Chapter 13
JAHNVI
“S o, is Everett suing? That’s, what, battery and assault?”
“Everett doesn’t have the time to go to court, I’m sure.
” I sprayed an ungodly amount of hairspray on my flyaway strands.
“But our teacher might. KJ’s suspended though.
His parents couldn’t talk their way out of that; it was too much.
He was like frothing at the mouth, all because Everett accidentally knocked over his Gatorade? ”
Rose continued to tap away on her laptop. “In this economy? I’d be pissed too.”
I chuckled halfheartedly, still tucking my flyaways away.
The keyboard clicking sounds stopped, and Rose sighed, “ What ? I’m playing Papa’s Pizzeria a nd my pizzas are gonna burn if you keep distracting me.”
“I...I can’t get it out of my mind. Everett aimed for the Gatorade.
” I turned around to face her. “I swear! I was right in front of him. And when KJ tried to punch him, he had already leaned away, and I swear he doesn’t have reflexes like that.
But why would he...it just doesn’t make sense. ”
“You better hope he didn’t know about KJ. It’s so sus if he decided to be best buds with a guy who needs actual help and stayed quiet about him.” She looked at me for confirmation, and when I hesitated a second too long to nod, she frowned.
I sighed. “KJ’s like... rich rich. It’s hard to stand up against a family like that and win.
And Everett, well, you very much know what he’s like.
‘Pickles, why would I turn half my friend group against me for a guy whose parents would never want to ruin their reputation and get him help? It’s not my business! ’”
“It’s still morally wrong.”
“Oh, a hundred percent. I just think I know why he’d be friends with him.”
“Okay, he’s still in the wrong though.”
“He absolutely is; I’m not arguing with you about it! Oh, and also, I think I have to kick you out now. We’re leaving for Everett’s in ten, so bake those pizzas quick,” I said, looking at the clock behind her head.
I helped her pack and walked her out while I explained that his grandmother had invited our family over for dinner. But I didn’t necessarily think there was pure intent behind their invitation. Neither Everett nor his grandma had ever been as neighborly as Mr. and Mrs. James had been.
And my suspicion was proven correct.
“Come in, come in!” Everett was the one who opened the door when we headed over. His smile was as wide as the Cheshire Cat’s as he ushered us in. I looked behind me at my parents and my grandparents, but to my disappointment, they were buying into it.
They completely missed the arrangement of flowers on the coffee table by the sofa.
It was all a setup—the kindness, the hospitality, everything! Everett just needed someone to teach him how to make a wedding wreath. And yet, my parents missed it completely.
He always did have a way of sweet-talking adults into doing whatever he wanted.
Like how he somehow persuaded our sophomore history teacher to let him just not take the final.
Or how he always found a way to leave the building a bit early, even though the lady sitting at the entrance was a literal hawk who never let anyone leave without a pass.
Even if they were vomiting all over themselves, she probably would have handed them a paper bag and made them wait for the bell.
After getting us seated on his couch, he left for the kitchen to get water. My mom took that chance to lean over and whisper to me, “Look at how responsible he is.”
“Ma!” I hissed back.
“I’m just saying! I mean, I’ve never seen you be that hospitable.”
Thankfully, his grandmother chose that time to walk down the stairs and spare me from a lecture.
I used to see Everett’s grandma all the time, along with his parents.
She would give me warm hugs and always had candy.
But after the accident, it was like all the light left her eyes.
Now, she only ever came out to water the petunias on their lawn.
As I left for school every morning, she’d be outside with a hose like clockwork.
The only catch: Those petunias died a long, long time ago. They were all wilted and brown. Other than watering her dead flowers, I never saw her much.
“Jahnvi?” I jolted out of my thoughts as someone said my name. Everett was holding a glass of water for me.
He’d ditched his weird sweaters for the night. He was wearing a very simple blue button-down and had tucked it into a pair of khaki slacks. No rings or jewelry adorned his fingers tonight, and his hair was combed back instead of the usual messy-but-nice thing he always did.
Jeez.
Seeing him on a regular day did things to me, but this? He took my breath away, and I almost didn’t want to grab the glass from him so he’d keep staring at me with those eyes. So that he’d keep looking at me, expectantly.
Maybe it was just me, or maybe today’s outfit was affecting my judgment, but I could swear this was not how he usually looked at me.
It seemed like he almost didn’t want to give me the glass of water, because that would mean he would need to walk away. I had a feeling he wanted to stay like this, leaning down and looking into my eyes.
Waiting for my next move.
I grabbed the glass before everyone started giving me weird looks, and the moment was over as quickly as it had started. He walked away and was talking to my parents now, polite as ever. My grandparents were talking to his grandma, and everyone was laughing.
Right where he wanted everything, I bet.
And, just as I had guessed, he popped the question to my grandma not long after.
“So, Jahnvi tells me you used to own a flower shop back in India.” And that was all the incentive my grandmother needed.
People always told me I got my talkativeness from my grandma, and they were right.
My grandma was already kneeling down by the table and threading the flowers together with the twine he’d produced from somewhere.
Everett watched, brows furrowed as he tried to keep up with my grandma’s quick fingers.
There was nothing for me to do here. I’m useless with anything to do with arts and crafts. My parents were engaged in a deep conversation with Everett’s grandma about land prices back in India.
I made an excuse about the bathroom and headed upstairs. A hint of blue caught my eye, and I stopped in the middle of the hallway.
No, Jahnvi, you shouldn’t.
Oh! But I really wanted to. Our houses were almost identical in structure.
In decor, not so much. Our house was filled to the max with photo frames.
So many cousin photos were up on our walls that I didn’t know half of the photos in my own house.
Everett and his grandma had opted for a simpler look.
By simple, I mean beige walls with no color and no photos.
But again, they were the same structure.
Which meant his room was right where my room would be too. And I hadn’t seen his bedroom since I was ten.
In hindsight, the decision didn’t take as long as it should’ve. I mean, there wasn’t even a decision to be made at that point. I needed to see his room, and my legs weren’t going to stop.
In a quick second, I walked over to his door and pushed it open enough to see that the whole thing was—
—not what I expected.
I already had an idea of what his room was going to look like. I mean, I’d seen it through his window. However, seeing it up close was something else.
I was mostly right—his room didn’t have much decor. It had one poster of a movie that I had never heard of hanging behind his bed. One of the corners of the poster had unfurled and was hanging; it was also very slanted like it had been put up in a hurry.
And that brings me to where I was wrong.
His room was messy. While everything downstairs had been so perfect and impersonal, his room had little signs of life popping up everywhere.
There was a crushed soda can on the ground near his bed, a heap of dirty clothes in a corner, and a bottle of black nail polish was open on his desk among the thousands of papers and assignments.
Wincing, I immediately went over to close the nail polish bottle so it didn’t dry out. As I did, something caught my eye.
He did have one piece of decoration, actually: a photo frame on his table.
The little kid in the middle was the kid that had tormented me every day in school, and the couple around him had his features. The man had his dark eyes and smile that crinkled his eyes, while the woman had his nose and slender hands that were hugging him around the waist.
I smiled, remembering how his mother used to hug me so warmly too.
I grabbed the small photo frame to take a closer look. Everett and his parents had taken the photo in an apple orchard; there were small trees in the back, and bright red apples littered their feet. It was sunny, and everything was so, so bright.
Including their smiles. I hadn’t seen Everett smile like that since we were in elementary school, when this photo seemed to have been taken. That’s when a realization slapped me in my face.
This was a mistake.
This wasn’t for my eyes. I quickly put the photo frame down and turned to leave.
“Oof!” I rammed into something hard.
Everett.
Just my luck.
“Did you get lost?” he asked, grabbing my arms to keep me from falling backward.
“Mm-hmm!” I responded in a high-pitched voice and nodded, my heart still recovering from the heart attack he had just given me. I looked toward the door, not wanting to meet his eyes.
“You got lost in a house that’s identical to your own?” Even though I was looking at everything but his face, I could hear his smile, and I could definitely hear the sarcasm.
“Yes,” I said, a bit more defensively than I wanted to.
“And what about it?” I looked down to see him still holding my arms close to his chest. I tried to yank them away, but he kept a firm grip on them.
I tried again, but he just wouldn’t budge.
I disobeyed the wise voice in my head again and looked up at his face.
My voice caught in my throat.
Even though we had kissed before, we’d never been that close. During our little thing in his truck, we were in separate seats, and it had all been over so quickly.
I wasn’t in the right headspace to deal with it then.
But right now, he was holding me close, close enough to smell his strange cologne and to feel the warmth radiating from his body.
He tilted his head. “I just wish you would’ve told me beforehand that I’d have visitors so I could’ve cleaned. It’s a bit embarrassing that you have to see all this.”
“Let me go,” I told him, my voice low.
“Hmm?”
“Let. Me. Go. Everett. If someone saw us right now...”
“No one’s inside. They’re out looking at our flowers. Are you afraid they’re going to make up stories?”
“Everett. Let me go now!”
“Do you not trust me?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Do. You. Trust. Me?” His tone had changed at that second. It was now more serious, and he had bent down so that he was much closer. Ha! And I thought he was close before. I could feel his breath on my nose as he spoke. “Why didn’t you partner up with me for the lit project?”
“Are you serious?”
“Very. Why didn’t you partner up with me, Jahnvi?”
“I-well-well-I-I don’t need to explain myself to you!” Goddammit. I hated how wispy and frail my voice sounded.
“But you do. I thought we had a deal to always work together on projects.”
“I-I-we made that deal in third grade!”
“And, you haven’t broken it. Why now? Did I do something?”
We heard the thud of a door somewhere below, and I could hear my mom laughing as she came back inside the house. I looked up at Everett pleadingly.
He let go of my arms, but before I could breathe, he took a step toward me. I looked up at him again and he smiled. Then he reached around me to grab a pair of scissors from his desk—big clunky ones, perfect for cutting flower stems or twine.
With one final look, he left wordlessly, and I was left alone inside his messy room.