When You Think About Love - Part One

3: From Tokyo to Texas

  On Tuesday, Victor got up the nerve to text Mia and ask her if she was serious about making sushi together sometime. He suggested getting together on Friday and sent the message before he could second guess himself and rewrite it for the fifth time. Her reply came back quickly to say that she'd love to, and Victor could come over to her house on Friday since she already had some of the stuff for making it.

The week passed by quickly, with the homework starting to pile on now that they were into the second week of the semester, and his job at Brasstown and basketball practice kept him busy. There still hadn't been a reply from Simon Spier on his Instagram, but his busy schedule kept him from obsessing over it too much. His negative tone had probably just annoyed Simon and he resigned himself to never getting a response. His friends continued to tease him about his upcoming date with Mia, and Victor was pretty sure it wasn't just his imagination that people at school seemed to notice him a bit more. He kept getting nods and greetings from classmates that usually just ignored him, and although he had thought he didn't really care much about popularity, he couldn't deny that it was kinda nice to be noticed.

Felix insisted on coming over to his house on Thursday night for a cooking lesson. Technically, it was a lesson for both of them, since neither of them had ever made sushi before or had a clue what they were doing, but they found some instructional videos on Youtube that were helpful and Isabel even joined them for a bit.

"No, Victor, use the other knife. The one with the white handle, it's sharper than that other one. It should make it easier to cut the fish." Isabel watched as he carefully sliced into the salmon filet, nodding in satisfaction when he did it correctly. She patted his cheek and grinned. "I can't believe my little boy is finally going out on a date!"

"Mami, stop it," Victor protested, pushing her away gently. "Why do you have to be so embarrassing?"

"Pretty sure that's in my job description as a parent."

"I don't get why everyone thinks Victor has never gone on a date before," Felix said, and Victor wanted to kick him. "It's like everybody just forgot about that time last year with April."

"What?" Isabel exclaimed, way too loudly. She smacked Victor on the arm. "Victor! You never told us about that!"

"Because it wasn't a big deal, Mom," Victor said, glaring darkly at his friend. Felix stared back guilelessly. "We only went out one time and it was super awkward and then we never talked again. End of story."

Isabel was not so easily placated. "Your first real date is a big deal, cariño. I can't believe you didn't even tell me. I thought we could talk about anything."

She had no idea just how wrong she was about that. Most days Victor felt like everything about the face he showed the world was a lie, like behind it all was just a tangled web of shameful secrets. But there was no way he could ever reveal that to anyone, especially not his family, so Victor just nodded dumbly, unable to meet his mother's eyes.

"Lo siento, Mami."

The apology seemed to do the trick, because Isabel stopped staring at him and went back to spreading out an even layer of rice across a sheet of dried seaweed. "Well, I'm just glad I get to be in the loop this time. So tell me more about this Mia girl. What does she like to do? Is she cute? Ooh, do you have any pictures?"

She sounded so proud and excited. Victor didn't know if he could do this. What if he screwed it all up and everyone realized there was something wrong with him?

Felix pulled out his phone, and found some photos of Mia from Facebook. "She is definitely cute, Mrs. Salazar."

Armando walked into the kitchen just as Isabel was grabbing Felix's phone out of his hand and taking a closer look at Mia's picture. He grinned and leaned over Isabel's shoulder to take a peek. "Oh, so this is the girl Victor's going out with tomorrow. Way to go, mijo! She's very pretty."