Page 81 of Rules for Rule Breaking
Winter went to sit on the couch, but Halmeoni stopped her. “Clean up before you sit on my couch. You smell like outside.”
Winter didn’t understand why Halmeoni was being so mean to her. If she couldn’t sit on the couch, then she would have to just lie in the middle of the floor.
“Why is the gravity so... gravity today?” Winter mumbled.
“Can’t you go sulk at Emmy’s?” Halmeoni asked.
Winter spread out her limbs like a starfish and stared at the ceiling. “No. We keep missing each other.”
She had seen Emmy only a few times in passing since she got home. There was always a box to pack or a dance practice to go to or some random person with a German-sounding name on the other line who needed her attention. She hadn’t gotten to tell her about the disaster of a road trip yet. But even if she could fit herself into Emmy’s schedule, it wouldn’t matter anyhow. How could she complain about her silly little problems while Emmy was still grieving? She wasn’t that selfish. Or at least she was trying not to be.
Winter remained on the floor until Halmeoni stood over her with a judgmental glare. She was impervious to Winter’s pout.
“Fine,” Winter groaned, “I’ll get cleaned up for dinner.”
Bobby Bae
38. WE WILL GO BACK TO NORMAL ONCE WE RETURN HOME
Bobby’s parents had been running around since church ended, making salads and cleaning wineglasses. Normally he would offer to help, but he had restartedRiverdaleand was halfway through season four, and he was sure that he was experiencing muscle atrophy. He didn’t think he could pick himself up, much less a stack of plates.
Bobby curled into a ball and listened to his parents talking about him downstairs. He wanted to tell them that everything was fine, but that would have been a bald-faced lie. He felt worse than he did before. Losing Jacqueline was hard, but losing himself and Winter in the process was harder.
A car door in the driveway slammed, signaling the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Park. Within moments, his parents and the Parks were doing their usual over-the-top greetings, followed by wine in the den. Bobby could tell they were trying to be quiet, but he could hear everything because of the way sound traveled through his house. The only quiet place was the bathroom.
“How has Bobby been doing?” he heard Mrs. Park ask. “Winter is upset with us and won’t talk about what happened between them at all. Every time we bring up the trip, she runs over to her grandmother’s house. She’s basically been living there.”
“You know how Bobby is,” Robert Sr. said.
“He’s taking it hard, is he?”
“Have you ever known him not to take something hard?”
Bobby didn’t expect to feel attacked like that in his own home.
“He keeps... showering,” Diana said, dropping her voice.
“That’s okay, isn’t it?” Mrs. Park asked. “Winter hasn’t even unpacked her bag yet. Her room is a disaster.”
Diana whispered, but Bobby could still hear. “He stays in there for hours at a time,” she said. “School is starting tomorrow, and I’m worried about his skin. His eczema is getting out of hand. I don’t want to tell him, but I’m worried about what the other kids will say.”
“Send him to the office after school tomorrow. Soon-ja and I have a few open appointments. It’s always slow the first week of school,” Mr. Park said.
“Thank you,” Diana replied. “I just don’t know if we’ll be able to get him out of bed. Whatever disagreement they had must have been serious.”
“That is, unless you think it’s possible they got... a little too close?” Robert Sr. said.
“Of course not,” Mr. Park asserted. “They haven’t gotten along in years.”
They stopped speaking for a moment. Bobby thought it was because they wised up and realized he could hear them, but it was really for a wine refill. He realized it when they clinked glasses and continued gossiping.
“Would it be the worst thing in the world if they got together?” Diana asked. “They would be such a power couple. She’s very bright and strong-willed but not too overbearing for our Bobby like Jaqueline was.”
“Bobby always had an eye for strong women,” Robert Sr. said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if his crush on Winter returned.”
Bobby had heard enough. He ran to the bathroom and locked himself inside. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. His parents had been right; his skin was a mess. He had dry red patches everywhere, and he was impossibly itchy. It hadn’t been that bad in years. He forewent the shower and crawled back to bed, cranking up his air conditioner and his TV so he couldn’t hear the dinner gossip anymore.
Winter Park
