Page 77 of You Had Me at Hello World
“But—”
“Mom, we’ll buy you a new one. Your data is uploaded to the cloud anyway.Leave it.”
After a pause, she unzips her purse and gently places her phone on the floor.
Just as we slip out the back, I hear the front door creak open.
Step 3: Run.
Chapter Thirty-Four
We book it at a full sprint. For a few moments nobody follows us, and I think maybe Michael won’t notice my mom’s gone before we reach the car.
But then there’s a roar of anger and the back door flies open. I toss a glance over my shoulder and yep, it’s my stepfather, gaining on us fast. My heart throbs in my ears.
Khoi is chasing after him. “Sir!” he yells. “Sir, I have more to tell you about Bitcoin!”
He ignores Khoi. Of course the one time I’m praying Michael gets sidetracked by sketchy financial advice, he wises up. “Char, I’m going to kill you, you bitch!” he shouts.
Khoi, like the absolute legend that he is, yanks off his lemon-yellow Croc and chucks it at Michael’s head. And dude’s got shockingly decent aim—it nails him right in the neck. My stepfather whirls around, more from surprise than actual pain.
Then Olive comes tearing round the corner and screeches to a halt in front of us.
I scramble for the door and shove my mother inside, then dive in after her.
“We can’t leave Khoi!” I scream.
Olive slams her foot on the gas pedal and Khoi starts running in the opposite direction, away from Michael. We fly past my confused stepfather and meet Khoi in the middle of the street. He tumbles into the back seat.
I crane my neck to check the rear windshield. There’s Michael, standing in a dim orange pool spilled by the streetlight. His face reminds me of a blinking cursor at the top of a blank file.
Then Olive’s fully in herFast & Furiousera, lunging onto the main road, and I lose sight of him.
I don’t remember how to breathe until we’ve blown past theWELCOME TO CHINOOK SHOREsign at the town limits. Khoi does this shaky half laugh, half sigh.
“You just. You just threw a Croc at my stepfather,” I say.
He shrugs. “Hey, at least now I won’t have to remove it during airport security.”
I dissolve into giggles, more out of relief than anything else.
Step 4: Freedom.
We drive in heavy, stunned silence. Night has fallen. The sky is full bellied with clouds. Few cars pass us by. Flickering gold lights from distant small towns dot the horizon.
At one point, Khoi tries to strike up the same painfulsmall-talk convo with Mom, but quickly clams up after I hit him with a look.
Olive drops us off at the airport. Khoi and Mom hop out of the car but I linger. It feels like I need to say something to my stepsister.
“Thank you,” I say. “You didn’t have to help us.”
“No, I did.” She tries to play it chill, but her eyes betray fear. She’s the one who has to handle Michael afterward. We’ll be jetting off to the opposite coast.
My gut clenches.
“Come with us,” I blurt out. I don’t really know how this would go, since Olive is still a minor. Like, could my mom even get full custody? Whatever—that’s a problem for future us.
She shakes her head. “Char, he’s my father. I’m all he has.” Olive’s mother, his ex-wife, lives in Sicily with her new husband.
