Lucky

When Maxx called me Monday morning before work to see if Jenny and I were able to get the day off together for the Halo tournament, I broke the news to him that we couldn’t seem to find a way around our work schedules. Miss Xiong was a tight ass, and there was no way we could both fake strep throats or mono or 24-hour stomach viruses without her finding out what we were really up to.

“So, basically, unless you want to be fired, there’s no way you can come today,” he clarified after I finished my rambled account of the situation.

“Yeah.”

“This sucks, Sara. Seriously. I really wanted you guys here, or even just you. I mean, not that… Not that Jenny isn’t cool or anything, ‘cause I like her. But-but not like that,” he hastily added as I stifled a giggle. “Just… just call me when you have a day off, and if you’re willing to spend it drinking Pepsi and playing video games with me—er, I mean, me and the guys, then you’d be, just, like, the most awesome person ever,” he discursively rambled.

“Definitely. I’ll let you know, Maxx.”

“Okay. Sweet. Bye, Non-Asian Yummi’s Girl.”

“Bye, Maxx,” I said, sneaking in a spot in the parking lot behind Yummi’s next to Turtle, Jenny’s old, green Focus.

“No! You have to say the nickname, Sara. Please?” he pleaded as I shut off the engine.

“Goodbye, Szechuan Beef Guy,” I muttered, stepping out of my car just as Jenny walked around hers, her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

“Hot Szechuan Beef Guy?” Jenny guessed smugly as I ended the call, tucking my phone into my pocket.

I gave her an annoyed look, one of my eyebrows quirked up.

“What?” she innocently asked, sending me an ominous smile. I groaned as she turned around and childishly skipped her way to the back entrance, inviting me to follow behind her.

Jenny and I were nearly knocked back outside when we opened the door, as Miss Xiong was running from the stove back to the phone she left lying on the counter. A couple of dirty woks were on the stove, grease lining their edges. I could hear a string of Chinese come from her lips as she stacked two small woks together and reached for the phone, tucking it between her shoulder and ear like my mother always did while fixing dinner and talking to Granny.

“This isn’t good,” I said as the phone slipped from Miss Xiong’s shoulder and crashed to the tiled floor.

“Jenny!” she sighed in relief. She spotted both of us standing in the doorway, the door propped open against my foot. “Sara! Oh, girls, I cannot do work today.”

“Yímā, what’s going on?” Jenny hesitantly asked, picking up the phone from the floor and cupping the speaker with her hand. “Where’s Lenny?”

“Lenny sick, thew up outside this morning. He’s on phone,” she said, running over to the sink and starting the water. “And Han Sol have his baby today,” she added, dousing both woks with soap and sticking them under the warm water. Han Sol was Miss Xiong’s cousin, the one who always came as the backup cook if Lenny was ever sick, and the one who taught Lenny how to make all the dishes when he was first hired.

“Are we still opening today?” Jenny hesitantly asked, still clutching the phone in her hands. I could hear the line go dead as I stood next to her.

“No, no,” Miss Xiong said, turning off the sink and turning around, her hands on her hips. Her lipstick was slightly smudged on one side and her eyeliner already looked like it was starting to drip. Even just an hour before opening, she looked so frazzled.

“No?” I asked, quite doubtful of Miss Xiong closing up for a day.

“No,” she repeated, brushing some of her bangs back behind her ears. “No. Today, you have off day. We close today. I do not know what else to do,” she sighed. “So much money gone,” she huffed, turning back around and grabbing a dish sponge.

“Would you like help?” Jenny asked, setting the phone back in its charger and sticking her hands in her cutoffs.

“No, you go have fun for off day,” she said, hastily reaching for one of the waist aprons by the stove. “My graduation present for you two.” She gave us both a smile before tying the apron behind her back and cracking her knuckles, sticking her arms elbow-deep into the dirty dishwater.

“You sure, Miss Xiong?” I asked, still wary she’d call us back in once we stepped one foot outside.

“Yes! Go!” she repeated, shooting us each a wide grin. “Have fun. Jenny tell me about boys and their bang, bang games, huh?” she said. “Go today! But be ready tomorrow,” she added, pointing to the back door with a dish sponge in her hand.

Jenny sent me a relieved smile before walking behind Miss Xiong, setting a hand on her shoulder, and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Yímā.”

I followed Jenny outside after waving goodbye to Miss Xiong, letting the door slam shut behind me. Jenny stopped in front of both our cars, fists set on her hips, and stared at the light traffic passing on the adjacent street.

“So, whose car are we taking? Yours or mine?”

|||

“So you’re actually coming? You’re not kidding, right? Because if you are—”

“No, I’m coming,” I said, flipping the visor down to block the rising sun. Jenny sent me a smirk as she changed lanes, swerving Turtle dangerously between a U-Haul truck and a minivan. I could hear a honk trail after us as she picked up speed. “Jenny is too.”

“Sweet! So the tournament will be even. This is great, Sara. Really.” I could hear a girly scream in the background, followed by a loud round of laughs, as well as a chuckle from Maxx.

“You should just thank your lucky stars we were able to get today off together. I mean, the last time that happened, we both were sick with the flu.”

“Ouch. So you weren’t lying when you said it’d be hard to get off.”

“Hell yeah. Hey, Maxx?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you need us to bring anything? Like chips or soda or something?”

Maxx hesitated a moment, probably chewing on his lip like I’d seen him do before. “If Cody hasn’t eaten all the barbeque chips already, nah... Oh, shit!” he groaned.

“What happened?”

“I can’t believe I forgot the fucking peach tea,” he muttered.

“You made it sound like you stubbed your toe or something.” I laughed as Jenny bumped on the radio, lightly humming along. “Do you want me to grab some for you guys?”

Maxx nervously chuckled. “Well, actually, I’m the only one who drinks it.”

I giggled. “Then you personally are indebted to me for a gallon of peach tea,” I said.

He laughed, and I could hear the rest of the band and Andrew laugh loudly in the background – Maxx had told me when I first called that they were practicing for the tournament. When he spoke again, his voice was slightly quieter. “Hey, Sara. Thanks a lot. Not just for, like, the tea or whatever. I’m really glad you’re coming over.”

“Whatever, Shakespeare. Hey, listen, we’ll be there in fifteen, okay? Gotta stop by the supermarket and get this jerk friend of mine some peach tea.”

He laughed. “Yeah. Bye, Non-Asian Yummi’s Girl.”

“Bye, Szechuan Beef Guy,” I easily replied.

Jenny chuckled, shooting me a sidelong glance. She didn’t say anything, but I could almost hear her mentally cooing. After she eased to a stop at a light, she backhanded my shoulder and pointed to the Wal-Mart down the block.

“To Wally World?”

I nodded. “To Wally World.”

|||

“You’re here!”

“We’re here!” I mimicked, quickly hugging Maxx hello and stepping into the cramped foyer. “And we come baring gifts.”

“The elixir of the gods only known to man as peach tea,” he sighed, giving Jenny a salutatory high-five and taking the gallon jug from her grasp.

“The one and only,” Jenny said, brushing past both of us to the living room down the hall. I could hear the boys that were at Yummi’s last week greeting her with shouts of surprise.

“Thanks a lot, Sara,” Maxx said, lifting the jug of tea closer to his face. He had told me he usually wore contacts, but I could only guess he wasn’t wearing any right then as he squinted his eyes to read the label. “And you got my favorite brand, too! Ah, this is great.” Maxx beckoned me with his other hand, and I followed him to the living room amidst the clamored greetings of the rest of Set It Off.

“Sara!”

Cody, the lead singer, jumped up from the love chair adjacent to the TV, the remote in his lap falling to the carpet with a dull thud. He offered me a high-five before taking the jug of tea from Maxx. “I’ll go put this in the fridge, okay?”

Maxx nodded and gave Cody a thumbs up.

I was too busy silently ogling over where Jenny sat – squished next to Andrew at the end of the large couch directly in front of the TV – to really take notice of anything until Maxx brushed his fingers against my forearm to get my attention.

“Holy shit!” I muttered, wide-eyed, when I turned to face him. “Whoa.”

“What?” he innocently asked. But I could already see a subtle grin peeking out from under the black rectangular glasses he had just slipped on.

“The glasses. They… they’re… Wow.”

“‘Wow,’ huh? They’re just glasses,” he smirked, gesturing me to follow him past the couches.

“Which I’ve never seen you wear before,” I added, following him through a swinging door and into the kitchen.

He chuckled, ruffling the hair at the nape of his neck. “You’ll get used to it. Sometimes I’m just lazy.”

“Only sometimes?”

He just laughed in response, reaching out for a bag of stacked red Dixie cups. “Can you grab the Dr. Pepper and Sprite from the fridge?” he asked, pointing to the yellowed refrigerator covered in family pictures and novelty magnets. Even a pass-out menu from Yummi’s hung at the top of the freezer door under a smiley-face magnet.

I found the tw0 bottles stashed away behind a carton of eggs, a bowl of potato salad, and a Ziploc bag full of leftover duck and soy sauce packets from Yummi’s. I set them on the table next to the plastic cups Maxx had pulled out. He had already poured two bowls of chips and just had opened the tortilla chips when he realized he didn’t bring out a third bowl.

“Think you could grab it? It’s on top of the fridge,” he said, tugging open the bag of cups.

I gave him a reserved look, pointedly glancing at his freezer. It was almost seven feet in height; I was only a few inches over five feet. I walked over anyway after he pouted, rolling my eyes at him. I reached up, but my fingertips barely brushed against the top of the fridge.

He chuckled and set the cups back on the table. “Okay, I’ll get it,” he conceded.

But before I could move out of the way, he’d already circled around me, gently setting a hand at the small of my back. He blindly reached up for the third bowl, his tongue partially sticking out.

“Aha!” he muttered, dragging it over the edge of the refrigerator. “Just open some of the bottles and grab a cup if you want a drink. The guys can pour their own sodas.” He briefly grinned before sauntering back to the other side of the kitchen, piling the last of the chips into the hot-pink plastic party bowl.

My older brother Matt was a big Halo enthusiast when we were younger. Since my parents didn’t like my younger brother David playing the M-rated shooter games with him while still in grammar school, I was usually the unfortunate sibling enlisted to help him out on joint campaigns and to play one-on-one assassin matches. I played with Matt for over two years until David was allowed to play, and during that time I was able to hone my Halo skills to beat the game on the most difficult level, Legendary. I didn’t think the fact that I’d beat Halo before mattered, so no one in the tournament save Jenny knew about it.

At least, not until I advanced to the second round and started kicking Zach’s ass with only a pistol against his rocket launcher.

“Oh, shit!” Cody yelled, taking another swig of root beer. The other boys were in an uproar too, especially Maxx. When I beat out Andrew in the first round, they all thought it was just because he sucked at Halo in the first place; anybody could beat Andrew, they said.

I just narrowly missed a rocket blast my way when I zoomed in on Zach’s avatar at the other end of a hallway, shooting my last bullet into his head and finally ending the game.

“Ugh!” Zack hit his head on the back of the recliner he was sitting in, quickly going red in the face. “I’m never playing Halo with you again, Sara.”

Maxx laughed next to me, wrapping an arm over my shoulder. “That’s my girl.”

“You wish,” Cody mumbled, nudging Austin, the bassist, in the arm with his knee. The both laughed, Cody sending Maxx a cheeky smile.

“Hardy-har-har,” Maxx said, throwing a gummy worm at his head. It hit Cody in the eye and fell into his lap, but he just shrugged and ate the candy with a smirk.

“Wait. How did you even get so good?” Dan asked, reaching for the bowl of Cheetos in Jenny’s lap.

“My brother forced me to play with him when I was younger,” I admitted, dropping the controller into Maxx’s lap. “I got good at it, I guess.”

“You guess?” Andrew piped up, standing up from the couch.

“Well, I haven’t played in so long. I didn’t know I still had it,” I said as Maxx set up the next match. Not that it was completely true – just last week, I had tried to convince my little brother David to play some Halo with me, but he wouldn’t have it.

“Hey, man, can you get me some more root beer?” Cody asked Andrew, perching his legs onto the coffee table.

“Uh… I don’t—”

“If you’re going back to the kitchen, can you get me some Dr. Pepper, too?” Zach asked, holding out his cup. After that, Dan and Austin both asked for refills as well, offering Andrew their empty drinks.

“Fine, fine,” he conceded, taking a turn around the room to collect the cups. “Does anyone want any snacks, too?”

“Yeah, pop some more popcorn, will you?” Austin said, folding his arms and easing back against the couch on the floor after he handed Andrew his cup. “Don’t make it butter again, though. The controller gets sticky.”

“My work as their manager is never done,” he mused as he walked past Maxx and me.

“Who’s up next?” Dan wondered aloud, peering over Cody’s shoulder to get a better look at the hand-written Halo tournament bracket. “You and Maxx?” he asked Cody.

“Apparently.”

“Oh, man. This is gonna be great,” Maxx said, rubbing his hands together and cracking his joints. “I hope no one’s wearing a toupee, ‘cause this is gonna blow you guys away!”

“That rhymed,” I observed, stealing the bowl of gummy worms from his lap.

“It’d make a good catchphrase, don’t you think?” he said, shooting me a sidelong glance.

“Nope, you’ve already got one.” I cleared my throat and threw up my arms in a circle, my fingers spread out. “Check it out!” I mimicked in a low, slow voice.

“Sara, you’re so funny,” he deadpanned as the rest of the band and Jenny started chuckling.

“At least they think so,” I chided, popping a gummy worm into my mouth and grinning at him.

The old red-and-green plaid couch squeaked as Jenny stood up from her spot. “This is all fun and whatever,” she called over the game as Cody and Maxx’s match started up, “but I think Andrew might need some help carrying all the drinks in.”

“Yeah, sure,” Zach said, waving her off from the recliner. “Just make sure my Sprite has ice in it, will you?”

Jenny laughed, tucking some bangs behind her ear before she scurried past the boys on the couch. “My job never stops following me, either,” she said as she walked by where I was sitting with Maxx, rolling her eyes.

“You’re going down, man,” Cody taunted, quickly brushing his bangs out of his eyes as he laughed.

“Say that again when I kick your ass, dude.” Maxx exaggerated an evil laugh before shooting at Cody’s avatar from across a bridge.

It was a close match, but Maxx scraped by with a score of 15 kills to Cody’s 13 in just over five minutes. He celebrated by dancing around the living room and pulling a Tom Cruise on the love seat, even giving me a double high-five. But Jenny and Andrew still hadn’t come out of the kitchen since the game started – popcorn only takes so long, I thought.

“Hey,” I muttered to Maxx, bumping his knee with mine as he settled down. “How long has it been since Andrew went to the kitchen?”

He shrugged, the fabric of his oversized red tank top sliding over his collarbones, as he watched Dan and Austin start battling it out for the semifinals. “Oh, I don’t know. Five, six minutes? Why?”

“It doesn’t take that long to pop popcorn,” I suggested, my eyebrow automatically quirking.

“Maybe he’s popping more than one bag,” he suggested, shrugging again.

“In that case,” I said, jumping up from the couch and offering my hand to Maxx, “we should help out. As much as I want to see Jenny totally flustered, I don’t want her to embarrass herself,” I added as he took my hand and stood up.

“You’re such a good friend,” Maxx teased, tying his best to fake cry without laughing. I shoved his shoulder, racing in front of him past the couches and through the kitchen door.

When I nudged the door open with my back, I heard what sounded like the bag of red cups falling to the ground. I swiftly turned around, Maxx hot on my heels, and stopped dead in my tracks.

On the kitchen table sat Jenny, her legs wrapped around Andrew’s waist and her hands placed flat on his chest as they unabashedly made out, not even noticing Maxx’s and my intrusion.

“What the hell, Jenny?” I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand.

Maxx accidentally bumped into my back, his eyes wide and set on our straddling friends. “What the hell?” he muttered, the kitchen door swinging shut behind him.

I giggled again when Jenny pulled away from Andrew, her eyes wide. She sent me a sheepish smile, her shoulders slightly rising in a shrug. Andrew was red in the face as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck and kept his eyes downcast.

“Hi, guys,” she timidly greeted, clearly trying to hold back a laugh.

“Hey, Andrew,” Maxx said, biting back a chuckle and folding his arms.

“Hi,” he mumbled back, giving Jenny a quick look. He shook his head and muttered a few cuss words before pushing himself from the table and grabbing the bowl of popcorn next to an empty bottle of root beer. He held the bowl to his chest as Jenny jumped down from the table and picked up the cups that had fallen down. Popping a few kernels into his mouth and chewing slowly, he pointed a finger at Maxx and me, his eyebrows furrowing. “Promise you won’t tell the guys.”

“Yeah, dude, but I can’t speak for Sara,” Maxx chuckled, nudging me in the shoulder.

“S-sure, sure. Definitely won’t tell,” I assured him. Nodding, he walked between Maxx and me and out of the kitchen, handing Maxx the bowl of popcorn as he passed. Chuckling to himself, Maxx wrapped his arms around the bowl and followed him out of the kitchen and back to the current game with the rest of the guys.

“How did that happen?” I turned to Jenny, who was busy pouring herself some Sprite. “I mean, one second you’re stealing glances, and now you’re…” I trailed off, waving my hand towards Jenny as she bit her lip. “But don’t get me wrong – you guys seem cute and everything. I’m just… confused.”

She shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. “I don’t know. I mean, I sort of thought about just, like… I don’t…” She sighed, staring into her cup. “It sounds stupid, walking in here and just starting up a random conversation with a guy I barely know. I mean, c’mon.” I giggled, as Jenny being anything less than confident was totally inconceivable. “But I came in and asked if he needed any help bringing drinks in or whatever, and he was just popping an extra bag of popcorn, and the next thing you know… Bam.”

“Bam,” I chuckled, amused by Jenny’s story telling abilities.

“It sort of just… happened,” she murmured, sipping her drink, her eyes downcast to her gladiator sandals. “He’s a real good kisser, though,” she quickly added, shooting me a grin. I burst out laughing, and we both started giggling like schoolgirls.

“Anyway. Do you want to get back to the game? I’m sure Maxx and Austin are just about to start with their match.”

“Maxx went to semifinals?” Jenny laughed, walking towards the door. “Oh, man. If he wins this one, you guys are duking it out for all the marbles, right?”

“Hell yeah.”

“I can’t wait to see you whoop his ass,” she mused as she brushed past me and pushed the door open with her back, giving me a wink.

Maxx and Austin were in the middle of an intense game when we walked in, but despite everyone’s concentrated focus on the TV screen, Cody still noticed that we hadn’t brought in anyone’s drinks.

“Where’s my root beer?” he asked Jenny as she sat down between him and Andrew.

“And my—Shit!” Austin yelled, his avatar falling to the ground into a puddle of blood.

“Your shit? I have no clue,” I said, taking back my place beside Maxx and leaning against the arm of the loveseat. Maxx laughed, sending me a grin as Austin’s avatar reloaded.

Cody jokingly whined. “Don’t tell me you forgot! That means I’ll have to actually get up.”

“Get your own drinks,” Jenny retorted, smacking Cody’s knee with the back of her hand, her eyes still on the TV. Cody groaned but conceded, a smirk playing at his lips. He got up from the sofa with a grunt, tapping Dan on the shoulder and jerking his head towards the kitchen.

“Aw, fuck,” Austin grumbled, shoving the guys out of his way as they walked in front of him on the floor. “I’m trying to win a game here,” he yelled back to them, fighting off Maxx’s avatar with a few blasts from his shotgun. But he was able to kill a begrudged Maxx, gloating obnoxiously as he evened the score to 14 kills – one kill away from either of them winning.

“Oh, man. This is tense,” I muttered, nervously biting off the head of a gummy worm.

“Yup,” Maxx agreed, reaching over to grab a candy from the bowl in my lap before his avatar reloaded.

What followed in the next two minutes was the better part of a cat and mouse chase – Maxx being the cat and Austin being the mouse, ducking into corners and corridors as he ran from a rifle-wielding, revenge-bent Maxx. But Austin was eventually cornered into a second-floor hideout, standing on his guard with his sniper rifle ready to take on any intrusion.

At least until Maxx snuck up behind him and smashed in his skull with one punch.

Everyone in the room groaned and booed and jeered at the sneak attack, including myself. I offered an amused Maxx a high-five, which he easily accepted. Austin sat in disbelief, his controller still poised in his hands, as his jaw went slack and he stared at the final score plastered on the screen. Cody chuckled and reached down to pat his shoulder sympathetically, but kept his outstretched hand under Austin’s nose.

“Pay up, man. Twenty bucks.”

“Shit,” Austin grumbled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Superman wallet, begrudgingly handing Cody a fresh twenty-dollar bill. “I was going to buy new strings with that,” he added as Cody mockingly smoothed out its edges.

“You know what this means, right?” Maxx asked, grabbing a few gummy worms from my bowl. “You and me. The finals.”

“I’m gonna kick your ass,” I laughed, quickly walking over and plucking the controller from Austin’s hands.

“Them’s fighting words,” Maxx drawled, trying his best to imitate a southern accent.

“Hell yeah.” I popped another gummy worm in my mouth and nudged Maxx’s knee with my own. “I’m picking the map. You choose the game type.”

“25 kill limit alright with you?” he asked, scrolling down the list of options.

“Sure,” I shrugged, finding Jenny’s gaze from across the room and giving her a quick thumbs up.

“Any final bets?” Zach called over the other guys as they gave a blushing Austin a hard time. He got up from the cozy lounge chair he’d been occupying the entire morning and walked over to the loveseat across the room, resting his forearms on the back of my chair.

“I’ve got twenty dollars on Maxx,” Cody said, waving the Jackson he’d just won from Austin over his head.

“I’ll match it,” Austin added, easily shoving Cody’s leg and laughing.

“Can I make a bet?” Maxx asked, raising his hand as the game was about to start. Zach nodded, smirking. “If Sara wins, I’ll buy her lunch.”

Jenny let out an abrupt laugh, but quickly covered her mouth with her hand, a girly smile still evident between her fingers.

“I’ll take that bet,” I offered, a grin not unlike Maxx’s stretching across my face.

“Sweet,” Zach approved, clapping his hands together. He walked past my side of the love seat, but before heading back across the living room, he kneeled down to my level and wiggled his finger at me, beckoning me to get closer. “I’ve got fifty bucks on you against Andrew. Don’t fail me, kid.”

I only smirked in response as the game started up.