“What’s A Cheesesteak?”

“Rumman, my feet are killing me,” Zainab Afzal added to her list of complaints.
“You should have worn sneakers,” I shot back in annoyance. Zainab was my best friend visiting from a wealthy town in upstate New York. She had never been exposed to city life, which made the trip quite interesting. I knew everything was going to go wrong when I saw her walking out of the house wearing expensive shoes and highly stylish jeans for a shopping trip to South Street. Philadelphia was going to be a completely new experience for her.
It was a hot summer day and I could tell Zainab was already feeling uncomfortable with the weather. We hopped onto the crowded and sweltering SEPTA bus heading towards South Street.
“Rumman, you know I’m claustrophobic!” Zainab whispered into my ear.
“ Just wait, we’re almost here,” I answered losing patience. We got off the bus and waited at the traffic light of South and Broad watching the cars rush by. I slowly began to cross and Zainab was already having a hard time keeping up with me. We walked into the store and the cold air conditioning put my body at ease. Zainab quickly ran to the nearest bench and sat down. She seemed like she was panicking and started fanning herself as if the room wasn’t cold enough.
“What’s wrong now?” I asked impatiently.
“This weather is going to give me sunburn and I’m going to get acne!” she whined. I thought maybe if we went out and got food, she would feel better. We walked inside a pizza place overwhelmed by the astonishing smell of pizza. As we sat down on the table with our food, I didn’t think that there was anything else that Zainab would complain about until she said,
“Oh my god, EW this pizza is too oily.” By that point I had already had enough and glared at her. She got the idea and started to eat the pizza without any more complaints. We walked into a store full of beautifully designed and labeled T-shirts. Zainab and I got identical shirts that had “I Love Philly” printed on them. We roamed around the store laughing at the humorous ones. After buying our T-shirts we walked around a little while longer. Just when I thought we were actually having fun, the worst thing happened. I decided that before Zainab started whining again for feeling hot and sweaty, we would get ice cream. I got a creamy float overflowing with brownie bits and ice cream and Zainab got a regular milkshake. We walked outside of Dairy Queen and there seemed to be a homeless man waiting for us. Most Philadelphians know to ignore them but as we all know, Zainab didn’t. He started mumbling in gibberish looking over at us in desperation. Zainab gripped my wrist and I was sure that my blood circulation had stopped. The old homeless man reached out his hand towards Zainab begging her for money. I started to walk away but after a few seconds of walking, I realized Zainab wasn’t with me. As I turned my head, I heard a terrifying scream. Zainab was standing next to the homeless man waving her arms around and pushing the poor guy away. I ran over feeling everybody’s eyes watching me intrigued with the show. I grabbed Zainab’s arm and pulled her away walking as fast as I could.
“Rumman, what was wrong with that man!” She was shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Zan, you’re suppose to learn to ignore those people, they are bums!” I yelled back. I watched tears run down her cheek feeling sorry for her. I knew that the best possible thing to do at that moment was to leave.
“I am so sorry if this isn’t what you were expecting,” she apologized. If this were a few hours ago, I would have gotten annoyed but at that point I actually felt bad for her.
We walked down to Walnut Street to do more shopping. As soon as we walked into one of the stores, Zainab got an immediate rush of excitement. The stores on Walnut were all highly brand named which was the type of clothing Zainab wore. She started grabbing and pulling clothes of shelves to try them on. I finally saw her smiling. After an hour’s worth of shopping, we were walking to 15th street to head home. As Zainab and I were walking, we passed a bar with a crowd of people standing outside completely wasted. Zainab tried walking past them quickly but one man grabbed her arm and started dancing with her. I was so scared for her because of what happened after the past experience with the homeless man. I tried looking for her getting myself lost in the crowd of drunken people. When I found her she had a confused look on her face as the man continued dancing and shouting unappealing things. Zainab finally got away and I was ready to hear her burst into tears but instead I got something unexpected. She started roaring with laughter and said,
“Wow, you people are freakin’ crazy.”
“Welcome to Philadelphia,” I answered.
“That was definitely the funniest thing that ever happened to me,” Zainab said with excitement. I could really tell she was finally having a good time. We both continued to walk back home with the feeling of satisfaction and happiness.
“Zainab, you hungry?” I asked
“Oh my God, I’M STARVING,” she answered. I was really craving a cheesesteak so I said,
“Dude, I’m up for a cheesesteak, aren’t you?”
“What’s a cheesesteak…?” Zainab asked with confusion. I stood there with my mouth wide open not believing what she had just asked.
“You have got a lot to learn about the greatness of a Philly cheesesteak,” I said.
“Right…” Zainab agreed not exactly knowing what she had agreed to. Her trip to Philadelphia turned out to be worth it after all.