell from her shaky tone that she was either really pissed or was holding back her tears.

"You still want to talk to him?" Angela asks again and Imade confirms.

"So, can we talk?" She asks me directly and I nod positive.

"Wait for me by the car Tasha. I'll be quick." I tell an angry Natasha quickly before leading the way with Imade following right behind me.

We head out of the ice cream parlour and I offer to take her to the cafe located at the mall we were in and she obliges immediately with a tired look on her face.

We arrive a few minutes later and we both take a seat at the first table on sight.

"Do you want something to drink?" I ask.

"No, thank you. I'm fine. I just want to get this over with." She says almost immediately and I nod in understanding since I also wanted her to say whatever she had to say as soon as possible.

"Jamal, what I'm about to ask you has no relation to anything relationship but I feel like I need to ask you this so that I can finally move on without ever wondering about it and wishing I had asked. So here goes my question. What happened to you in the States? Did something bad happen or am I simply over thinking things?" She asks and I sigh.

"Listen Imade, you need to understand that in life, things change and people change. The person you knew was an old version of myself and I'm not saying I'm a completely different person but a lot has changed about me and you don't even know the half of it. Now to answer your question, yes, a lot of things happened and most of them I can't even explain to you cause of how wide it is but definitely things were bound to happen."

"I don't hate you or have anything against you but I can't live up to those promises I made to you because I'm no longer the same man I was back then. I was young, stupid and in love but right now, I'm none of that and I don't want to hurt you with my indifference which is why I insist on keeping my distance from you. They are no hard feelings Imade but I'd prefer if you forget about me completely. I won't get in your way and you won't get in mine but if we happen to cross paths, we should simply ignore each other."

"Again, I'm not saying all this from a bad side, I just feel I should let you know how I feel." I explain as calmly and as nicely as I could, hoping she would not feel hurt by my words.

"I'm going to pretend like you didn't just avoid my question but it's all good Jamal. I totally get where you're coming from and I apologise for being silly and for getting angry when I didn't even have the right to. You're right, some people change and I'm learning that now. I just wanted to be sure that everything that happened in the States was all good and nothing bad happened but since you seem to be perfectly fine, I'm satisfied. Take care of yourself Jamal." She replies with a slightly shaky tone and a tight lipped smile but the hurt in her eyes were evident and a part of me felt guilty.

"Wait Imade!" I call her back quickly and she stops and slowly turns back to look at me.

"I'm sorry for everything Imade and I hope one day you can forgive me for messing it all up. Take care of yourself too." I say to her with a tight lipped smile and she responds with a curt nod and a small smile before turning away and walking out of the cafe.

***

"What did she have to say?" Natasha asks immediately I walk up to her at the parking lot.

"It's none of your business Tasha. Let's just go home." I reply her tiredly, getting inside the car.

"So now it's none of my business? You had a private conversation with that bitch and now it's none of my business? What the fuck are you playing at Jamal? Who the hell are you tryna fool Jamal? You expect me to let it go simply because it's none of my business?" She rants on continuously and I sigh in frustration.

"Listen carefully Natasha. If you don't get your sorry ass in here in sixty seconds, I'll tell the driver to drive off and leave you the fuck behind." I warn her sternly and she chuckles.

"You wouldn't dare Jamal. I fucking dare you to try that shit with me and you'll regret it for the rest of your life." She continuously rants on, wearing my patience out. "Are you getting in or not?" I ask one last time.

"I'll only get into this damned car if you tell me what the hell that bitch had to say to you!" She yells back furiously and I lost it.

"Bola, please drive off." I instruct my driver immediately, expecting Natasha to hop him but when she remains persistent, he does as I asked and immediately drives out of the parking out, leaving a shocked Natasha behind. Lord knew, I wasn't going to hear the end of it but at this point I could care less. The only thing that lingered on my mind was my last conversation with Imade and the hurtful look she had in her eyes taunted me like nothing else.

Did I really go too far with my words or did I do the right thing by being clear with her?