“Who doesn’t like hayrides?” I asked at the same time Naomi said, “Hayrides are awesome,” and Ruth said, “We don’t have to—”
Amir laughed. “Guys, there’s no way I’m going on a hayride with a bunch of kids.”
■ ■ ■ HAYRIDE LATER
A toddler crawled into Amir’s lap and decided to stay there. Amir gave me a look that told me I seriously owed him as the kid’s parents cooed over how “forthright” their child was with their “intentions.”
“Smile,” I said, taking a photo on my phone. Amir grimaced, but then the kid gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he broke out into a genuine grin. It was adorable.
We rode along a dirt road on the way to the corn maze, passing rows and rows of pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, bumping away on a trailer as the sun set. It was almost romantic, even though there was way too much denim happening in the back of this truck to be attractive.
“Here we go,” a man in overalls, flannel, and a straw hat shouted from the tractor. He looked like he got his outfit off one of the scarecrows in the pumpkin patch. I did a double take.
It was the exact same outfit.
Naomi helped Ruth down from the trailer bed, holding out her hand. Amir bowed and did the same for me.
“Thank ye, kind sir.”
“M’lady.” He tipped his imaginary hat.
It was getting dark now, the sun setting past the fields, and I could hear the swish of hay and dried corn husks below our feet. It felt like the perfect place for a first date. I hoped Ruth was having a good time.
Just then, Ruth giggled into Naomi’s shoulder. They’d been whispering to each other the whole ride and seemed to have forgotten Amir and I existed.
“We’re gonna go ahead,” Ruth announced, still laughing. Naomi grabbed her hand, and the two skipped away into the first ring of the corn maze. It was the biggest one in the DC metro area, but I’d never been through it before.
I turned to Amir and shrugged. “Ready?”
He gave me a long look. “Sure.”
The sun’s fading rays made his brown eyes look almost gold. I shivered. Amir had never looked at me like that before. Was he still upset I didn’t tell him we were tagging along on Ruth and Naomi’s date?
“Watch out for ticks!” the hayride operator shouted before hopping back on his tractor. Delightful.
We walked into the maze, and it instantly got darker, the rows of corn blocking out some of the sunset. It seemed like everyone had gone ahead of us by now, and the only sound was the crunch of our sneakers as they cracked brittle leaves.
The maze was easy at first, but then we came to our first fork. The sun had now set, and whatever light was left over didn’t reach inside the maze.
“What do you think?” Amir whispered, the maze suddenly quiet and spooky. “Left or right?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Flip a coin?”
Amir got out a quarter. “Heads we go right,” he said as he tossed it in the air. It landed with a tiny thunk on the dirt. “Tails.” We headed left.
Up ahead, I could hear laughter, probably from a family outside that was still picking pumpkins. Were we the only people left in here? Had Ruth and Naomi already made it through?
“Ow!” I shouted, slamming into a hard wall of hay bales. We’d come upon a dead end in the maze, but it had been too dark to see properly.
“Are you okay?” Amir jogged up, concerned. “You really went for it.”
I spit out some hay. “Ugh, I hit my head.” Was I seeing stars? I couldn’t tell, it was so dim in here.
“You’ve got some hay in your hair.” He picked it out. I looked away, embarrassed. It was a good thing he probably couldn’t make out my burning cheeks. There weren’t even any lights to help us see which way to go.
“You’re a good friend,” I assured him as he picked the last piece out.
Amir cleared his throat. “Um . . . Parvin,” he said, his eyes going dark. He gave me that same look he’d given me when I suggested we go into this stupid maze in the first place. “I don’t think I want to be friends.”
“I thought . . . you just said we were!” I hated how childish my voice sounded then. Was I not Iranian enough? Or did Amir want something more? We’d had so much fun in Farsi class and that day we ate abgoosht at his house. I thought I could be myself around Amir. But now I felt like I was misreading the situation, like I had with Wesley.
He stepped toward me, closing the distance between us. And then he kissed me.
His lips were soft but firm, not chapped and salt-crusted like Wesley’s. He wrapped his arms around me, bringing me closer, pushing me against the wall of hay.
I was so surprised by the kiss that I only remembered to close my eyes just as he let go.
“Whoa,” I said. Why did I say that out loud? What was wrong with me?
“Whoa,” Amir agreed. “So—” Just then, Ruth’s voice cut through the cocoon of corn we’d been in.
“PARVIN! PARVIN!” she cried. “Where are you guys?”
“We’re over here!” I shouted. Oh my god. There was literally no light left. How long had we been kissing for? What was going on?
“Amir”—I turned to his general direction in the dark, suddenly panicking—“do you know how to get out of here?”
“Crap,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
I was going to rot away here. In a corn maze. With a boy who I thought was my friend but turned out is a really good kisser.
This was the most confusing way to die.
Sunday BED 10:00 A.M.
10:03 AM PARVIN MOHAMMADI: Ameh, are you there? Do you have time to talk?
10:10 AM SARA MOHAMMADI: Sorry, ameh! This is my last week of class before I see you and things are a bit busy. Maybe tomorrow?
10:10
