Life of Salma Muhammad — Season Two

Page Four: Where Is Max? Dear Diary,It’s been days since the whole thing with the twin happened and somehow, we’re now friends. His name is Imran, by the way. When he first told me his name, my mind immediately went to the novel I finished reading last month, Sarauniya Heartstrings. 🫠I don’t know why my brain made that connection but okay.Imran is actually really smart and funny. And shy. God, this boy is shy. When it’s just the two of us, he talks normally, but put other people around and suddenly he has nothing to say. 😂I might like him.God, I might actually like himmmmm😭😭Let me stop before I start embarrassing myself.Anyway, there’s something else that’s been bothering me. Max hasn’t been in school for days.At first, I didn’t think much of it. I thought he was probably just at home, but after a few days, people started talking. You know how school rumours are. One person hears something, tells another person, the story changes small, and before you know it, everybody has their own version.This time, it was about Max’s family.Again.I still remember what happened with his father, so hearing people talk about his family again made me uncomfortable. I tried calling him and he didn’t pick up. I sent him messages too, asking where he was and why he hadn’t been coming to school, but he didn’t reply to any of them.I was getting annoyed at first because he could at least tell me what was going on. Then I started getting worried.I wanted to go to his house, but I knew my parents wouldn’t let me. If I told my mum I wanted to go and see a boy from school because he hadn’t been coming to school, she would start asking me questions immediately. Who is he? Why are you going there? What happened to him? Why can’t he come to school? And after all that, she would still probably say no. 😭So there was really nothing I could do except keep calling him and sending him messages.He still didn’t reply.His seat was empty the next day.And the day after that too.Then on Friday, Jennifer came to sit beside me during break. She had this weird look on her face, so I asked her what was wrong.“Have you heard from Max?”I shook my head. “No. Why?”She looked around before leaning closer.“I think I know why he hasn’t been coming to school.”I stared at her.“Okay...?”She hesitated for a second.“And you’re not going to like it.”I immediately knew whatever she was about to say was not going to be good.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/IMG_7904.jpeg"/>

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