CHAPTER 6
On the subject of time travel. If you could choose one day to revisit, what would it be?
I think I’d choose…hmmm…something from my recent past. Like…last night, maybe? Skip right past the alley part and start at the fire escape conversation. That was a first. A good first.
Mei
D idn’t know that girl has purple contacts. Or that girl who’s always in crop tops wears blue eye makeup. Too distracted by her five belly button rings. I make eye contact with every girl walking toward me in the hall between AP chem and AP History. That girl’s smiling but I can’t remember her name. I give her a chin nod and look over the crowd, catching any girl’s eye to see if hers say anything. So far, big zero percent.
I turn into the science room and weave toward my table. Tavah looks up from digging in her backpack as I slide into my seat, throwing my backpack on the table. I glance at her and she smiles. Green eyes. Silent green eyes. But they kinda sparkle even in florescent lighting .
I unzip my backpack and search through it for my science folder.
“How’s it going, Marcus?”
I hold her gaze for a solid three seconds. Nope. This eye language is solidly a Mei thing. “Hey. Good.” I smile at my binder as I slide it out and slap it on the table. “How’s it going with you?”
Her eyebrows jump and her smile spreads across her face, bright and shiny. Sparkly eyes, sparkly smile. “A little ready to get this AP test over with.” She taps her pen on her binder and leans her elbow on the table, turning toward me. “Six weeks and high school’s officially in our past. Kind of weird, right?”
Oh yeah. Graduation. College. But first, AP test. Chemistry homework I don’t care about unless it’s about the chemistry between me and Mei.
“Yeah. Crazy.” I pull out my phone and check my messages. Still nothing from Mei. She has my number. She could text any time. Not that she would. She has a boyfriend. Or not. She wasn’t totally clear about that.
Mr. Lomax sails into the room, apologizing for being late because his wife had to bring his laptop. “Phone away, Miller,” Lomax says, plugging his laptop into the projector.
I shove it in my bag and flip open my notebook, copying what’s on the screen but not absorbing any of it because Mei’s smiling in my head. My pen hovers over my notebook. I wonder what class she’s in right now. What guy’s lucky enough to sit next to her. If she’s seen Face Eater again. If her lips are still intact. I drum my pen against my notebook. What’s she doing with him? Is that what girls like her go for? Like I’d even know.
I side-glance Tavah who’s staring at the screen and remember what Johnny’s said about her and the other girls screaming at our games. Is there a guy who’s jealous I’m sitting next to Tavah like I’m jealous of whoever’s sitting next to Mei? I’ve had at least two classes with Tavah every year since seventh grade, and we’ve never had a full conversation. She’s definitely pretty. Like all bright and shiny and always smiling. Glossy lips. Shiny brown hair to her shoulders. What would she look like if she wore it in a ponytail like Mei? She’s actually opposite of Mei in most ways—tall, athletic. Volleyball player, maybe. Green eyes that don’t say anything except that she’s pure energy. Totally different from Mei’s that have layers I still haven’t reached. Freckles on her arms. Mei doesn’t have any freckles.
Tavah shifts and kicks me. “Sorry,” she whispers, and I meet her eyes again. Still nothing.
Lomax writes some chemical reaction I should know but I’ve got my own chemical reactions going on from thoughts about Mei.
My leg bounces beneath the table, trying to burn off my Mei rush, but I’m skipping all the barriers and what ifs and I’m at the first kiss. In some crazy cool place. Kinda dark but not too dark so I can see her reaction. Nowhere cliché like Golden Gate or Muir Woods. Somewhere like…Mile Rock Beach. Yeah—paddle board to the rock at sunset. With a blanket. Don’t want either of us to be shivering or her lips to be too numb to feel anything.
“See you tomorrow.” Tavah smiles as she stands and throws her backpack over her shoulder, and I snap back to chemistry class which wrapped up while I was mentally paddling toward my first kiss with Mei.
“So?” Aunt Audrey stabs her fork into the baklava sitting between us on the café table and I scoot in my chair so people can pass on the sidewalk behind me.
I slide the plate toward me when violent hunger claws at my stomach .
“Still winning the motorcycle?” She raises her eyebrows and chews.
“Still winning, like I do most things,” I say before taking down half our double order and picturing my promised motorcycle. Probability:100 percent.
“Still worth it?” She tilts her head and wiggles her brows this time. Digging.
“Definitely.” Unless Mei’s an option. Then, maybe not.
Audrey’s shoulders drop and she yanks the plate back toward her, taking the rest of my beloved baklava hostage. “Seriously? Not even a hot girl in your math class or one of your friends’ sisters? Are you blind, maybe?”
I lean into the table, eyeing the dessert before offering her the blank stare that drives her crazy. She doesn’t need to know that thoughts of Mei blazed a hot trail through my head all day.
She stabs the helpless lump on the plate again, watching her vicious act. “Ah. Still letting your dad’s past be your future. Even if you don’t want it.”
I jab the straw into my shake. “You finished? ‘Cause I need to feed the angry beast in my stomach and get to practice.”
Her eyes snap to mine. “I love my brother, but his whole women hatred thing is getting old. He and your mom were eighteen. They made a choice. It’s done.” She takes a deep breath, holds it before releasing it with a sigh.
I roll my eyes and scan the café’s stained-glass window but can’t help smiling. For an aunt, she’s the coolest kind available. Kinda has the crazy thing going for her and likes to stir the pot with Dad and his campaign to keep me safe from anything with boobs, but she’s cool.
“Actually, one more thing.” She holds up a finger. “Your mom wasn’t a bad person, Marcus. She was scared, and so was Ray. But you don’t have to be. About girls or leaving your dad.” She takes another bite, staring at me. Waiting. When I don’t respond she tilts her head. “You like girls, right?”
“Okay, seriously?” I throw up my hands and shake my head, then sling one arm on the table, the other across my stomach. “I look at girls. All the time. But girls didn’t get my 4.0 or my starter position on the team. Pretty sure they won’t help me keep either of them. That’s it. I just want my freakin’ motorcycle.” With Mei on the back of it. I tip my cup for the last piece of ice to chomp.
“How about a friendly wager? I know how much you like a challenge.” She leans forward. “A date. One date with a girl before our next dessert date and I buy you baklava for a year. I’ll even ship it to you at Stanford.”
I ignore the Stanford comment. Haven’t told her I accepted at USF, and not ready to have that conversation with her yet. Instead, I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s in it for you?”
“Don’t want you to be the only guy on the Stanford soccer team who hasn’t kissed someone, Baby Marcus. Just doing my auntly duties.”
“Don’t give me that—you’re five years older than me. But you’re on. And I’m gonna add a little juice to this deal. Whoever gets a date first wins baklava for a year. Haven’t seen you with anyone since the last dude who looked like he’d been locked in a closet for fifteen years.”
She snatches a piece of baklava and throws it at me. It bounces off my cheek and I laugh, then throw my napkin at her and stand, slinging my bag over my shoulder. “We have a deal?”
“Deal.” She meets my eyes in her best tough-girl attempt, but the red glasses throw it off.
“Thought you’d see it my way.” I scoot in my chair. “And even if I do ask a girl out, the only thing I’ll be riding graduation night is a motorcycle. ”
“Don’t be gross,” she calls as I smile and wave over my shoulder.
Neon signs and car headlights blare on my walk home from the train stop after practice, but Guo’s sitting outside her shop on her rickety bamboo chair, eating dried mangoes.
I yank out my earbuds and call to her. “Any good fortunes for me tonight? Maybe a note? Or three?”
“Ah! Marcus Miller!! Hello, hot stuff!”
I laugh and stop in front of her. “Where you picking up your slang these days?”
“I say what I see,” she says, flapping her hand. “And I’d like to see you closer. Come here.” She pats the chair beside her and I drop my bags and sit.
“You’ve got me nervous…”
“You afraid I’ll kiss you and make all the girls jealous?” I laugh and she takes my shoulders, turning me toward her. “Look at me.”
Old women scare me, so I do as I’m told, and she puts her hands on my cheeks, squinting. “I see,” she mutters as she pokes my cheeks and measures my forehead.
I shift in my chair. “What are you doing?”
“Reading your face. It tells me all the good stuff.” She smiles, her eyes disappearing into her cheeks. “About your love life. You’ll be so happy about what I see. But first, I’ll get some tea and an important note I think you’ll like. Then I’ll tell you. You need your strength.” She chuckles and shuffles into the shop, her sandals slapping the tile.
I scan the street, anticipating what Mei’s note will say. Hoping for some honesty about Face Eater, but also kinda not.
My apartment’s dark; Dad’s working all night on the missing girls case, so there’s no rush to get home. Except maybe a shower. But Guo makes me laugh and lets me raid her fortune cookies. Teaches me dirty Chinese phrases. Plus…note from Mei. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night.
I wipe my palms on my shorts and settle back into the chair as Guo shuffles back outside and hands me a teacup which I sniff, then raise my eyebrows. “Is this more of those weird herbs that will get me high like last time?”
She waves her hand. “One cannot get high on Love Potion. Especially not you.”
“Ouch. What’s that supposed to mean? What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing’s wrong. You just need lots and lots. You’re never with girl. You always walk down the street, keep your eyes straight ahead. I’m the only girl you talk to.”
I choke on my tea as I laugh, wiping my chin with my palm. “Nice try, Guo. I know you were watching me talk to Mei last night while you scrubbed invisible spots on your window.”
She studies me, then grabs my chin between her fingers and sizes it up. I’m not sure if I should stare into her eyes or close mine. I don’t want my first real kiss from a woman who’s practically my grandma. “Something on my face?”
“Yes—all your secrets. Many great things.” She hunches her shoulders and laughs.
“Like?”
“That you will be a great lover.”
“Oh, wow. Alright.” I push myself up, pick up my bags and teacup, then walk into her shop, weaving through racks of Chinese robes and waving Good Fortune cats toward her kitchenette in the back room. No way I’m talking about this with Guo. I set my empty teacup on the counter, but miss because it’s like I’m floating. The cup shatters against the tile and when I look down, my feet are still on the ground, surrounded by glass shards. My head hovers somewhere above my body and there’s a halo around my vision, but I’m…warm. Relaxed. A little fearless.
Guo scurries in and grabs a broom which I take from her, mesmerized by its bristles sweeping against the terra cotta. I sweep and sweep, swirly patterns circling my feet until the room tilts. She totally laced my tea. Gripping the broom, I lean it against the wall and slowly turn to Guo who’s holding out her huge glass jar.
“Fortune cookie?”
“You drugged me.”
She waves her hand. “You’re a silly boy. Fortune cookie?”
I fumble for the jar and pull one out, sliding out the fortune and popping the cookie in my mouth then reading the fortune out loud. “‘The best year-round temperature is a warm heart and a cool head.’ So wise,” I drop it in the garbage can.
“Oh, please. I’ll do better than that.”
“Yeah?” I take another fortune cookie and toss the slip of paper in the garbage.
“Yes. I saw how you looked at Mei Li’s house before you came in my shop. You like her.” Guo smirks and nods, folding her arms. “Mm-hmm. You will find love with Mei Li. She will make you smile every day. I know.” She points to her head. “You will love Miss Zhang deeply.”
She’s staring at me, and I’m supposed to say something but all I can get out is, “Dude, Guo, why does it feel like I’m floating? Am I?”
“She steps behind the register, bends down, and holds up a Magic 8 ball. “You ask Magic 8 if you will fall in love with Miss Zhang.” She demonstrates how to ask it a question, then shakes it and holds it toward me.
I fumble it out of her hand and glance at her. How did she know that during practice, Coach yelled at me because my head was back on Mei’s fire escape, my imagination making my eyes say a whole lot they would—hopefully—never actually say to her. But what if they do? That whole thing was so weird. But so cool. I wanna try it again, though I’ll definitely have to censor my eyes.
Guo pats my arm and I drag myself out of my surprisingly vivid imagination, though my head’s still floating somewhere above me. Beside me? Doesn’t matter—not screwed on right if I’m having this conversation with Guo and a Magic 8 ball.
I laugh as I ask the question, the air around me tinted purple. “Is Face Eater Mei Li’s boyfriend?” I shake the ball, turn it over. Squint to read the answer. My sources say no.
Okay. So far, so good. Kinda like this thing. I glance at Guo, then ask Magic 8 another question. “Does Mei Li Zhang think I’m the hottest guy she’s ever seen?”
It is decidedly so.
I roll my eyes and shake the ball again. “Will I fall madly in love with Mei Li?”
You may rely on it.
Guo crosses her arms and grins. “You see?”
“You don’t even know what it said.”
“I saw your face. A light went on in your eyes.”
“That’s whatever you put in that tea.” I slip the Magic 8 ball into my backpack and reach for more fortune cookies to calm my violent craving.
“No more for YOU!” She snatches the jar from the counter, holding it protectively.
“What did you put in my tea? For real, Guo. Why do I feel like I just took down a cup of weed?”
“Ah, you got the munchies?” She giggles, her teeth looking a little like a rabid squirrel’s.
“Little bit. Would probably do anything right now for that whole jar.”
“Anything…?”
“Likely.”
“I have a job for you, then.” She shuffles up to me. “Mei Li isn’t home right now.” She grabs a dusty blue silk rose from the vase by the register and shoves it at me. “Leave this on her windowsill. So romantic. Go. Now.”
“Uh. Not a chance. If I had a style, that wouldn’t be it, Guo. Besides—gotta go raid the Oreo aisle right now.”
“No.” She tightens her hold on the jar when I eye it. “You do it. It will make her night.”
“Nope. She has my number but hasn’t used it. She’s probably with her boyfriend. Wishing she still had her lips.”
“No boyfriend. Go. I’ll give you all my cookies and buy you a week’s supply of Oreos.”
I raise my eyebrows, tempted. “Dude…Guo—do you know how many Oreos I can consume in one sitting?”
She nods like she’s having a seizure. “It doesn’t matter when love is at stake.”
“Love? Ease up, Guo—we just met.”
She slides the jar under the counter and straightens. “Guo Mama sees and knows everything.”
“Everything?”
She nods. “Everything.”
“You talk to her since last night?”
She shrugs.
“Know something I don’t?”
Guo hands me a note, then pats my butt. “I know many things you don’t, baby Marcus.”