Hasan was supposed to be here an hour ago. Which meant something was really fucking wrong because idiot number two was never late.
Today, I’d tell him about the marriage proposal. I kept ithidden for far too long, knowing how close he was to Adelaide.
Osama cursed before shutting the game off. “These fucking kids, man.” He took a bite off of stone cold, shitty pizza. “Think they’re better than me or something.”
“They are,” I replied with a chuckle.
Osama and I had met in my first year of college. Purely fated. One late afternoon when I was getting to class, I caught him yelling a cat for being too fucking adorable. An odd sight, him, crouched down and rubbing the cat while talking in a shitty baby voice. He heard a contagious laugh and proceeded to give the middle finger. That day, we bonded over the cute fucking cat and never made it to our classes.
Hasan was the rule follower that caught me bringing that same cat to one of the classes he was TA-ing. He asked to see me after the tutorial, and we ended up bonding over the cat too.
The said cat—Chubby—now lives comfortably at home.
“Where is this guy?”
He usually sent a message if he was gonna be late.
“He has other friends than us, you know?”
“His sister and Adelaide?”
“And his son, don’t forget precious baby Yunus.” Osama made a pouty face and grabbed my cheeks with his dirty fucking hands.
“Fuck off, dude.”
“You love me,” Osama said with a nasty ass wink. “I’ll get you to admit it someday.”
“It’ll be the same day I bust your nuts.”
“I’d like to see you try, dumbass.”
We went on like that before the door to the gaming room opened and there appeared Hasan with a toddler strapped to his chest and an angry fucking look on his face.
Yunus cooed at the sight of us, and my heart swelled with pure ecstasy. I loved that boy like he was my own. The man attached to him? Fumes eviscerated out of his ears in promise of collateral damage.Shit.
Triple fucking shit.
Osama felt the energy and shuffled onto his feet with a quick brush of his crumby hands over his thighs. “I shall take my favourite man and get thefudgeity fudgeout of here.”
Without breaking eye contact, Hasan passed Yunus over to Osama and calmly shut the door behind him.
“There are two ways this can go,” he rolled his sleeves up. “I can punch your pretty boy face, or you call Adelaide and tell her you don’t want to marry her anymore.”
A gentle, visceral grin forged itself on my lips. I placed my hands behind my head, clasped together and accentuating my upper body. “You sound a little jealous, Hasan.”
If it weren't for the conversation I had with his wife five years ago, I never would’ve known Hasan and Adelaide knew each other through her friendship with his sister. Underneath his hard exterior, Hasan was a softie. A couple of broken hitches and a sob story, he’d been prepared to help me.
Or at least I thought so until he barged in like a fucking blind man, defending Adelaide like she washisto protect.
Furious waves knotted in my stomach a thousand times over. I’d fucking kill Hasan before he put a hand on Adelaide, friendship be damned.
She was mine tohold, mine tokeep, and mine tobreak.
It shouldn’t matter to him or to any other fucking man in the universe what I planned to do with her.
“Have you always been a dick?” Hasan remained calm. Too calm for my liking.
“Tell me how long you’ve liked her for, and we’ll get this over with.”
