“Well, do you want to come with me to Chyna’s birthday party tonight?” she asks after a moment of silence. The smile on her face has disappeared and she’s staring intently at the carpet.

Chyna’s birthday party is the last place I want to go. And it’s the last place I want Priti to go as well.

“I thought you were going with Ali?”

“I am.”

“So what do you need me for?”

She shrugs. “I just thought … it’ll be better than you hanging around here all evening by yourself.”

“I have things to do, you know,” I say, even though that’s a lie. I’m probably going to spend the night watching something cheesy on Netflix, trying not to think about the fact that nobody in my family can look me in the eye anymore.

“This will be fun!” She’s smiling again but there’s something in her eyes, her tone, that tells me maybe she’s not as invested in this party as she would have me believe. Maybe this is Priti asking for a helping hand. If she goes to the party with only Ali as company, will she be safe? What if Chyna decides it’s the perfect time to say more horrible things? At least in school Priti and I always have each other. We might not be in the same year, but we’re always within reach, and we always have each other’s backs.

“Okay.” I sigh.

12

I KNOW I’M NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS PARTY EVEN BEFORE we step inside. There’s music blasting so loud that I can feel the walls and the ground shaking, and even through that I can hear laughter and screaming.

Priti rings the bell and we stand on the doorstep, waiting. I wonder if it’s in vain. I mean, how could anybody have heard the bell through this blaring music? Priti is shivering beside me from the cold air. She’s wearing a thin, pink dress that doesn’t even reach her knees. I smile, smug that I decided to dress more casually in jeans and a black sweater.

Surprisingly, after we ring the bell for the second time, an excited Chyna opens the door. A shadow passes over her face when she sees us, but she quickly reverts back to being upbeat.

“Hey!” Her eyes shift from Priti to me. “You … brought your sister.”

“Is that … okay?” Priti asks. As if there’s anything to be said about it now when I’m already on her doorstep. Not that I would put it past Chyna to suggest leaving me out in the cold.

But she doesn’t. She smiles. Her pretty red lips look like blood against her pale skin.

“Of course. Nesha, right?” She asks it like she hasn’t spent the last three years spreading racist rumors about me around the school. Like we weren’t friends once.