Chapter 14

Mom and I went to the mall in the afternoon. She had to take a nap before going to the mall. I didn’t blame her. She worked at night and came home in the morning. That must be tiring.

Aaron went home right after he finished breakfast. I still didn’t understand what was with him. I didn’t get to ask why he came to my house.

A brief flash of memory, Aaron smiled for the first time, had my heart pounding. He was gorgeous. I wanted to deny it, but another image slowed my rebuttal. He was probably the most handsome guy I’d met in my life.

Never had in my life, I met such a guy like him. He’s cold, but caring and gentle. It was easy for any girl to fall in love with him.

I shook my head. No. No. What was I thinking?

“What do you think?”
Someone gave me a light tap on my back. I snapped out from my own thoughts. “Huh?” I turned around.

“Does this look good on me?” Mom asked. It was then did I realize mom just came out of the fitting room, wearing a dress.

I rolled my eyes. “That looks good on you.”

“Okay then I’ll take this one.” Mom smiled. Shopping is the only thing that can make mom happy.

“Mom, are you going to take every dress you tried on? This is already the fifth dress.” I said. I had to remind her about our money problem.

“Of course. I like all the dresses here. You sure you don’t want one?” She asked.

I shook my head, “No. I’m cool.” I wondered what was with mom today. She spent a lot of money today.

“Okay.” Mom went back into the fitting room.

It was not like mom, spending a lot of money. Although I knew how much she loved shopping, she would always rather save the money.

Seriously, what’s wrong with all the people around me? Aaron had become nicer. And mom was like spending a lot of money today. I was afraid if I went to academy tomorrow, Calvin might turn to be a gay.

I sighed. That won’t happen. Calvin is straight, I told myself.

-

After paying for the dresses, mom and I went to the food court. I ordered orange chicken and Beijing beef from Panda Express. I took a sit opposite mom and placed my tray of food down on the table.

I picked up my fork and started eating. I was eating like I’d not eaten for weeks.

“Slow down.” Mom hated it when I ate like this.

I quickly swallowed down whatever I had in my mouth.

“Mom, this is delicious.” I told her.

“I know.” She smiled. “But take your time. A girl is not supposed to eat too fast. What will the boys say if they see you eating like that? They might think you’re a fat .” She laughed, teasing.

“Mom…”

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.” She said. “How was your date with Achord?” She finally brought up a topic.

“It went well.” I told her.

“You know I never really like Achord, don’t you?”

I nodded my head, “I know.” Mom never liked Achord for me, not as a boyfriend. For mom, Achord was just a bad, spoiled kid who would cry in front of his mom to get things he wanted. Well he used to be like that in high school. But he’d changed.

“Aaron is a lot better than Achord. He’s nice, handsome, and very polite. He’s a very responsible guy. Did you see what he did this morning? He helped me buy the oranges.” Mom smiled. I somehow felt she was very proud of Aaron.

I didn’t feel like talking about Aaron right now.
I scooped up another chicken and popped it in my mouth.

“I wish Aaron would be my son-in-law.” She mumbled and sighed. Did she think I wouldn’t hear that?

“Mom, I heard that.” I grumbled.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” She apologized. “But I do like him for you. At least he’s better than Achord.”

“Achord is really nice if you know him. He offered me if I wanted to come to the States with him.” I said. I risked a glance up at mom’s face. She looked puzzled.
“His family is moving to the States for good and he asked if I wanted to come.” I continued. “I said no, but he promised to also bring you to the States soon after everything’s settled there. He also told me to think about it and then--”

“What?”

I bit my lip. “I don’t want to leave you, mom.”

Mom was silent. I didn’t dare to look at her expression.

“Gui…” She finally said, but her voice cracked.

I looked at her. Her eyes were watering. “Mom, are you crying?” I asked.

“You can go if you want to. I’m totally fine with it.” She choked back her tears.

“But mom…”

“You’ll have a better future there. Don’t worry about me.” She faked a smile. I hated it when mom acted like this. “Didn’t he promise he would bring me there?”

I nodded.
What was wrong with mom? I thought she wouldn’t like the idea of me going to the States with Achord. I really didn’t want to leave mom although it would be only for a while.

But mom agreed. Maybe I should go…

~~

I had not practiced for two days already. Hopefully, I’d still remember the moves that Aaron had taught me.

As I walked into the practice room, I saw Aaron was sitting on a bench in the side of the room. I walked up to him, wanting to greet him before we started the practice.

“Aloha!” I greeted him with a smile on my face.

He looked forward and didn’t respond.
I lightly waved my hand in front of his face. “Eh! Eh! Are you okay?”

He stood up and looked down at me. “Why are you late?” He asked, raising his voice. I could feel the coldness that came out of his voice.

“Gee, I’m only ten minutes late.”

“Only ten minutes? You just wasted my precious time. I hate slow people like you.” His eyes were cold. He looked away, avoiding eye contact with me.

I stood there, puzzled. I didn’t understand what was wrong with him. Did he just go back to the cold Aaron? I liked the caring and gentle Aaron more.

“Did something happen to you?” I asked, trying to sound concern. And I was really concern about him, I didn’t know why. I wanted to know what happened to him. Why was he so cold?

“Do a hundred push-ups and sit-ups for your punishment!” Not answering my question, he ordered in a cold tone and walked away.

“WHAAAAAAAT?!” Was he joking?