Page 16 of The Wrong Side of Kai
“Oh. Yeah, they’re weird too.” He guides his bike up the walkway toward the house and I follow. “You got one?”
“A sister. Kennedy. I’m basically her parent.” I laugh when I say it, but I realize that it really hurts to admit it. I don’twantto be the parent. I’m seventeen. I’m still a kid.
“Jackson’s only seven,” Kai says in response. “Big age gap. But that only makes me more protective. So, sure, the Halloween decorations make us the laughing stock of the neighborhood, but they also make Jackson smile every time he gets off the school bus.”
We head through a gate into the back yard, and Kai dumps his bike on the grass. It’s dark and there’re no lights in the yard, so I squint after him as he disappears into the shed. There’s a lot of rummaging and clinking of metal, then Kai reappears, wheeling another bike across the grass toward me. “This is my dad’s bike,” he tells me, “so you can take mine, and I’ll take his. But listen. Pop a wheel? Scuff any of the paint? Get makeup on my handlebars? Then you’re dead to me.” He grins wide, revealing his teeth, his expression sweet.
The back door to the house suddenly swings open, bathing the yard in light. “Kai, is that you?” a voice calls out. A woman stands at the door, hugging her dressing gown around her, squinting out into the cold. She’s slim, her blond hair pulled back into a scruffy ponytail. “What are you doing out here?”
I try to keep my head down. I really shouldn’t be here in the first place. I’m a stranger, just some girl from school who literally only met Kai today. I don’t want his mom to get the wrong idea.
“Grabbing the bikes,” Kai calls across the yard. I notice the way he angles his body to hide me, pretending I’m not there. “I’m heading back out, but I won’t be late. Don’t wait up for me.”
“No later than midnight,” the woman says, her voice firm. She sighs – I can see her breath in the cold air. “And can’t you wear a helmet?”
Kai cocks his head to one side and pats his curls. “Not unless I want to mess up this hair.”
“Goodnight, Kai,” she says, ignoring him. Her eyes move to me. I expect her to give me a dirty look –who’s this girl sneaking around my back yard with myson?– but instead she gives me a small, friendly smile. “Actually, why don’t you come inside first? I want to meet your friend.” She disappears back into the house, leaving no room for argument, the door wide open behind her.
“She really doesn’t make me seem cool, does she?” Kai scoffs. “Wear a helmet?”
I laugh with him, but I can’t help but think about how I’d actually rejoice if Dad ever told me to wear a helmet.
Kai rests his dad’s bike down on the grass next to his own and exhales, dragging his feet toward the house. I follow close behind him and, for a second, I deliberate over whether or not this is all worth it. I don’tneedto meet Kai’s parents – I could shrug my shoulders, tell Kai I’m out, and walk away right now. But something keeps me moving forward, all the way across the yard and through the back door into Kai’s home.
His mother has her head in the refrigerator, fetching us two cans of soda that she seems overly pleased to present us with. It feels weird meeting a guy’s mom.
“So, Kai?” she urges, leaning back and folding her arms. Her smile is expectant as she gives me a pointed glance, patiently waiting for Kai to explain just exactly who I am. “Introduce us.”
“This is Vanessa,” Kai mumbles as he kicks the back door closed. This is unbelievably awkward, mostly because Kai and I don’t know a single thing about one another besides our names. Hell, I doubt he even knows my last name. “Vanessa, this is my mom. Obviously.”
His mother looks at me, her smile widening. “Yep, I’m the mom. Cindy. I assume you go to Westerville North?”
I nod and rotate the cold can of soda around in my hands, my eyes flitting around the room, unable to look at her directly. The kitchen is warm and inviting, clean yet cluttered with precious knickknacks scattered here and there. Personal. “Yeah, I do. Go Warriors,” I pathetically joke. Kai plays for the rival team, the Westerville Central High Warhawks – or at least he did before he transferred, for reasons unknown, to Westerville North.
“It’s nice that Kai’s made a friend already,” Cindy muses, and the look of death that Kai shoots her is hard to miss. It makes me bite back a smile because I can justfeelhis embarrassment. It’s kind of cute.
Mom used to embarrass me all the time, but only because she cared and I thought that caring was lame. Like that one time I scraped my knee out on the sidewalk and Mom came running outside with a first-aid kit and a look of panic as though I’d broken a bone. I felt like a complete baby in front of my friends and I hated her for it. I didn’t appreciate back then that she was just overprotective because she loved me – and because she felt my pain as much as if it had been her own and then some.
Now I would give anything for Mom to baby me in front of my friends again.
“Yeah, and we have a class project that we need to work on together, so can we go?” Kai asks. It’s not really a lie. Wedohave a project that we’re working on together.
“I didn’t know we were having a guest over,” a deep voice remarks. There’s a creak in the wooden floor as a man wheels himself into the kitchen. Kai’s father, I assume. He has the same curls and bold features. Broad shoulders, chiseled jaw that’s lined with dark stubble. Bright brown eyes. He rests his hands in his lap and looks at me from his wheelchair. “Hello there.”
“Neither did I. This is Vanessa, a friend of Kai’s,” Cindy tells him. She rests a hand on her husband’s shoulder and the two of them look at me. Suddenly, there’s too much pressure.
“Hi,” I force out, not quite sure whether to offer my hand to shake. I do a feeble wave instead. I say the only thing I can think of. I tell them, “I like your Halloween decorations.” And I instantly want to melt into the floor.
“Yeah, I like ’em too. When it’s actually Halloween,” Kai’s father deadpans, then rolls his eyes as Cindy swats at his shoulder.
“We’re heading out,” Kai interrupts, bringing the subject back around to the fact that we want to leave. I don’t think he wants his parents to get to know me, because it’s not like we’re actually friends. After we deal with Harrison, we’ll probably never talk again, and his parents will wonder why I never came back around. “We just need to grab some textbooks from my room.”
Kai gives me a look that makes it clear I need to follow him, so I squeeze past him on our way to the stairs and I make sure to give his parents a polite smile on my way. They seem caring, and they’re both still alive. Two things Kai should appreciate.
“Car accident,” Kai says quietly over his shoulder as I follow him upstairs.
“Huh?”
