That made sense, that Dhivael had recognized her accent and how she had butchered the poor girl’s name. “Forty years,” she replied softly. “Before that, I was in Japan for nearly one hundred sixty years.” She wet her lips and attempted to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ears. The wind grabbed it a second later and tossed it in her face. “Sometimes, with new words, it’s hard to pronounce them.”
And she had spent most of her time speaking Japanese before arriving at Alden. The place where she worked was staffed entirely by Japanese, and they rarely spoke English. Parents liked it because their children could learn martial arts, culture, and language, all at once.
“Only four.” She shrugged. “I don’t have many things.” But she wanted to get plants. Lots of plants. If things went well between them, she hoped she and Dhivael would be able to keep their dorm together. With a consistent place to live, she could keep all sorts of plants and not worry about what might happen if she needed to move abruptly. She could worry about that in three years, when it was time to graduate. Maybe she’d stay on and get a masters degree.
Then all hope went out the window.
Yanagi realized with utter certainty that there was no way she could ever introduce Dhivael to Carly. Ever. Carly would have a field day. They would be playing Halo, Dhivael would come in, and Carly would make some crack about how she was sniping Dhivael’s relatives. She kept her face blank as certain dread filled her because she knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Carly wouldn’t eventually meet her roommate anyway.
Her life, she figured, was pretty much over.
“I’ve never met an alien,” she said in lieu of expressing how sorry she was not only for her own sanity but Dhivael’s as well. “You’ll have to tell me about the Rihannsu. I’m an anthropology major, too. Second year this year.” She offered Dhivael a quick, fleeting smile and unlocked the door to her dorm room. She entered and picked up two of the boxes on the table, the heavier two. “The other two are just clothes. You only need to take one if they’re too heavy. I can come back.” She didn’t want to inconvenience Dhivael or make her think carrying both boxes was expected. It wasn’t.