WAKE (Wattpad edition)

22. Someone like you.

Soundtrack: 'Your body is a blade' - Japanese Breakfast

{Kadee}

When Kadee got home from school, she found her mother in their spotless kitchen, making tiny slivers of carrot and cucumber, a stack of paper-thin sushi wrappers next to her on the counter. "Kamiko, welcome home. Come help me roll the sushi."

Reluctantly, she joined her mother in the kitchen, washing her hands. This had been a favourite pastime as a child, but it had been years since they had done it together. She wasn't sure she still knew how.

Her mother asked her something about school, and she frowned at her hands under the running water. "Mom, use English. I don't know half the words anymore."

"You have spent so much time away with your friends you do not speak the language of our family anymore." Her mother said in gentle rebuke, her English accented but perfectly understandable.

"We are a family that lives in Canada now," Kadee said. "I have to speak English for school and for when I get a job."

Her mother was quiet a moment, and Kadee wondered if she had hurt her, so she tried again. "Your English is as good as mine, mom. My Japanese is not as good is yours. I want to...understand you." She quickly dried her hands. "What kind of sushi are we making?"

Her mother smiled a small smile, just a crinkle of her almond eyes at her. "What kind would you like? I have everything here."

A giggle bubbled up and surprised Kadee. She'd had a very shitty day at school, apart from her conversation with Cary over lunch, but she was already feeling better. "Every kind. It's Friday; I don't have anywhere I need to be."

Her mother began to scoop the rice onto the board, rolling and shaping it with her small, neat hands. "No youth group tonight?"

Kadee hesitated. "My friends aren't going," she said, hoping her mother would let her leave it at that.

"It is not only about the friends, Kamiko," her mother said.

"It's just a games night," Kadee said. This was probably true. She usually spent youth group Fridays enthroned on a comfortable chair in the youth room, surrounded by the other senior highs while the younger kids made fools of themselves in the church gymnasium. Someone else would have her chair tonight. If she were lucky, they wouldn't all be talking about her.

Her mother let it go with a quiet smile. "We are the fortunate ones then, to have you home tonight."

Kadee was pretty sure she still didn't know about the picture that had splashed all over her social media. The traffic on that post had slowed and she was hoping...begging, really, if prayer was real like Cary said, that it would slide out of people's memories soon.

The sushi feast with her parents was diverting, and her sister called as they were cleaning up. Her mother went into the other room to talk with her, and Kadee went restlessly from the dining room to the entryway to her bedroom. Normally she would be getting ready for youth group by now, choosing an outfit and styling her hair. She definitely didn't want to be with those people tonight, but she didn't want to be home alone either.

She threw herself on her bed and opened her phone screen. <hey you there?>

A couple of minutes later a response popped onto her screen. <yuh what>

A smile tugged at her lips. <plans tonight?>

There was another couple-minute lag. Damn, he was a slow texter.

Finally, his response came: <home babysitting>

She sat up, swinging a leg off her bed. Babysitting was something she knew about. <I'll come help>