From Twinkle, With Love(22)
It was hitting me, for the first time, how … um, attractive I find Sahil. I mean, I know he and Neil look alike. That’s the whole thing with identical twins. But it wasn’t just about his nice shoulders or his hair or his square jaw. It was like something happened last night. I saw what Sahil’s made of on the inside, and … I don’t know if this is gonna sound gross, but his insides match mine. I don’t know how else to explain it. I see what he’s made of, and it’s the stuff I’m made of too, I think.
But that doesn’t help me with the whole “leave the groundlings behind and get on Maddie’s level” plan. Only Neil fits into that plan. It’s not that I need him to get to Maddie. It’s just that if I date someone like Neil, things will be so much easier between me and her.
We drove past the city to this tiny town north of the Springs. It’s where Sahil and most of the other, richer people live, and I realized something.
“Wait. Is this where Thoroughly Thespian is?”
“Yep, just five minutes away. Why?”
“Don’t you live up here, too?”
Sahil nodded, looking a little confused.
“You didn’t have to drive all the way down to get me and then come back up here. I could’ve asked my dad to give me a ride.”
“Nah, it’s okay, Mehra,” Sahil said, grinning at me. “I couldn’t leave my director hanging like that.”
My face felt hot and sweaty. “But … I mean, I can get my own rides. Just because I don’t have my own car doesn’t mean you need to bail me out or anything.” I swallowed. I half couldn’t believe I’d said all that out loud—actually calling attention to the fact that I don’t have much money. But the other half of me was proud for speaking out.
“Twinkle.” Sahil looked at me as long as he could without driving off the road. “I just wanted to hang out with you. I like spending time with you. All right?”
My cheeks were still hot now, but for other reasons. “All right,” I said softly, feeling a little shy.
He smiled at me, and even though I knew it shouldn’t, it felt like moonbeams straight through my heart.
We pulled into the parking lot and walked up to the store, which is this weird warehouse-looking thing with rusted metal steps leading up to it. “Huh.” I tipped my head back and took it in. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”
Sahil checked the GPS on his phone. “Yeah. Unless the Google gods have steered us wrong.”
Shrugging, I reached out and pulled the door open. It creaked like we were in a haunted movie. I stepped into the space—and gawked.
I was expecting something dinky and dark, to match the outside. But this space was enormous, all of it brilliant white. It was like being stuck on Iceland. Not that I’ve ever been to Iceland. But the name implies a land of white ice, and that’s exactly what this looked like.
Along the wall, oversize mannequins with blank white faces stared at us with their eyeball-less eyes. They were all dressed in gorgeous costumes, with Victorian-era thick, brocade dresses and fancy, elaborate hats with fake fruits and birds on them.
“Yikes,” I said at the same time that Sahil said, “Awesome!”
I shuddered as he ran up to one and poked it in the face. “Those things are so freaking creepy.” I sidled over to a shelf along the wall and picked up what looked like a solid gold staff with rubies encrusted on the handle. “This, on the other hand, is cool.”
Sahil bounded over to me. He was an oversize puppy in a pet shop, running from toy to toy. “It is!” He reached behind me, his arm sliding over my shoulders, to grab something else off the shelf. “And look at this!” He showed me a hypnotizing mask that looked like it had raindrops (made out of crystal and light-blue gems) pasted in an ombré pattern down the right side.
“Wow,” I breathed, running my fingers along the bumps of the rhinestones. “That is stunning.”
Suddenly it hit me. We were here, in this fabulous warehouse with all these incredible things surrounding us that we could pick and choose from, because of Sahil and what he’d done last night. I reached out and squeezed his arm on an impulse.
He looked at me, surprised.
“Thank you,” I said, grinning up at him. “This is …” I shook my head. I needed a thesaurus. “What’s a word for ‘so awesome it makes you speechless’?”
“Hmm,” Sahil said, a small smile at his lips. We were so close I could smell his soap. Focus, Twinkle. “Grab?”
I laughed. “This is extremely grab, then.”
We were both looking at each other, and slowly, our smiles faded. My heart trip-hammered. Sahil took a step toward me.
And then I remembered.
I had a secret admirer—N. And he might just be Sahil’s twin freaking brother. Also? I have a grand, master plan to leave my current self behind by joining the ranks of the silk feathered hats. And I’m beyond tired of being a groundling and blending into the walls all the time. What about N/Neil being a part of that dream? What about all of that?
I put my arm down quickly and stepped away, doing that tittery-nervous laugh I do when I’m super uncomfortable, like that one time I walked in on Mummy and Papa and I’m pretty sure they were doing it. (In my defense, none of the Mehras knock because Mummy, Papa, and Dadi say that is a silly Western rule that has no place in our house.) In that case, I’d wanted an extra pillow out of their closet, but I’d just done the silly tittery laugh thing and stumbled backward, closing the door behind me super quick. Here and now, I ran over to the other wall and began to stare at a peacock-themed tapestry as if it were the lost treasure of Tutankhamun.