Page 6 of The Other Side of Together

I recoil when the rancid tang of alcohol sweeps across my face. “I think you’ve had a little too much to drink.”

“Not too drunk to see. Care to know what I saw?” He points at one cloudy eye, the sharpness edging his voice digging into my stomach. “Anyone would have noticed.” He steps closer. “You were noticing someone else. And he was noticing you.” His eyes skitter across me as I swallow metallic guilt and shake my head.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” I step back and reach behind me for the kitchen door but he pushes it closed as I press my back against the brick. “I was too busy to notice anything.”

His voice is like tumbling gravel between us. “I know what I saw, Mei Li. The detective’s son. He watched yourevery move. And he liked what he saw.” Nick reaches out, his fingers sliding down my cheek, heavy and listless. I hold perfectly still, hoping to dissolve into the brick. “Of course he was watching you. You were the most beautiful thing in the restaurant. But…he doesn’t know that I really…really…don’t like anyone who wants what I want.” He steps closer, his nose on my ear, and I tense. “I’m protective, that’s all.” His hand smooths down my bare arm, goose bumps rising like a warning. “Is that wrong of me? We don’t want the detective to know too much, do we?”

My throat burns and I swallow, shaking my head. He’s right. Detective Miller can’t know about my family.

My phone chimes in my pocket, but I meet Nick’s eyes and try to hold them as they circle. Is it wrong for him to be protective? Since his baba died three years ago, he’s always been here for me and my family, keeping us and our secrets safe. Opening doors for me I could never open on my own. It doesn’t seem wrong, but it doesn’t feel right either. But why? I’ve loved having him in every detail of my life because he makes all the big, scary decisions so I don’t have to. He makes sure everything runs smoothly. We would have been deported long ago if it wasn’t for him. I know he cares. But since I turned eighteen last month, he’s cared a little too much about everything I do. He’s suggested things that feel too permanent between us. A few months ago, I liked the idea of something permanent since everything else about my life felt so fragile. But I’m not sure I want Nick to be the permanent part.

1 *Mei Li in Mandarin means “beautiful”

CHAPTER 4

Ishove the Stanford envelope in my backpack and throw it and my soccer bag over my shoulder. Heading for the back exit, I scan the restaurant for Mei Li. This back and forth is harmless. I’m not gonna lose my motorcycle by looking. I’ve checked out plenty of girls. Kissed one at a party in ninth grade, before the bet. If a touch-and-go counts as a kiss. Plenty of girls have looked at me, and I’m still intact. Dad doesn’t need to know I pictured kissing Mei Li tonight.

She must be in the kitchen. Gotta find out the nights she works so I can see her again. Yanking my phone out, I text Johnny:

Marcus: Meet me at The Clubhouse.

If I can’t go round up the bad guys with Dad, Johnny might as well come to the apartment so we can start our final AP history project. Dad just loaded the fridge with Mountain Dew so that’ll get him there fast.

I duck out the door and turn down the alley toward home, stopping when a deep voice growls “I didn’t like it” and my head snaps around.

Mei Li’s outside the kitchen door, spotlighted by a yellow-orange floodlight, the high-maintenance Asian guy that grabbed her arm in the restaurant up in her face.

I crouch behind the dumpster as he says something in her ear. She hasn’t mentioned a boyfriend, but the way he grips her arm makes me squirm, and when he pins her against the wall with his hips, he looks more rapist than boyfriend.

His back’s to me, but his words ooze through the air like slime. “You’re just so beautiful. He was watching you all night. Tonight, I realized how jealous I can be.”

Dude strokes Mei Li’s cheek and leans closer. “I hope we don’t have to talk about this again.”

She searches his eyes but shakes her head and he kisses her. And she kisses him back. Like, full-on kisses him, and I want out of this alley because my stomach’s on the ground, writhing in alley grime. Something’s off with this dude. Like really off, but while he gets busy on her neck, she opens her eyes and they collide with mine, almost knocking me backward.

I shake my head and hold up my hands, apologizing with my eyes.

Hers widen, and she shakes her head once, barely visible. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

Whoa. Apparently, our eyes speak the same language ‘cause I got that, loud and clear.

Her palms press against the brick wall behind her and she closes her eyes again, squeezing them tighter when the guy whispers in her ear. He straightens, then takes her chin between his thumb and fingers, forcing her to look at him.

Doesn’t matter who this guy is—he needs a cold shower. A kick to the groin from a pair of cleats. But she kissed him. Even though…kinda looks like she wants him off her. Should I throw something? I look around. I have a backpack full of binders, not an arsenal. The soccer ball in my bag to the back of his head could distract him, but—

He kisses her again, and all thinking grinds to a stop because he’s eating her face. I focus on her until her eyes snap to mine again, looking at me over his shoulder.

I’m no expert, but this guy’s moves border pornographic. “Do you care about your lower lip, because I think he’s gnawing it off.”

I’m pretty sureher wide eyes are begging me to stay, but maybe I’m getting it all wrong. If I stick around, I can’t watch anymore of this. I’ll throw my soccer ball at him, so he bites off his tongue instead of shoving it down her throat, or—

I lean down and unzip my bag as quietly as I can, palming my soccer ball, but hereyes go wider when I pop back up over the dumpster.

“No!”

“He’s gonna rip out your esophagus and I—”

Two cop cars roll up outside the restaurant, blocking the alley, and the guy’s a blur—down the alley and through a door in the building behind the restaurant. Mei Li’s flat against the wall, hands gripping the brick behind her. She’s completely still for a few seconds—and so am I—but then she pushes from the wall and bolts through the kitchen door. I’m still palming the soccer ball at my side when the door scrapes shut.

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