“We have to pick up your friends anyway, right? They can’t all fit into the other car.”
“Sure they can.”
Bane twisted in her seat. “Why don’t you want to spend time with your friends?”
Could it be being surrounded by happy couples, including my ex? Seeing Sejal reminded me of how perfectly she fit into my family. And how crushed I was knowing that my parents still talked to her, called her, chatted with her about everything. Although she hadn’t gotten into details with them the way she had with her friends, I’d never felt so abandoned. All I’d heard for months from my parents was why not her? Why couldn’t I make it work? Why couldn’t I do better? Why had I ruined things?
It was never her fault. Always mine, and always mine to amend.
It made seeing my parents hard when all I wanted was for them to be happy.
The smart thing would be to say something. Tell my parents the truth and how things would never work out with her, how them bringing her up every conversation killed me a little each time. But therein lay the initial problem that had triggered Sejal. I didn’t speak. I let things float away because I couldn’t figure out how to express my emotions. But if I couldn’t chat freely with my own parents, then how could I do so with anyone else?
Speaking of which, I checked my phone out of habit. No updates on Papa.
“Why are you always on the phone?” Bane cut through my thoughts. “Can’t be work. They don’t call me.”
“You sound offended.”
“That you’re always on the phone or that work doesn’t call me?”
“Well, it’s you…so the latter.”
She shivered and for a second I panicked, thinking her heat exhaustion had returned, when she turned the vents toward me and crossed her arms.
“Are you cold now?”
“You’re not?”
I turned the AC down from full blast. “I was freezing, but you needed it.”
“Aw, you do care about me.”
“It’s more about how to dispose of your body in the case of your demise…”
She faced forward again. “Fine. Don’t tell me about the text slash call that you’re waiting for, or why you don’t want to be around your friends, or your breakup. I get it. We’re not friends.”
It wasn’t that. It was me. It really was; just ask Sejal.
I pulled out of the parking lot, remembering the two turns it took to get here along long stretches of highways, and returned to pick up half the group.
After Aamar and Maya slid into the back seat, since I was not allowing anyone to displace Bane, we headed to the monument.
“Are you feeling okay?” Maya asked, clearly worried.
“Yes, thank you. Much better,” Bane replied.
She explained heat exhaustion to them and how imperative it was to always carry water.
I pulled into one of many empty parking spots and touched the scorching dashboard. I looked at Bane and silently asked if she was okay to go out in this blistering heat with one rise of my brows.
She shook her head. “You go ahead. I’ll sit under a tree at Spencer Beach, right there.”
She cocked her chin at the bottom of the parking lot where it curved into a different parking lot leading to a small beach with plenty of shade.
“Are you sure?” Maya asked from the back seat. “We don’t want you to feel like we’re ditching you.”
Bane laughed. “No, it’s fine. I’ve been here plenty of times and I don’t want to slow you down or worry anyone. But it will be hot. I don’t remember there being any trees, so be careful.”
Aamar placed a hand on my shoulder, as if indicating it was understandable if I stayed with Bane. “Why don’t you park down there so Bhanu doesn’t have to walk?”
“I’m fine, really,” she began to say as I replied, “Was planning to.”
She watched me, her expression pleading with me to go with my friends. Instead, I told Aamar, “Text me when you’re ready to go and I’ll drive back over.”
“That’s okay. We should walk down to the beach. Didn’t realize one was so close.”
“I know!” Maya added. “Would be so nice to get into the water.”
“Maybe we can make this quick?”
She grinned at him. “They don’t need us, right?”
“Don’t forget your waters!” Bane called after them and then said to me, “I forgot I needed to use the restroom. Be right back!”
“Be careful!” I called after her, not wanting her to pass out in the heat between the car and the restrooms.
Aamar waved at me from the sidewalk as Maya walked with Bane to the restroom and back.
