After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
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In the h...
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"Hey," I said before sliding into the bench across from her at the corner booth.
Jem liked comfort. She liked knowing her enemies and being prepared to face them head-on. Her brain, heart, and soul were hardwired to seek peace and unity, which is why she strived to do great, selfless things. Never for herself, always for other people.
At first, the text hadn't concerned me. Jem could burst into a room and start ranting about something she felt passionate about. I'd expected the talk to be one of those things. Maybe it was me being foolish and high off of Zachariah's stolen kisses.
As soon as I drove to the cafe at which she requested we meet, I knew I'd been obtuse. Seeing her face staring back at me confirmed those suspicions. In front of her sat a half-eaten bagel and coffee that had gone room temperature. If Jem wasn't eating or caffeinating, something was bad.
"Did you order me one?" I joked, attempting to lighten the mood.
She wasn't having it. Instead, she pushed her plate to the side, along with the cup, and crossed her hands in front of herself on the table. If it wasn't obvious I was about to be lectured, I would have laughed. Jem presented like a principal getting ready to scold a student for talking back to their teacher, or a parent about to discipline their child.
"Do you remember coming over to Baachan's house back in high school? She'd just got that new massage chair and was so excited to show it to everyone."
It'd been the first time I'd gone over to see Jem's family. They'd welcomed me with open arms, her grandmother boasting about how she swore she saw me on the cover of a magazine before. I'd blushed while explaining that someone like me could never, but she insisted and vowed to obtain a copy one day.
"She couldn't pronounce my name so she called me A," I reminisced, remembering the white leather massage chair that tickled, sending me into a fit of giggles.
"She lived right along the beach, you remember?"
I did remember now that she mentioned it. The beachfront property her grandmother owned became one of my favorite places to spend time that summer. I remembered going over after school with her, Baachan making spam musubis while we swam until the sun had nearly set, forcing my dad to drive over to pick me up after. He always complained I got his seats wet and sand all over the carpet of his car. But every complaint was paired with an almost cresting smile, informing me that he secretly enjoyed seeing me spend so much time at the beach. I remembered accidentally falling asleep with Jem and Emmie out there one night and waking up to her grandmother scolding us that someone could have snatched us away. I remembered loving that beach even when we stopped going over as much because her grandmother could no longer remember her granddaughter half the time, and me all of the time. I still snuck away to it every once in a while, thankful that it maintained its serenity. Most people didn't go to that part of the beach, but it was one of my favorites, with only the beach by Zachariah's parents' house being a close second.
