Free Deliverance by Veronique Launier

him behind me and walk towards the four boys. I don't care if I'm making a scene. Right now I don't even care if I get arrested or get lashes. I am just too mad. I poke my finger in the chest of the boy closest to me.
    "If you have a problem with the way I dress, you will address it to me," I say. I feel energetic. Like I am drawing power from the boys. Feeding from them. The feeling is clear and crisp. I poke at him again and he steps back. His eyes are wide and his lips tremble. The wind is blowing now and tugs at my scarf, teasing the strands of hair. Almost pushing it off my head completely. I feel giddy. I poke him again and again. It isn't hard, it shouldn't be harming him, but each time, he takes a step back, and then his three friends take a step back as well. In the distance thunder roars and that is enough to send two of the boys running to the other side of the street.
    The one I’m not poking stares at my feet. They think they will see hooves. I wish I was a Jinn, so that my power was real. Finally lightning cracks and the last two boys run away.
    All around me, people are stopped on the street staring at me. Some younger people are cheering at me for standing up to the boys while a few other people are staring at me with frightened expressions or mumbling prayers. Many people just avoid my gaze and go back to what they were doing, as if trying not to catch my attention.
    "What was that?" Ebi asks me. There is adulation in his eyes.
    "Nothing, it was just luck to this storm broke out at the same time and scared those superstitious little boys away." I don't entirely believe it's luck, but I don't know how to even describe to myself what happened, let alone to someone else.

    All I've heard all day at school from Leyli is about the cute foreigner. And as we walk from school to the Laleh Caf, it isn't any different. I want to argue that I saw him first but then I remember I have Ehsan. I check my phone for the tenth time just this past hour, but he still hasn't answered my last text. I'm sure he’s busy, but it’s the first time he doesn't drop everything he’s doing to answer me.
    While I'm checking my phone – again – Leyli continues talking.
    "... the people there were cool and Ehsan said that this crowd could open doors for us."
    "Hmm?" I ask.
    "At the party last night? What's wrong? You're just looking at your phone all the time."
    "Oh, it's nothing. Ehsan isn't answering his texts. I'm sure he's just busy."
    "What's the last thing you two talked about?"
    "Well just that stuff in the car. About my music, remember?"
    Leyli purses her lips. "I don't understand why he said that to you."
    "I'm sure he didn't mean for it to sound so bad."
    "Of course not. Ehsan is a good guy. A perfect boyfriend, right?"
    "Right." But with everything that’s been going on lately, he seems like a complication.
    Leyli opens the door for me and my heart stops. Ehsan is there with some friends – all boys, at least – but I’m angry. This is why he’s too busy to answer me?
    Leyli stops right behind me and waves at him. "Look, azizam, there he is."
    “Yeah, I noticed.”
    She walks towards the boys and I'm left with little choice but to follow, though it does occur to me to sit at a different table to see if Ehsan would bother to seek me out. But then he might think I'm having a tantrum and I prefer to act cool. Wasn’t I just thinking he was a complication?
    He smiles at me but he’s distracted. Maybe overloaded at school or at home; I know what that's like. I reach for his hand under the table, but he doesn't have it extended out to me this time. My heart sinks. Maybe he needs a bit of space, that’s common for boys, so I turn to Leyli and try to concentrate on what she’s talking about.
    "As soon as I hear about another party, I plan to go. That's the Tehran lifestyle, you know? Just party."
    "What about studying?" Ehsan asks.
    She flashes him a great big smile. "Of course, azizam. We work hard and we play harder.