February 22, 2005, Tuesday
The next morning rolled in cold and misty, the kind of gray Washington morning that made most people want to crawl back under their blankets and pretend school didn't exist. But not me. No, I was wide awake, wired, and mentally preparing myself to be laughed at.
I pulled into Tyler's driveway like usual, honked once, and waited. My fingers drummed on the steering wheel. My leg bounced. I was pretty sure I'd burned through half my daily supply of courage just getting out of bed.
Tyler finally stepped out, backpack slung over one shoulder and a banana in hand. "Morning," he said as he opened the passenger door and handed me his crutches before climbing in with some difficulty.
"Hey," I answered, trying, and failing, not to sound like a squirrel on espresso.
We drove in silence for a few minutes. I kept glancing at the clock, at the road, at the sky, calculating and recalculating the timing of my impending stupidity.
We pulled into the school parking lot, and Tyler unbuckled, reaching for the door… then froze. "Dude… why aren't you getting out?"
He stared at me like I'd suddenly turned into a hologram.
I swallowed hard. "Okay, so… remember that girl I told you about?" My voice cracked. Fantastic. Real smooth.
Tyler's eyebrows arched. "Leah? Yeah. What about her?"
I exhaled through my nose, gripping the wheel like it could save me from myself. "I, uh… kinda forgot to ask for her number."
Tyler blinked once, then shook his head like a disappointed parent. "Of course you did."
"And," I continued before I lost the courage, "I know where she works. And if I don't go now, right now, I'm gonna chicken out and spend the rest of my life wondering what could've happened. So…" I gestured helplessly at the road. "I'm going. To the rez. To get that number."
Tyler stared at me for a long second, then grinned like I'd just announced I was joining a secret superhero agency.
"Dude," he said, smacking my shoulder approvingly. "Go get that girl."
I blinked. "You think?"
"Bro," he said with a confident smirk, "you GOT this. Seriously. Just don't overthink it like you always do. Drive there, say hi, don't act weird. Just be yourself, no, wait, don't be yourself. Then you'll be fine. Easy peasy."
"Right," I muttered. "Easy. Totally easy. Asking a beautiful, terrifying girl for her number after being nearly shot by her coworker yesterday. Piece of cake."
Tyler laughed and pushed the door open. "You were almost shot? Man, you gotta tell me that story later, if you survive that is."
He hopped out, backpack bouncing, grabbed his crutches and leaned back into the open door.
"Text me if she says yes, and we'll grab burgers later, my treat" he added, then slammed the door shut and hobbled off toward school.
I inhaled deeply, braced myself, and turned the key.
…
The drive to La Push felt shorter than yesterday, probably because my stomach had relocated somewhere around my lungs and was squeezing the life out of me. By the time I pulled up near the little marina-side grocery store, the sun was barely a rumor behind the clouds.
I parked, grabbed the steering wheel, and exhaled.
"Alright. You do this now or you never do it."
I stepped out.
The sign on the door read: OPEN - 9:00 AM
Below it, in small hand-written letters: Don't knock. We hear you.
I checked my phone. 7:53 AM.
"…Cool. Great. Perfect timing, Mike," I muttered.
So I waited. And paced. And waited. And paced harder.
Sidewalk. Gravel. Door. Sidewalk. Gravel. Door. Over and over like some desperate NPC stuck in a loop.
My palms kept sweating. My breath kept fogging in the cold air. Every car that passed made me flinch like it might be the shotgun lady arriving for Round Two. I kept whispering pep talks to myself, quiet enough to not bother anyone, but loud enough that a squirrel across the street gave me judgmental side-eye.
By 8:50, I felt like I'd aged seven years.
"Come on, Mike, you can do this. Don't chicken out. Just ask for the number. Easy. Easy-ish. Sorta."
Just then, I heard a soft snort behind me, and a little huff of a laugh. And I froze. Like literally, physically froze.
"Mike?" I heard a voice calling, Leah's voice, sounding both amused and deeply confused. "What are you doing here this early? Don't you have school?"
When I realized she must have heard what I'd said aloud, I wanted to walk straight into the ocean.
I turned around mechanically, my brain flipping through possible answers like a Rolodex on fire.
Say something cool.
Say something normal.
Say literally ANYTHING.
I raised a hand in what I think was meant to be a greeting but probably looked more like a malfunctioning windshield wiper, and said:
"Yo."
YO.
Out of all the words in the English language, that's what my brain selected.
…
Leah blinked once. Twice. Slow, like her brain was buffering.
"…Yo?" she repeated, eyebrows inching up her forehead.
Mike opened his mouth, hoping some kind of explanation would fall out, but it didn't, as his soul had already left his body and was standing by the closed door, judging him.
Leah's lips twitched. "Wow. And here I was thinking I was the awkward one."
"I… I can explain," Mike lied. He absolutely could not explain.
"Please do," she said, folding her arms. Not annoyed at all, just amused. Dangerously amused. She was looking at him with the kind of amusement that makes a person want to dig a hole and live in it.
Mike gestured vaguely at the clouds, the closed door, the empty street. "I'm cold?"
"That explains yo?"
"No," he admitted and lowered his head.
Leah snorted loudly, trying hard not to laugh. Then brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. "You know… I was kind of worried I'd mess up and say something stupid when we met again."
"Oh don't worry," Mike said. "I handled that for both of us."
She smiled, actually smiled, and the frostbite in Mike's dignity melted slightly. "Well… since we're apparently stuck out here until nine…"
Mike pretended to check an invisible watch. "Plenty of time to pretend that never happened."
"Not a chance," she said immediately. "I'm keeping yo forever."
He groaned. "can't you just forget it? I'm begging you."
"No," she said, nudging his arm lightly with her elbow. "not a chance in hell I'm forgetting that one."
"Now, how about we go inside so you can tell me what you came for?"
"And how are we getting in? The door's closed." Mike looked back at the entrance as if it might magically open.
Leah rolled her eyes, pulled out a set of keys, and waved them, "I work here, genius. I have the keys…"
The lock clicked, and she pushed the door open with her shoulder. The store was dark except for the faint glow of a coffee machine humming somewhere in the back.
Once they were inside, she flicked on the lights and leaned against the counter, arms crossed again, the universal stance for "I'm about to tease you mercilessly."
"Alright," she said. "Shoot. Why did you skip school to come see me? Did you miss me that much?"
The tone was light and teasing.
And, to Mike's luck, it somehow flipped his brain back on instead of frying it further.
"Oho," he said, placing a dramatic hand over his chest like he'd been struck by Cupid's bargain-bin arrow. "Yes. I missed you terribly. It's been a whole day since I've seen you. I thought my heart might explode if I didn't see you soon."
Leah blinked, then let out a small laugh, startled and warm.
"Wow," she said. "Your charm really did reboot."
Mike made a show of exhaling with relief. "Thank God. For a moment there, I thought the warranty had expired."
"You still said yo," she reminded him, but her smile made it feel like less of a death sentence.
"That was the pre-reboot version," he said. "Buggy release. Very unstable."
Leah shook her head, still smiling as she walked past him toward the back room to drop her backpack. "Uh-huh. Sure. Wait here, give me a sec."
She returned shortly after and headed toward the counter, grabbing the little switch that powered up the register. "Okay, charmer. What actually brought you here?"
Mike approached, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, trying not to look like someone whose soul kept trying to escape his body.
"Oh, well…" he started, then immediately felt his throat tighten.
Great. Fantastic. Emotional honesty. His favorite boss fight.
He scratched the back of his neck, staring very intently at a display of canned peaches. "Yesterday I was thinking about you and I, uh… I had this sudden need to text you. About anything really. Like, literally anything. Weather. Socks. Quantum physics. Whatever."
Leah paused and just stared at him.
Mike groaned into his palms. "And I'd even pulled out my phone before I remembered…"
"That you never asked for my number," she finished, a little smirk tugging at her lips.
He nodded, sheepish. "Yup. Turns out that's… kind of important."
Leah leaned against the counter, arms folded, but softer now. She was clearly amused, but wasn't planning to mock him.
"So you drove all the way here," she said slowly, "skipped school… just to fix that?"
Mike shrugged helplessly. "My brain said wait until the weekend but my heart said: dumb idea, go now."
Her smile curled a little more. "And which one do you usually listen to?"
"Historically?" Mike sighed. "The dumb one."
Leah laughed then, quiet, warm, delighted, and Mike felt his spine liquefy in triumph.
Then she looked at him for a moment, really looked, and Mike swore he saw something soften in her eyes.
"...I'm glad you came," she said quietly.
She blinked, surprised at her own honesty, and immediately cleared her throat like she needed to cover it up.
Before Mike could combust on the spot, she pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and held it out toward him.
"Alright," she said, trying to sound casual. "Let's exchange numbers before you have another crisis."
Mike fumbled for his own phone, hands weirdly shaky, and they typed in each other's contacts. He added a little star next to her name. He wasn't subtle. He wasn't trying to be.
Once they were done, Leah slipped her phone away. "There. Now you can text me about socks or quantum physics whenever you want."
"Oh good," Mike said. "I actually have so many sock-related thoughts."
She snorted.
He rocked back on his heels, then added, "By the way… I, uh… actually came by yesterday. After school."
Leah's eyebrows shot up. "You did?"
"Oh yeah," Mike said with dramatic trauma. "And the old lady at the counter almost shot me for being a creep."
Leah burst out laughing at that, and Mike couldn't help but grin.
"Yup," she wheezed, wiping under one eye. "That sounds exactly like Nora."
"Oh thank God, I thought she genuinely hated me."
"No, no," Leah said, waving a hand. "Don't take it personal. There was… an incident a couple of months ago, and she's been kind of paranoid ever since."
Mike leaned in slightly. "Incident?"
Leah sighed, then hopped up to sit on the edge of the counter, legs swinging lightly. "Some idiot from the rez heard I was single again and decided he had a shot. Started following me around, hanging out outside my work hours, making comments. Real winner of a human being."
Mike felt his jaw clench. "Ugh. What a creep."
"Yeah," Leah agreed. "Then one day he cornered me right here in the store, while I was stocking the back shelves, and got way too pushy."
Mike stiffened. "Did he…?"
"He didn't get far," Leah cut in, a little amused now. "Because Nora saw it. And Nora being Nora… she grabbed the shotgun from under the counter and yelled at him to get the hell out."
Mike blinked. "and was it loaded?"
"Oh, absolutely loaded," Leah said proudly. "And she threatened to use it. Right there. In aisle three. Next to the canned soup."
Mike stared. "And the creep guy?"
"Paul?" Leah snorted. "He hasn't dared show his face in the store since."
Mike paused.
"...Paul?" he repeated slowly.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "Paul Lahote."
"Oh," he said. "Cool. Great. Totally deserved, that guy's a real asshole."
Leah raised an eyebrow, amused. "Why? You know him?"
"I've seen him strutting around Forks a few times," Mike muttered. "He's got a really punchable face."
Leah laughed again.
The door chimed just then, a sharp little ding that made Mike jump like someone had fired an actual bullet.
Nora walked in, bundled in a heavy coat, gray hair tied back, eyes sharp as ever and paused. Looked at Mike. Looked at Leah. Then looked back at Mike.
"Well," she said flatly, "good to see you weren't lying yesterday, kid."
Mike made a noise that was supposed to be a laugh but sounded more like a squeaky chair.
"Yep," he squeaked. "See? Totally real person. Not a creep. Just… a guy. A normal guy. Who does normal guy things."
Nora didn't blink.
Then she turned to Leah. "If he tries anything funny, you tell me and I'll sort him out myself."
Mike actually saluted. He didn't mean to. It just happened.
"No funny business. Nope. None. Zero. Nada. Not a molecule of funny."
Leah snorted behind her hand.
Mike checked his watch, even though he didn't have one, and widened his eyes.
"Oh look at that! If I leave right now, I might make it to my history class before the end of the world. Or at least before attendance."
He backed toward the door like it might explode if he turned around too fast.
"I'll, uh… I'll text you later," he told Leah.
She smiled, soft and amused. "Okay. Drive safe, Mike."
"Will do!" he said, already halfway out the door, somehow nearly tripping over nothing.
Leah watched through the window as he practically scurried to his Mountaineer like a startled woodland creature fleeing a predator.
Nora shook her head. "That boy runs like he's guilty of something."
Leah laughed under her breath. "Yeah. I noticed. It's kind of cute, isn't it?"
Nora was about to turn toward the stockroom when something outside the window caught her eye.
"Lord above…" she muttered.
Leah followed her gaze.
Out in the parking lot, Mike had barely closed the door of his Mountaineer before he started full-body celebrating; fists pumping, head thrown back in triumph, doing a silent yell at the roof of his car like he'd just won the Super Bowl. He checked his phone, saw the new contact saved there, and did another little victory dance in the driver's seat.
Nora shook her head slowly, arms crossing in that "I've-seen-some-things" way.
"That boy," she declared, "is an idiot."
Leah couldn't help the smile that curled across her face.
"Yeah," she said softly. "I know."
…