PROLOGUE

I took another sip of the too-sweet cocktail in front of me. “Surprise me,” I had said to the middle-aged bartender when he asked me what I wanted to drink. I was sitting alone at a pub near Holborn Station, popular with the university crowd. I’d walked by it many times, but never been inside.

That Thursday, I’d counted on a full house; instead, the pub was nearly empty. Just a couple of businessmen having a heated discussion about the 2008 financial crisis and how the Bank of England intended to pump £75 million into the economy, and a group of five men who looked to be a few years older than me, early twenties maybe. In the six months I’d been attending the London School of Economics, I’d learned to recognize the overblown egos of a certain class of British schoolboy. With nothing to prove and little to lose, a few drinks were the only excuse they needed for bigotry or misogyny.

Somebody had picked up a girl at a party last night. “She was wild, if you know what I mean.” Another one was waiting for the right time to text back after a first date—two days would suffice, one of his friends advised. A third one was bragging about a threesome he once had with two German tourists. “Thirsty tourists, I tell you.”

Their remarks annoyed me, but this was just standard misguided masculinity. Nothing made my blood boil or my hands twitch. I itched for a confrontation, but they didn’t excite me. No spark. I took another sip of my cocktail and wondered why more women weren’t gay.

The front door swung open and slammed against a chair, admitting a frigid wind and a young South Asian man who took a seat at the bar and ordered a pint. I pulled my hair back from my face so I could see him better.

He was the definition of average: short—only a couple of inches taller than me—with straight, black hair perfectly parted to one side, wearing the caramel boots, acid-washed jeans and navy-blue bomber jacket typical of first-generation Asians on the rise. He and I were the same hue of brown, but where the hairs on my hands were thin and light, his were thick and black.

There was something about his features that reminded me of Ayesha. The nose, the eyebrows. He looked like Asad. Or was this just me, thinking all South Asian men looked the same? I inhaled deeply, stretching my arms above my head, then turned to the bar and took the last sip of my drink.

“Do you want another one of those?” The younger bartender, Teddy according to his nametag, came over.

“It’s all right. Just a shot of vodka.”

“You here often?” the Asad-lookalike asked. “I feel like I’ve seen you before.” His right foot tapped on the footrest to the rhythm of the rain.

“I doubt it,” I replied curtly, folding the napkin in front of me into a triangle. I looked at his biceps. Not much bigger than mine.

“Technically, I’m not supposed to drink.” He moved a seat nearer. His eyelashes were so long they curled up, just like Ayesha’s. I could smell the rain on him, mixed in with cigarettes. I missed how she smelled of cigarettes. He took a large gulp of his beer and then turned to me. “Muslims are not supposed to drink.”

“Then why do you?” I asked, spurring him on, sizing him up. My jaw tightened in anticipation.

“I guess I don’t like being told what to do.” He laughed and downed the rest of his beer, keeping eye contact with me, inviting complicity in his religious transgression. “Another one,” he called to Teddy.

I couldn’t decide whether he was trying to impress me or if he was just a regular asshole. Maybe this was a straight courting ritual, one I was not familiar with. His attention felt forced, repulsive, and I welcomed the familiar heat rising to my head, a blend of anger and elation. He was pushing the right buttons.

I smiled as Teddy wiped the counter with a dirty cloth and placed a shot of vodka in front of me. He stretched over the bar, on the tip of his toes and leaned in. “Is he bothering you? I can ask him to move.”

“It’s fine, thank you,” I said, tight-lipped. I’m sure Teddy’s intentions were good, but I hadn’t asked for help.

“Is he the boyfriend?” Asad-lookalike asked.

“No.” My nostrils flared as I turned to face him. “Penises don’t interest me.”

The man’s eyes widened. “That’s a bold statement.” He laughed louder than necessary, feigning ease.

I stared at him. “I guess I don’t like being told who to like.”

“Touché.” He turned to face me as Teddy exchanged the empty beer glass for a full one.

I nodded slowly. The man and I locked eyes. He opened his mouth, but then looked away. We were close. I could feel it. Now was not the time to be coy. “It looks like you have more to say about this.” I pressed my lips together and inhaled. “Please, do enlighten me on your unsolicited opinion.” Idiocy only needs the smallest opportunity to make an appearance.

He sneered. “You should be careful who you go around saying that to.” He took a sip of his beer. “If you were my sister, I’d set you straight.” He shifted his body in his seat and turned away from me.

Rage rose from the pit of my stomach, up my chest, all the way to my head. My legs shook under the counter. I moved my neck from side to side. Even then, in the thick of unrepressed anger, I wondered if I was enough—big enough, strong enough. At five foot four and just over a hundred pounds, I was an atomweight, lighter than straw. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t have known what would happen next.

“I dare you to,” I said as I grabbed onto the counter with my left hand and pulled myself off my seat. I imagined a ball of energy rising from the centre of my chest to my fingertips.

He looked at me, bewildered, confused. Before he could reply, I pushed him off his chair. He fell backwards onto his butt.

“Are you crazy?” He dusted his hands off on his trousers and stood up.

“You have no idea.” I looked him in the eye. “Set me straight.”

“Crazy bitch,” he said under his breath.

Images flashed in my head. The smell of grass mixed with rain. The London skyline from Hyde Park. Ayesha’s face when she walked in on Sana and me. I closed my hand into a tight fist and lunged forward, my right knuckles meeting the man’s left cheek. He slammed into a couple of chairs by the bar, the noise startling the other customers.

“Fight, fight, fight!” The table of men began chanting. The businessmen gathered up their belongings and headed toward the exit.

The man put his hands on his knees and looked up at me, the imprint of my knuckles reddening his cheek. I walked toward him. “Get up and set me straight, asshole,” I whispered into his ear. I knew I only had a couple of minutes before someone would try to break it up. They would look at my opponent and assume I was the victim. Fuck being the victim. This was me in control of my own fucking life. I walked to the centre of the pub, where some space had been cleared, likely for dancing.

My opponent stood up, took off his jacket and charged toward me, right shoulder first. I jumped out of the way, but not fast enough to dodge his elbow. I felt a radiating pain between my top two left ribs, and for a moment thought I might pass out. The man lost his balance on impact and toppled over a table in the corner. I bent over, my right arm cradling my left side. The Asad-lookalike got up and came charging at me again, baring his teeth. This time I kicked his shin with the back of my heel, the impact sending shooting pain up my calf.

He screamed in pain, fell to the ground and rolled into a fetal position, holding onto his left leg. “What is wrong with you?”

Behind us, applause from the twenty-somethings, clapping between points as if they were watching tennis. I couldn’t help but laugh at the Englishness of it all. Behind the bar, Teddy, looking younger than ever, paced back and forth, seeming to hunt for the older barman, who was nowhere to be seen.

I stood over my opponent and dug my leather boot into his crotch. It was like stepping on top of a half-deflated volleyball. “Do you fold?”

He spit at me. I shifted my weight, applying even greater pressure. He groaned in pain, and the sound thrilled me. I wanted to strip him of his ego and dress him in shame. I wanted him on the brink of desperation, seconds from defeat, with nothing but the illusion of a choice.

He said nothing, holding on to the last shred of his masculinity.

I bent closer, my hair dangling inches off his face. “I said, do you fold?” I could smell the beer on his laboured breath.

“Fucking dyke.” He reached for me, but I moved away. He was slow, unpractised. He tried again, thrusting his body off the ground. His nails scratched my neck, and it instantly burned.

“Say that again!”

“Fucking . . . dyke.” He was still struggling to get up.

In that moment, this stranger embodied all my anger and hurt. I used gravity to my advantage and fell into my right fist. He yelped. I kneeled next to him and punched his face again and again. By the third blow, there was a loud thump as his head hit the hardwood floor.

Someone pulled me off, holding my arms to my chest. I thrashed about, trying to regain control. We fell backwards onto the floor. “Calm down!” It was the older barman. I felt his breath on my right ear. Teddy stared at me from across the pub, eyes wide, mouth agape. The Asad-lookalike lay still, except for his chest, rising and falling to the rhythm of his breathing. A pool of blood and spit collected under his mouth. The pub was silent.

My body relaxed into the bartender’s and he held me on the floor. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d let someone hold me. It felt disarming, intimate. I let my head rest on his shoulder. Tears rolled down my face, but I made no sound. He let go of my arms and turned my body toward his. “You’ve got to go now, okay?”

“Okay,” I repeated, without fully understanding what it meant. I looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood, I couldn’t tell whose.

“Go. Now.”

I got up slowly, my ribs aching, and walked toward the bar. I put the napkin folded into a triangle into my pocket and I took the shot. The vodka burned on the way down, distracting me from the pain. I grabbed my coat off the chair. My knuckles burned. With some difficulty, I took out a £20 bill from my wallet and placed it under the shot glass.

I limped to the door, passing the table of men, no longer chanting. I pushed the door open and stepped out without looking back. I knew I would never be able to return to this place.

Outside, a downpour, not a single star in the sky. The fight replayed in my head: the push, the punch, the sidestep, the kick. I watched it as a spectator. I saw the sweat drip from my chin onto his face.

The coldness of the rain shocked me into the present. An older woman stopped to ask if I was okay. I nodded, struggling to catch up to the speed of reality. I wanted to stay put, to absorb the moment, but my legs began to move toward King’s Cross Station. I saw myself in a shop’s window—three red lines on my neck, hair tussled, coat unbuttoned, shirt covered in blood spatters. I stood still. There was nothing of myself in the reflection. An impersonator.

I put my hands on my head, to try to stop the thoughts from coming. Tears flowed down my cheeks. Would the man be okay? He seemed small now, defenceless. I replayed his head hitting the floor. Maybe it wasn’t a thump. Maybe it was a bang, or worse, a crack. I fixated on the pool of blood. I couldn’t tell where it had come from—his mouth, his nose, his head. Sirens wailed in the distance. It didn’t seem possible that I’d done it. But I had.

I was a few feet away from the entrance of King’s Cross Station when I heard my name. Two people were walking in my direction. The warmth of my tears fogged up my glasses. I squinted but couldn’t make out who they were. Looking down at my shirt and hands, I ducked into the station and quickened my pace.

“Aki!”

I ran down the stairs. Rush hour was just dying down. Maybe I could blend in. I put the hood of my jacket over my head and tapped my Oyster card, following the crowd until I couldn’t hear my name anymore. Once on the train, I savoured the memory of my anger, always bubbling underneath the surface, ready to make an appearance. The shove, the first punch, the feelings of triumph and defeat, polar opposites and yet each an end.

It was intoxicating.