It’s still night when Sparrow phones Imran. The guys are all downstairs, and from the yells and cheers, whatever team they’re watching is ahead.
“I was going to wait an hour and call you,” Imran says. A barista spells out a coffee order, and Sparrow places Imran at the shop a few doors from his apartment.
“Tell me it’s settled,” she say.
“It’s settled.”
Two words, but they’re so beautiful they make Sparrow’s chest ache. She laughs. “I can’t believe it.”
She hears a flight announcement in the background. “Are you at the airport?”
“I am dropping off my mother.”
“Is she going back to London?”
There’s an extra beat before he says, “No, not yet.”
“I can’t wait to meet her.”
The sound is confused and muffled then Imran comes back on. “She is eager to meet you as well.”
Sparrow realizes that they’ve never talked about where Magda’s taking her or where she and Imran will meet.
Imran is speaking to his mother in another language, and then the phone goes mute. The time clock shows that he’s still on the line, so she waits for him to return.
“Forgive me. It is a madhouse,” he says.
“It’s OK. We’ll have plenty of time later to talk.”
Again, he’s interrupted, because it takes him a moment to answer. “You know that I love you?” he says. His tone is so insistent it startles me.
“Yes, of course.”
“Without question.”
“Are you afraid I don’t love you?” That I tricked you into saving me?
“No. Not at all.”
Sparrow is too dazed to answer when he says. “I must go. Good luck tomorrow.”
“OK, goodbye.”
She has the feeling something has happened, but there’s nothing concrete. She sends Imran a double asterisk, but the message doesn’t go through. The airport’s noisy, he could be in a dead zone, she tells herself, but she can’t shake the insistent voice murmuring that something is wrong.
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Sparrow's Story - A Girl Defiant
Teen FictionBoston, Harvard, but most of all, Imran. That’s what Sparrow wants. Imran is physics and poetry, deep brown eyes and a smile that makes her heart race. And he’s the only guy she’s ever met who loves her brilliant mind as much as her beauty. They’ve...
