1998
Samar hummed happily to herself as she browsed the piles of books in the back room of the store, trying to figure out which to read next. The end of yet another work day, and with her black eye almost entirely faded by now, Samar was happy. Aram grinned to himself when he appeared in the doorway behind her, and observed her so delightedly off in her own little world. She enjoyed working, and Aram was simply happy to see her so happy. She was also good at her job –not that the workload of labelling and sorting books was huge, but Samar seemed to have an uncanny knack for organising them efficiently, and always remembering their contents.
'So many books,' Aram mused softly, and Samar turned instantly on the spot, grinning at him standing there.
'I don't know how I'm supposed to pick just one to read at a time,' she sighed, in mock exasperation.
'Well...' Aram thought out loud, taking the first step to cross the room towards her, 'what about that one?' Aram lifted his hand to point at one of the books in the pile and Samar turned her head, glancing over her shoulder at the suggestion...
Aram was too busy looking ahead of himself at the piles of books and the smile on Samar's face, that he didn't even see the empty boxes right in front of his feet.
'Which one?' Samar asked absent-mindedly, her eyes scanning the row of titles in the pile on her far left.
'The one with th-' Aram tried to respond...
...And then all of a sudden his feet gave out from under him before he could even finish the sentence. He had stepped into one of the half torn, empty, cardboard boxes... And in doing so, went sliding across the smooth, concrete floor. His arms flailed as he slid steadily towards Samar, desperate for something to cling to in hope of breaking the impending fall... But she was the only thing in front of him to hold onto. Aram's fingers grasped her shirt sleeves as she reached out in alarm to stop him falling, but it was too late.
Aram slid straight into her, his arms wrapped around her waist and accidentally pinning her against the desk behind her.
'Oomph,' Samar breathed in response, trying to hold both of them up at once.
'I am so sorry,' Aram gasped, looking absolutely mortified at himself for landing on top of her. He instinctively recoiled the second he regained his balance, terrified that he had just done something incredibly inappropriate...
Samar however, didn't seem fazed at all as she held onto his arms, stopping him from tripping again when he tried to step back. In fact, she really couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation.
Aram had always been clumsy.
/*/*/*/*
1992
It took one look at the uncomfortable expression on Aram's face and the way he seemed to be hobbling, and favouring one foot when he walked Shahin back to the front gate for Samar to know when she spotted them through the front window of her house, that he had injured his ankle, or his foot, or his leg, or something, again. With a small shake of her head, she darted through her house, sneaking unseen past her mother in the kitchen, and then across the garden to the fence, waiting for him. Aram was always clumsy; he was incredibly bright, but physically he didn't even begin to compare. Unlike Shahin, sports was one of his least favourite things to do at school, and it showed.
By the time he reached the hole in the fence, Aram was practically gnashing his teeth in annoyance at himself.
'What did you do this time?' Samar's soft, gently teasing voice sailed through the hole in the fence the moment he appeared.
'Tripped over a ball and rolled my ankle or something,' he grumbled back, letting out a sigh of complete and utter exasperation. 'I don't know, it just hurts when I walk on it. I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow though.'
'You really should be more careful,' she replied flatly, but offered him a small smile all the same.
'I try,' Aram muttered back. It took everything Samar had, not to accidentally let out a laugh at the indignant expression on his face, no matter how sympathetic she was.
'How bad is it?' She asked instead, softly this time. Aram took two steps back from the hole in the fence, and lifted up the bottom edge of his trouser leg just enough for her to see. Samar furrowed her brow and tilted her head as she gazed through the gap, studying the tiny amount of swelling. It really didn't seem too bad, perhaps a mild sprain at the most, but she could easily see why it would hurt. 'You need to rest it, ice it, strap it, and elevate it,' Samar spoke again, ticking each of the four steps off on her fingers as she quickly rattled them all off at once. Aram simply blinked at her in surprise. 'What?' Samar shrugged nonchalantly, 'it's basic first aid.' Aram shook his head in disbelief for a moment, then finally a tiny smile tugged at his lips.
'Do you know something about everything?' He asked in amazement; it was far from the first time she had rattled off seemingly inconsequential facts to him. It was almost like they never ended.
'No,' Samar murmured, then bowed her head somewhat sheepishly. 'But I read a lot while Shahin's at school.' Aram's face instantly lit up at that; he too, loved to read.
'You must have a lot of books,' he said sagely, and stepped quickly back to the gap in the fence. With his father owning a bookstore, Aram had access to pretty much any book he wanted, but he wondered for a moment if Samar had any he hadn't read.
'Not really.' Samar shrugged again, well aware that Aram easily had far more books than she did. 'I just read them over again after a while, so I remember the details... And Maman teaches me things too.'
'...Like all the baking, and the gardening, and the first aid?' Aram asked softly, eyeing the hint of pink flushing the edges of her cheeks; she seemed almost embarrassed to admit that she read the same few books over and over again but really, Aram didn't mind at all. Samar gave a reluctant nod, but all Aram could do was smile. 'I don't know most of that stuff,' he admitted, and Samar's bowed head snapped straight back up to meet his gaze with a sheepish grin. 'Could you teach me?' Finally, Samar broke into a wide, wry smile and bobbed her head happily.
'Sure,' she said, all traces of embarrassment now gone from her face. 'You're definitely going to need to know first aid if you keep rolling that ankle.'
/*/*/*/*
1998
'I'm so sorry,' Aram said again, for what was easily the fourth time in barely half as many minutes. They were tangled there now, arms and legs wrapped awkwardly around one another's against the desk.
'It's fine,' Samar replied, between breaths of laughter, 'really.' Somewhere in the back of Aram's mind it registered that she seemed to make no move whatsoever to free herself from her position stuck between him and the desk, but more than anything all he could focus on was the way her eyes crinkled and her entire face lit up; it was a warm, genuine laugh, the kind that was almost contagious in its joy... And if Aram had thought before that she couldn't possibly be more beautiful before, he was pretty sure now that he had just proven himself wrong. A guilty grin began to etch its way across his face, taking in her laughter, her smile, and the closeness as she held him lingering there... For what was probably two seconds far too long.
Without even realising he was doing it, Aram pushed the hair back off her face as she laughed –it seemed like such an inconsequential gesture now, after what had happened in his living room and everything else the following morning...
...And then he kissed her.
Not on the cheek, as she had kissed him weeks earlier, but on the lips. It was shy, gentle kiss at first, but there she was, contentedly laughing in his arms, and all of a sudden Aram couldn't stop himself from tipping his head towards hers, closing his eyes, and pressing that soft kiss to her lips.
...And then alarm bells went off in his head as he realised exactly what it was that he was doing.
'Oh my god, I am so sorry,' Aram gasped in horror, recoiling from her, and hurriedly trying to pull himself away from her. He wanted to smack his head against a wall or something, for being so stupid; first he fell on top of her, and then he kissed her. He was so mortified, that for a second, he didn't even notice the shy smile lighting up Samar's face. She reached out, grasping his fingers tightly in hers and pulled him back towards her before he could even really get away.
'Don't be,' she whispered back softly. Aram's eyes snapped back to hers, wide and buzzed from the adrenaline and horror, and clearly still processing her words. Samar tilted her head towards his, nearly leaning her forehead against his, and hovered there for one second of breathless anticipation... Before her lips came crashing back against his... Her arms slid over his shoulders, her fingers interlocking behind his neck and holding him close to her. Aram's arms slid just as quickly around her waist, running his hands in gentle circles down her back, and holding her just close. The kiss was gentle at first... Then passionate as neither of them really wanted to stop.
'Samar?' A familiar voice from the front door of the store made them both instantly spring apart. Shahin, slightly early to pick her up from work this time as he had often been since the incident nearly three weeks earlier. He was all too cautious about the possibility of forgetting to walk her home again now, and so each day he practically raced to the store from school. Samar tried quickly to catch her breath, both her and Aram having already been starting to run out of air as neither of them wanted to break away. She glanced back at him, smiling just as guiltily as he was –only there was a flash of pink rapidly crossing his face as well. There was a pause as they lingered there, staring back at one another, neither of them really wanting her to have to leave... But she had to.
'Go,' Aram whispered quickly, 'if you don't, he's going to come in here looking for you...' Samar paused one second longer, before finally –and reluctantly- disentangling herself from him –after all, if Shahin came into the back room and found them, all hell would break loose. Samar paused just long enough to rest her hand on one of his cheeks, and dot another, longing and affectionate kiss to the other one.
'I'll see you tomorrow,' she murmured, shooting him a quick grin before darting out of the room and back out into the main area of the store where Shahin was waiting. Aram nodded to himself, still somewhat stunned for a moment as he watched her go... Before breaking into a wide smile.
Out in the main area, Samar tried desperately to regain some sense of composure. Her heart felt like it was pounding in her chest, and it was almost painfully impossible not to smile like she was in some kind of a delighted daze.
'Hey,' she greeted Shahin, hoping her voice sounded casual. Shahin nodded back, resting his arm protectively around her shoulders as he walked her out of the store.
'Where's Aram?' He asked slowly. Samar furrowed her brow and glanced curiously back to him walking beside her; there was something odd about his voice, like he too, was trying to sound casual.
'In the back room, sorting out the last few things before he goes home too,' Samar answered, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb to indicate the room in question, as they walked out of the door and onto the street. 'Why?' Shahin gave a frustrated sigh, as if fighting an internal battle within himself about what to say.
'I'm not sure if you working in that bookstore is a good idea,' he muttered under his breath, his teeth gritted and brow furrowed pensively.
'Why?' Asked Samar casually again, but against her better judgement. Somewhere inside though, she was panicking, wondering if Shahin somehow knew what was going on all along.
'He likes you,' Shahin replied, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, 'I know that for a fact. I see the way he looks at you, and I don't want him to get the wrong idea and take advantage of you. Samar gave a slow nod of instant understanding; Shahin didn't know what was going on, but he was nervous that such a thing was about to happen. He was so desperate to make up for his transgression that ultimately had ended up in her black eye, that at the moment, he was overprotective to the point of being suspicious of, well, everyone... And of course, Samar spending time in Aram's store was the first and most obvious thing that could set off his radar.
'You don't have to worry,' Samar tried to reassure him, offering her little brother a soft smile and leaning into his side as they continued walking. In part, she was even mildly amused that not only would Shahin suspect his close friend and neighbour that he knew had always been good to them –all because he was so worried about her - but that he was missing something that really, was happening right under his nose. Though, she wasn't about to laugh; not only would that potentially reveal the truth but more than anything, but it was also unnecessarily dismissive when her brother was simply trying to look out for her. Shahin eyed her warily, but Samar nodded again, determined to reassure him; 'he's respectful, even Father thinks so, ok?'
Next up; 'The Gestures'