Page 9 of The Mismatch

All she wanted was for him to show he cared. And she hated herself for that.

‘He chose not to be here, he’s not a “poor man”,’ Soraya said.

‘He’s not well,’ Amir said.

Soraya sighed. It was at moments like these that she was most aware she was the only person in the family who didn’t make excuses for their dad. Despite her and Parvin beingclose in some respects, she was reminded that Amir and Parvin were twins and would always band together. If things had been different, maybe she would have had a sister on her side in such arguments.

‘You know, we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him.’ This was the pathetic card Amir always dealt.

‘It’s hardly impressive to have sperm …’ Soraya muttered, very, very quietly.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

Parvin was now on her phone whilst her mum watched her fighting children, her hands linked together on the tabletop, a small frown on her face.

‘See, itisbetter that it’s just us,’ she said.

Soraya, in a way, agreed, but it was the principle of the thing.

‘Who was that English boy cheering for you anyway?’ Amir asked.

There was a short silence.

‘Someone from my course,’ she said. She could almost feel Parvin imploring her to think of a good excuse. ‘He’s gay, you do know that, right?’ She panicked and said it too quickly.

Her mum visibly relaxed. ‘Is he? He didn’t look it.’

‘Well, he is.’

‘He’s definitely not gay,’ Amir said.

‘Do you want to bet? He’s going out with Oliver,’ Soraya said.

Amir smiled, almost laughing. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yes, that’s why he cheered for me, Oliver asked him to.’

Despite Soraya’s cool tone, she felt herself sweating. Under the table, she picked at the cuticle by her nails.

WhyhadMagnus cheered for her? She had tried to not think about it, but now, with Magnus mentioned again by her family, she couldn’t help but admit to herself that she wanted to know. Before she might have thought he was being sarcastic, a typical lad move, but now she wondered whether he was doing it out of kindness. But, with it being the end of university, she might never see him again to find out. This fact was surprisingly disappointing to her. She had spent three years around this person, but now she would no longer see him again even if she wished she could.

She wondered if he was having lunch with his family too. Had his dad sobered up? She hoped so. Thinking about his comments about marriage being wrong, now that she had heard his parents speaking, she wondered if perhaps he was talking about his parents, rather than his own entanglements. It would make sense.

She loved love, but thinking back to what the women in her family had lost for it, she wondered if some part of her too naturally shied away from the idea of belonging to another. Maybe this was why she was hesitant to become romantically involved with anyone. Maybe she did see Magnus’s point after all.

She felt a bit of hard skin by her nail, ready to be pulled. She circled around it with her middle finger, waiting.

The problem with keeping secrets from her family was that the thing she was trying to hide from them often endedup being masked by a web of lies that were difficult to keep up with.

Her dad messaged again:Bring me food theres nothing in house

Her mum called the waitress over.

Soraya yanked the skin off and felt the familiar sting.

CHAPTER 5