Page 17 of Next Time Will Be Our Turn
“Thank you.”
“Watch my game?” he said, and the way he asked was so cool and yet sincere that I found myself nodding before I realized it. I found a spot and sat down next to the court. Already, from the way James held his racket—so casually, like it was a mere extension of his arm, I could tell he was going to be really good.
By the end of the first rally, I realized I was wrong. James wasn’t just good, he was devastating on the court. Is there anything hotter than a guy dominating at a sport? Yes, of course, I immediately developed a crush on him. I was sixteen! All anyone mildly attractive had to do was look my way and smile, and I’d be planning our wedding date.
At the end of the evening, James said, “Did you drive here, Magnolia?”
I shook my head.
“Do you need a ride?”
I was about to say yes when Winnie appeared. “I’ll give you a ride. I live right by you.”
I hadn’t actually told Winnie where I lived, but something in the way she said it made me say, “Okay. Thank you.”
Later, as we walked to the parking lot, she said, “How old are you?”
I hesitated, wondering if I should follow Iris’s advice and tell her I’m eighteen. But I got the feeling that Winnie would see right through me, so I told her the truth.
She shook her head. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. We get plenty of people your age at PCC. From Taiwan, Singapore, whatever. Always look so lost. They come here because it’s a good community college, and also it’s so close to San Gabriel, which I’m sure you’ve figured out is basically like ninety percent Asian.”
“Do I really look lost?”
“Yeah. Like you’re looking for a big sister to guide you. That’s okay, I’ll be your big sis.”
“I have a big sister.”
“You do? Why isn’t she picking you up, making sure you get home okay?”
“She trusts me to make my own way home.” The words felt hollow coming out of my mouth.
Winnie side-eyed me. “You’ll get your driver’s license soon. But until then, you should be more careful. James is a good guy, but he’s sort of a player. Last semester alone, two girls quit the badminton club because he broke their hearts. And he’s nineteen. That’s quite a bit older than you.”
“Okay.” Maybe most people would be annoyed and find Winnie patronizing, but the thing is, at sixteen, I liked being taken care of. I was always looking for older sister figures in life, always looking for someone to tell me it’s okay, they have my back. That was one of the reasons why I was so horrified when Iris told me to stop calling her Cici.
When we got inside her car, Winnie said, “Let me guess, you live in San Gabriel?”
“How did you know?”
“That’s where most of us live.”
We chatted easily the whole way back to my place, and Winnie was right, by the end of the twenty-minute drive, my Mandarin really was better. The words were flowing out smoother, and the Indonesian accent was less apparent. I was good at picking up accents, and already I found myself pronouncing a couple of words the way Winnie did.
“Come by on Saturday evening,” she said. “It’s not official club time, but most of us play then too. I’ll pick you up at five.”
Happiness flowed from my chest all over my body, and I told her I was in. I waved as she drove off, then startled when someone called my name. I turned to see Ellery. In an instant, my muscles, tired and loose after badminton, froze up. Oh my god, what is she doing here? Within the space of a single second, a million thoughts crammed their way through my mind, each one more ridiculous than the last. She knows Iris! She got lost! She followed me home!
“Hey, what’re you doing here?” she said, her hands in her pockets.
“Oh, uh.” It took a moment for my brain to settle down enough to form a coherent sentence. “I live here.” I gestured at the apartment complex next to us.
“No kidding! What? That is unreal!”
“Oh?”
“I live here too. See?” Ellery took out her keys and unlocked the side entrance.
My brain stopped functioning for the second time in half a minute. She. Lives. Here. Too.She lives here too!
