Clear the air? Really? “Devin, where’s Hana? Oh wait, you dumped her, too. Did your parents tell you to? And did you obey like a good, obedient son? Should I tell Hana that if any strangers slide into her DMs, it’s probably you?”
He recoiled at my words, then looked down. “I deserved that.”
“Hell yeah, you did.”
He met my eyes again. “I don’t know what else I can say. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you. Samaya, I miss you.”
I shook my head. “Devin ... you know we would never have lasted anyway, right? All the issues we had would have gotten worse as we got older.”
“I know.”
“And the whole you-catfishing-me thing proves that you’re in no way mature enough for a real relationship.”
“I know that, too. That’s why I broke up with Hana.” A loud voice came through from inside the banquet hall, stating dinner would be served soon. “Look, Samaya, you never have to talk to me again if you don’t want to. All I wanted to say is I’m sorry. Again. I’m sorry I hurt you. And lied to you. I was hoping we could be friends again. But I’ll leave you alone.”
He stood and started to walk inside. “Wait,” I said. I paused. He’d meant the world to me once. I took a deep breath. “Let’s go in together.”
He blinked, surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. This is the Nerd Prom. It’s to celebrate the biggest nerds of last year. That would be you and me.” I smiled. “I’m still mad at you, but I think we should walk in together.”
I wasn’t sure I was ready to forgive Devin, or ever be friends with him again, but the truth was, he was such a big part of my past. And I hated the idea of all those memories being tainted forever.
So I did it. I walked into the Nerd Prom with Devin Kapadia by my side. My past.
And then I left him to be with the guy who was my present, and hopefully my future—Daniel Ramos. The person who made me happier than I ever imagined. Who made me want to be the most genuine me I could be.
Daniel leaned in after I sat down. “You looked so amazing walking in. Five stars. The smartest and most gorgeous person in the room. I’ve said it before: you are way out of my league.”
I shook my head. “Not even close. We are both exactly in the same league. Together.”
Daniel gave me a soft kiss on the forehead. Then he whispered into my cheek, “I am so in love with you, Samaya Janmohammad. I hope you realize that.”
I wrapped my fingers around the back of his head and whispered into his ear, “I love you, too, Daniel Ramos.”
EPILOGUE
May—seven months later
The forest-fairies game won second place at the National Youth Developers Mobile Game Competition. Our team lost to a first-person shooter game, which was annoying, but at least it wasn’t Jayden’s team’s alien mecha sniper-battle game. But still—coming in second out of eighty entries was pretty cool. Andre threw us a barbecue in the park to celebrate our win. But I think he mostly threw the party for Yasmin, because we’d named the gameYasmin of the Forestafter the main character: a little brown-skinned fairy who went on adventures and solved puzzles in the forest.
“How come the fairy doesn’t have earrings?” Yasmin asked me. We were sitting at a picnic table, and she was playing the game on my phone for the first time. She’d recently had her ears pierced, and most of her conversations lately were about her earrings. That or her new kitten. Yasmin’s family had moved out of the shelter about a month after Yasmin had gone missing that night last October. Now they were living in a basement apartment nearby, and Yasmin attended the shelter’s after-school program while her mother worked, so Daniel and I still saw a lot of her when we were volunteering there.
“The game is meant to be played on phones, so it’s very small,” I explained. “No one would see her earrings.”
Yasmin thought about that for a moment. “She shouldn’t wear earrings, I think. She couldn’t go swimming in the river until they healed.”
I nodded. “That’s a very good point.”
Aimee shook her head. “I think earrings would have looked cool. I mean, in-game graphics don’t need earrings, but we could have put them on the character sketches. Their ears are big enough. I’ll add them for the sequel.”
I snorted. After the long hours working on this project on top of all my other schoolwork, plus volunteering, I had no intention of making a sequel. Aimee, as I expected, wasn’t dating Jayden anymore. She was on to a new guy—someone she’d met in photography class. Aimee and I weren’t really close friends anymore, though. She was only here today because she’d been on the game-dev team.
Cass was, of course, still my best friend. They were here at the park, too, playing ball hockey with Daniel, Owen, and some of the others from the shelter and game-dev team. I wasn’t surprised Cass and Owen were still together. But I was shocked that Cass had joined an introductory gender-inclusive hockey program and was now totally obsessed. I had no intention of joining in with my friend’s and boyfriend’s obsession. I watched their games, and I now knew whatoffsidemeant, and that was enough for me. I loved Daniel; I didn’t need to love everything he did.
I looked over to him. He and the others had finished their game and were heading toward an empty table. Daniel smiled and waved me over when he saw me looking. I went to join them and sat next to him.
He put his arm around my waist and nodded toward Yasmin. “How’s she liking her namesake game?”
