Harper's Rules 1 & 2

Chapter 7: Harper

I love Asian Thanksgiving... at least, Li's family's version of it.

Even though Li's parents scare me.

I already knew that Li's parents were strict but the way she'd fidgeted on the drive out towards their single-story ranch house in Santa Barbara should've tipped me off. An Asian man and woman, both with clear lens glasses, stood on the front porch with their shoulders back, spines stiff, and chins lifted high.

Their eyes tracked my car's movements up their driveway and their lips moved, just very slightly while their eyes flipped between me and the giant, blonde-haired, 6ft3 football player who'd uncomfortably crammed himself into my back seat.

"Ready for the firing squad, Friendzone?" I teased Kieran, who threw me a weak smile and unfolded his long legs out of the accordion position they'd been stuck in the twenty-five minutes it took me to drive here. He stepped out on Li's side, who tucked her tiny frame against his side, wrapped her arm around his lower back, and set a determined face like, somehow, she protected him.

While the ocean was nowhere in sight from their inland, tree-lined street, the smell of brine and salt filled my nose like a faint memory.

Physically, Li was a younger sister version of her mother. They stood at exactly the same height, the same facial features and body frame size. Their only difference, other than a slight amount of aging, was how her Mom managed to make me feel shorter with just her introductory gaze. Her dark eyes dragged down from the tip of my head to my toes, back up, then down again. Each pass through, her lips tightened.

"Li!" Her father beamed brightly. "All good? Ace the midterms?"

"I think I did okay," she replied modestly, which earned her two frowned expressions..

Right away, I knew that Li's parents were very... bluntly honest. Even their compliments sounded like insults.

"Li," her mother greeted her curtly. "You are not the smartest in UCLA pre-med but you will finish just fine. You might not get into the top medical school but we believe you will make it."

"Right," Li replied softly, then threw me a pained look. "This is Harper, my roommate."

"Ahh, the... roommate." Her eyes slanted narrower as they traveled from the top of my head down to my toes again, like she searched for details she'd missed the first passes over. Her visual scrutiny crawled over my skin uncomfortably but I forced a tight smile.

I extended the bouquet of white lilies I'd picked up this morning. "Mrs. Wei, thanks -"

"It's Doctor Wei," she corrected me sternly, eyed the flowers, and took them like I'd handed her a wasp's nest, with her eyebrows drawn together and held out at arm's length. "A lot of women do not go through eight years of higher education just to -"

"Lighten up, Mom," Li grumbled quietly, then threw me an apologetic look from where her head rested nestled in Kieran's armpit. "Harper didn't know."

"I'm sorry, Doctor Wei," I replied honestly, then turned to her dad. "Doctor Wei, nice to meet you."

"Harper." He smiled politely and shook my hand stiffly. "Hope you are a being good influence on my daughter."

"Well, I'm not pregnant," I joked, but the frozen expressions both Li's parents gave me was enough proof that my sarcastic comment felt flat on their front lawn.

Li shook her head then smiled up at Kieran. "And Mom, Dad, you remember Kieran Meade, my boyfriend."

"Mmmph," was the only strained, tight-lipped noise that Li's mom made. She looked down her nose at Kieran, then turned and abruptly entered the house.