The Blind Date Rerun

The school's winter formal matchmaking quiz had matched Layla with someone at ninety-four percent compatibility, a number the app displayed in celebratory confetti font. It was as though ninety-four percent were a grade rather than an algorithm's best guess based on forty questions about pizza toppings and preferred communication styles. She'd agreed to the blind-date setup mostly because her friends had filled out the quiz on her behalf and refused to disclose the identity of her match until the actual night. In retrospect, that felt like a decision she should have fought harder against.

Kuis penjodohan untuk pesta dansa musim dingin sekolah mencocokkan Layla dengan seseorang pada tingkat kecocokan sembilan puluh empat persen, angka yang ditampilkan aplikasi itu dengan huruf konfeti yang meriah. Seakan-akan sembilan puluh empat persen itu sebuah nilai, bukan tebakan terbaik sebuah algoritma berdasarkan empat puluh pertanyaan tentang topping pizza dan gaya komunikasi yang disukai. Ia setuju dengan kencan buta itu sebagian besar karena teman-temannya mengisi kuisnya atas namanya dan menolak membocorkan siapa pasangannya sampai malam acara. Kalau dipikir lagi, itu keputusan yang seharusnya ia lawan lebih keras.

Rarely had a confetti animation felt less reassuring. The identity of her match turned out to be Asher, which she discovered only when he arrived at the designated meeting spot outside the gym and they both, simultaneously, said "oh no."

Jarang ada animasi konfeti yang terasa kurang menenangkan. Pasangannya ternyata Asher, yang baru ia ketahui saat Asher tiba di tempat pertemuan di luar gimnasium dan mereka berdua serentak berkata, "oh, tidak."

"You have got to be kidding me," Layla said.

"Kamu pasti bercanda," kata Layla.

"Ninety-four percent," Asher said, checking his phone as if the number might have changed. "The algorithm thinks we're ninety-four percent compatible."

"Sembilan puluh empat persen," kata Asher, memeriksa ponselnya seakan angkanya mungkin berubah. "Algoritmanya mengira kita cocok sembilan puluh empat persen."

"The algorithm has clearly never watched the canoe incident."

"Algoritmanya jelas belum pernah menonton kejadian kano itu."

Six summers earlier, at a camp neither of them had mentioned to a single mutual friend since, Layla and Asher had spent three consecutive weeks engaged in an increasingly unhinged rivalry. It began over a canoe race neither of them technically won — a disputed finish involving a capsized boat and a furious appeal to a sixteen-year-old counselor with no authority to rule on anything. By week three, the grudge had expanded to include the talent show and the dining hall trivia night. It even produced an entirely fabricated feud about whose cabin had the better view of the lake. What neither of them had admitted, then or since, was how much of that summer they'd spent thinking about the other outside of camp entirely.

Enam musim panas sebelumnya, di sebuah perkemahan yang sejak itu tak disebut keduanya kepada satu pun teman bersama, Layla dan Asher menghabiskan tiga minggu berturut-turut dalam persaingan yang makin lama makin tak waras. Semuanya bermula dari lomba kano yang secara teknis tak dimenangkan siapa pun, sebuah garis finis yang diperdebatkan, melibatkan perahu terbalik dan banding yang marah kepada seorang konselor berusia enam belas tahun yang tak punya wewenang memutuskan apa pun. Pada minggu ketiga, dendam itu meluas hingga mencakup pentas bakat dan malam kuis di ruang makan. Bahkan melahirkan pertikaian yang sepenuhnya dikarang tentang pondok siapa yang punya pemandangan danau lebih bagus. Yang tak diakui keduanya, saat itu maupun sesudahnya, adalah betapa banyak waktu musim panas itu mereka habiskan untuk memikirkan satu sama lain di luar perkemahan sama sekali.

"You cheated in that race," Asher said now, with the immediate, practiced outrage of someone who had clearly never once let it go. "You grabbed my paddle."

"Kamu curang di lomba itu," kata Asher sekarang, dengan kemarahan spontan dan terlatih dari seseorang yang jelas tak pernah sekali pun melepaskannya. "Kamu menyambar dayungku."

"I did not grab your paddle. Your paddle fell in the water because you were showing off."

"Aku tidak menyambar dayungmu. Dayungmu jatuh ke air karena kamu pamer."

"I was not showing off."

"Aku tidak pamer."

"You stood up. In a canoe. To wave at a girl from the other cabin."

"Kamu berdiri. Di dalam kano. Untuk melambai pada seorang anak perempuan dari pondok lain."

Had either of them actually disliked the other back then, six summers of not mentioning it to anyone would have made considerably more sense than what she was starting to suspect instead. "Okay," she said slowly, "why do I remember every single detail of a rivalry from when I was twelve?"

Seandainya salah satu dari mereka benar-benar tak menyukai yang lain waktu itu, enam musim panas tanpa menyebutnya kepada siapa pun akan jauh lebih masuk akal daripada apa yang mulai Layla curigai sebagai gantinya. "Oke," katanya perlahan, "kenapa aku ingat setiap detail persaingan dari waktu aku dua belas tahun?"

"Because," Asher said, equally slowly, arriving at the same realization roughly one second behind her, "it maybe wasn't actually a rivalry."

"Karena," kata Asher, sama perlahannya, tiba pada kesadaran yang sama kira-kira satu detik di belakang Layla, "mungkin itu sebenarnya bukan persaingan."

"The algorithm might not be entirely wrong."

"Algoritma itu mungkin tidak sepenuhnya salah."

"I genuinely hate that for both of us."

"Aku benar-benar benci hal itu untuk kita berdua."

They stood there a moment, recalibrating six years of a story they'd both apparently gotten wrong, before Layla finally held out her hand, palm up. "Truce. Also, you're buying the punch, since you clearly owe me for the paddle."

Mereka berdiri di sana sejenak, menyesuaikan kembali enam tahun sebuah cerita yang rupanya sama-sama mereka pahami dengan keliru, sebelum Layla akhirnya mengulurkan tangan, telapak menghadap ke atas. "Gencatan senjata. Dan kamu yang traktir minumannya, karena kamu jelas berutang padaku soal dayung itu."

"I don't owe you anything for the paddle."

"Aku tidak berutang apa-apa soal dayung itu."

"Ninety-four percent compatible," she said, "and we're already arguing. This checks out completely."

"Cocok sembilan puluh empat persen," katanya, "dan kita sudah bertengkar. Cocok sekali."