Then it’s Nadeem’s turn to sigh. “You know she loves you, right? You’re her baby. Sometimes you just have to put up with it.”
You stare at Nadeem. After staying shaven all through high school, he’s started growing out a neat beard. His square forehead is framed by his thick black hair, which he’s cut into a stylish part.
You wonder if you’ll ever look as confident as him. Right nowyou’re just taller, and you’ve got a pimple right above your eyebrow, and your upper lip is a little red from where you either pressed the razor into your skin too hard or left it against your skin too long, you’re still not sure which.
“Come on. Stop moping. You can mope at home.” He tries to stand, has to grip the desk to get back up off the low chairs, and tries to pull you up. “When did you get so heavy?”
“Muscle weighs more,” you say automatically, but you stand. You’re half a head taller than him now, and that still feels weird to you. In memory he always towered over you.
In personality he still does.
He pats your arm. “Let’s go. There’s dessert.”
You can’t have any, but you follow your brother anyway.
13DAYTON
Saturday, Brody texts and asks if you want to hang out.
Sure.Lemme see if my brother can drive me.
Bet.
You’ve only seen him after school the past three days, grabbing a few minutes to catch up before taking your separate buses. At least his parents don’t ground him for making off-color jokes, even ones that land him in ISS, so you’ve been able to text, sharing memes and jokes andmy dudes and even a bit of gossip.
Brody seems weirdly into gossip, wanting to know every little thing he missed. Probably because he feels isolated while he’s in ISS. You get that: You felt alone while you were in it, too, especially that last day when you didn’t even have Brody for company.
You also got to hear him—well, read him—complain about Ms. Anderson. He had creative names for her, some of which you already knew were swears, some of which you had to look up (also swears), and some of which are, as far as you can tell, Brody’s own inventions.
But probably also said with the energy of a swear.
I’m just glad you’re done. Conditioning sucks without you.
Haha yeah, getting stuck with a—
He types that word, what he called Farshid under his breath the other day. Well, the shortened version. But either way, seeing it spelled out is somehow worse.
Please don’t call him that, you tell him. Plead, really, but he can’t tell that from your text.
Lighten up man, just a joke.
You know from experience how a joke can get out of hand. But Brody’s already had a tough week. You don’t want to kick him when he’s down.
Anyway meet at Zona? We can even go look at your fragrances.
Bet.
Marshall agrees to take you.
But he has to pick up Jace along the way.
You used to get along with Jace really well. He used to let you watch him and Marshall playOverwatch. Even let you take a turn every now and then. He doesn’t have any siblings, so he acted like you were his little brother, too.
Not anymore, though. Even though you’ve apologized—even though Marshall has actually asked him to lighten up a bit—he still treats you like a stranger. No, worse.
He treats you like a danger.
Even though you’re pretty sure he could beat you up, if you truly were one. He’s a little short for a basketball player, maybe, but he’s still taller than you. His family is Korean, and he’s got sleekblack hair, and piercing brown eyes, and sharp cheekbones you’ve heard more than one girl in your class swoon over, despite him being unavailable. He’s had a string of boyfriends all through high school, according to Marshall, including guys who aren’t even out yet.
