“That better not be your new look for your new age,” Kane said, entering. He poked my chin.
“You can all bite me.” It was too much to hope that my fellow Rasha would be adult about my stubble-burn and not mention it. Ari gave me an exaggerated shudder of disgust and actually walked out.
He was so not getting his present.
Kane helped himself to coffee, scratching his bare belly. “Were you kissing a lizard?”
“If you’re gonna insult me, at least caffeinate me first.” I reached for his coffee but he held it out of reach.
“I only speak truth,” Kane said.
“It’s disgusting,” Drio said.
I flicked his arm.
“What? This is a truth circle. You look like you went a round with a windigo. And lost.” Drio waved a hand at me. “Fix yourself.”
“It’s not–he’s shaving–” I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, you big jerk.”
Drio grinned at me.
“Love’s not supposed to hurt, but when it does?” Ari sauntered back in and placed a tube in my hand. “Polysporin.”
“Ha ha. Are we done taunting the vulnerable female now? Can we return to business as usual?”
“That is business as usual,” Drio said.
“Walked into that one, babyslay.”
“Go back to Rome,” I said to Drio. I opened the oven. No waffles lovingly prepared by my boyfriend. I cracked my knuckles, nostrils flaring.
Ari waved my gift at me. “Upstairs. Move it.”
There was a bit of a doorway tussle with free-ranging elbow jabs, but I got inside my room first and did a brief gloating wriggle dance. I grabbed his gift off the dresser and on the count of three, we switched presents.
I tore mine open. Inside was a multi-colored candy necklace, a huge pink candy diamond in a purple plastic setting, and a black sleeveless shirt covered in sparkles. Smack in the center of the shirt was a horned demon head made of silver crystals. It sat in a pink crystal circle with a slash through it. Ari had been responsible for many of my best T-shirts over the years but he’d outdone himself with this one.
I hugged my “No Demons” shirt to my chest. “You’re the best.”
“Not so bad yourself.” Ari read the back of the jewel case for Inside, one of those moody puzzle videogames he liked so much.
As I adorned myself with my candy jewelry, Kane stepped in, holding a plastic bag.
“Still not a good look,” he said.
“Says the man with the worst fashion sense in the history of mankind.” I poked his leopard-print shirt. “What are you, a middle-aged divorceé? This, on the other hand?” I modeled my candy gems. “They’re beeauutiful traditional gift items.”
I bit off a red candy bead.
Ari swallowed the Coffee Crisp chocolate bar he had stuffed in his mouth. Wafer layers stacked with a coffee mousse and covered in milk chocolate, this exotic Canadian delicacy was the first of the six full-sized bars that comprised the other part of his gift. “Did you need something?” he asked Kane in a frosty tone.
Oy vey.
I muscled in between them. “You can’t throw away a lifelong friendship.” Yes, Ari had kissed Kane after being turned on by–and yeah, attracted to–Malik, this hot marid demon. And yes, Kane felt used and angry, and it probably wasn’t the best circumstances for Ari to initiate a first kiss with the dude. But come on.
“I’m pulling birthday rank and demanding that you two work your shit out already.”
“It’s my birthday, too. And I’m older, so…” Ari crossed his arms.
“Your insouciance doesn’t fly.”
“I already got you a non-refundable gift,” Kane said to me. “You can’t have both.”
“I don’t need material goods. I want you to make up.”
He pulled a slim cream envelope from the bag and held it up. The word “Miraj” was written on the outside in distinctive red script.
“You got me a gift certificate to the hammam?” This Turkish spa was deluxe. I’d heard about it from my mom but had never been able to afford it myself. I grabbed the envelope, and hugged him.
“Yeah, yeah.” Kane pushed me off him.
I tried to peer inside the gift bag that Kane held. “Is that Ari’s gift, perchance?”
“As if,” Ari said.
Kane glowered at him, thrusting the bag stiffly out.
Ari took it like it might explode in his hands and pulled out a hardcover manga with a slick red and black design. “This is the limited edition.”
“So?” Kane’s chin tipped up a couple of notches higher.
“It’s not even available in North America.” Ari opened it like he was holding a priceless artifact. My brother had developed a love of manga around his tenth birthday–inexplicable at the time, since none of his other friends were into it–that had remained strong and ongoing. Not so inexplicable now. “There’s a backlog on it everywhere.”
Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “I got my cousin in Tokyo to get it. It’s not a big deal.”
Ari leafed through the book with an undecipherable expression.
“Ari,” I hissed. “Thank him.”
He and Kane stared at each other for a very long, tense, mutual idiot boy moment. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Kane pivoted and left the room.
Ari put the book back in the shopping bag and unwrapped the second Coffee Crisp. “What did Ro get you?”
“That was pathetic. Get lost. I have to get dressed.”
He paused, the chocolate bar halfway to his mouth, darting a glance after Kane. “When do you wanna leave later?”
“Five?”
He threw me a thumbs up, busy devouring bar two, and left, shutting the door behind him.
I ate three more candy beads.
The phone rang with Leo’s special Flight of the Conchords ringtone. “I’m twenty-one!” I said in greeting.
Leo sang me Happy Birthday.
“Are you coming to the parents’ house tonight?” I unbuttoned Rohan’s shirt and tossed it on the bed.
“Of course.”
“Will I be getting a present?” I rooted around in my underwear drawer for a bra.
“Perhaps.”
“Did you know Drio was back?”
“He didn’t go straight from the airport to Demon Club, that’s for sure. That boy took everything out of me and then some.”
I ate another couple of candy beads. “You greedy monkey.”
“I heard zero complaints. He even gave me this gorgeous hand-printed scarf he’d bought in Rome.”
He’s buying her gifts? Holy shit! “Next time get cash,” I said, trying to hang on to my phone as I shimmied into my bra. “Though I guess the scarf looks more impressive than a lonely five bucks.”
“Ha. Ha.”
“The no kiss thing wasn’t a problem?” I threw on my new shirt from Ace and tugged up a pair of black booty shorts.
“Not yet. I’ll break him.” She snickered. “I plan to have my hands full with repeat performances from the Italian Stallion. Keep milking him dry.”
I twisted my hair into a bun. “Ew. You know how easily I’m traumatized by visuals. I’m a delicate flower.”
She snorted. “What did rock star get you?”
I squirmed and even though she couldn’t see it my freaky friend sensed it.
“He didn’t start your day with a gift?” she demanded. “And he lives?”