Page 21 of It’s All in How You Fall
“Yes.I figured out how to repay you. YoulikeSunny but have no access to her. I do.” I press both hands into his forearm as his wrist hooks casually over the wheel. “Please, let me do this for you.”
He rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. “What are you going to do?”
“Reintroduce you. And if that goes well and you want to, maybe more. I promise I won’t embarrass you or force anything. I just want to help.” Alex’s face softens and I can see I’ve wormed my way in. For good measure, I toss his words right back at him. “I’m doing something nice becauseI want to.”
That does it. He sucks in a breath. “What do I need to do?”
I nearly cheer. “I just need you and your car at Balan’s Gymnastics at five.” When practice ends. “That’s in seven minutes. Get a move on.”
“We’re really doing this now?” His voice is sort of strangled.
“You’re not doing anything except dropping me off and looking handsome.” I pat the blushing cheek nearest to me, getting all up in his business. “I’ll do the rest.”
To my delight, he hangs a right, pointing the Challenger toward Balan’s. I shoot off a text to the group thread between Sunny, Peregrine, and me saying I want to do dinner tonight if they’re free.
Peregrine must be at her locker collecting her things, because she texts me back immediately.
Sure! Sunny and I were just talking about craving bibimbap. Okay if we do that?
Yes, perfect. Meet you at the gym in five.
Alex drives in silence, jaw working in my periphery. As we turn into the business park housing Balan’s I think I get it—he’s overanalyzing what’s about to happen. Working it through his brain like he would a drawn play on the soccer field or basketball court. Or working three shots ahead on the tennis court. Nat goes bouncing off the walls when he’s nervous, but Alex, it appears, folds in on himself like a dying star.
Which means he truly does have real, live, messy feelings. He’s not just this perfectly formed big brother figure but someone whose insides can go all squishy too. I figured his confidence and consistency spared him the roller coaster of human emotion.
This turn of events is incredible.
As the gym comes into view, I spot the upper-level squad moving outside to head home. I yank off my seat belt as he hugs the curb to the sidewalk. “Keep these windows down and stay here,” I tell him. Then I pop open the door as I see Sunny’s ghostly form behind the shaded entry glass, curly pony bouncing as she waves goodbye to Elena, who’s usually stationed behind the front desk. “In the wise yet fictional words of Angelica Schuyler, I’m about to change your life.”
It’s a total dork thing to say and I fear I’ve confused him more with myHamiltonreference, but then I hear him through the open windows over the clang of the door as I slam it.
“Then by all means, lead the way.”
10
I’m not as smooth as fictional Angelica Schuyler or probablyfictional anybody, but I step onto the sidewalk leading to Balan’s front door with a huge grin on my face.
I greet my friends that way, and though they both are smiling when they push out onto the same sidewalk, their faces host a flicker of something else—something serious? Tentative? Unsure?—as they flip-flop my way.
I’ve all but halted my forward progress, cocking out a knee and sticking close to the parking lot, Alex’s rolled-down window strategically about eight feet behind and beside my right side. There’s no hiding him, and I won’t have to yell across the space between us to include him.
They’ve changed out of their gym gear and into street clothes. Sunny’s in a tie-halter sundress the color of chopped watermelon, and Peregrine’s in a gray athleisure skort and… the same Nadia wrist-flip tank top as me. “Well,bunå ziuato you too, Peregrine,” I say, dusting off the Romanian greeting Olga taught us in kindergarten. I tug at the edges of my tank top until recognition slides across her features and she one-ups me because she can.
“Nu ne-am våzut demult.”
Whatever the heck that is pole-vaults my comprehension level, a decade with Olga or not.
Peregrine catches my confusion. “Long time no see.”
Oh.
Sunny laughs and it’s bright and airy. Her head is tossed back, thick eyelashes curling toward the summer blue sky. “Wait, seriously? I thought you were trolling us with Klingon.”
“Mom insisted I actually use our Duolingo account for something besides High Valyrian.” Peregrine shrugs and tightens her ponytail. “And, anyway, if we’re talkingStar Trek, I’m more of a Vulcan kind of gal.”
“What is there other than ‘Live long and prosper’?” Sunny asks, holding up the VulcanVsymbol. “Which they don’t say in anything other than English?”
I’m about to rein it in once I can figure out how the hell to integrate Alex into the inadvertent nerd spiral I started, but then the boy goes and just does it himself. “Peace and long life.”
