Two: Taleen

“Welcome to my humble place, Taleen.” He gives me a welcoming smile, stepping aside for us to enter. “It’s my first time to see you around, are you a new friend of Lisa’s?” he wonders as he walks with us to probably the backyard.

          “No, you just haven’t seen me around.” I shrug, looking at him for a second before looking away.

          “Must have been out of my bad luck then.” I hear him and I mentally grimace. It’s obvious that he’s a flirt and I don’t put up with this type. I totally ignore what he says, and I step into the backyard only to be met with the bright sunlight.

          “You finally decided to join us for once,” Owen hollers on seeing me, making me laugh a little. Everyone looks at Lisa and me and it’s apparent that Owen means me, because Lisa always shows up.

          “And probably the last time,” I mumble as I give him a quick hug. It’s something normal between the two of us to hug. He is like a brother to me.

          “Why?” he asks as his arm makes its way around Lisa’s waist and kisses her lips.

          “Your friend here is a flirt,” I say, motioning with my head to the guy who opened the door to us. He is currently having a laugh with two other guys as they fan the pieces of meat on the grill. Lisa takes me and introduces me to the people in the backyard. There are four boys-including Owen and the flirt- and three girls. They all seem nice. 

          “Josh? Yeah, he is, but he’s a nice guy,” Owen says.

          “None of my business anyway,” I tell him, and Lisa shakes her head in disapproval.

          “Let me make it your business then,” Lisa offers with a coy smile on her face.

          “I just love how wild your imagination is.” I chuckle, folding my arms. “Tell you what? I’ll leave you to plan how you’re going to make me like him and I’ll get myself some water. The heat is unbearable. Do you want something?” I ask Lisa and Owen.

          After letting me know that they want beer, I make my way inside and look for the kitchen. I find it quickly and I open the fridge to get myself the water and to get them the beer. My eyes land on a Redbull can and I debate whether I should take it or not. I leave it in its place in the fridge since I’m not at my house to take whatever I want and I close the fridge. I gasp and jump back on seeing Josh in front of me. The door of the fridge was keeping him hidden, so when I closed it, he came into my sight.

          “Jesus! Do you want to give me a heart attack?” I hiss, making him laugh a little at me.

          “Sorry. I definitely didn’t mean to scare you like that.” Josh raises his hand in surrender. “Can you get me a beer, please?” he nicely asks since its door is in my direction. I give him one of the two beers I have in my hand and I open the fridge again to get another one.

          “Let me open it for you.” He takes the three bottles with one hand easily then he gives me back one bottle, but I shake my head.

          “It’s not for me,” I inform him.

          “Why don’t you get yourself something to drink? You’ve loads of options in there other than water.” He points to the fridge. I open it for the third time and my eyes land on the Redbull can again. Why was I terribly craving it?

          “Can I have the Redbull? There’s only one can and I don’t know if it belongs to someone else or not,” I tell him.

          “Go ahead. Take whatever you want.”

          “Thank you.” I smile at him and take it.

          “Taleen, right?” he asks, and I nod. “It’s my first time to hear that name,” he tells me.

          “I’m half Lebanese, half American. My mum chose a Lebanese name for me.  Actually, it’s not a Lebanese name. It’s a Greek one, but it’s quite common in Lebanon.” I explain, feeling myself rambling a little.

          “So, what does it mean?” he asks.

          “I searched once and I found that it means beautiful girl,” I say with slight embarrassment. I’m basically calling myself beautiful.

          “Couldn’t agree more,” he comments, and I can’t help but giggle.

          “Quite smooth.” I point out. “Are you always a flirt? I mean, I’ve been here for less than fifteen minutes and you flirted with me twice.”

          “What can I say? I’m a man that appreciates beauty,” he says as a matter of fact.

          “I think we should head back outside.” I try to end his flirting session and move away from the fridge.

          “Can you get me the barbecue sauce bottle from behind you? I originally came here to get it.” He points to the bottle behind my back. I grab it and hand it to him then I take the Redbull can along with the two beer bottles. It’s good to hear that his original intention wasn’t to stalk me.

          I hand Owen and Lisa their beer and I notice how Lisa is eyeing me. “What?” I frown, tilting my head to the side.

          “Josh was inside with you.” Lisa grins and I sigh out, trying to hide my annoyance. “Sorry! I know I’m pushing, but I just want to see you happy.” For a reason I’m oblivious to, Lisa tends to link my happiness to my relationship status.

          “Who says I’m not? I’m perfectly fine, Lisa!” I exclaim. I think my voice is a bit loud because all the attention is suddenly on us.

          “Sorry, sorry. I won’t talk about this again. Look, let’s take some pictures!” Lisa tries to distract me by pulling me with her. “Owen, can you take some pictures of us?” Lisa asks him nicely and he agrees.

          After taking millions of pictures with one another and even alone, Lisa and I decide that we’ve had enough. We walk to where the grill is and we both start helping a bit. We all made plates for ourselves and we sat on the big round wooden table that is in the backyard.

“So Taleen, since you’re the new one in the group here, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” a girl named Amanda says, looking at me.

“I’m bad at talking about myself. You can ask me whatever you want, and I’ll gladly answer,” I reply with a smile on my face.

 “Your name is unique, what does it mean?” Daniel, a black guy, who seems like an athlete, asks me. His body is just great.

“It’s a Greek name that means beautiful girl,” I answer him.

“Are you Greek?” Amanda wonders and I shake my head.

“No, I’m half American, half Lebanese,” I reply, knowing my answer will trigger more questions.

“You immigrated?” Josh asks and I shook my head.

“I was born here. My mum’s family moved here when she was fifteen. She met my dad in college. They fell in love and they got married. I was born here, but I did visit Lebanon more than once. I think five times,” I tell them more about my family and myself.

“So, you speak Lebanese?” a girl named Bonnie asks me and I can’t help but laugh a little at her question.

“Sorry, but Lebanese isn’t a language. It’s a nationality; however, I do speak Arabic.” I explain to her and she nods.

“Excuse my ignorance.” She laughed a little.

“I know you probably get asked to do this a lot, but can you say something in Arabic right now?” the third girl, Ella, requests.

I stay silent for a bit, trying to think about something to say. “Shaklek helw ktir el youm,” I tell her.

“Did you insult her or something?” Owen jokes and Lisa playfully shoves him.

“She probably complimented her,” Josh says, and I nod.

“I did, I said ‘you look very nice today.’”

“Thank you!” Ella gushes.

As we eat, we all chat together and I must admit, this group is really nice and welcoming. They know how to put you at ease and include you in the conversation.

“Do you have a boyfriend, Taleen?” Ryan wonders, making Daniel chuckle beside him.

          “Are you checking if you’ve got a chance or not?” Daniel teases his friend.

“I don’t. I don’t really date,” I tell them. He gives me a look of confusion and I shrug. “What? Haven’t you heard about that before?”

“My first time hearing this from a girl,” Josh says.

“I’m here to break stereotypes.” I grin and shove a forkful of grilled meat in my mouth. Although I’m not looking, I can feel a pair of eyes staring at me and I do my best to ignore them. It’s not rocket science to know on my own that Josh is the one eyeing me. I’m like a mystery to him, but I’m not a mystery. I’m way simpler than he can imagine. I just don’t date.

 That’s what usually happens when I say that I don’t date; as if girls aren’t allowed not to date by choice.

After we finished eating, we took the dishes inside. Lisa and Owen load them into the dishwasher, and I search for the bathroom to wash my hands. After that, I walk back to the backyard where I see Amanda, Ella, and Bonnie taking pictures.

“Come join us!” Ella shouts for me. I smile and walk over to them. After just five minutes, we ended up with more than fifty pictures on Ella’s phone.

“Seriously girl! You have great skills!” Bonnie compliments my photography skills.

“Thank you!” I tell her as I look at some of the pictures on her phone.

“Ella, this one is great. You can post it on your I*******m. I bet if Taleen took some pictures of you in different places with different outfits, your I*******m account would grow!” Amanda says and I notice Ella sending her a glare. “What!?” She shrugs.

“Are you an I*******m model or something?” I ask her.

“An aspiring one. I actually want to be a model, not just an I*******m model, but it’s hard to join this industry, so I’m trying to pave my way through social media.” Ella blushes and looks down for a moment. She looks embarrassed.

“Why do you seem so shy about that?” I question her. It’s easy to guess from her body language that she’s nervous.

“People usually think I’m empty-headed for wanting that. I’m actually not stupid or empty-headed at all. I’m majoring in computer science and I’ve pretty good grades, I don’t think I should be classified stupid for wanting to be a model.” Now, she’s all defensive and this is enough to prove that this girl has been prone to a huge amount of criticism; more than she can handle.

“Nobody said you’re stupid. Nothing is wrong with wanting to be a model. People are just assholes. As time goes by, you’ll learn how to ignore them.” I try to soothe her outraged emotions with nice words. I just hate how people can perfect the art of bringing others down. What do they gain from doing that? Why do they find pleasure in belittling others’ dreams?

“Thank you. Do you have an iPhone? I can send your pictures to you by airdrop if you want.” Ella offers and I nod, taking out my iPhoneX from my back pocket. I can tell that she wanted to change the topic. She isn’t comfortable enough with talking about it with me, probably because I’m still a stranger to her; she has the right to be uncomfortable.

Just as I’m unlocking my phone and turning on my airdrop, I feel something smack me hard in the face, making me stumble back. I find myself quickly losing my balance and suddenly, my whole body falls back in the pool that I was once standing by.