“Sure! I’m really happy to be here with you guys.”
“You look a little worried,” Evie adds softly.
“It’s nothing. Probably. I’m—” I pause, taking another deep breath. “How long have you known Nate?” I ask them.
Both their eyebrows rise in surprise and they exchange a look.
“About four years,” Evie says, leaning forward to set her drink on the table between us. “Why?”
“It’s just… We had a fight a long time ago. Because I was a stupid paranoid ass and—”
“Oh, we know. He told us,” Ikram says with a shrug.
“Don’t tell me you’re worried about Nate hurting Prue?” Evie asks, rolling her eyes.
“Is it bad that I am? Just a little?”
They exchange another look before Ikram leans back on the couch, clearing his throat. What the hell is happening? They’ve glanced at each other a few times already, and it always looks like they share a secret.
“You shouldn’t worry. As a matter of fact, he’s still a little bit hung up on a girl he met in college,” Evie says with a smirk, and I catch Ikram shaking his head in disbelief. “Every time he gets drunk, he talks about her. I’m not even sure he remembers telling us.”
I frown. I don’t remember him ever being hung up over a girl back in college. Was it during the last week left of college when we weren’t talking anymore?
“You’re telling me he hasn’t been with anyone else from college to—”
“Oh no, he has,” she scoffs. “But you shouldn’t worry about your sister. He’d never see her like… that. A hook up, or whatever.”
She clears her throat, and my eyes dart back and forth from her to Ikram a couple of times. I look back towards where Nate and Prue are waiting at the bar and gasp when I see the twin red paper bands on their respective wrists.
Wait, back the fuck up for a second.
“What the hell,” I breathe.
Ikram lifts his head, following my gaze, and curses softly under his breath.
Something doesn’t add up. She looks annoyed, staring at the red paper circling her wrist. But he only stares at her, darting his eyes every time she looks up. ‘He’s still a little bit hung up on a girl he met in college’.
Wait, wait, wait…
“Hold on a second, is—”
“For fuck’s sake, Evie, you should learn to stop talking and let people figure things out on their own,” Ikram groans, burying his head in his hands.
“It’s obvious to someone who can look, Ikram!” Evie hissed, crossing her arms. “I mean, he never told us her name, but it was obvious!”
“He did mention her brother, so of course it was obvious!”
“Oh, come on, you were dying to tell him. To tellherfor the whole of last month.”
“But I didn’t! As far as we know, he had another disabled roommate with a sister, I didn’t want to—”
“Really? Are you listening to yourself?”
They’re throwing their argument around like a tennis ball, and I’m stuck on the side, gaping at them both. They’ve clearly forgotten about me, talking to each other, confirming my sudden suspicions and adding missing puzzle pieces to the mix.
Nate didn’t have another disabled college roommate.
Nate didn’t have sex with anyone in our room during our fourth year. And he slept there often, if not every night.
