From Twinkle, With Love(49)
Love,
Twinkle
<text message 3:31 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
I spent the morning with Twinkle but … something’s off
<text message 3:31 p.m.>
From: Skid
To: Sahil, Aaron
what do you mean? are you wearing deodorant like I said?
<text message 3:32 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Dude enough with the deodorant. It feels like she’s holding back but I don’t think it’s just the professional thing like she said before. Something else is up <text message 3:32 p.m.>
From: Aaron
To: Sahil, Skid
Have you asked her?
<text message 3:33 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Yeah all she says is she needs time
<text message 3:34 p.m.>
From: Skid
To: Sahil, Aaron
then you gotta give her time man
<text message 3:34 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Idk what if she’s not into me or she pities me or something man
<text message 3:35 p.m.>
From: Aaron
To: Sahil, Skid
Sahil. How long have you had a crush on this girl?
<text message 3:35 p.m.>
From: Skid
To: Sahil, Aaron
don’t forget that time we found her yearbook photo in his room UNDER HIS PILLOW
<text message 3:36 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
That happened ONCE and I was 11! I hadn’t figured out yet what was creepy when it came to girls <text message 3:36 p.m.>
From: Aaron
To: Sahil, Skid
Ignore him. Look you said the other night that Twinkle sees you for you. Like she gets you. So don’t throw that away man. She likes you. If she needs time just give her time <text message 3:37 p.m.>
From: Skid
To: Sahil, Aaron
I’m with Aaron on this one bro
<text message 3:37 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Okay you’re right I can do that. She likes me and I can give her time
<text message 3:39 p.m.>
From: Aaron
To: Sahil, Skid
Good. Now that that’s settled do you want to do something fun? Do you want to go to Taco Bell?
<text message 3:40 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Taco Bell? Wait. Are you quoting Mean Girls again?
<text message 3:41 p.m.>
From: Aaron
To: Sahil, Skid
Well I mean it is the greatest movie of all time so
<text message 3:41 p.m.>
From: Sahil
To: Skid, Aaron
Yeah ok fine. Pick you up in ten, losers
Sunday, June 14
East library bathroom
Dear Sofia Coppola,
I didn’t know if Maddie would show up to the study group. I mean, she didn’t need it, let’s be honest, and she’s so mad at me. I’m mad at her too, for practically saying the one thing I’ve always been too afraid to confront head-on: that even if things changed for me with the movie, I wouldn’t be good enough to hang out with her and her new friends. That at heart, I’m a groundling, and I’ll always be one.
But I still love her. And I still want her to find her person. The one who’ll make her life feel more … complete. The one who can see her like she wants to be seen. I mean, everyone deserves that.
She and Brij are so made for each other. I think they’d be happy together. Happier than her and Lewis, who brought her to study group today. And then they’ve spent the entire thirty minutes—that’s how long we’ve been here—whispering to each other. She sat next to Brij, which was a good sign, I thought, until I saw her and Lewis having these hushed, private conversations. Poor Brij looked all wilted, too. But then she’d talk to him and laugh with him and put her hand on his arm to make a point. Talk about confusing, Maddie. Doesn’t she care about anyone’s feelings anymore??
Also, unintentional relationship potential—Aaron and Matthew! Apparently they already know each other from an LGBTQ youth group they’re both a part of. Matthew’s bi, but he doesn’t talk about it at school (who can blame him? PPC thinks diversity means talking about Martin Luther King Jr. once a year in February). So they already knew each other and sat together, but then I kept seeing them touching each other and laughing at all these inside jokes. So maybe Maddie and Brij won’t leave here in a relationship, but I’m counting Matthew and Aaron under my “win” column.
Side note: Matthew pulled me aside and, rubbing the back of his neck while his face turned bright red, he said, “Hey, T-Twinkle. I just, I want to apologize for what I said the other day.”
“When? When you said my braid bun looked ‘like a coiled-up cobra drawn by a kindergartner’?”
He turned even redder, like he was surprised I’d quoted him word for word. He clearly didn’t know about my grudge book. “Ah, I need to apologize for two things, then. That and how I said you wouldn’t understand what Brij was talking about with the firewall the other day when we were doing our fundraiser. It was pretty uncool of me.”
I smiled at him. “But it’s pretty cool of you to try to fix things. So apology accepted.”