2

Chapter 2

Satisfied with what he had written, Ayoub closed his laptop and went back upstairs. He walked through the hallway into the living room and saw that his mother and Nour were watching TV in the den. He glanced down the hall to Firuze's bedroom door. For once it was shut. Hopefully she was sleeping. Otherwise he'd probably get chewed out again.

Ayoub entered the kitchen and put the chicken in the microwave. He opened the fridge and scanned the contents. Everything seemed to be okay. There weren't any tomatoes left. That was normal though; his mother had been making tomato soup yesterday. He closed the door and checked the time. 3:47pm. He opened the fridge and found some ketchup. Well, it would do. He poured it into his lunch and started digging in to it.

After he was full, he decided to wash the rest of the food. While it was boiling, he grabbed two forks and knives, placed them neatly on a paper towel roll and carried them to the sink to rinse them off. As he worked, he couldn't help but notice that most of what he was doing looked messy. This was because the entire plate was covered in food stains. After washing them and drying them off he decided it was time to call it a day. Time to go home.

Once he was done eating, he grabbed a glass and filled it with tap water. He walked back into the hallway. He looked at his sister's room. It looked almost untouched since he had been here yesterday.