‘The Awesomes’ have a hectic week as we finish off AfroBollyMe for the Red Eye exhibition. But we’re loving our artworks, even if we say so ourselves! 

“Guys, I’ve loved working on this with you!” I exclaim, getting all emotional as the final colour is added to the cartoon love story set in Minitown that we’ve been working on for the last few weeks.

“It was Awwweeesome!” Deevya and Nomusa unintentionally say together at the same time, and we all can ourselves. 

We high five. Then we low five. Then we laugh again. Love it.

Since Deevya kissed Prakesh at The Corner Café I’m feeling a little better about sharing my news about Simon. This boy-girl thing is all a bit of a mystery anyway, isn’t it? So why wait till all the mystery is solved before spilling the beans?

“So… I had dinner with Simon on Friday night,” I casually drop into the conversation, and wait for a reaction.

“Oooh!” squeals Nomusa.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” says Deevya, and I swear she’s got that disapproving look in her eyes again! Can you believe it?

“Who told you?” I ask her in surprise. That was not the reaction I had anticipated.

“I bumped into Simon at the movies on Saturday night,”

“Oh really,” I say casually, but it’s weird that I instantly start to get that jealous feeling again. I need to watch that. Jealousy is not cool. And it doesn’t feel good.

But I still can’t stop myself from asking the first anxious question that leaps into my mind. 

“And who was Simon with?” 

“Nobody,” replies Deevya. “He was on his own.”

Ok. I breathe out. And as I do so I realise with relief that I’m not actually jealous of Deevya seeing Simon. But I do find it strange that I instantly imagined that Simon was on a movie date with another girl. Anyway, I was wrong, so let me just let it go. In fact maybe this is a good time to get Deevya to tell us what’s up with her and Prakesh.

“And who was with you Deevya?” I pursue.

“I was by myself,” says Deevya defensively.

“Oh,” I say in surprise. “But where was Prakesh?”

At this Deevya’s eyes suddenly cloud with tears. I’ve obviously unintentionally hit a sore point.  

“Why do you always have to ask so many questions?” she snaps at me. “Can’t I have a little privacy!”

I look at her closely in concern. Deevya’s thin as a rake and we’ve been so busy working on AfroBollyMe that I hadn’t noticed how troubled her eyes are today. 

“Hey Deevya,” says Nomusa softly, “I don’t want you to feel like we’re stalking you, but we do like to know what’s going on in your life. We are your best friends you know.”

“Yes I know,” sighs Deevya in exasperation. “Why are you making such a big deal out of this? I’m totally fine.”

But we can see she’ s not fine. 

“Are your parents away again?” asks Nomusa.

“Yes. They were in London last week, and they’re in Paris this week, but they’ll be back in time for the exhibition on Friday,” says Deevya as if it doesn’t matter at all.

Nomusa and I exchange a look. I can see Nomusa’s also remembering our conversation about Deevya that we had on the beach that day. That’s when we decided to keep a close eye on her. And something is definitely not right with Deevya today.

“Hey Deevya, do you want to come and stay with me and my mom for a few days until your parents get back?” I ask. “It can’t be fun staying in that big house all by yourself.” 

“No thanks. I’m used to being on my own,” she replies, but this time a tear breaks loose and slides down her cheek.

I can see Deevya’s feeling fragile and my intuition is that Prakesh is her main heartache right now, but I don’t want to push her on that issue. Deevya clearly doesn’t want to tell us what’s happening and I know she’ll just shut us out even more if we put pressure on her.

“Listen, Deevya,” I say “I’m not going to push you for information right now, but please just know that if you ever need me to come over, or if you ever just want to talk, I’m here.”

“Thanks, Hope. It’s cool. I know what’s best for me,” says Deevya in her most adult voice. “You just need to know that I’m doing what I think is best for you too.”

Oh dear. Now Deevya’s really got me worried. That was a pretty cryptic comment, but I instinctively know that she’s talking about Simon.

What ever happened to simple and uncomplicated relationships? And what is Deevya really up to?

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Deevya’s acting a bit strange. Do you think that there’s any chance that she might secretly be into Simon? Or is it something else?