Page 1 of The Other Side of Apart

CHAPTER 1

Red and blue lights swirl with morning fog, making a purple haze like the sky is bruised. I grip the handlebars and glance over my shoulder at the cop car speeding up behind us.

No way this is happening. I clench my jaw and focus on the road, hoping the lights and speed are for someone else, but the siren blares a warning. Only three hours out of San Francisco, and it’s already over. Cop’s gonna recognize us. Or maybe the motorcycle. Both. Not to mention we have a tampon box full of diamonds stolen from a criminal burning a hole in Mei’s bag. If the cop goes through our stuff, it’s over.

I swear and veer to the shoulder, slowing to a stop.

Mei’s arms tighten around me from behind. “Why are we getting pulled over?”

I swallow and shake my head to disrupt the hot surge of fear, mentally scrambling for what I’m gonna say to the cop to get us out of this. If I say the wrong thing, I could be in handcuffs, headed back home to answer to Dad. Mei could have a one-way ticket to Taiwan, or worse, back to her parents. Nick. No way am I gonna let that happen.

“You weren’t speeding, though.” Mei’s words scatter as the fear we’ve been running from for the past three hours catches up.

I shake my head again and glance at the cop car behind us, talking to Mei over my shoulder. “Not sure what’s happening. Just…keep your helmet on.” Our helmets are the only shield we have if Dad sent out an alert with pictures of us and the bike.

The cruiser door shuts behind us and gravel crunches, but I stare straight ahead. My eyes move up the road, over sun-bleached asphalt and along double yellow lines that stretch around the bend we would’ve been way past by now. But Dad’s found us, and I’m seconds away from losing Mei all over again. Panic curls my fingers around the handlebars and floods my legs, hardening like lead in my feet.

“Hi there,” the officer says as she approaches on our right. “Mind taking off your helmet for me?”

Curse words explode in my head like fireworks. I fumble with my chin strap, then peel off the helmet, exposed and vulnerable. Mei keeps hers on, and the officer doesn’t say anything, her eyes laser-focused on me. She’s seen my picture—she’s doing mental facial recognition. Scanning all the details. But at least she’s not looking at Mei’s black-and-blue face. That would get her asking questions I can’t and won’t answer.

“Was I speeding?” I ask, my voice ragged and shaky. The wind whips it away and blows my hair across my eyes.

“Everything’s fine,” the officer says, “Just a courtesy stop to let you know your bag’s blocking your license plate.” She waves her hand to Mei’s duffel strapped to the back of the bike.

“Oh. Yeah, sorry.” I twist on the seat, then hesitate, but Mei’s already tugging the bag free. Now the officer will see the temporary license plate. She’ll log it into her database, and Dad will know exactly where we are. I gotta get us out of California.

The officer laughs, and my eyes snap to her, searching for any hint of a way out of this. Steep hills and forest on the right, cliffs and angry ocean on the left.

“I promise I’m not going to arrest you or anything. But I do need your driver’s license and registration.”

Fear splinters any remaining hope of escape as I pry my fingers off the handlebars again and reach for my back pocket in slow motion. “I have no idea where the registration is…” The words are metal shards scraping up my throat, but I hand her my license.

“New bike?”

I nod. “Graduation present.”

“Nice.” She smiles. “I’ll pull up your registration.” She takes my license, then turns to Mei, and my heart slams against my chest. Mei’s helmet shields most of her bruises but not the purple splotches. Bruised cheekbone. Finger marks on her neck.

“Where are you two headed?”

Her question is directed to Mei, who immediately responds. “Checking out the coast before we head east. Graduation trip. Finally!” Her voice is light and calm. Smooth. Like this isn’t her first time looking a cop in the face and pretending everything’s all good.

“Congratulations.” She smiles, glances at my license, Mei’s face, then up the coast to the wall of dark clouds stacking over the ocean and spreading toward us. “You need to be careful. Storm’s coming.”

Of course there is. Probably a hurricane. Dad probably arranged it.

“There are a couple of roadside motels ten or fifteen miles up the highway, and if I were you, I’d pull in. You don’t want to be riding when it hits.” She taps my license against her thigh. “Sit tight. I’ll run this, then get you on your way.”

She heads back to her car and its flashing lights, and I close my eyes. I’d rather ride straight into that storm than be on the side of this highway waiting for whatever’s coming.

“That was close,” Mei whispers over my shoulder, and when all I do is nod to my lap, she leans against my back. “You okay?”

I pause and nod again. “Yeah, just…it’s not over yet. If my dad found the message I left, we’re done.”

Her body stiffens against my back. “What message?”

I look at the waves losing the battle as they slam against jagged rocks and thrash like my insides. Mei and I haven’t exactly had time to discuss everything that happened between me finding her at Guo’s, and what went down with Dad. “He basically put me on house arrest, but I left a note saying I was out.”

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