“I get jealous when I think about other girls liking my boyfriend.”
“I get jealous when I think about Sébastien. And all of the guys at school who still get to see you every day.”
I snort. “You can stop worrying. No one is interested in me.”
“Nikhil likes you.”
I’m startled. “What?”
“Nikhil Devi. I overheard him talking about you to one of his friends once.”
Nikhil is the younger, nerdier brother of Rashmi and Sanjita. Not that I’m in any position to judge. He’s a sophomore this year. “That’s weird. What’d he say?”
Josh laughs once. “Oh, so you can leave me for him?”
“Yeah.”
“Nikhil likes your caboose.”
“I take it back. I didn’t want to know that.”
He laughs again.
“I’ve missed your laugh. I miss you.” I want to reach through our phones and touch his hand on the other side. “Thirteen days until I’m home. How will we survive?”
Josh sucks in his breath, and there’s a long and terrible pause. “That’s…the other thing I got permission to call you about.”
Oh, no. Please. No.
“My family has been invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the White House.”
The…what now?
“Isla?”
“The White House,” I say.
“Yeah.”
“As in, where the president lives? That White House?”
“Yeah.”
“Ha,” I choke out. “Ha!”
“It’s insane. I mean, a ton of families were invited, not just us. But still.”
“My boyfriend was invited to the White House.”
“Your boyfriend – who was expelled from high school – was invited to the White House.”
I begin laughing for real.
“My dad used to know the president, back in the day.”
I laugh harder. And I’m crying.
“Oh, Isla.” It sounds like his heart is breaking through the receiver. Whenever he says my name, he takes a part of my soul. I want him to say it again. “Please tell me that you know I’d give anything not to attend this dinner.”