by Ivy Adams
She pulled back first, gauging his reaction—why was she always the one kissing him? “I hope that wasn’t a good-bye kiss,” he said.
“No, not good-bye. We’ll always be friends.”
“Ouch.” He winced. “Friends.”
“Listen, meeting you was the one good thing that happened to me in China, Guiran, and I’d hate to think I’ll never get to see you again.” This was something she hadn’t considered when she’d set out that day to find a friend: at the end of this trip she’d have to give that friendship up when she went home.
Her bonds with Piper, Cassidy, and Izzy were time tested, meant to last all their lives. She wouldn’t have that with Guiran, but it didn’t make what they’d shared in their short time together any less meaningful. He had been by her side at one of the most personal moments of her life.
“Don’t worry about that. They have this thing called the Internet now,” he teased, lightening the mood again. “It’s an amazing technology people can use to connect with each other across vast distances.”
Mei punched his arm playfully, but she hoped he was right, that they would keep in touch. It made it easier to say good-bye.
Mei’s parents were waiting for her as soon as she exited the Dallas airport’s secure area. Mei couldn’t hold back the rush of tears that came when she saw them. Her mom got to her first and grabbed her into a hug that she thought she’d need the Jaws of Life to pry herself out of.
“My little girl, my little girl,” her mom repeated, rocking Mei back and forth like she was a little girl. “I missed you so much.”
To her surprise, she found herself clinging to her mother just as fiercely. Ten weeks in China and her parents’ attention suddenly felt a lot less smothering.
“Susan, she can’t breathe. Let go, honey,” her dad said. Her mom finally eased up, but for the first time ever, Mei wasn’t ready to let go.
“Doodlebug, what’s wrong?” her dad asked.
“I just missed you. I really, really missed you.”
And then she was in her father’s arms, inhaling the scent of his aftershave. The same brand she’d bought him for Father’s Day when she was six and that he’d never stopped wearing. It felt so good to be a daughter again. To just let herself be loved. To—
Abruptly her mother pulled her out of her father’s arms.
“You are rail-thin, Mei,” her mom said once she got a good look at her. “Didn’t they feed you enough over there? Richard, get her suitcase. We’re going to eat right now. She looks like one of those Olsen twins.”
“I’m fine, Mom. I’m just really tired—you know I can’t sleep on a plane.” Her mouth started watering at the mere thought of food. “But something to eat would be nice.”
“Of course, sweetie, anything you want. Just pick a place.”
“Anything but Chinese food,” she answered. “If I never eat another sea cucumber …”
“Mexican food it is,” her mom said quickly.
Mmmmm. The thought of queso, guacamole, salsa, and never-ending baskets of tortilla chips made her stomach grumble with anticipation. Why couldn’t she have been adopted from Mexico? She was so glad to be back in Texas.
Once they’d made it to the restaurant and ordered, her parents peppered her with questions about the trip. Funny, so often she’d yearned for a sibling, just so she wouldn’t be the sole focus of her parents’ scrutiny. Yet now, after missing it for ten weeks, she couldn’t help but revel in their attention. The way her mom wanted to know every single detail of the trip. The way her father hugged her to him in the big, circular booth, even as he listened indulgently as she and her mother chattered about anything and everything. Who knew it would be so easy to go from pariah to princess?
Over a huge platter of enchiladas, she told them about Shenyang, the school, her classes. She spoke some Mandarin phrases that she and Guiran had practiced, and they applauded her for learning so much while she was away. Little did they know that most of the Mandarin she recited was just different pizza toppings. But she wasn’t going to let them in on that little secret.
Then again, there were lots of secrets she wasn’t going to share, and she hadn’t been home long enough yet to feel guilty about that. Instead, she was going to channel Piper. What happened abroad, stayed abroad. For now, she would simply enjoy not just the reunion with her parents, but how being away had made being home so much sweeter.
By going to China she had opened a window into the heart of herself, into who she was and what it meant to be Mei Jones, Chinese adoptee to an American family. The girl who preferred guacamole to moo goo gai pan and Joan Jett to Chopin.
“Your friends have been calling, wondering when you were getting home,” her mother said. “It’ll be fun for all of you to catch up and compare stories now that you’re veteran international travelers.”
Mei almost choked on a mouthful of pico de gallo when she misheard her mother’s words as “international kissers.” Her dad patted her on the back and handed her a glass of water.
“Are you okay, Doodlebug?”
“Fi-fine. Swallowed wrong.”
Yes, she was sure they were all looking forward to having Piper, the undisputed queen of the International Kissing Club, regale them with the grandiose tales of her salivic study of the Gallic male. Thanks to Guiran, though, she would not be without points of her own.
In fact, now that she was home and away from Dao-Ming, ostracization, and classes she couldn’t understand, she realized there wasn’t much she would have done differently.
Well, except the food—if she’d known how that was going to turn out, she would have packed some of Izzy’s granola bars.
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Chapter 25
Piper
Piper climbed into her car and started the engine, still having a hard time getting used to driving again after spending the past ten weeks taking the Metro almost everywhere. She’d been back in Texas two days now, and it still seemed a little strange. Nothing had changed in Paris during the ten weeks she’d been gone, and yet everything had changed. It was an unsettling feeling, one that made her apprehension almost as huge as her excitement to see her friends again.
She had changed. She knew that. France had changed her. Freedom had changed her. Sebastian had changed her. Just thinking his name had her hands shaking and her heart crumbling a little in her chest. She missed him like crazy, way more than she ever would have imagined possible when she’d first met him all those weeks ago. What made it worse was that she’d never talked to him again after that awful day in the café.
He’d e-mailed her, texted her, even called a couple times, but she’d texted him back and said she didn’t want to see him, so he’d stayed away. And she was glad he had. Really, she was. She couldn’t look at him now, not while her heart was still broken wide open. How could I have been so stupid? she wondered as she turned the corner onto Mei’s street. How could I have ever thought that he’d loved me? Her own family had never been able to love her—why had she been stupid enough to think that Sebastian could?
It wasn’t a mistake she planned on making again. The only people she’d ever been able to count on were Cass, Mei, and Izzy. She needed to remember that if she wanted to keep herself from being gutted like this again.
Lost in thought, Piper was at the end of the block before it registered that she had driven right by Mei’s house. Terrific. Now she couldn’t even remember how to get to her best friend’s place. Just how much had changed in ten weeks?
With a sigh, she turned the car around and headed back up the street, making sure to stay aware enough to stop at the right house. But after pulling into Mei’s driveway, Piper didn’t bound from the car, like she’d thought she would. Instead, she rested her head on the steering wheel and tried to pull herself together.
So what if she missed the r
eal Paris and Sebastian and Simone and even Marie, who in ten weeks had mothered her more than her own had in a lifetime?
So what if she missed the trips to the small, out-of-the-way galleries Sebastian had taken her to?
So what if she missed the glassblowing class where she’d finally found the kind of art she wanted to create?
She was back in Paris, Texas, now. Yes, the Sara Lee bakery was a far cry from the little pâtisserie around the corner from Marie and Gus’s apartment, their coffee cake nowhere near as good as the chocolate croissants she’d eaten by the bucketful. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself. Enjoy her friends and the fact that her mother was sober for once. Although she wasn’t quite sure what it said that the second she’d gone out of town, her mom had managed to clean up her act. Nice to have it confirmed that she had been completely responsible for her mom’s dependence on martinis and prescription medicine.
But sitting here feeling sorry for herself wasn’t doing anything but making her more depressed. Determined to get her head back into this reunion thing, Piper climbed out of the car—just as Mei opened her front door and stepped onto the porch.
As Mei started toward her, Piper’s mouth dropped open. Piper had gained five pounds in Paris and dyed her hair, neither of which had sat well with her mother. Mei, on the other hand, had lost so much weight that she looked like a strong hug might crack her in half. Her parents must be twice as freaked out as Piper’s mom was.
Her own sorrows forgotten, she bounded up the driveway. “Mei! Are you okay?”
Mei threw her arms around Piper. “I’m fine. How are you? The blue streaks look fabulous!”
Tears sprung to Piper’s eyes as she returned Mei’s hug. After the past couple of weeks of tormenting herself over her mistakes and wondering what things would be like when she returned to Texas, it was so nice to just be accepted for who she was. This moment, this hug, this connection felt much more like a homecoming than meeting her parents at the airport ever could.
“Thanks.” Piper returned her hug, still shocked at how fragile Mei looked and felt. “What happened to you? You’re—”
“Ugh. Don’t you start, too.” Mei rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say there were no Panda Expresses in China and leave it at that. On the plus side, I’m finally a size zero.”
“More like a double zero, and I didn’t know you were aiming for that, anyway,” Piper said, ushering her friend to the car.
“I wasn’t.”
“Well, come on, then, let’s go get you an extra-large Blizzard. My treat.”
“You have no idea how good that sounds.” Mei climbed into the passenger side as Piper started the car. “Better than wasabi ice cream, anyway.”
“Wasabi ice cream? Sounds disgusting.”
“It wasn’t all that bad,” Mei said. “But I guess you had to be there.” Piper glanced away from the road long enough to throw her friend an incredulous look. “Are you blushing?”
“No! Of course not. What possible reason would I have to blush?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe those three points on the IKC page?” She poked Mei in the shoulder. “Come on, spill. Tell me everything.”
Mei sighed. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“At the beginning, of course. You got off the plane in China and then what?”
“It wasn’t at all like I expected it to be, you know? I mean, I thought once I got to China I’d finally feel like I belonged. But it turns out, over there, I’m even more of a freak than I am here.”
“You’re not a freak!” Piper was outraged at the very idea. “You’re the best. Everyone loves you. And if those stupid Chinese girls couldn’t appreciate your utter and complete fabulousness, then that was totally their loss.”
“Jeez, vehement much?” But Mei looked happy at Piper’s defense of her.
“Ugh. Please don’t start with the SAT words already! I’m still jetlagged.”
Her friend laughed so hard she nearly snorted. “You know, I really missed you, Piper. How come you can always make me feel better?”
“Because I am almost as fabulous as you.” She whipped her car into the DQ lot and saw that Izzy’s car, Brittney, was already parked near the front door. The sight of its battered bumper and dinged-up doors, combined with the easy laughter she’d shared with Mei, cheered her up like nothing else could have. Maybe everything hadn’t changed, after all.
But as they settled around a small greasy table ten minutes later, she wasn’t so sure about that. Cassidy was wearing mascara and lip gloss—lip gloss—and Izzy looked like a walking advertisement for a Subaru commercial, and the most rugged, outdoorsy one at that. She wasn’t sure what to make of all the changes and wondered if her friends were having as much trouble adjusting as she was.
Mei seemed okay, though the gigantic Butterfinger Blizzard Piper had ordered for her was nearly as big as she was. And Izzy looked great, all tanned and toned and glowing. Only Cassidy seemed as lost and shell-shocked as she felt.
Piper waited until everyone had shoveled in a few spoons of ice cream before demanding, “So, who wants to go first?” She made a concerted effort to appear upbeat despite the sadness that trembled just below the surface.
“You go first,” Cass said. “You probably have the best stories after racking up all those points.”
“Yeah, but Izzy’s the one who racked up the most recent points. I think she should start.”
“Ooh, that’s true,” Mei agreed. “Come on, Iz. Spill.”
Izzy looked like she’d just been thrust onto a particularly blistering hot seat, and Piper wondered at the panic she thought she saw in her friend’s eyes. But before she could comment, Izzy got it together. “It was no big deal,” she said with a shrug.
“You kissed a guy in Paris, Texas!” Piper said. “It’s a huge deal. Who was it?”
“Umm—”
“Oh God,” Cassidy interjected. “Please tell me it wasn’t River again. That guy is a total scumbag, Izzy.”
“No way! I haven’t talked to him once since he went away to school.”
“Thank God!” Piper spooned up more ice cream. “I was beginning to get worried. But if it wasn’t River, then who was it?”
“Trust me, Piper. You don’t want to know. It happened on Tanner’s farm. There was a tractor and compost.” She shook her head. “Bugs. It really wasn’t your scene.”
“Okaaaaaay. But—”
“My big three points happened in the middle of a fountain in Shenyang,” Mei said suddenly.
“Ooh, se-xy!” Piper said with a wink. “I can just see you and Guiran, all wet and see-through and—”
“Freezing!” Mei interrupted dryly. “The water was like three degrees above absolute zero.”
“That’s insane! I’m so glad it was spring most of the time I was in Australia.”
“So, where did you first kiss Lucas, Cass?” Izzy asked.
“At the beach. It was … nice.” The look in Cassidy’s eyes said it had been a lot more than nice and Piper was thrilled for her. “But whatever. There are so many hot guys in Australia you can’t help but trip and press your lips against one of them.”
Though she said it with her usual bravado, Piper could hear something in her voice that was totally new for Cassidy. A vulnerability that meant Lucas was more than just the guy who had caught her when she’d fallen.
“If he had the good sense to break your fall, he must be a really great guy. Some of them are, you know,” she told Cass, not wanting her friend to lose hope. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
If possible, her reassurances only seemed to make Cassidy even more agitated. “Yeah, well, whatever.”
Wow. It looked like she hadn’t been the only one to fall hard these past few weeks. Piper didn’t know whether to curse the IKC or be grateful for the chances it had given her. The only thing she was sure of was that it had completely messed up her life.
No, said the little voice in the back of her head. That wasn
’t true. She’d managed to screw everything up all on her own. The IKC hadn’t had much to do with it at all.
Lost in thought, it took her a minute to realize her friends were looking at her expectantly. Oh right, she was the only one who hadn’t shared. But where was she supposed to start? Finally, she just shrugged and said, “Well, my points came from—”
“Everywhere?” Cassidy interjected, elbowing her in the ribs.
“Right,” agreed Izzy. “Is there anyone in Paris you didn’t kiss?”
Piper laughed, because her friends expected it of her, but it was hard, especially as Sebastian’s face had flashed, unbidden, before her eyes. The last thing she wanted was for her friends to know how much she was hurting over being dumped. But at the same time, she couldn’t lie—it felt too much like another betrayal of what she’d felt for him. “The only points that really mattered happened in the courtyard of the Louvre.”
“That’s a great story. So romantic. You were with Sebastian, right?” Mei asked.
“Yeah. Sebastian.”
“Tell us about him,” Izzy said. “I mean, the picture you posted was completely hot, but what happened? How did you leave things?”
“I don’t—I can’t—” Piper shook her head, afraid she was going to shatter if she had to talk anymore about it. But at the same time, she missed Sebastian so much that everything kind of came spilling out.
“He’s not like any guy I’ve ever met before.”
“Well, duh. He’s French.”
“It’s more than that, Cass. I mean, at first I hated him. He was so obnoxious and full of himself and rude—”
“Again, he’s French.”
“I know, right? But there’s so much more to him than that. He’s incredibly smart and talented—his sculptures are beautiful—and once you get past the smug outer shell, he’s really tender. And witty. And caring. And—”
