“Look, Em, please?” Sabrena asked. “I know you’re hurt and I can’t tell you how much I hate that you had to experience that. But could you please talk to us?”

“I’m sorry that you had to deal with that, too,” Hala chimed in softly.

“Why, though?” I blurted out. “I’m not sorry. That’s exactly how it should be. Don’t you guys get it? She was right. I don’t belong there. Neither does Yulia. We’ve never been those type of people. It was only a matter of time.”

“Why does it have to be that way?” Rehan asked, and I turned to him, eyes narrowed. “Just because there are jerks out there who might shove you aside and challenge your seat at the table, you’re going to get up and walk away hungry?”

“I’m always hungry, Rehan! I’m never full. This is absolutely normal for me, because this is how life is.”

Tears stung my eyes. I was mortified by them, by the fact that I’d blurted that out, in front of a guy whose voice alone filled me with the most warmth I’d ever experienced in my life, in front of the girls who had never pried about my father or our life before Brother Khalid’s marriage brought me into their lives.

For a moment, the air was close and still around us.

And then Rehan lifted himself off the bannister with a sigh. The wood creaked.

“I don’t think any of us feel full or content or satisfied all the time,” he said. “But what matters is being around people who try hard to remind you that you’re a person who deserves to feel full, to be cared about when you’re hungry. And, whether you believe it or not, to us, you’re that type of person, Em.”

“Yes!” Hala burst out. “Forget that auntie and people like her. It’s not like we want you there to convert you. We want you there because you’re our friend.”

“What is this, a Disney movie?” Sabrena mumbled.

I let out a watery giggle in spite of myself, and she reached out and gathered me to her side.

“Come on, Em,” she said firmly. “Tell us. What are you in the mood for, Goldilocks?”

I glanced over her shoulder at Rehan, who was doing his usual look at the ground, but whose lips were obviously stretched in a smile.

“Pasta,” I said slowly. “Gooey, cheesy pasta.”

Hala’s and Sabrena’s smiles matched Rehan’s.

“Well, have we got a surprise for you.”

So apparently, I had my friends back.