The Game

The following is a demonstration of true events that took and take and will take place over and over, unless both boys and girls get a dose of reality. Reader discretion advised. Most dialogue is translated and therefore might seem unnatural.

"Incoming", Faisal declared, tilting his head a bit to get the girl who just stepped in the restaurant in his view. M7amad looked over his shoulder, took a glance and shrugged as he turned back to his salad "Al3an abo thogek," he said. Faisal reached for his mobile phone, turned on the bluetooth and started laughing at the nicknames. 3ali was on the phone, discussing a final price for a car. As soon as he got off the phone, Faisal shoved his mobile in 3ali's face and was telling him to take a wild guess which nick belonged to the girl who just walked in.

"Ay bent? Shtabi?" 3ali asked. M7amad looked up, pointed his fork towards Faisal and said "Ya3ni ma tadry ena 3laiwi gaaleb 3alaina shareef Roma? Ma tedor 3enda hal sowalef." 3ali looked over Faisal's shoulder searching for the waiter, "You believe that shit? Motherfucker hasn't refilled me for 10 minutes now.. Fsail shga3ed etkhiz ent?"

Faisal was stretching his neck following the girl as she was looking around, as if searching for a particular table. M7amad mirrored Faisal's eyes and looked in that direction, noticing that the girl was alone, "Daasha bro7ha, wa7da mn thalaath: imwa3da, al7en b teg3ad weya shelat-ha, aw yaaya itethaba6" he concluded. Faisal was wishing that she would come sit across the floor on a table already occupied by a number of 'honey bunnies'. As all useless wishes, it came true.

3ali looked at Faisal, then at M7amad. He started "You know, the funny thing is that you're sitting here fucking in your head a girl that you don't even know who or what she is, how old she is what she does for a living and how many guys other than you are fucking her in their heads as we speak; all the while when she takes her seat and takes a look around checking "il wath3", she's gonna notice a guy who's staring at her, but instead of interpretting the look as degrading, she makes the choice to believe that you're actually interested. She'll feel flattered, she'll smile because she thinks she made the right choice in wearing that skirt along with those shoes. In her head, she's thinking of you as her knight in shining armor who's gonna make all her wishes come true. All because of that disgusting look on your face which she takes as a compliment."

"Aha?" Faisal blurted.

"Meanwhile, one by one, the other guys are going to notice that she's interested in you since she's looking back and they'll watch out for another girl to eye-fuck. And so it goes on and on. By now she's probably told her friends to check you out, ask if anyone of them knows who you are, what your car is, where you work and/or whether you're a regular at this place. Not to mention, she's now asking her friends if she knows myself or 7amood. Answers to those questions do not necessarily affect the conclusion that she will be moaning your name tonight after you sweet-talk her 5 minutes into your first session of phone sex."

"True, true." M7amad nodded.

"Gradually, you're gonna make the impression that you care for her and that you knew she was the one the moment she stepped into this restaurant. Ofcourse, you're gonna either precede or proceed by 'sadgeeni lama agolich' and 'ana ghair 3an il shabaab, ana neyety saafya'. Worst of all, she's gonna fall for it. Why? Because she doesn't have any fucking clue that we're having this conversation, because she doesn't know that while I'm talking to you right now; you can't wait for all the things I'm telling you are about to happen to actually do happen. She's gonna go on, lecturing about how love does exist, and how she was lucky enough to find love. You're gonna convince her to do all the things which deep down inside you know are wrong. And you're gonna feel like you're a man for making her do those things."

"Yeah Fsail, you're gonna believe you've got a 12-inch dick," M7amad nodded, signaling for the waiter.

"Look at her, you can actually see her thinking about how you're interested in her. She actually believes that you're looking at her and seeing the wife you wished for, a mother for your kids. Someone she would count on for the rest of her life, and someone who she would want to realise all her dreams with. You can almost see her thinking about you making sweet love to her with the candles she has prepared all around the room."

"Just like in Desperado man, just like Desperado" M7amad agreed, after taking a sip of his refilled coke. "Tell him about her friends, 3laiwi."

"Man, don't get me started. Her friends would secretly know that she's being played, but because they want to believe in love so hard they're gonna push her to stay with you. After you make her suck your dick in your car and then make up a story about how you regret her doing that because you really respect her and you would never want her to be like one of 'those girls'- but you couldn't fight it because she was just so beautiful. Her friends will tell her it's okay. You two are gonna get married anyway, it'll all be over soon. And it's okay anyway, you two were in love.. so what if you two expressed that love in that manner?"

"Now tell him about his friends, 3laiwi. Tell him about us." M7amad said, reaching for a napkin and wiping his hands.

"We'll be in this place some other time, right on this table, and you're gonna ask us 'hey remember that girl we saw a while ago over here?'. Obviously, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that since between the three of us, we would've shared up to a hundred girls in the past 6 months - telling them all the same stories with slight modifications here and there. And they're all gonna fall for it. So anyway, we all remember her and we say 'yeah, what's up?'. Then you're gonna tell us all about how she isn't as innocent as she looks, and that she's one raunchy bitch when itched the right way. Basically, we're all going to sit here and laugh have a good time while some poor girl's reputation and emotions gets literally fucked. And it's all because you wanted to prove to everybody that you're a player."

Faisal was nodding in agreement, knowing the drill; as he remembered all the times before that such things have happened over and over again between him and his friends. M7amad looked at both of them and said "You're kidding me right, you're leaving out the best part!"

The waiter placed the bill on the table, and 3ali reached out for his wallet "3alay hal mara. So anyway what is it 7amood, what did I miss out?" Faisal leaned in, showing the two of them the girl's number now since they had already exchanged numbers and promised to call once they're out of here. "You didn't tell him about our friends, the guys who aren't here," M7amad announced. 3ali paid the bill, and they were all getting up from their chairs now. Settling their iqtar and nasfaat, they started walking towards the door.

As they approached the table which the party of girls were sitting on, all three of them recognized that smile on the girl's face. The smile of a girl who just met the guy who's gonna fuck up her life; but to her is her 'new love'.

"Oh," 3ali said, "the guys would basically know who she is, where she lives and everything about her. After Fsail is done with her, he's gonna give out her number to the guys 'in dire need', and since she has nothing to lose now; she's gonna get around telling herself that love sure is out there. So what if Faisal was an asshole, I'm sure this way is the best in getting to know guys. She's gonna tell herself that she 'just knows it'"

They were in the parking lot now, and said they'd meet in the shalaih in an hour. Faisal said he would be a bit late, eyeing a girl walking towards her Range Rover. "Might as well double my chances in all you said back there, man" he winked.