Page 78 of Rules for Rule Breaking
“This is unlike you, Bobby. You don’t forget to call us. You don’t lose track of time.”
“Mom, relax. We’re fine. We’ll be home later tonight.”
Winter had never heard Mr. and Mrs. Bae get angry with Bobby before. Even they seemed confused by it. She could hear them pacing around, arguing with each other in the background.
“They’re only teenagers. What were we thinking letting them go that far?” Mr. Bae asked.
“They’ve never done anything like this. How were we supposed to know?” Mrs. Bae asked.
Mr. Bae must have picked up the phone again because his voice grew louder and clearer. “I want you to come home right now. Stop for the night if you need to, but I want you home no later than tomorrow afternoon.”
“We’ll come straight home.”
“You will have Winter text us every hour until you’re here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Winter rolled her eyes. She had texted her parents the night before.
Bobby hung up the phone, and it was the last time Winter heard his voice for the next twelve hours. They didn’t speak at all and barely looked at each other the entire way back to North Carolina. In the original itinerary, there was a stop halfway so he wouldn’t drive the whole thing in one day, but Bobby decided to power through. She was glad for it. She didn’t want to be in that car any longer than she had to. They only stopped once on I-95 so Winter could vomit the residual alcohol sloshing around in her stomach, another time to take a nap at a rest stop, twice for gas, and once more for food and energy drinks.
Winter watched the day go by and the license plates change. Seeing all the same roads but doing them in the opposite direction felt like a reversal. Like none of it had even happened. Their friendship was a weeklong experiment that had failed as badly asMariner 3’s mission to Mars.
When they finally reached home, Bobby wordlessly got Winter’sdoor for her and carried her luggage to the porch. He waved at the house and then peeled out of the driveway once she was inside.
Her parents were sitting on the couch, waiting. At the sight of them, she immediately burst into tears. Her parents looked at each other, confused. Appa sat Winter down between him and Umma and leaned her head on his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him, and her tears soaked his tartan nightshirt.
Umma’s tone was gentle, but without a smile on her face, she asked, “Should we even ask?”
“Bobby and I got in a huge fight,” she choked out.
“You’ll make up. You two are always fighting,” Appa said.
“No, not this time. This was real, and it was bad. We both said some horrible things.”
Umma brushed a few strands of Winter’s hair out of her face. “Did you at least try to be his friend, Soon-hee?”
“I think I tried too hard. Bobby was a mess from breaking up with Jacqueline, and he seemed to be having fun. You know, at first. I think I pushed him too hard, and I don’t know... I got angry at him, and I’m not even sure why.”
Umma put her hand on Winter’s leg. “Soon-hee, I don’t understand what went wrong between you two. When you first met, you were attached at the hip. It was alwaysBobby this and Bobby that. You followed him around everywhere.”
“I used to do what, now?” Winter asked incredulously. She had only been in the first grade, and she vaguely remembered playing with Bobby. But attached at the hip? That felt like a stretch.
“It’s true,” Appa said. “He was like the big brother you never had. He’d show you his action figures, and you were into astrology back then, so you’d explain his signs and rising moons or what have you. And then he started hanging out with other boys his age more andcoming around less. It made you so mad. I remember he came over one day to play with you and he asked you what the book you were reading was about. You couldn’t have been more than six or seven, and you said— What did she say, yeobo?” he asked Umma.
“ ‘How can I find out if you keep interrupting me?’ ” Umma said in a high-pitched, bossy tone.
Appa slapped his knee. “That’s it!”
“That was the first time I ever saw him cry,” Umma said. “After that, it was like the meaner you were to him, the harder he tried to get you to like him. He was a year ahead of you, so I think you figured out pretty quickly it was the only way you could get and keep his attention. We always thought all this teasing was innocent, but perhaps we were wrong.”
His attention?Winter thought. Her mind was ready to burst, but she didn’t let it because she was simply too tired from being on the road all day. She hadn’t gotten her sea legs yet and still felt like she was in the car.
“I thought you were obsessed with him because he was Korean!” Winter cried. “You’re telling me this whole time you just wanted us to be friends again? Andonlyfriends. You’re sure you never wanted me to date Bobby Bae?” She looked at her mother from the corner of her eye.
Umma clicked her tongue. “Of course I wanted you to,” she said. “Can you blame me? He’s so smart and handsome, and that nose—”
“Jesus, yes. I get it. He has a great nose,” Winter said with an intense eye roll. “I just don’t want to see it at Sunday dinner anymore. Can I skip it this week?”
