(3) Barely a Dab of Dark

"Excuse me? You have got to be kidding me! Haya, he's not serious is he? Tell him NEVER! EWW! Don't tell him the eww part though, 7aram," I sent her back an SMS.

As I was picking at my Fettuccine Alfredo, I felt my face burn up. How embarrassing! It was like we were all mute; none of us could bring ourselves to say a single word to each other. Instead, we were communicating through text messages! Mind you, we were sitting at the same table only less than a meter away from each other!

The awkwardness began as soon as I met him. "Hi," I said politely and extended my hand.

"Halla walla," Hamad finally managed to say after shaking my hand and locking his eyes in mine for about 30 seconds or so. He wouldn't let go of my hand until I shyly pulled away. Weirdo!

We then followed the waitress to our table. I waited until Haya sat so that I would know where to sit. I didn't want to sit next to him or even in front of him! Diagonal to him was the furthest I could possibly be.

"Beep beep", Haya's phone went off as soon as we settled. She looked at the message and I could see that she was holding herself back from laughing. 10 seconds later, my phone beeped. I open up the message only to find that Haya had forwarded the message she received from Hamad saying: "I WANT HER." Oh my God, what a freak. I don't even know him. And he knows nothing about me! Is he that desperate?! I tried to remain as cool as I could. I didn't want to show him that I was at all concerned with his immature attempt to "hook up" with me. After I got my thoughts together, I calmly messaged her back.

The back and forth messaging went on for almost half an hour. I looked at my watch. 08:24 pm, it read. We need to be home soon if we don't plan on pissing our mothers off. I began to get uncomfortable with the whole situation, so I decided to break the ice by randomly blurting out, "are you always this quiet? Talk! Tara ana ma a7ib ag3ad bass chithi bidoon 7atchi." At that point, all he could do was look up and let out a quiet laugh. I need Haya to help me start an actual VERBAL conversation to break the awkwardness! I can't take it!

"By the way, what ever happened between you and Jenna?" Haya finally spoke. She and Hamad go to the same school. From then on, it was all good. One conversation led to another, and before we knew it, it was time to go home.

“Can we get the bill please?" I was in a rush. A few minutes later, the waitress came with the check and I reached out for it. Naturally.

"Umm..what do you think you're doing? Lamman iykoon fi rayyal ga3id makoo shay isma bnayya tidfa3!" Hamad said, snatching the bill from my hand. We tend to say very adult phrases when we are just in our early teens. It's weird how in the moment itself we actually believe that we are of mature age while other people view us as kids. I now experiece that with the younger generation and laugh at myself; I now understand where my mother came from when she used to tell my friends and I, "you're still too young, la7geen 3la hal kalam il kbeer."

"Yalla 3ad la it9eer maleeq, give it to me! Ugh, this isn't happening. I just want to go! Haya is the one that called you in the first place, so illy ya3zim yidfa3." Logic.

"Agool, istiree7ay. Willa agoolich, goomay rig9ay 3al 6awla yimkin a36eech il bill," he said laughing. The objectification of women: a concept I got to understand too early in life through a "wrong word choice error" from a complete stranger.

EXCUSE ME? Oh no, he did not just say that! Who does he think I am? I froze for about 5 seconds. I didn't want to make a problem; so instead, I decided to take it as a joke. In fact, maybe he didn't mean it the way it came out. I was assured that was the case when his expression changed and became apologetic.

Before Haya and I got to the car she said, "Yalla Hamad, thanks for dinner and I'll see you in school on Saturday." Clearly, she doesn't want the driver to see that we are with a boy in case he decides to for some reason randomly go tell her mother one day.

"OK, nice to meet you, he looked at me. Take care. Bye."

"Yeah, uha, you too, bye!" I said, as I got into the car.

Haya and I spent the rest of the way home in utter silence. I knew what she was thinking, and I knew the exact answer I would tell her if she happened to think of asking.

As I lay in bed that night I felt a tingle of power caress my soul, gently taking over as it slowly drifted away into my pale pink dreams...