Palindrome

Thirty-Five

Chapter 35

I stand there with my arms hanging by my side in disbelief. Javed stands up, walking over to where I am. The first thing I do is tackle him into a hug. He laughs against me, engulfing me in a bone-crushing embrace.

Then I punch his elbow once we pull back.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"How are you here?" I demand.

"I thought you said she would be happy to see me," he tells Nagi who comes over to stand beside us. She's changed out of costume too, wearing her black dress from the morning that hugs every curve of her body.

"You knew about this," I say accusingly. "Also hey Nico."

Nico and I fist bump in the customary way that we do.

He's great.

There are girls who don't approve of the guy their best friend dates but Nico's a good guy. With his shaggy brown hair, ski-slope nose, playful black eyes, dry humor, affinity, and ability to deal with Nagi's chaos- he's kind of like the male version of me.

"Hey A, did you watch the season finale?" Nico asks.

He's obviously talking about the Good Place. Bless that Nagi's dating him, I've finally found someone who actually watches the show and understands why it's so good.

"You bet I did," I tell him.

"Dude," he says shaking his head.

"Dude," I repeat nodding in agreement.

"I didn't come all the way from California to see this," Javed cuts in.

"Oh right you're here," I say with a mock air of patronization.

Nagi touches her thumb on each fingertip, "I found out about this half an hour ago because your dumb ass was too busy looking into Paxton's eyes to respond to his texts."

Javed turns his head so quickly toward me that I think he might suffer from whiplash. "Who?"

Clearing my throat, I say, "This isn't about me. It's about you."

"Bet it isn't," he retorts back.

Nagi pats my shoulder, "Kay you two losers catch up. I've got yakitori night at home with this one."

She points towards Nico who rolls his eyes, "You're a real treat to be around."

They walk away bickering with one another.

Javed cups his hands around his mouths, "Thanks Nagi-Chan."

Back in middle school, that's what our entire class started calling her after I found that she was a complete anime fanatic. Right now Nagi flips Javed off which gets a satisfied grin out of him.

Then he turns to me, "So what now?"

"How long do you have?" I question.

He takes out his phone, "Give or take two hours before I need to get back."

I quirk an eyebrow, "Get back where?"

"My hotel room. Only reason my sponsor let me go is because she's in a good mood since we won," he answers.

"Robotics?"

"Yup, I found the flier for it two months ago. Showed it to my teacher and she was all on board. We got sponsors and all that shit," he explains.

"You flew all the way from California for a competition?" I ask trying to process that.

Javed gives me a one-shouldered shrug, "We've got sponsors. So free trip, perks of winning and I guess you're here."