I must have passed out again because when I woke up, Arisa was nowhere to be found. I would have worried if she told me last night was a mistake but I knew better than to assume. She stayed longer than she originally planned to and I was sure she wanted to get home before her mom blew up her phone. I told Arisa she could make up a cover story using Sumaya, but she decided to be candid instead. What luxury. Meanwhile I was trying to figure out why Kumar was choosing not to snitch on me. It was a little out of character for him—was he trying to do me a solid? Did he expect something from me in return or was he going soft?
Then there was Loyal's message from last night. He was trying to get the boys back together and his first order of business was to track down the person who exposed Tomasia and Zander's relationship.
Normally, I would be the first one to offer my services, but things had changed a lot since my friend left the academy. I was under a lot of pressure to become his successor and I hadn't really found a way to deal with all that. I knew I didn't want the title, not at the risk of losing Arisa. I had worked too hard for that shit to let it fall out of my hands. I had to think of a way to back down, diplomatically.
I also had to think of a way to tell Arisa that Loyal might be returning to Jackheights. There wasn't a good time to bring it up yet, but I knew the next time I saw her, I had to find an opening. It made me uneasy, thinking about them being at the same school again, but after last night I had no reason to doubt Arisa.
I changed into black jeans and a light sweater. I wasn't able to make the meeting at the Matsunaga house yesterday, but I had time to drop by Zander's place to catch up. I thought about telling the boys to just come over, but it didn't feel right having Loyal at my place, considering I slept with the girl he was dating last term. Even though Arisa was over the relationship, it would be stupid to assume Loyal felt the same way. I wanted to do what I could to be discreet about my relationship with her.
Kumar greeted me in the living room. He was reading a newspaper in his pyjamas, a Scooby Doo patterned top and bottom. He was seriously so embarrassing sometimes, it made me cringe. Why couldn't he catch up on what was happening around the world on his phone, like a normal person? Why did he have to waste three bucks every Sunday on the paper? It made no fucking sense.
"And where are you headed?" Kumar asked, without looking up.
"Zander's."
He nodded. "Your friends haven't come over in a while, but it feels like Arisa is over every week."
It was just like him to pick at my insecurities. "They've been scattered," I replied. "Not that you'd know but a lot of shit has been going on at school."
"Enlighten me," Kumar said, finally looking up from his newspaper.
"Loyal's trying to come back to Jackheights," I replied. The news didn't seem to surprise my uncle. "Zander and Tommy's relationship was exposed on the school's admin site—"
"Between you and me," Kumar interrupted. "Loyal probably won't succeed getting back into Jackheights."
I blinked. "Why do you say that?"
"Just a hunch."
I crossed my arms. "Your turn to elaborate."
Kumar folded then newspaper up and held my attention. "When Loyal took his old man to court, he also voluntarily left Jackheights. Do you think Ryan will let him back when he practically owns it? If I were in his shoes and my kid challenged me publicly, I would decline his application just to spite him."
"Fuck," I whispered under my breath.
Kumar sighed. "Yeah, you can't put that kind of shit past them. Ryan holds some powerful grudges, I mean I would know, I got on his bad side once and he still refuses to do business with me."
"What did you do?"
"He lost an opportunity to sell a commercial property because I knew the buyer and found him a cheaper option," Kumar replied. "But that's not important, what's important is that you and Loyal both need to understand how the real world works before you go doing dumb shit."
"What the hell did I do?"
Kumar raised his brow. "Arisa Hoffman."
"Touché."