Page 29 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove
She forces her jaw open. “Liam would never say something like that.”
“Not to your face,” Rajan concedes. “You’d be surprised, the stuff some of the guys say about their girlfriends in the locker room.”
TJ sneers. “Because you’re such a saint.”
“Oh, come on! I don’t evenhavea girlfriend to talk shit about.”
He’s grinning again. This is all just a joke to him. “You’re such a liar,” she snaps. “Making a joke—aboutthat—” She can hardly speak from fury, and instead chooses to turn on her heel, brushing past Simran.
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Rajan calls.
TJ hardly notices Simran’s following her until she’s nearly at the parking lot, and sees her mom’s car pulling in. She waves and waits for the car to draw near.
Simran’s strangely silent, so TJ mutters, “Rajan’s an asshole. I’m sure no one would force you to tutor him, if you didn’t want to.”
“He’s actually quite nice.”
“In the last week, he started two fights, broke a window, and set off a firecracker in the parking lot.”
“He’s not a star citizen,” Simran amends. “But he’s got a good heart.”
TJ glares at her as her mom pulls up. “Are you defending him?”
“No. I’m just saying”—Simran swallows—“maybe he’s telling the truth.”
TJ’s jaw drops as her mom rolls down the window. “Simran, putt! I haven’t seen you in so long. Need a ride? Hop in!” She grins widely and barely acknowledges TJ. Classic.
Simran smiles. “Sat Sri Akaal, Masi ji. Thank you.”
“Of course!” TJ’s mom’s smile has reached a creepy width.She hadn’t planned on having to drop off another person and is going to complain about it later, guaranteed.
Her giant work bag is on the shotgun seat, so TJ clambers in the back with Simran while her mom asks, “Simran, how’s your mom?”
Naturally she would ask Simran this question instead of talking to her sister herself. While they make small talk, TJ stares out the window and tries not to think about what Rajan told her. The guy is a criminal. And a huge gossip, too, apparently. Why should she believe anything he says?
Aside from the fact that her gut is telling her to.
Which is ridiculous. TJknowsLiam. They’ve been friends ever since he moved to Kelowna in grade ten. He and TJ were always thrown together in alphabetical seating charts and group projects, since his last name is Portman. They spent a lot of time in classes muttering commentary to each other under their breath. Despite herself, she started crushing on him. It helped that he was so cute and turned the full effect of his smile on her constantly. Even more so after they got together.
She can’t wrap her head around Rajan’s claims. It just doesn’t match with the boy she fell for.
Her mom’s phone rings on the sound system, and she answers it in somewhat-resigned tones. Sounds like a call from the hospital. In the respite, TJ turns to Simran, casting her voice low.
“I just don’t believe Liam would talk about me like that.”
Simran eyes her warily. Instead of responding to that, she just says, “Why are you even doing all this?”
TJ instantly knows what she’s talking about. Looks downat her hands, the long hair covering the backs of her arms. “Because of the meme.”
“It wasn’t making fun ofyou,” Simran says quietly.
“It wasn’t about who it was making fun of,” TJ argues. Her voice rises in volume, and her mom, still on the phone, turns slightly in her seat to glare at them. TJ waits a minute before it feels safe to whisper again. “It was about what itmeant. And, well, I want to show everyone that I don’t have to do it—shave or wax or whatever. I can still be pretty. I can still be me.”
The words sound emptier now. If what Rajan said is true, and Liam really said that in the locker room, it’s a major counter-point from the other side of the debate. Her own boyfriend wants her to shave so she can be hot again.
Simran doesn’t say anything. They sit in silence for the rest of the ride. When they finally pull up to Simran’s house, she glances at TJ while unbuckling her seat belt.
“Rajan was probably exaggerating,” she says quietly, and that’s what gets to TJ—thesympathy. She can’t stand it.