Chapter 29
JAHNVI
“S ucks that you’re in such a rush. It’s like I hardly see you anymore.” Rose sipped on her strawberry milkshake, tucking her blond hair behind her ear so it wouldn’t touch her drink. I noticed that her roots were starting to go back to their usual brown—she had stopped bleaching her hair.
“Agreed. It’s my fault; I’ve been so busy.”
“Speech, school, or restaurant?”
I shook my head, swallowing my chocolate shake. We were at our usual ice c ream shop, but the teenager behind the counter was new and had made my shake too thick. “That’s embarrassing. You really think that’s all there is to me?”
“Well, I guess there’s something else going on with you.
” She swirled her paper straw in her drink before she looked back up at me.
“Everett reached out all of a sudden, asking when I was free. When I told him I’d rather shove a razor blade up my vagina then see him again, he sent me an apology text the size of an essay, which he doesn’t have the brain cells for, so I’m assuming that’s your influence. What’s going on between you two?”
Uh-oh, here it comes.
The dreaded Everett conversation that I had been putting off for weeks. How was I supposed to break this to her without sounding like an absolute snake?
You know that guy that absolutely broke your heart and we’ve been trashing for the past few years? Yeah, I guess we’re a thing now?
“Rose, I...” I sighed. “Truth be told, I am busy, but I was also avoiding you because I-I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Um, so...so h-how do I put this—” I stopped suddenly when she giggled, completely taking me by surprise.
“You’re so stubborn, Jahnvi. You can’t admit that you like the guy that you have been shitting on since preschool?” she asked, smiling at me.
I sighed, grateful for the release in tension.
“It’s not that. I just...I’m confused, Rose.
It all just happened so fast. He needed some help for a catering order and when I hung around him more, I realized that maybe I’ve been misjudging him for the past few years.
He’s...just so perfect. He knows me so well, and when we’re not competing, he knows exactly what to say. ”
She chuckled, taking a long sip of her shake.
“Right, you’ve misjudged him for the past eighteen years?
Even you aren’t that stupid. And maybe I’m wrong, but I still think he’s a snake.
” She grabbed my hands. “Look, I get it. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
This is your first relationship, and you may not see the red flags because you’re in the honeymoon phase.
But it won’t be long before he has to make a choice between you and his messed-up life, and he will always choose his own problems. He just won’t commit to you, and you deserve a guy who is willing to give it all.
I just don’t want to see you get hurt, and I just know about these things better.
I think it’s time you break up with him.
Let’s hang out more again.” She smiled. “Plus, he seems to have a thing for blondes, so I think you’re out of luck,” she said with a wink.
Oh.
Rose’s smile dropped as I pulled my hands away, clutching them to myself. I stared down at the table for a few seconds, then looked back up at her. “I know what this is really about. I’m not good enough to date him, right?”
She let out some sounds of violent disagreement, but I stopped her. “You always talk about how I’m so boring and pathetic, and now that your ex seems to like me, am I hurting your feelings? You’re on the same level as Jahnvi- fucking loser- Patel?”
“Jahnvi...what? This is coming out of nowhere—”
I got up, not bothering to take my milkshake with me, “Just—I can’t do this right now. I need to get to Everett’s restaurant to help him out. You knew that I was insecure about the whole never-dating-a-boy thing, so why would you bring it up?”
She wasn’t even listening to me. “You can’t stay because you need to go to Everett’s ? Are you kidding?”
“Hey, maybe if you weren’t always so focused on your personal shit, you’d realize that he’s not the person you made him out to be.”
That might have been too far.
But I couldn’t take it back now. When she didn’t say anything, I left our booth and made for my bike. The adrenaline coursing through me made me peddle my bike twice as fast; I raced away from Rose.
What the hell just happened?
I made my way to EJ’s on a bike. As I locked my bike on a nearby pole, I saw him inside sweeping underneath a table. The bell jangled as I opened the door and he looked up immediately, like he was waiting for me.
“You took your time,” he said with a hint of annoyance, but his face was all smiles, so I knew he wasn’t really mad.
“Sorry, I was...eating.” To distract him from my tone, I pulled out the Tupperware box from my little bag. “I brought you some food to make up for being late.”
I watched his smile as he took the box. Pakora was his favorite; I knew because he’d devoured trays of it when we were younger.
I felt like I pulled a muscle in my heart.
He would never do anything bad to me. It’s Everett ! He was standing in front of me looking like I had just handed him eternal youth in a beaten-up Tupperware. His eyes had almost closed again, and it made me smile too.
Rose is wrong. She doesn’t know him like I do.