amina

I have another introduction to make. When I first wrote about my dear friends at Gabs, this particular friend was still in her jetlag phase and therefore out of reach. She has since recovered and has taken up residence in my life like the termites nested in our wooden floors. Except with more cute. 

Amina is my other third, from Pakistan via England via Croatia via Nigeria. She's studying Management and lives on the top floor. We actually met on Facebook through the St Gabriel's Hall group. 

We talked quite a bit on the Face and then met a day or two after Amina's arrival in Manchester. Facebook always makes real life a little more awkward than normal so while we'd spoken a ton and had made plans to go shopping and knew each other's family histories, it was still weird meeting each other for realz. 

One day I came down to reception on my way out to drop something off at Stopford. Amina happened to be sitting on her own, just chillin'. Weirdo. Just kidding. I figured she had nothing better to do so I asked her if she'd like to come along for the walk and she said, "Yeah, sure, I have nothing better to do." I'm quite good at figuring things. Off we went, chatting a bit, strolling in the sun -- yes, I said sun -- to the medical building. I recall one of the things we talked about was the sun and how we were both so surprised to see it there after all the warnings we'd gotten from our families about how there will be NO SUNLIGHT EVER in Manchester. They lied.

Turns out Stopford was closed so we turned around and walked back. On the return, I recall asking her birthday and when I told her mine, she exclaimed that was her best friend's birthday too. I laughed and jokingly said, "Well maybe now I'll be your best friend!" She laughed too. Later she told me she thought I was a creep.

So while that errand was a total waste, it gave me the delightful chance of talking to Amina for the first time. If I only I knew what I was getting myself into.

Between the time of meeting Amina, Aamna and I have begun living with each other and getting married. Not necessarily in that order because we are good Muslims. Aamna, apparently, has also met Amina and thinks that Amina hates her. So I, being ever thoughtful and totally unaware of others' embarrassment, tell her she's being silly and tell Amina that Aamna thinks she hates her. Amina takes pity on Aamna and Facebook chats her up. At the moment of said chat's occurrence, Aamna bursts into my room yelling, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TOLD HER I THINK SHE HATES ME. NOW SHE'S PITY FRIENDING ME." 

She'll thank me later.

It was a few weeks later that Amina truly began to be our (Aamna & my) final third. She got over her jetlag and started coming down to the basement. Now she's an honorary basement member -- even her kitchen stuff has found its way to our cupboards. She lives in either my or Aamna's room, depending who's in and who's door is unlocked. It has gone so far that I have, I kid you not, walked into my room only to find Amina asleep in my bed. 

I am now quite used to finding people in my room/bed and it's actually kind of weird not to have had someone else living in my room for more than a day. Anyhoo.

Amina is hilarious and cute and has spread the arm-flapping dance of excitement to pretty much everyone who hangs out with her. We have hot cocoa together at midnight and share our chuttputty noodles. We have sleepovers in each other's rooms, use each other's stuff, and have conversations which no one else understands. We even refer to ourselves in the singular because we consider ourselves to be one person. We watch Indian movies together, she teaches me Urdu, I teach her Arabic. I hacked her Facebook profile more than once. She unsuccessfully tries to kick me and Aamna out of her room at 3am. (She actually really loves having us there but doesn't know how to express her deep emotions.) She gives me Pakindian music. I gave her my entire iTunes library. She even tells me that she logs into my library on the local internet connection everyday before anyone else so she can keep it on all day and she gets mad when she can't get on it because 5 people have already accessed it. (So far, I've identified 3 of the 5 people who log onto my library every day.)

Amina is just a part of Aamna and me. Everyone knows that if you're looking for one of us, you might as well look for the other two. People looking for Aamna stop at my room first. We've merely extended our marriage to include Amina and now she's quickly becoming us too. It's only slightly disturbing. We love her anyways. <3