“Samaya. What are you doing here?” He glanced behind him. “My parents aren’t home.”
“That’s fine. I need to talk to you,” I said.
He just looked at me, not letting me in, which was weird. But seeing him in the doorway felt just like old times. He even looked like the old, normal Devin. I’d noticed he’d pretty much given up on that worldly, sophisticated Indian look he brought back from South Asia and was back to his geeky shirts and jeans (today’s was a Loki shirt), and his hair was now too long to be called cool.
He’d always been the right amount of nerdy mixed with handsome. He just wasn’t the kind of handsome I had any interest in anymore.
Devin finally moved out of the way. “Fine. I’ll get you a chai. I’m doing my homework.”
He looked tense as he walked toward the kitchen. Did he know why I was here? I took off my shoes and headed into the dining room. The table was strewn with books, a half-full mug of chai, and Devin’s laptop. Devin had always done his homework in the dining room—his parents preferred to watch him work. I sat, eyeing the plastic container of his mother’s nan khatai cookies on the table.
A few minutes later, he handed me a mug of chai and sat on the chair in front of his computer. “I have a big bio essay due tomorrow,” he said.
Now that I was here, I didn’t know how to get him to admit he was LostAxis. “So ... Devin. As you know, I had a day from hell—”
He interrupted me. “I had nothing to do with that Whispers post. It was Kavita.”
“I know. Your girlfriend told me all about it. She also said it was Jayden who sent in all the other tips to Kavita.”
He frowned. “Hanatold you?”
I snorted. “She didn’t seem happy with you. You might need to do some relationship damage control. I doubt you two are going to last.”
He cringed. His eyes were sad. Resigned.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Samaya. About everything. I really didn’t want things to turn out this way. You were ... my best friend.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I didn’t want his apologies right now. I took a cookie and bit into it, the flavor of cardamom and butter bursting on my tongue. I needed to get Daniel one of these—he’d love them.
So, what now? Maybe I should just ask him outright if he was LostAxis. I was about to open my mouth to do that when he suddenly looked up and blinked. “My parents were the ones who told me to break up with you,” he said.
I nearly spit the cookie out. “What?”
He nodded. “They thought we were getting too serious. I told my mom we were going to ... you know.”
Wow.“You told yourmotherwe were planning to havesexwhile they were in India?”
We’d been planning it for weeks. I was ready. He said he was, too. Tahira had even taken me to get birth control. His parents were going to India, and he was staying home, and we were going to have sex for the first time. But then he dumped me and went with them to India.
“So they told you to break up with me because I wouldn’t be pure and virginal?” I asked. I’d liked Devin’s parents. They’d never seemed that backward to me. “Why would you even tell them?”
He shook his head. “No. No ... you know they’re not like that. Mom asked me if we were sexually active, and I couldn’t lie to them. They hadn’t realized we were that serious. And they didn’t think you were”—he made air quotes—“‘long-term material.’”
Two years sounded pretty long-term to me. “Why not?”
“They said I needed to think about the future, and I’d be happier with an Indian girl. Someone with a higher-profile family.”
I blinked, looking at him. I must have misheard. “What? IamIndian. I’m literally having nan khatai and chai right now.”
“They meanIndianIndian. Your parents were born in Canada. And your grandparents are from Kenya. And you’re Muslim, not Hindu. My parents suggested we break up. And they convinced me to come with them to India to see what real Indian girls are like.”
“Your parents convinced you to dump me because my ancestors left India in the 1800s.” When he didn’t answer, I shook my head. “I take it you didn’t find a good meek Indian girl in India? What does ‘a higher-profile family’ even mean?”
He shrugged. “My dad’s the chief of staff at the hospital. So something like that.”
Seriously? My dad was a lawyer, and my mom was VP of HR for a huge company, and that wasn’t high profile enough for them?
I cringed. “Wow. I never realized what horrendous snobs your parents are.”
