Fight Like a Girl - Sheena Kamal Page 0,33

looking.

Tonight was a big night for me. I kissed a college boy who can’t fight and I also talked to my half-brother, Dad’s first-born, for the first time in my life.

nineteen

So women are more likely to be murdered by their husbands or boyfriends than anyone else—

But what about the other way around?

—which I learned today in World Issues class, which I also didn’t do my homework for. A test is coming up and I’ve got to do better. If I flunk and it brings down my average…I can’t even imagine what Ma will do to me if she hears.

There’s no time to train this week. So much studying. Dad’s phone is in the locker at my gym now, buried far back, behind all the rank gear I’ve abandoned over the years. I store my half-brother Junior back there, too. I’m not ready to deal with him yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.

On my breaks, I look for the papers missing from the fireproof box everywhere I can but, finally, I have to do it. We’re alone in the kitchen, and it’s Ma’s day off. I don’t know where Ravi is. She looks happy for once, like she’s in a decent mood. Painting her nails, something that she hardly does anymore.

Now or never.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks. “If you’re not busy, you could clean something for once, you know.”

Which is insane, cuz I clean more than she does. If anyone needs to clean more, it’s King Ravi. “I need my passport. Where did you put all our important stuff?”

“What do you need your passport for?”

“To check the expiry date. Going for March Break with Aunty K.”

“She did mention something about that, you know. I think you have at least another year on that passport,” she says, still not looking up.

“Can I just check, Ma?” I try not to sound like a brat, but I do. Besides, she’s always telling me thinking isn’t knowing. So. And I need to know for March Break in a few weeks, but also for Florida. “Aunty K already bought me the plane ticket and I don’t want to let her down.”

Finally, she looks at me. I have her complete attention now. “Alright, alright. Since when do you like going to work at her shop so much, anyway?”

“Since you sent me there at Christmas, Ma.” This comes out a lot angrier than I wanted it to, but there’s nothing I can do about that now.

She frowns, probably not buying that I suddenly developed a love for smelling like curry 24/7. And I’m pretty sure she wants me to say something about her and Ravi, like she’s digging for info on how I feel, but I’m not in the mood. It’s enough having him around. I legit don’t even want to talk about him on top of having to look at his face. “Ma! My passport.”

“Fine. I’ll have to get it for you. We’ll go to the bank later today.”

“The bank?”

“I put everything in a safe deposit box.”

“Since when?” I say.

Just like that her good mood’s gone, too. She challenges me with her stare. “Since I felt like it. You want your passport or not?”

* * *

When we reach the bank, I’m out of the car as soon as it stops. I head into the tiny reception area so she won’t have any excuse to leave me in the car. She mutters the box number 4242 when we get to the front of the line and it takes a few minutes until we’re led to a room in the back. “Shouldn’t I have a key, too?” I ask, as we walk down the narrow hall.

“Keep pushing it, Trisha, and see if you get to go to New York at all.”

“But it’s my papers in there, too, right? What if something happens to you and I need to get something from the box?”

“What’s going to happen to me?” she says, suddenly fierce.

“I dunno. An accident, maybe. Like Dad…”

She ignores me and goes into the room first. The door slams in my face.

When she comes out about a minute later, grinning, I know she did it on purpose, closing me out like that. I take the passport and walk off ahead of her. I wait at the car for a good ten minutes before she leaves the bank, still sporting that stupid grin on her face. “Oh, fix your face,” she says, when we’re both in the car. “I put your name