Now it was my turn to scoff. I was a good son, despite what Anwar said. Never heard a complaint from our parents. Ever since Anwar decided to seriously practice Islam again, he’s been on this high horse.
“Now, why are you moping?”
I breathed out through my nose, trying to calm myself down. My older brother was tenacious. He wasn’t going to leave until I gave him an answer.
“Is it about that white kid you hang out with all the time?”
That pissed me off. Luke is so much more than some random white guy. He’s my everything.
“You know his name is Luke,” I said through gritted teeth. Anwar is eight years older than me. We were never close. But he should know my best friend’s name.
“Let me guess,” he said as he sat down on my desk chair, “You told him how you felt, and he reacted badly, and now you’re moping about it.”
I… uh, what? I didn’t know what was more surprising, Anwar knowing about my crush or seemingly being cool about having a bisexual younger brother.
“What?” Anwar said, seemingly offended by my surprise. “You think I can’t tell when my little brother has a crush? I know what being attracted to someone is like.”
The idea that Anwar could be attracted to, let alone love, anybody is insane. Somehow he’s engaged to this other Pakistani doctor named Fatima, who is honestly a lovely person. Why she’s with my sour brother I’ll never know. I always thought that he’d go with an arranged marriage because he’s so traditional, but he did honestly seem head over heels for her.
“Honestly, why don’t you just give up? Get over this silly little crush. Find a nice Pakistani girl to settle down with, make grandchildren for Ammi and Abah.”
I was instantly enraged. “Give up? GIVE UP!? It’s not a fucking crush! You don’t know what true love is, Anwar. Luke is the love of my life, he’s the most important person to me. EVERYTHING that I am is because of him. I love him more than you could ever love anything in your cold, hard heart! You think I’m just going to give him up? No, absolutely not!! NEVER! The connection we have can’t break so easily. I’m not fucking GIVING UP!”
I panted hard from unleashing that rant. Anwar just looked at me with a knowing smirk.
“That’s what I thought Sameer. You’re welcome,” he said as he turned around and exited my room.
I was annoyed my older brother had tricked me into action, but he was right. I wasn’t going to give Luke up. I was going to fix this, and I was going to prove to Luke that he loved me back.