Page 72 of I Did Something Bad
There’s a long silence between the trailer door closing and May speaking. When she does, her words are wary but firm. “Ty,” she’s saying. “This is serious.”
“They’re fishing, getting desperate. Trying to scare us.”
“Well, it’s working.” She soundsjustas petrified as I was when I said those exact same words to him.
“It’s fine. We only—”
“No, Tyler, it’snotfine!” May snaps. “Khin has to come clean.”
“How dare you even suggest that? Absolutely not.” It’s such a sharp reply that even I recoil in my porcelain seat.
“Tyler,” May says. I can see her curled up on the couch like she was when she revealed that she knew, two fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. “I know she’s scared andIwould absolutely be, too, but we’re going to get her the best lawyers. I’ll help out. We’re going to make sure she gets a fair—”
“She won’t. It doesn’t matter what we do, because it’s not going to be fair, not for her,” he says. Because he understands. He listens, and he remembers and knows and understands. “Besides, I thought you liked her.Youwere the one who came up with the cover story for her pen.”
“Idolike her,” May says without missing a beat. I can tell she means it, but I also don’t miss the underlying caution in her tone. “But I came up with that story because I thought I was helping you. I want to helpbothof you, but Ty…youare my priority. Khin is great, but she’s not my best friend. She killed a man—”
“You know it was self-defense.”
“Then she can tell that to the police.”
“She’s not going to the police.”
“Tyler!” May says brusquely, losing her softness. “You heard Yasmin!”
“Khin could lose everything—”
“Wecould lose everything! How long do you think it’ll be until either of us gets another job? How long do you think it’ll be untilYasmingets another job? She’s an Asian woman director in Hollywood, and her first-ever feature film gets killed because of a murder scandal? Do you think Burberry won’t rip up my contract if this gets out? And you can say goodbye to the Bond role—”
“I don’t care about the Bond role—”
“Well, I do!” May’s crying at this point. Her words sound like they’re thrashing around on choppy seas. “I get that you care about Khin, but I care about you! And I know you’re mad at me right now for saying all of this, but I have to because it’s us. I have your back and you have mine—that’s how this works. And Khin is amazing, she really is, but…” On instinct, something in my heart hardens, calcifies, prepares me for what is about to come. “What I’m trying to say is, Khin doesn’t fit in here. She can’t. This isn’t a movie, Ty. She’s not…”
“Not what?” Tyler scoffs, and I grit my teeth, uncertain if there is a single word out there in any language to encapsulate the emotion that’s taken over me.
“She’s not going to stay,” May says quietly. “She can’t. And neither can you. When we finish shooting here, you two are going to go your separate ways and live out the rest of your lives in opposite corners of the world, and that’s it. Except, that won’t be it, because I know you. You’re too soft for this, too honest, toogood. You are the best person I know, Ty. You’re hiding it, but I know how anxious this must be making you, and telling the truth is the only thing that’s going to make you feel better. Otherwise, this secret is going to haunt you for the rest of your life, and I’ll be damned if I don’t step in and at least try to stop that from happening. So please, for both of your sakes, please tell her to turn herself in.”
After a considerable pause, Tyler replies, “She won’t do it.”
“She will if you ask her.”
“I’m not doing that. I will do almost anything you ask me to, May, but not this. She’s—” He takes a deep breath. “She’s going to be alone in this if I turn my back on her. And I’m not doing that to her.”
“Tyler.” I’ve never heard May sound so desperate. So frightened. She’s genuinely frightened. For herself, for Yasmin, for the movie. Forhim. “Do you think she’d do the same if the situation were reversed? Do you think she’d jeopardize her whole career foryou?”
“I know she would,” he replies instantly. My heart trips at the conviction in his voice. “Khin is agoodperson, loyal to the bone.”
May’s chuckle is so light that I’d have missed it if my ear were just two inches farther away from the door. “And you’re in love with her,” she says.
“That’s—” He stops, and my mind plays an unprompted game of Mad Libs.Ridiculous. Inaccurate. The absolute furthest from the truth.“—irrelevant,” he finishes.
Oh,I think, not even jumping at the knocks on the front door, followed by a muffled voice telling them that Yasmin said to eat lunch because shooting’s going to resume soon and both May and Tyler yelling back, “Okay!”
I remain on the toilet for an additional ten minutes, partly to make sure that Tyler doesn’t come back because he forgot something, and partly because it feels like my whole body has been anesthetized. At last, I hoist myself up, wash my hands, exit the bathroom, and, because I can’t quite go out and face Tyler and May and Yasmin yet, not now that I know the pressure they’re quietly bearing on everybody else’s behalf, I drop down onto the couch.
Just then, I become acutely aware of a buzzing beside me. I’m so out of it that I stare at my phone for a solid three seconds before realizingthat’swhat’s buzzing, and that to stop said buzzing, I should answer it. “Hello?”
“Khin?”
