Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana Page A

lede.
    â€œWell, you know I can’t reveal that sort of information, Tara.” Mrs. Treem smiled her most falsely sympathetic smile, but I already knew the answer, and I felt it again, that shameful pang, that wave of defeat. Halle Lightfoot: 1, Tara Krishnan: 0. Except that it was more like Halle Lightfoot: 500,000, Tara Krishnan: 0. There was no competition. Or at the very least, Halle Lightfoot was certainly not in any sort of competition with me. She was too busy getting straight As, running track, editing the school newspaper, all while she walked the length of the student center as though she were Empress of Brierly, giving Hunter Caraway’s loose curls a quick tug, or grabbing Jimmy Kaminsky’s hat in a singular sweeping motion as she made her way past him, not even bothering to look back as she placed his hat on her own head, laughing away with Veronica and Alexa behind her. She made it look as though she were floating through crystalline waters, while I felt as though I was constantly trudging through quicksand. She was buoyant, a majestic ship sailing across a sea that was hers and hers alone, while the others were mere barnacles, clinging to her sides.

    â€œHey . . . who’s that girl you always hung out with, your friend on the junior year abroad program?”
    â€œMeg?”
    â€œYeah, is that her name? The one who laughs at her own jokes . . .” Nick grinned now, and I wondered if he was mocking me by my association with Meg. She
did
laugh at her ownjokes a fair amount. I had always thought I was the only one who noticed. It was as though she had become more and more used to our exile from everyone around us over time.
    â€œYou guys were attached at the hip.”
    I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. “It wasn’t like that.”
    â€œYeah, I always wondered about the two of you. Odd pairing. Like the weird one and the pretty one.”
    It took me a second to realize that “the pretty one” was my assignation, and I looked away to hide the thrill I felt. I glanced out the window, catching the reflection of my eyes widening in disbelief.
    â€œI’m glad you’re coming to the party. Halle has a few of these a year, always when her parents are out of town, which is a lot.”
    â€œHow long have you two been together?”
    â€œAlmost a year.”
    â€œI didn’t realize it had been that long.”
    â€œYeah, well, Halle wanted to keep it quiet the first six months, so we didn’t really let people know till last spring.”
    â€œWhat are you guys going to do when you graduate?” I asked, the question tumbling out of my mouth, surprising us both, as though it were a bird rather than a question.
    â€œWe’ve got some time to figure things out,” he said without taking his eyes off the road.
    â€œSorry to be nosy,” I said, trying to recover.
    â€œIt’s all right,” he said, turning to look at me. “Don’t worry about us, we’ll be okay.” He smiled before turning his high beams on. I didn’t tell him that what had occupied my thoughtsthat day wasn’t whether Nick and Halle would stay together but whether my parents would. There was no one I could talk to about that . . . maybe Meg, once upon a time, but obviously not anymore. Was Meg really weird? I guess she was, a little bit. But I had always found her exuberant and funny, albeit mostly when she was talking about other people’s lives. And we had somehow gravitated toward one another not because we had much in common but because our similar outsider status had sealed our friendship. But beyond the call before she left, and the Instagram message about Terra Nova, I hadn’t heard from Meg. And after that phone call, I didn’t feel so bad about not standing up for her. She wasn’t there for me either. Based on what she had said to me that day, the day of her departure, it didn’t seem like