Me, You

“We should spend the entire day just sleeping,” John yawned into his pillow, “I think we deserve that from such a long drive here.”

It was almost noon now, we’d already slept through half of the day. Liam was currently recovering from the chemo the day before. Sophia noted that he was normally irritable after a procedure, so we should give him a day. We had the day to ourselves.

“Come on, John,” I tugged on his arm, “Half of the day is gone and there is a city out there to be explored and a bucket list to be finished.”

He groaned, “Can we put the bucket list on hold for today? I’m exhausted.”

“Fine, but we have to at least do something,” I dropped his arm and it thumped against the bed sheets.

“Hanging out in the hotel is doing something. Taking a nap is doing something.”

“Maybe, but it’s unproductive,”

He squinted up at me, “Let’s get to know each other then.”

“Getting to know John O’Callaghan? Gross.”

“I could honestly do without the sarcasm, missy,”

“Plus, I think I know you a little too well,” I crawled under the covers of his bed and turned on the TV, “Let’s watch a movie.”

John grunted, flipping to the other side, his back facing me. Back in Arizona, it’d only be nine in the morning and nobody in the O’Callaghan and Collins households would be awake at that time in the summer. Especially running on very few hours of sleep for the past few days, it was a miracle we were functioning.

I flipped through the channels trying to figure out what to watch. I wasn’t a movie person. I was a screaming-at-the-TV-during-baseball-and-hockey-games type of person. If my last name wasn’t Collins, I could’ve been an O’Callaghan, no doubt. The only movies we truly loved were the Godfather and Pulp Fiction, both which Jay showed us when Jenny and my mom were out.

“Finding Nemo’s on,” I nudged him.

“Lou, you are an eighteen year old woman about to attend a college that is globally ranked, don’t tell me you’re about to watch Finding Nemo,” He grumbled into his pillow.

“You’re pissy when you’re tired.”

“You’re high maintenance when you’re not.”

John fell quiet and minutes later he was snoring. Halfway through the movie, my eyelids grew heavy. Pulling the sheets closer to my chin, I let myself drift off to sleep as Nemo continued to search for his family while I had mine asleep next to me.


The next time my eyes opened, the room was dim and the sun was long gone.

I stirred before realizing John’s arms were wrapped around my waist from behind. Turning and craning my neck over his sleeping form, the digital clock read 10:36. I laid back and gazed at John. I turned slightly to rest my head on his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist, hugging him.

His bangs fell over his eyes. Brushing them out of the way, his eyes fluttered opened and he rustled under the sheets, stretching, “So much for doing something today, huh?”

I pulled myself closer to him and felt his heart beating rapidly against my ear. Could he feel mine beating too? Whatever was going on between us made him nervous too.

The real question was what exactly was going on between us?

“Well, the night is still young and you and I both know the best things happen late after curfew,” I realized the undertones of what I said and turned red.

He laughed and sat up, “You’re right, maybe we should get out of this room and see who’s even awake at this time.”

My feet sunk into the red hotel carpet and I shuffled my way to the restroom. Staring into the mirror, I let the nerves crawl over my body to my toes and fingertips. This wasn’t different from any other time before we have fallen asleep in the same bed- innocently of course. But, it felt different.

I splashed water onto my face, trying to get it off my mind. But, from the way he looked at me when he woke up to having his arms wrapped around me... My questioning of our once purely platonic feelings for each other was becoming a regular thing on this trip-

“You alright in there, Lou?” John knocked on the door.

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” I dried my face off with a towel.

I was only John’s Lou. We were only a team, I told myself walking out of the restroom.

John tossed me his keys and grinned, “How about we switch things up a bit? You’re driving tonight.”

My eyes widened, “Even though-”

“Don’t make me regret this,” His finger lightly touched my lips and then dropped to hold my hand. Tugging on my arm, “Let’s get going.”


After a jerky start getting out of the parking lot and stopping over the stop sign a couple of times, I shook off the nerves- from sitting next to John, or just the fact I hadn’t driven in a while, I didn’t know- and got a grip, literally and metaphorically.

Most stores and restaurants were closed and the streets were vacant minus one or two stragglers.

“How about there?” John pointed out his window.

On my right, there was a building that at a first glance looked like a regular suburban house. But, on the second glance, an illuminated sign could be seen.

“Dragon City? John, you know I can’t stomach Chinese food.”

“Come on, it’s the only thing open around this place.”

I switched lanes and prepared to turn into the small parking lot. Stopping in the parking lot wasn’t any better than trying to get out. I got out of the poorly parked truck and followed John into the small Chinese restaurant.

“Go pick a seat and let me order,” Before I could open my mouth he said, “-I know, nothing spicy.”

“Thank you,” I said graciously. I sat down by the door, where a Maneki-neko cat ceramic figurine waved its arm back and forth at incoming customers.

The restaurant inside was a bleak white that reeked of refried lo mein and green tea. It was cramped and quiet to say the least, with the cooks shuffling around with pots and pans in the kitchen. And other than the Maneki-neko figurine at the front door, it lacked any of the tacky Chinese ornaments- which, let’s be honest, was a big reason why anyone would even risk going to a Chinese restaurant and returning home smelling like one.

“Our food should be getting here soon,” John set two cups of green tea on the table and sat down, “I am starving.”

“When are you not starving?” I picked up one of the soy sauce bottles and played with the cap.

“Whenever I watch you dance,” He scrunched up his nose, “Then, I lose my appetite and want to throw up.”

“It was one time, it was junior prom night and I was drunk, okay?”

“Oh you don’t have to remind me,” He grinned as he brought his cup to his lips, “I had to abandon Mia and drive you home.”

“It’s a bummer you didn’t get to experience after prom,” I wrinkled my nose at the smell of green tea, “But, at least during prom senior year you got to spend the night with Mia at a hotel.”

“Didn’t mean anything happened though,” He shrugged.

My eyes widened, “Wait, you and Mia never-”

“I told her I wanted to wait after marriage,” John flustered.

“Well, do you?”

“I don’t really care, I just want it to be with someone I love- and I wasn’t about to tell my girlfriend of four years that,” He chuckled.

"I always thought you two were so in love with each other and that was why you guys were always fighting and getting back together..."

John shook his head, "I don't think so. I guess I was just so used to it that it felt weird not being with her.”

“So you’re-”

“Still a virgin,” John’s eyes bore into the table until he peeked up at me through his bangs, “What about you?”

“Of course,” I snorted, “I could never live with myself if I’d lost it to any of the idiots I dated.”

“You dated a lot of boneheads,” said John, “Even if most were my friends.”

This felt very strange- talking to John about sex... or in this case, lack of. Of course, the subject of sex was strictly tabooed in public, but there was no one else around other than the Chinese lady at the front talking to someone in Cantonese on the phone. There was something else that made it weird and it wasn’t just because I was a girl and he was a boy.

“Well, I just wanted to make mistakes now so I wouldn’t in the future. Fair enough?”

“You’re still going to make mistakes even way past your young adulthood, we all are,” He played with the tea cup handle, “And knowing us, we’re going to make mistakes well into our nineties.”

I entertained the idea of John and I being in the same nursing home and tripping each other with our canes, “But it’s going to be us making mistakes together, right? Me and you?”

“Lou, I tell you this every time, it’s always just going to be me and you,” He held out his pinky, “I promise.”

“A pinky promise?” I chuckled.

“You know, we O’Callaghan men take our pinky promises very seriously,” He stretched his arm out even more.

“Here is your food,” The lady with a heavy Chinese accent said, placing the plates down, “And your fortune cookies.”

John thanked her and began rustling with the plastic wrapper around the cookie, “You’re supposed to save that for last, John.”

“What are you going to do?” He raised a challenging eyebrow as he opened the wrapper, “Tell my mom?”

I rolled my eyes while he broke the cookie in half

He stuffed the cookie in his mouth before mumbling, “‘See the light at the end of the tunnel before it sees you.’ I guess they see my potential as a future rockstar too.”

“What did you order?” I peeked in the cartons.

“Pan fried dumplings and crab rangoon,”

I dropped my hand, “I don’t know if I can stomach this.”

“Lou, dumplings aren’t that bad and crab rangoons are just stuffed with cream cheese and with the looks of how much cream cheese you put on your bagel, I think you’ll live,” He broke the chopsticks in half and handed them to me, “Here, try some please.”

The dumplings didn’t look so bad, so I tried them first. Of course they weren’t bad, John was always right when it came to food. It turns out that I really loved crab rangoon and at the end of the day we were both fighting over the last one.

“Open your fortune cookie,” He said, stuffing the last crab rangoon into his mouth.

I leaned back in defeat and unwrapped the cookie. Breaking the cookie in half, I pulled out the fortune cookie. I stared in disbelief at the small piece of paper. What were the odds-

“What is it?”

“Mine says ‘See the light at the end of the tunnel before it sees you.’ too,” I handed John my fortune.

His eyes scanned the paper, “Well, this means one of two things, one, you are destined to become a rockstar too or two, this Chinese restaurant is too cheap to get unique fortune cookies.”

“I’m just going to throw out a wild guess and say that it’s the second reason.”

John’s smile came with a special glint in his eye when he looked at me, “You can go start up the car- I’ll clean up.”

He stood up to throw the trays away and left behind my fortune on the table. Even if it was just a cheap piece of paper from a stale cookie, it was my cheap piece of paper from a stale cookie. I shoved the fortune into my back pocket.

“You know, you never pinky promised me,” John said after strapping himself in. He held his pinky finger, “Me and you?”

I curled my pinky around his and repeated, “Me and you.”