My Best Friend

“Truth” I answered to my friends as it was my turn for ‘Truth or Dare.’ There were six of my closest friends, all crammed into a van on our way to SkyZone, which was a three hour drive. We were half way through when we started playing ‘Truth or Dare,’ which soon became ‘Truth or Truth’ because there was no room to dare anyone. “Who’s your best friend?” was the question I was faced with. Great, I’m in a car filled with my friends and I have to choose between them I thought to myself. “Malaak” I answered. A few of them protested with my response, as they didn’t think answering my sister was fair.

At the time, Malaak was my safe answer, because surely none of them could get offended I chose my sister over them. In reality, Malaak and I argued a ton and she wasn’t my best friend. Maybe it was the fact that we shared a room or were only a year and a half apart that sparked our fighting. Or maybe it was because we were sparring partners in taekwondo, so our fighting spirits naturally carried over to the house. But as time passed, Malaak and I argued less and got closer. Whenever we’d plan to hang out, I started to look forward to it, instead of dreading going along for the sake of it.

This change happened after I started attending a different school than her, and I think that’s because we didn’t see each other as often. Before, we went to the same school, participated in the same sports, and had the same friends; which meant we were always in each other’s faces. But once I started at Uni, I’d stay on campus until my dad could pick my up around 7, made friends with a different group, quit practicing martial arts and instead joined the swim and soccer team. These drastic schedule changes barely allowed me to see and talk with Malaak. I started to miss her snarky comments that always put my in my place if I was getting too full of myself, or her sassiness that would lighten up the mood. 

As we got older, we both had more work to do and less time to hang, so we naturally became study buddies; which is the best and worst thing to ever happen. It's good because we’re both hardworking, so when we’re in the zone, we get our work done. Also, if either of us starts talking, we aggressively shush each other and ignore them. We’re not perfect in no way, so sometimes we do get off topic. The downside is that when we get distracted, we talk for HOURS, so our library trip that was only supposed to be 3 hours, turns into 8 hours because we spend so much time talking. 

One thing I’m always grateful about Malaak is that she doesn’t get annoyed when I hang with her and her friends. Maybe it’s a cliche in the movies that I watch, that the older sibling hates when the younger sibling tags along, but Malaak is always inviting me to hang with her friends. Honestly, it’s probably because she knows I’m not the most social person, so she pushes me to interact with others than my usual 4 friends. Another thing I really appreciate about Malaak is that she’s been my roommate for the past 16 years, and she puts up with my weird schedule. She’s never complained about my alarm clock going off 3 times before I finally get up at 5am on some days, or me sleeping at 3 in the morning on other days. My brother, who’s room is at the other end of the hall, complains about my routine and scolds my habits. So Melooka, thank you for putting up with me, I appreciate you <3 .="" 3="" nbsp="" span="">