A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

Author:Tanaz Bhathena [Tanaz Bhathena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374305451
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2018-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Mishal

It didn’t surprise me when Zarin phoned Abdullah that evening to confront him about the things I’d said. What did surprise me was that she did not give him my name—like it didn’t even matter that her only source of information against her boyfriend was a girl who hated her in school.

Luck favored me even more when Abdullah did not choose to deny her allegations. I bit my lip to hold back a laugh. Though I was no longer afraid of being the target of my brother’s wrath, the less he knew about my involvement in this, the better. As far as Abdullah was concerned, I was clueless about his “secret relationship” with Zarin, even though it was thanks to me that their relationship was still secret from the rest of the school. I rolled my eyes as my brother’s voice rose in pitch and volume.

In any case, what I’d done didn’t really matter. From the sound of their conversation—if you could call a five-minute insult fest a conversation—it seemed that the relationship had already been a little rocky and a breakup would have been inevitable at some point. Zarin probably thought the same thing, especially when Abdullah lost his temper and said: “Who told you? Was it one of my friends? Are you screwing one of them now?”

I carefully switched the cordless phone I was using to eavesdrop on their conversation from my right ear to the left.

Not now, I thought, mentally answering my brother’s question. But if the way she and Rizvi had looked at each other after the debate yesterday was any indication, it would happen fairly soon.

Rizvi had stared at her so hard I thought his eyes would pop right out of his shades. It was also clear that Zarin was not unaffected. I had watched the slow drop of her smile when she realized Rizvi was watching. The nervous way she bit her lip. How quickly she’d turned around after Asma burst through the gates, her cheeks flushed pink. In that moment, she wasn’t the Zarin Wadia I knew, but a girl like any other in the face of a crush: insecure, tongue-tied, and shy.

“Don’t bother calling me again,” Zarin told Abdullah before hanging up.

I waited for Abdullah to slam the receiver on his end before clicking off the phone and placing it back in its cradle. I thought back to the insults Abdullah had thrown my way over the years. Crybaby. Twit. Blabbermouth. Fool. I muffled my laughter in my pillow. Who is the fool, Abdullah? I wanted to ask him. Who is the fool now?

When I finally ventured out of my room, I found Abdullah stretched out on the living room sofa, his bare feet resting on the coffee table, the television switched on, but muted.

“What happened?” I asked. “I heard you yelling on the phone.”

He shrugged. “I broke up with this girl I was seeing.”

I sat down next to Abdullah. “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked softly.

“She knew I was talking to my friends about her.

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