A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Over winter break, Shirin does not reply to Ocean’s texts, which read I love you repeatedly. She nurses her sadness with comforting activities like reading, listening to music, and adding to her diary. She spends time with her father, watches old episodes of Little House on the Prairie with her mother, trains, and practices breakdancing with Navid, who is intent on preparing the crew for the upcoming talent show. By the second week of break, Ocean stops reaching out to Shirin. She questions how things would be different if she had avoided romance with him: “So many times, I thought, I’d tried to draw a line in the sand, and I was never strong enough to keep it there. If only I had” (269).

Shirin continues to spend time with Navid, Carlos, Jacobi, and Bijan. Yusef joins them as well. Shirin appreciates that Yusef understands details about her that others do not: “Yusef wasn’t terrified of girls in hijab; they didn’t perplex him […]” (272). Shirin, however, finds herself uninterested in Yusef romantically. Shirin asks her father on New Year’s Eve, “How do you know if you’ve done the right thing?” (273).