Peter and Jasmine

Once upon a time, there was a guy named Peter, he lived with his family in a big house in the upper class neighborhood. They had a dog and a Volvo. Peter’s best friend was Amir, they were classmates and socialized every day after school. Amir was born in Sweden but his parents were from Iraq, so he was Muslim. He lived with his parents and his sister in a little apartment in the lower class neighborhood.

First day at school after the summer, Peter had gone to his family’s house in Spain over the summer so he was excited to meet all of his friends, especially Amir. He had a lot of things to tell him. He was on his way to school when he saw a beautiful girl his own age. She had a nice body and long dark hair. They made eye contact and everything just stopped. It was something familiar about her, but he didn’t know why. He dropped his thoughts when he saw Amir, he ran over to him and said hello. They went to the class together.  As usual the day started with a call. Peter listened carefully when they called the beautiful girls name. “Jasmine al Said.” It couldn´t be right. Amir´s last name was al Said. That meat it was his sister. He didn´t recognize her at all. Peter had always thought that Jasmine was cute, but this was something else. She had grown to a women, she looked more like a goddess than his best friend’s younger sister. He couldn´t take his eyes of her.
After school Peter and Amir went to Amir’s, as they used to. But this time was it not only because he wanted to see Amir, he also wanted to see Jasmine. Home at the al Said family it looked like any Swedish home, except of the religious paintings, signs and statues which were spread out in the apartment. Peter and Amir made a sandwich and went to Amir´s room while they were talking about their summers. Amir had played soccer with the neighbors every day. Suddenly Peter picked up a little bag from his pocket. It looked like spices, but both of them knew what it was. Amir looked skeptical, it didn´t look like he wanted to do it. Peter explained that all of the kids in their age were doing the same things, and he assured Amir that it was good stuff he bought from Spain. Amir said okay and they rolled it and started smoking. After a while Amir was sleeping. Peter was so stoned he felt immortal. He went to Jasmines door and knocked. The door opened and there she was, the most beautiful girl on earth. They started to kiss each other even though they shouldn’t. But they did more stupid things that night. Morning came and Peter started to walk home. He was happy for the first time, he was in love for real. But he wasn´t thinking of that what they did was inconceivable, he had forgotten that a Swede couldn’t be with an Arab.

A few weeks later he and Amir were sitting in the recreation center and a guy came and talked to Amir. He came back and looked angry. He asked Peter if it was true. He pretended to not understand but said the truth after a while.

That night Amir had anxiety, he knew what he had to do, it was a part of his culture. But at the same time he knew that he weren´t able to do it. He thought about the bag in his drawer and got an idea. He took it and went to Jasmine´s room. He forced her to smoke, wrote a letter and took her out in the woods. The letter said:

“Dear sister, I know what you did with Peter and I’m disappointed at you. You know what I have to do, I have to kill you and you know it´s no easy thing to do. I can´t so I’m going to do this my way. I will tell everyone at home that you are gone, and you will never show up again. I put all my money in the envelope, you have to live your life somewhere else. Do not come back, then I’m the one who gets killed. I love you. / Amir”

He couldn’t sleep, he was wondering if he was doing the right thing. He prayed one, two and three times that night. He prayed for forgiveness. He was also thinking of Peter. What would he say or do? He had to tell him. He sent a text:

“Jasmine is fine, I think you know where she is if you want to find her. Listen to what she has to say and make a decision. I am doing this for you, good luck!”

Peter woke up when he got the text. He read it, hurried up, took some clothes and ran to the lake in the wood. He understood immediately what place Amir was talking about in the message. Every time something was wrong they met at a little lake in the woods. When he saw Jasmine laying in the grass he felt happiness. He ran faster and sat down beside her. She was so cold, and she didn´t breath. Peter´s heart broke as he thought she had killed herself because of him. He regretted everything. A life without Jasmine is not worth to live, he thought. He kissed her cheek before he jumped into the lake and drowned himself.

When Jasmine woke up she read the letter. Tears started to fall from both of her eyes. Suddenly she saw something in the lake. It was a body. She saw that it was Peter and she understood what had happened. She started to cry even more and she jumped into the cold water and hugged Peter´s dead body. She was next to him for 5 minutes before she made up her mind. She wanted to follow her heart. She couldn´t return home, she had nowhere to be. But she knew that Peter would always love her. She wanted him so bad, she didn´t care if it was on earth or in heaven, she had nothing to lose, and Peter was the love of her life.

When Amir looked at his cell phone the next day he saw a text from Jasmine. He ran to his room and read it. It said:

“For never was a story of more woe, than this of Jasmine and her Peter”.