Chapter 1
Chapter 1
As far as you can avoid it, do not give grief to anyone.
Omar Hayam
As I stare at him across the bar, sipping a drink and laughing whilst surrounded by 3 tall gorgeous girls with curves to die for, I can’t help but wonder what is it that makes me so mesmerized by his smile. With the dimmed lights I haven’t even seen his face properly, just his lips and white perfect teeth and occasionally his tongue while he bites or licks his lower lips while flirting with the girls who obviously would not leave his side.
‘Hey little sister, can I get you some more tea?’ Moe shouts and brings me out of my trance as he is preparing some tequila shots for the bunch of 3rd-year students at the bar.
‘No, still got plenty left, I am going to hang out outside for a bit ' I scream to him so he hears me through Rihanna’s Beautiful like Diamond in the Sky.
Let me finally introduce myself.
My name is Layla, a 17-year-old Muslim girl who is still struggling with her identity in the Western world. The internal struggle between good and bad. I am half English and half Albanian, so I do not look any different from the European girls around the Swiss Riviera, where I just recently moved to start university in Hotel management with my sister. So, I do not have any issues with my looks, more issues with my Muslim identity. I believe in God, but the struggle with what I can and cannot do in terms of religion always takes over me.
I used to drink during the parties in high school, but I have stopped completely in the last year, because of the guilt that was taking over and I wanted to become a better Muslim you can say.
I glance one more time at the mystery boy, take my cup and walk out of the Bar. It is a small university bar, where most of the students used to hang out before going to the clubs down in the city. My sister and her friends became fast friends with the owners of the bar, so they used to hang out there all the time.
Out university is located up in the mountains with nothing around except a school cafeteria and 3 food joints managed by the university and one university bar. So if you want to have any fun, you have to take a 25 minutes train down to the closest city. The city is also small but has some decent restaurants, a few bars , 3 clubs, and a casino.
I usually don’t go out, because I am not interested in this whole drinking/clubbing/drugs scene, but my sister dragged me down this Friday. I did not enjoy anyone’s company and only made one friend who became obsessed with me and finally started to suffocate me with her presence 24/7 after 2 months of joining the uni, so I decided to change my social atmosphere and go down to the city with my sister and her friends. I guess my social awkwardness comes from the fact that I was not supposed to be at university right now, where I should have been was in my last year of high school. Yet, my mother thought it would be a good idea for me and my sister not to separate, and go to Switzerland together. Where I would have joined a boarding school, while she does her first year of uni. However, my sister’s university advisor has arranged a special exam, and since i passed it, I went straight to university without completing high school. Lucky me you would say.
Well, not me. I wanted to stay with my best friends and experience my senior year in school, apply for a finance degree and move to the USA . And just like that my dreams have shuttered. I was too much of a coward to confront my mother about it, so I just kept my mouth shut, packed my bags, and moved to Switzerland.
And that's how my love journey began...
