Connected

This story is meant to serve entertainment purposes only, it means no direspect towards Muslims or the religion of Islam. I had a crush on a girl, and it just happened that she was Muslim. Hope you enjoy the story.

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"Oh my gosh, it's her again," I thought to myself.

The object of my mind's affection got onto the bus. It was the third week of school and I had been seeing her almost everyday on the bus ride to, and occasionally from school, because she lived in my apartment complex. I couldn't get up the nerve to talk to her, she was so beautiful. Her face was just, there aren't even words, and she had these piercing brown eyes that complemented her dark features so well. I guess I am leaving out kind of an important part – she's Muslim. Her hair was covered by a scarf, and she dressed very conservatively – a long-sleeve shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. But her face, that was all I really needed to see to know that she was perfection...that and, I could still see her cute ass in her jeans. But part of me felt really bad for thinking this just because she was Muslim. It's true that maybe she wasn't that religious, but the scarf made me feel like I was having impure thoughts about a religious figure of sorts. To her, the scarf was probably something she didn't give a second thought to, but to me, it made me feel like such a sinner for even looking at her. While thinking about all this, I realize there's hardly any open seats on the bus, except for the one beside me. I have a mini-freak out in my head as I see her sitting down beside me. She smiled at me as she sat down.

"Hi," I tried to say to her, but no sound came out. So I turned to the window and tried to think of something intelligent to say to her, but my nervousness left my mind blank. We sat there in silence until the bus came to our apartment complex. She got off the bus and went in the opposite direction. I wanted to slap myself, another opportunity missed.

Almost a week had gone by and I hadn't seen her, so I was feeling like a real idiot for not talking to her when I had the chance. One morning the bus had started to leave for school when I saw her running toward the bus.

"Hey! There's someone coming!" I yelled to the bus driver.

He stopped and let her on the bus. I was sitting near the front, and she ended up sitting beside me again.

The bus driver turned back to her and said, "You're lucky, your friend here told me that you were coming."

She looked at me and said, "You told him?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks so much. I have an exam today, and I would have been screwed if I had missed the bus."

I smiled and said, "No problem."

She smiled back at me, then turned back to face the front.

I knew I had to say something, I had this perfect opportunity. "Um, what's your name? I've seen you on here a lot."

"Yeah, I've seen you on here too, I'm Yasmeen."

"Oh, that's really pretty. I mean, your name – your name is really pretty." Smooth.

"Aww, thank you. What's your name?"

My name? What's my name!? Oh yeah, "I'm Elise."

"Oh, that's really pretty too."

I laughed, "thanks."

"You're welcome," she smiled at me. We sat in a silence for a moment, then she asked, "So, what's your major?"

"Political science, you?"

"Engineering. Mechanical."

"Wow, excuse me," I joked.

She laughed, "It's not that big of a deal."

"Seeing as I can barely do a simple algebraic equation, it's pretty impressive."

She just laughed in response. Goodness, she was beautiful when she laughed.

We got off the bus and walked together towards our classes.

"So, what year are you?" I asked.

"I'm a junior. What year are you?"

"I'm a senior."

"Oh, excited for it to be over?"

"Kind of, it's a little bittersweet. But I still have to go to three years of law school after this anyway."

"At least you don't have to be an adult quite yet!"

I chuckled, "Exactly."

Yasmeen stopped and said, "Well, my class is right here."

"Oh, ok. It was really nice meeting you."

"You too." After a second she said, "We should hang out sometime – if you want."

"Sure, whenever. Definitely," I smiled.

"Alright, well I'll see ya around."

"See ya."

I walked off to my class. Had I really just held a conversation with her? Did she really just ask me to hang out sometime? Does she really know that I actually exist!? It felt so good, like a high. I had that funny feeling in my stomach, and everything just seemed perfect. Then I got to my Italian class and got my quiz back, kind of took me off of my high, to say the least. Then I got to thinking – why on earth am I so excited? There's no way she's not straight, I have no chance with her! I felt a little down from then on.

I thought about Yasmeen the rest of the day, she was sweet and she was beautiful, but I forced myself not to get too excited because I knew my chances with her were slim to none. The next morning I got on the bus and started walking down the aisle to find a seat when someone called my name.

"Elise."

I looked up and saw Yasmeen motioning for me to sit in the empty seat that was beside her.

"Hey, how are you?" I asked.

"I'm good, how are you?"

"I'm okay, little tired. I was up until about 4 doing homework."

"Wow, that sucks. I fell asleep at like 11."

"Thanks for rubbing that in!" I said sarcastically.

She laughed, "No! I didn't mean it like that."

Oh my goodness! She was beautiful when she laughed. "I'm just kidding, I know you didn't." After a few moments I asked her, "What are you doing this weekend?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to find someone who wants to go to the mall because I need to return something before the thirty days are up, but I don't have a car and everyone seems to be busy or either going home."

"When'd you need to go by?"

"Just sometime this weekend."

"Well, I could take you tomorrow if you wanted."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I kind of wanted to look around anyway."

"Oh wow, that'd be great if you could."

"Sure, no problem."

We exchanged phone numbers and everything and decided to go at three the next day.

I picked up Yasmeen and we drove to the mall. She made her return first, then we walked around looking in different stores. We went into the pet store and looked at the puppies.

"Oh my gosh, they are so cute!" Yasmeen said.

"Yeah, they are. Aww, look at the cocker spaniel, it's so adorable."

She giggled, "I think he likes you, he's wagging his tail."

I sighed, "I want a dog so bad."

"Why don't you get one?"

"I don't know. Too much time involved - responsibility. Not to mention the money for shots and food and everything."

"Yeah, that's true."

We left the pet store after I painfully tore myself away from the cocker spaniel and began walking toward the food court. Everything was going well, we were laughing and talking, just having a good time in general. Then it was ruined.

This idiot who was walking in the opposite direction yelled at Yasmeen, "Fucking terrorist! Go back to your own country!"

I turned to look at him, shocked that anyone would yell that at a complete and total stranger. Then I looked at Yasmeen and saw her face. It just looked like her heart had dropped. It made me so upset I yelled back at him.

"You asshole! Come back and say that shit to me!"

Yasmeen grabbed my arm and said, "Elise, what are you doing?" And she was right, he was a pretty big guy, over six feet, looked like he could play football, and could clearly pulverize me. But he had hurt her, and that made me furious.

"If you ever say anything like that to her again, I will kick your fucking ass!" He turned and continued walking in the other direction. I started walking toward him, but Yasmeen grabbed me around the waist and began pulling me in the other direction. But I continued yelling, "You hear me!? Fucking bitch!"

Yasmeen pulled me into the little hall where the bathroom and some pay phones were and pushed me against the wall. "What are you doing? He could have beat up both of us."

"I don't care, he can't talk to you like that."

"Elise, it wouldn't have been the first time. People say those kinds of things to me more than you would think."

"Really?"

She just nodded her head yes.

"How do you deal with that? I mean, I just – you shouldn't have to go through that."

"No one should, but," she looked down and began to cry, "what can you do?"

I stood there for a second watching her cry, then I put my hand on her face and tried to wipe her tears away. She looked up at me and our eyes met. At first her eyes were sad, and I tried to comfort her, but then the look in her eyes changed. I recognized it. We looked at each other for a moment, then she slowly leaned in to kiss me. It was just a peck on the lips, but it was lingering. When she pulled away we just kind of looked at each other a little shocked at what had just happened. She took a few steps back from me and looked blankly at the ground.

"Yasmeen, maybe we-"

"We should go," she interrupted.

"What? But it wasn't-"

"Please," she looked at me, "I just want to go home right now."

I nodded and we walked to my car in silence, then drove all the way back to our apartment complex in silence. When I got to her apartment, she said "thank you," and got out of the car before I could say anything. I went into my apartment and felt pretty down, and overall confused. She had kissed me, so why did I feel like I had done something wrong? I took a nap and woke up around 9pm to my cell ringing. It was Yasmeen.

"Hello," I answered sleepily.

"Hi."

"Hey."

"I'm really sorry about this afternoon."

"I just don't understand what happened. Why would you kiss me if you didn't want to?"

"It's not that I didn't want to, but – I'm just not supposed to."

"Not supposed to?"

"Yeah, you know. The whole Muslim thing – kind of the reason I was accused of being a terrorist today."

"Oh. I hadn't thought about that."

"Yeah, well, it kind of makes it a little bit of an issue."

"You like me then?" I asked.

"What?"

"If you didn't like me there'd be no problem. But since there is a problem, that means you feel something for me."

"I mean, I think you're nice and no one's ever stuck up for me like that before, but-"

"I like you, Yasmeen," I interrupted.

"You do?"

"Yes, very much so. I think you're absolutely beautiful."

"Wow. No one's ever said those kinds of things about me."

"You should hear those kinds of things everyday."

She laughed, and I could hear her blushing through the phone, "Thanks."

"I mean it, Yasmeen."

"I know you do, but, you have to understand how hard this is for me – I've never really dated anyone, let alone dated a girl. It's definitely frowned upon."

"Trust me, it's not exactly celebrated in Christianity either."

She laughed, "I know, but you know what I mean."

"I do. But sometimes we can't understand why things happen, and if we both feel like this we can't just ignore it. Let's just continue being friends, we won't try to push anything or rush anything, but we'll just see what happens."

"Okay."

"Okay." It was silent for a moment, then I said, "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Well, good night, Yasmeen."

"Good night."

The next day we decided to watch movies together. Yasmeen came over that evening and we just watched television for a while. There was some stupid dating stuff on MTV and I made fun of all the people on it, making Yasmeen laugh for almost the entire show. I loved making her laugh. Once the show went off I put "My Best Friend's Wedding" in. We didn't really talk during it, but about half an hour into it Yasmeen scooted closer to me and leaned her head on my shoulder. My heart started racing just from her touch. I wasn't quite sure what to do, I was afraid I'd make the wrong move. A few minutes later I put my arm behind her back and waited nervously for her response. She only snuggled closer. Green light. I rubbed her back until the movie ended and fought the urge to touch her anywhere else. She sat up and I moved my arm from behind her. We sat there for a moment until she broke the silence.

"What do you want to do now?"

Oh, if she only knew. "Um, I don't know. What do you want to do?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know."

We sat there for another moment then I stood up from the couch and extended my hand to help her up.

"Come on," I said.

"Where are we going?"

"No questions! Just come!" I smiled at her.

She looked at me puzzled, but took my hand and got off the couch. I got a blanket and we walked outside. I led her to the grassy area behind my building and laid the blanket on the ground. I motioned for her to lay down and she looked at me a little surprised. It took me a second to pick up on what she was thinking, then I got it.

"Oh! No, no! Not...that."

She chuckled and said, "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's ok."

We both laid down on the blanket and stared up at the night sky.

"I don't know if you care about this kind of stuff at all, but I really like looking at the stars. If it's boring to you, just tell me," I said.

"No, it's not boring at all. I like looking at the stars, I think they're beautiful, but I don't know much about them."

"Well you see that one right there?" I asked, pointing at the sky. "The one that looks like a cross?"

"Yeah."

"That's Cygnus, the swan. And that one right there, kind of like a triangle, is Aquila."

"The eagle?"

"Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Aquila is eagle in Spanish," she laughed.

"Oh, clever girl," I said looking at her.

"Thanks," she laughed. "What's that one?"

"That's Libra."

"Oh. Hey, there's the Little Dipper. That's Ursa...Minor, right?"

"Yeah, exactly! You already know all these and you're not telling me, aren't you?"

She laughed, "No, I just knew that one."

"Yeah right," I said laughing at her.

"I'm serious! I really didn't know the – oh, just shut up Elise!"

I continued laughing and said, "Sorry, I just like picking on you, you get so cute."

She smiled at me, "You're cute too."

We looked back up at the sky for a while, then I slowly reached my hand over to hers. She jumped a little bit once my hand touched hers, I guess she wasn't anticipating the contact. I took her hand in mine, and we laid there holding hands under our own starry blanket. After a good while, I asked her if she was ready to go back inside and she said she was. We got up and went back into my apartment.

"It's getting a little late, I think I'm going to go ahead home. I have to wake up to study tomorrow," she said.

"Okay." I walked her to the door and stood there with her for a moment. "Tonight was-" I began.

"Perfect," she interrupted.

I chuckled and looked down for a moment, then back up at her. "Really?"

She nodded. "Well," she interjected, "it was almost perfect." She put her hand on my face and kissed me.

"Now it was perfect," she said.

I smiled, "You're not going to get all mad at me now, are you?"

She laughed, "No, not this time."

"Good," I said, leaning in to kiss her again.

"Hmm, I better go," she said.

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Good night."

"Night, Elise."

Our relationship only progressed from that night on. A few days later we became "official," but only really to ourselves since we couldn't really tell people, especially Yasmeen's friends. But having that knowledge for ourselves was really all that mattered. It was just nice to have someone to kiss, and to hold, and to call and say good night to. It was just nice to be able to finally call someone "baby." I took things incredibly slow with Yasmeen though. I knew she wasn't very experienced in relationships and obviously, this probably wasn't the way she imagined her first relationship to be, so I did everything I could to make sure she was comfortable with the situation, and more importantly, she was happy with me. I never wanted to have sex with her – well, I mean, of course I did, I was definitely attracted to her, but I was very careful to not be too forward or make her feel like I was rushing her into anything. I waited for her to make most of the first moves.

One night we came back to Yasmeen's after we had gotten caught in the rain. We went into her room and she shut the door.

"Oh my goodness, I'm soaked!" She said.

"Eww, me too!"

We began taking off our outer layers of clothing. I took my shirt off so that I only had a tank top on, and I caught Yasmeen looking at me.

"...what?" I asked a little confused.

"Nothing."

"No really, what?"

"I just um, I liked watching you just now," she said, turning her back to me in embarrassment.

"You did?"

"Yes," she answered quietly, fumbling with her clothes.

"Yas, it's ok if you did. It's nothing to be embarrassed about, babe," I said, touching her arm.

"It's just, I have these feelings for you, and-"

"I have feelings for you too."

"No, not those feelings, the other feelings...like physical feelings."

"Oh. Wow, I um, I didn't expect that."

"Oh no, I'm moving too fast, aren't I?"

"No, no, it's not that at all. I have the same feelings, but I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable." I moved closer to her and wrapped my arms around her from behind, "I feel the exact same way baby."

She turned around to face me, "So what does this mean?"

I hunched my shoulders. "Whatever you want it to mean. It's up to you," I said, rubbing her face.

She put her hand over my heart and kissed me softly. "Okay."

"Okay...what?" I asked, confused.

She nodded toward the bed, and I finally understood.

"Oh! That – okay."

I took her hand and we walked over to the bed. We stood beside the bed and I took my tank top and jeans off.

I smiled and said, "Your turn."

Yasmeen slowly stripped down to her bra and panties, then she reached up to take off her scarf.

"You know, no one's really supposed to see my hair."

I laughed and said, "I think me seeing your hair is the least scandalous part of what we're doing right now."

She laughed and removed her scarf. She had the most gorgeous long black hair.

"Oh my gosh, Yasmeen. You are so beautiful."

"You're beautiful too," she smiled.

I put my arms around her waist and kissed her. "Come on," I whispered, as I motioned for her to follow me to the bed.

I laid down first, then she followed. We looked into each other's eyes for a moment, then Yasmeen put her hand on my face and began kissing me. I put my arm around her back and pulled her closer. I moved my hand up and began trying to unclasp her bra. I could feel her heart racing against my chest, and that made my heart begin to speed up. I broke the kiss to remove her bra. I started kissing her again and moved my hands lower. I put my hand on the waistline of her panties and slowly pulled them down. She grabbed my arm tighter and I knew her nerves were getting the best of her. I stopped kissing her and looked her in the eye.

"It's okay," I whispered, while I stroked her face.

I continued kissing her and rolled her onto her back. I kissed her neck then began kissing my way down the front of her body. She ran her fingers through my hair as I began massaging and kissing her breasts. When I sucked on her nipples, her breathing changed and she began involuntarily rubbing herself against me. As I kissed down her stomach she stopped stroking my hair and began grabbing it. The further I kissed down, the more she closed her legs. I started laughing.

Yasmeen looked down at me shocked, "What?"

I smiled, "Baby, I can't do anything if you keep closing your legs."

She laughed, "Oh. Sorry."

I kissed her thigh and said, "It's okay."

She slowly opened her legs and I began kissing up her inner thighs. She moaned quietly and closed her eyes. I stuck my tongue deep inside of her and began thrusting it in and out. Speeding up as I went along. I moved up and kissed her clit, making her legs shake. I put my hands over her legs to get better control, and began licking her clit lightly. I licked with more and more force until I was just sucking on it. Her hips started rocking back and forth really fast, and her moans got louder and louder. She let out one last scream and then went silent, with her hips in the air. She came and collapsed back onto the bed. I continued licking until her breathing slowed back down. I kissed back her up her body and laid beside her with my arm around her waist. I kissed her shoulder and waited for her to say something.