give her love » james potter

28

Amir has managed to infiltrate the friend group while I was sick. I'm not quite sure how and, truthfully, I'm too tired to ask, my pain medications have started talking a toll on me now. But I don't mind because he just fits in. He knows exactly when to laugh or add some fun comment in and his emotional maturity for a twelve-year-old is also really high (he's also secretly crushing on Rachel and it's very obvious to everyone but her, we don't mention it though).

Siobhan flips through the books on the side table, "I'm basically illiterate," she mumbles, opening up Emma and staring at the pages. "I used to read a lot as a kid and now I can't even read a small passage without getting bored."

"That's why I just don't read," Amir says.

She furrows her brows. "I don't think that's any better."

"That's what Raj always tells me."

"I think he's right," I say.

He looks down and sighs. "Of course he is, Angelina. But, I can't let him know that he is, he'd become even more know-it-all-y."

We all agree quietly, we're all very familiar with the complicated relationships you have with your siblings.

I was very lucky to have grown up in a household that always said family comes first. Now, it's arguable that all families say that but my parents went the extra mile to make sure we all believed it too. My siblings and I were all really close, even though we had large age gaps between each other. I'm glad that it was like that because I'm not filled with any regrets about our relationships.

We still fought a lot, and I was closest to Eli even though I probably liked Will the best, Rory and I's relationship could've been more deep but some closeness only comes from time. There are things I wish I could've done differently and things I wish would've said but isn't that normal? Life is always filled with what if's and regrets.

Amir stays a little longer after everyone else leaves. It's the droop of his shoulders and how he continues to find things to do instead of leaving, I can tell he wants to say something.

I squint my eyes at him, "Do you wanna play a game?"

He turns to me a little unsurely but then nods. 

"Ok," I say, straightening up and turning my body towards him. "It's pretty easy. We just tell each other facts about our selves until someone takes more than ten seconds to come up with something."

"--that doesn't sound like a real game--"

 That's because it isn't. "I'll pretend I didn't hear," I mutter. "I'll start, my favorite food is gelato."

"Uhm, I want to climb mountains one day"

"My middle name is Elizabeth, after my mum's favorite actress."

Amir grins. "I've never broken a bone."

"My cat died last year," I say, hoping this will help whatever he wants to say come out. "Her name was Tilly and she sort of grew up with me. I still pray for her sometimes hoping she has a nice bed and a large window that lets sunlight during the afternoon."

He shifts in his chair, "I miss my mum. I love both of my parents because, well, everyone loves their parents to some extent. But, I liked my mum the most," he says. "Nobody can cook the way she does or sings like she does when we go to temple sometimes."

"I think, I liked my dad the most," I tell him. It's like all these memories flash through me and, yeah, I liked him the most because he loved me in a way I always understood. "We were sort of the same person in the way we acted and felt emotions."