02

I stared at him for a few, tense seconds before he turned around and walked away.

I frowned and turned my eyes away from his retreating back. I wasn’t going to feel bad—he needed to hear it. But as I sat there, staring at a fresh, blank worksheet, I bit my lip in guilt. Seth was often exasperating and he annoyed the hell out of me but I might have been harsher than I had intended to be.

He’s a good guy, I knew that. He treated people well, except for the girls he’d dated and dumped, but I still didn’t approve of his ways. But did that really make him deserving of a verbal assault like the one I launched on him ?

I told myself to forget it and focus on the task at hand. I’ll deal with Seth later.

“French fries with poutine with chopped onions and relish on top and a glass of lemon iced tea,” he announced a few minutes later, reappearing with a tray loaded with food. “I must say, your food preferences are highly unusual. Here, eat up.”

I stared at him, debating whether to be nice and apologize or to metaphorically claw at him again.

He caught my eye and grinned, picking up a big, fat, greasy fry dripping with gravy and held it to my mouth.

My eyes narrowed. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be ? This worksheet’s due in half an hour and you’re presenting great danger to its completion. Translation : Leave me alone.”

He shrugged and wiggled the fry in front of me. “Nah. You need me here, you just don’t know it. Now, eat up before the gravy drips on your worksheet.”

Alarmed, I gobbled up the fry, dabbing some gravy off of the side of my mouth.

“Oh, you’ll do anything for academics, won’t you ?” he teased, laughing.

“Can’t you take a hint, Seth ? Go away !” Flushing in anger now, I slammed a closed fist down on the table, causing the plate of fries to bounce on the table and send some of the dark brown gravy splattering on the front of his spotless, bright red shirt.

My eyes widened in horror as we both stared down at the gravy trickling down the shirt.

“Seth, I’m so sorry !” I sputtered the apology with a cringe, quickly reaching for a wad of paper napkins. I tried dabbing it dry but he gently held my hand away, taking a napkin and lightly wiping the globs of gravy off which still left ugly brown smears on the shirt. “I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry.”

He looked up and smiled good-naturedly at me. “Don’t worry about it. I have a sweater in the car, I think.”

“But the shirt’s ruined !” I protested, gulping when I saw that the red, long-sleeved shirt was Armani based on the embroidered label on the left breast area. “I’ll pay for it.”

He laughed softly and wiped the rest of the gravy that splattered on the table. “Don’t be silly. It’s just a shirt. I think you did that on purpose though, to make me take it off.”

I turned bright red and glared at him. “You’re disgusting, Seth. I have no interest in your anatomy. It’s best that you leave me alone now before you have to start combing poutine out of your hair.”

He studied my serious expression, sighed and got up, picking up the tall cup of fruit smoothie he’d gotten for himself. “Fine, I’ll go. But I’ll see you in class later. Save me a seat, okay ?”

I shrugged noncommittally. “No guarantees. See ya.”

I had already started reviewing my worksheet while he climbed his way out of the picnic table and I was going to ignore him as he left when he suddenly leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on my cheek.

“Seth !” I shrieked but he was already walking away, laughing softly.

My cheeks burned.

I tried to feel angry but with Seth, it never lasts as long as I want it to.

I’m now beginning to realize that taking the Asian Civilizations class was a pretty bad idea. For one, it only seemed to talk about a few, select Asian cultures, none of which touched on my ethnicity.

Like most people in multicultural North America, I’m a blend of a few different races. My mother is half-Filipino, half-Spanish ; my father was half-Brazilian, half-American. They were both immigrants ; my mother moved here to work as a nurse and my father came from the city of Salvador to work here in a food-processing factory. Money was tight but we were happy and didn’t think things were going to get worse. But they did. That’s why I obsess with school—good education is going to be my only winning lottery ticket.

“Gummy worms ?” Seth asked, handing me a small bag of candy.