Who do/did you look up to?
[ Writing Challenge Day 8 | Na’eemah, Ame, and Semih Malakhi, Aezel: @skiesinlove , Rue: @lemonlavender-tea , Dimitri: @lowkeys-apprentice-emporium ]
I looked up from my meal to the seat across from me. Aezel was darting his eyes from me to my parents mischievously. “So”, he finally turned to my mother, “What was Ame like as a baby?”
In a second I could feel my heart skip a beat and the room turn to curiosity. I flipped my head towards Dimi as he joined in. “Oh yeah! Was he a troublemaker?”
My father shrugged, “I wouldn’t say troublemaker as much as I would fusser.” My mother nodded in agreement, “When he wanted something he would cry and cry. He never was good with words.”
She smiled innocently at me, “Although, once you learned how to walk it was over for all of us.” I tried to save myself from the embarrassment, “I c-couldn’t have been th-that bad!” “I remember…”
My father leaned back in his seat, “Every day you would follow me towards the docks with your mother’s bag. And every day you would cry when Na’eemah picked you up and carried you home.”
Rue hid their smile behind their hand. I shrunk further in my seat the more I heard him holding back a laugh. My ears were burning as I picked at my food.
“Oh! How could I forget how happy you were when he came home!” With a swoon that only a mother could give, she rested a hand over hear heart with a small sigh. “Oh that face! It made my heart break every time.”
“I bet you still do it for your lovers here when you see them.” My cheeks began to flush red. Aezel sighed, “He does look very cute in the morning when he’s first waking up.”
“Baba…” I turned to my father while the others were distracted. Frantically I told him in arabic, “Don’t embarrass me in front of them!” Dimitri snorted, covering his mouth as laughter bubbled inside him.
“Dimi!” “Ame it’s nothing that isn’t true.” I returned my gaze back to my father, who was smiling cheerfully. “If you want I could tell about the time you first-”
I sighed, slumping back down in my seat. “You first what?” Dimi looked to him in curiosity. The others seemed to follow, dragging the attention to the many stories that were soon to escape my father.
“The first time he caught a fish? Or maybe when he found my sword in the bedroom?”
“I can’t imagine you with a sword Ame.” Dimitri raised a brow.
“Neither could I! There’s still a spot in the wood where he dropped the blade.” My father barked with laughter, “I never saw you cry more for something like that! You spent the whole afternoon sitting by the mark trying to fix it.”
“Did he swing it around or…?”
My father gestured with his hands as he explained, “No. He managed to unsheathe it, reach the stairwell, and drop it down the stairs. I thought someone broke in he was panicking so badly.”
I dropped my head onto the edge of the table in defeat. “No one got hurt…well…except the floor.”