Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating(54)

“Hi …” I don’t mean the greeting to sound like a question, but it does. Because I have a lot of questions as I take the two of them in. I hold out the t-shirts that Abba has stashed in our store room. “These are my dad’s campaign t-shirts.”

Dee and Aisling exchange a glance. It makes discomfort settle in my stomach, but I try to shrug that feeling off of me.

“Cool, thanks.” Aisling reaches out and grabs both the t-shirts, cradling them in her hands awkwardly. Neither of them make any indication of wanting to come inside the house to get changed. They just … kind of stand there, looking odd and out of place outside my front door.

I glance back at Amma in the kitchen. I can hear the water running in the sink where she’s doing the dishes. “Amma, we’re going,” I call back in Sylheti. “Allahafez.”

She glances back and gives us a quick wave as I step outside to join Dee and Aisling.

“So …” I dig through my bag to get hold of the bundle of leaflets that I grabbed from Abba earlier. “This has everything that we need to know about my dad’s campaign.” I hold out one leaflet each to the two of them. But they both look at them as if I’m offering them something disgusting instead of a piece of paper.

“Look …” Aisling says slowly. My stomach drops. I feel like I already know exactly what she’s going to say. But there’s no way—no way—she’s going to try to talk me out of campaigning for Abba today, right? Not when I specifically asked them to come over for this. “We really want to go canvassing, or whatever.”

“Really!” Dee’s eyes brighten like she’s trying to convince me that campaigning for local elections has been her lifelong dream—but it’s not as convincing as she seems to hope.

“But … Colm and Barry asked us last minute to go into town and hang out. We couldn’t say no. We’re supposed to be celebrating their victory from yesterday,” Aisling finishes.

“Which you missed, by the way,” Dee adds matter-of-factly.

I try to tamp down the anger bubbling up inside me. “Well, fine. You guys go and celebrate with Barry and Colm. I promised my dad that I would—”

“We know you lied to us.” Aisling cuts me off.

My breath hitches in my throat. Is this the moment of truth? Do Aisling and Dee know that Ishu and I have been faking it this whole time?

“I saw your Instagram picture,” Aisling continues when I don’t reply. “Of you and Ishita.”

It takes me a moment to realize what exactly Aisling is talking about. Last night, after coming home and trying—and failing—to get Ishu out of my head, I ended up uploading the sole picture of the two of us together from the dawat last night. I meant it as a way to tell Ishu that we’re okay, no matter what happened—or didn’t happen—between us. So that she can see I’m still on board with our plans to make her Head Girl.

“You said you had a ‘family thing.’ ” Dee actually sounds genuinely offended as she puts air quotes around “family thing.”

“It was a family thing,” I insist. “Or … at least a Bengali thing.” It’s difficult to separate the two—I’m not sure if a separation even exists. “Look … I was obligated to go.”

“Right.” Aisling rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m sure you were obligated to hang out with your girlfriend at a ‘Bengali’ thing.”

“Don’t say it like that.” My voice rises an octave and I have to remind myself that I’m not supposed to get angry. That I shouldn’t get angry.

“I just … don’t like the person you’re becoming.” Aisling’s voice softens as she says this. “The kind of person who ditches her friends to hang out with her girlfriend.” Beside her, Dee just nods her head solemnly. I wonder how much time they spent discussing this before they came here—if this was always the plan, whether I had decided to call them over or not.

“That’s not what happened,” I say. “You don’t get it. Going to our Bengali parties … that’s something Ishu and I both have to do. We were just there … together. We didn’t plan it.”

Aisling drops her arms by her sides and steps closer to me. “Dee and I invite you to everything.” There’s a pleading tone to her voice. “Why do we get excluded from things you and Ishita get to do together?”

“Because …” I scrunch my eyebrows together, trying to figure out how to explain it. “It’s … different. Our Bengali parties are our chance to be around our community. Other people can’t be a part of it. It’s … intimate.”

Aisling and Dee don’t look convinced by my words when I look up to meet their gazes, and I do feel a little bad. I guess from where they’re standing, it does seem like I ditched the two of them with a lie to hang out with my girlfriend.

I cast one last look at the leaflets in my hands. I’m sure “celebrating” with Barry and Colm won’t be terrible. And Abba will understand if we don’t manage to canvass just today, right? If we leave it for another day? He did have qualms about me going in the first place.

I heave a sigh, glancing down at myself. I definitely can’t go into town wearing my campaign t-shirt.