Page 49 of Status Undefined
THE INVISIBLE
LIGHTS
Amit and Daniel
February 1 (Amit)
I’ve aged, I thought.
I got out of the shower and stood, naked, examining my wet face in the mirror. I had wrinkles, a grey hair, and bags under my eyes. Feeling a bit sorry for myself, I checked to see if my hair was receding. The opposite was true. I’d neglected it and now it was a mop. I looked down at the counter, at the eye drops that I used to use every day. I hadn’t needed them since I got to New York. My eyes seemed naturally lubricated. Sometimes I wondered if I could find some little bottle of drops to dry them up – or maybe I should try the hair dryer.
The phone rang, startling me out of my ramblings. In Thailand I never took my phone into the bathroom with me, but eye drops weren’t the only habit that had changed since I’d come to New York. I talked to Keren, Naama and Eli almost every day, and sometimes Liam too. But the time difference made it hard, so I tried not to miss any of their calls and always kept my phone on me. I answered the video call and there was Keren.
“Hey. Are you in the shower?”
“Yeah. Hang on a second.” I put the phone on the counter and toweled off quickly.
“I can’t wait. You have to see this immediately!”
“What? Some hot Youtuber visiting Phuket?”
“Would that make you come back?”
“No.”
“Then no, sadly. Everyone prefers Bali for some reason. You don’t go on Instagram right?”
“No. Haven’t got any reason to. I’m not following anyone so don’t even try to talk me into it!”
“I’m not. Quick – check out what I sent you on WhatsApp!”
I opened WhatsApp unenthusiastically. Keren and I didn’t have anything in common… except guys, maybe.
She’d sent me a screenshot of an Instagram post showing airplane steps.
“Why are you showing me a plane?”
“Zoom in, moron!”
I tapped on the picture and my heart skipped a beat. Daniel had posted the picture and captioned it: Final stop: Home. Was he coming to New York or was it a metaphor for some other place? Maybe he was just messing around. He’d made it clear he wasn’t coming back to New York.
“Amit?”
Keren had been watching me.
“Whatever.”
“Amit, he’s obviously coming there because of you!”
“I don’t believe that but, even if I did, it wouldn’t matter.”
“Why wouldn’t it matter? Everything is working out!”
“Far from it!” There were those wet eyes again. I wiped them with my towel.
“Keren, I’m sorry. I know you expected this would make me happy, but I don’t want to think about him anymore. He’s a self-focused egoist who can’t be trusted. He doesn’t know what it means to really love another person, so it doesn’t matter if he’s coming here. Please, let’s not talk about him again.”
“Amit, I… I thought… well. Never mind. Are you ok?”
