Maybe he shouldn’t trust her. If she was actually the sort of girl who was interested in a guy like Julian, he really didn’t want to be around her anyway. Julian was a jerk. The way he treated girls, the way he treated guys. Not on the same level as Christos, but just immature. He talked about girls’ bodies in a way Marwan never would, using dumb, crass words.

The device said, “I wonder where I’m from,” startling Marwan again. “Like really from.”

It sounded so genuine in its curiosity. It really didn’t know?

Marwan said, “Yeah, that’s what we’re all wondering.”

The device said nothing.

Marwan then let the thing that had been bugging him rise up. “What was she texting Julian about anyway?”

The idea of it made his stomach hollow out from … jealousy? Which was why he hadn’t written back yet. She’d apologized for lying, sure, but not for actually texting with a guy like that in the first place. He couldn’t see the appeal, and the fact that he had a blind spot like that—or was it Eden who had the blind spot?—made him mad at himself or her or both.

The device said, “I should not tell you that. Should I?”

“No,” Marwan said. “I guess not.”

They sat there in what felt like awkward silence, but of course only Marwan could feel the awkwardness. It was all his. Then the device said, “I could tell her a secret about you. Then you’d be even.”

“No,” Marwan said. “It’s okay. Thanks anyway.”

He went back to his work before stopping, an uncomfortable thought. What, exactly, would you tell her?

He did not say it out loud.

Ilanka

ILANKA

By the time Ilanka waltzed into the apartment at around three, her mother had just about lost her mind. She’d been “worried sick.” She was “not impressed.” She’d been “going out of [her] mind” and wringing her hands and calling hospitals. She’d been picturing Ilanka dead in a ditch; the works.

Ilanka put her sandy bag on a kitchen chair. “You always say you liked life better before phones. So today was like that.”

“Don’t be fresh.” Her mother flipped a magazine page with such force that it ripped. Modern Farmhouse. Because sure, that was applicable to their life. “If you think you’re going to a movie with Svetlana tomorrow, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Ilanka considered telling her mother that the phrase was really meant to be “another think” coming. She’d read that somewhere. Now didn’t seem the time. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re grounded. School, home. School, home. School, gymnastics, home.”

“You’re missing the whole point.” Ilanka stepped up closer to her mother. “I don’t want to do gymnastics anymore.”