Strings - Capstone Amal Al Shamsi (1)

The living room was indistinguishable from the kitchen. When Hamza walked out of the
bathroom on one end, moving towards his shared room, he ran into the drawers that one of the
boys had left open.
He nudged it closed with the same shoulder, wincing.
“Let’s go?” Faisal asked. He had put his suitcase on the bare mattress of his bed. They
had chosen the room furthest from the front door because it had the only window that faced
partially onto the street.
“Which idiot was going through the kitchen already? It’s not a hotel minibar,” Hamza
said.
Raed walked in, sitting next to the luggage on the bed. He had an oily spot next to his
collar and smelled like musk. “We can turn it into a minibar,” he said.
Hearing the commotion, Hussain walked over from his room. “I want real food, not from
a bar or whatever,” he told Raed sharply.
“Look at him, he’s ready to argue,” Faisal snorted.
“Idiot,” Hamza said. His shin hurt.
“Roll up your sleeves, come on, fight!” Faisal held two fists up to Hussain.
Salem knocked into the door frame as he peeked in, the rest shifted to make way. Hamza
felt he had to press his back further into the window to get some space to himself. “The guy
downstairs said they have good bed stuff, we have to stop in 14th station, or something,” Salem
said.
“Can we eat those?” Hussain said, sounding like he was gritting his teeth together.
Faisal looked at Hamza with a grin.
“Just saying,” Salem said.”
“Well, shut up.”
Hamza raised his hands, “Hey! When did this room become a meeting place, why are you
all here? Like little chicks following me, yallah, let’s get out so I can breathe.”
They found a small Mexican restaurant after fifteen minutes of deliberating and walking.
Hamza ate the quickest out of them all and had a lot of time to look around. It had finally sunk
in that he was there, with this group in a foreign place. He wondered what their houses looked
like, where they lived before this. Instead, he noticed that Raed almost systematically itched his
ear, flicking away the hair that fell over it and that Hussain’s facial hair stopped right under his
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