Page 29 of Rules for Rule Breaking
“No, it’s fine. We’ll find our way,” Bobby replied.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Okay. But listen, let me know if you need anything or if you have any questions.” He wrote down his number on Winter’s brochure. “And I hope you’ll consider GW too.”
“Maybe,” Winter said with her Dante-reserved smile. “You’ll be the first to know.”
Bobby fixed his face before Dante looked in his direction. He gave a bro nod and then left. He was a nice guy, but Bobby was glad to be free of him. Winter wasn’t as glad. As soon as Dante was gone, she put some distance between herself and Bobby and stood withher arms folded, staring up at the George Washington statue.
The last time he’d seen her legitimately angry with him was when he’d adjusted the thermostat at her house and she got in trouble for it. She seemed much angrier this time. Her nostrils were flaring, and her lips were pinched, like there was a bad smell under her nose. He’d acted untoward. That was unlike him. He hadn’t raised himself that way.
Bobby closed the distance between them and assumed her stance. “He was kind of problematic, don’t you think?” he said, pointing up at George Washington.
Winter didn’t look at him. “If you’re referring to all the people he enslaved, then yeah, I would say so,” she replied, her voice flat.
Great, he thought. Now they were talking about slavery and Winter still looked like she was going to kill him.
“Have you seenHamiltonyet?” he asked, trying to gauge how mad she was.
She pursed her lips. “No.”
“George Washington is being played by a Korean actor.”
“Is he any good?”
“Uh... I don’t know. I didn’t see it either.”
Winter suddenly whirled around to face him. “Let’s stop this charade right here,” she said, sticking a finger in his face. “You’re doing that thing that I can’t stand.”
“What thing?”
“The Korean-parent thing where you don’t apologize, you just start acting nicer.”
Bobby was taken aback. He wasn’t around many other Koreans enough to know that that was athing. He thought it was only his parents. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”
“We were doing okay all morning, then as soon as we steppedfoot on this campus, you went all moody and broody. You better tell me what happened because I’m calling a moratorium.”
The air was sucked out of his lungs.
The two of them could call a moratorium on their rules if they needed to say or do something that might cross into friend territory. They’d called it several times over the years. It could be for favors, such as the time Winter ripped her jeans at school and needed to borrow Bobby’s hoodie to tie around her waist, or when Bobby locked himself out of his house while his parents were away and needed Winter to rescue him with her spare key. It could be used when one of them had to say something personal. Or sometimes it operated as a sort of safe word for when one of them needed the other to lay off.
“I reject the moratorium. I don’t want to talk about it,” Bobby said.
“Well, I can’t spend an entire week with you if it’s going to be like this.”
“It’s private, and we aren’t exactly friends.”
“Hence the moratorium. I called it, so you have to honor it.”
It was true. It was an addendum to their original document that they’d decided upon freshman year after Bobby found Winter crying at school. It was the first and only time he’d ever seen her cry. She had found out her friend’s grandmother, Mrs. Lin, was sick. He had only recently found out she passed, which saddened him deeply. Mrs. Lin was a sweet woman with a kind face, although Bobby had never been able to successfully communicate with her. He’d given Winter a tissue, walked her home, and covered for her at school. They were both such good students, none of the teachers questioned him. The two hadn’t spoken of it since.
Bobby conceded. He’d signed a document, and he wasn’t going to go against his word. He slumped his shoulders in defeat and said, “This was Jacqueline’s top-choice school.”
Winter’s face immediately dropped. “Oh... shit.”
“Yeah...” He sighed. “And I thought that if it was love at first sight with GW, it’d be a sign that I should try to get back together with her. But clearly that didn’t happen.”
