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Part Five: Hangman (Michael)

"I'm not a scaredy cat." I laughed, even though I would never climb a tree the way she did.

Under normal conditions, I would probably never climb a tree.

Ava had this way of making me laugh. Sometimes, she said things that weren't even funny and I found myself chuckling.

She grabbed my hand and swung her arms.

"But you didn't answer my question." She sighed dreamily. "Do you think Martin misses me?"

I tightened the grip on her nimble hand. 

Did Jonah Martin miss her? I missed her all the time, missed her jokes, her candid photos, her presence in an empty room.

"I mean you guys aren't dating." I sighed. "Yet."

She let go of my hand and skipped ahead of me. "Yeah, I know, but when you ask someone to prom, that usually means you want to date them."

I shook my head. "I asked Amy Chen, doesn't mean I want to date her."

Ava stopped dead in front of me. We stood facing each other in the empty street. I glanced at my watch, we were only a block away from her house, but the routine was the same, I walked her home by eight o'clock, then walked myself.

"How many dates have you been on with Chen?" She asked.

I thought for a second.

"Come on, really?" She sighed. "You have to think?"

She tapped on my forehead with her finger.

"Zero dates." I finally answered, swatting her hand away.

She raised an eyebrow. "You're always rushing home to see her."

I laughed again, but this time it was cause what Ava said was actually funny.

"Because my mom always tells her mom I'll help her study or practice piano or whatever excuse pops in her head."

Ava stared at me, like really stared at me. I swallowed. I had never said it aloud to anyone, even her.

"You don't like her?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Not really. We both agreed we aren't into each other. We just hang out to make our parents happy. I explained this before, Ava, Asian parents love playing matchmaker, especially with other Asian girls."

Ava said nothing, she just kept staring at me as if I had the cure to world hunger. I looked away and shivered. Why did she suddenly care? She never brought up Amy.

Amy was fun, she was loud and liked dancing. She wanted to go to school for dancing or something in the arts, but her parents wouldn't let her.

Still, she wasn't Ava.

"Earth to Ava?" I said, poking her nose.

She didn't move.

Ava had never shown any interest in my love life, but she sure loved to talk about hers. What Jonah wore, how amazing his Spanish presentation was, it was all about Jonah all the time. That's how I got the hint she didn't like me.

I remember the day he moved to town.

Ava and I were walking to history together.

"Want to go to the mall after school?" She asked.

We were weaving through the crowded hallway. The late bell rang, I quickened my pace, but Ava didn't. She never worried about being late. Sometimes I wondered what it felt like to be born on a lucky carefree star like her.

"Sure. I have to check with my mom, though. I might be tutoring Amy again." I said.

Ava rolled her eyes. "Chen is like one of the smartest people in our grade. She doesn't need tutoring. I need a cinnamon pretzel."

"Do you?" I raised an eyebrow.

She smacked my arm and held open the door.

We made our way to our unassigned seats in the back row. We liked to play tic tac toe and hangman during class. History was just too boring.

But sitting in my seat was a dirty blonde haired devil.

Ava's eyes widened.

I wouldn't have said anything, it's not like we had assigned seats, but she approached him fearlessly.

"Hey." She said, resting her hands on his desk. "You're sitting in my friend's seat."

He looked up at her and that's when I knew I had no shot.

"Nice to meet you too." He grinned, his deep gray-blue eyes poking through his shaggy hair. "I'm Jonah."

Watching the two of them made me sick. It was like a scene from a romance movie, the moment before it all happened. There was nothing I could do, so I took the seat behind him.

"My name's Ava." She said when she found the ability to speak. "You can sit there today. But tomorrow and everyday after, that's Michael's seat."

He turned around to look at me. "You must be Michael."

"Yeah." I swallowed.

He looked back at Ava. "So what's this teacher like?"

Ava groaned. "Oh my god, he's so boring...."

I tuned them out, it hurt too much. It was as if I were watching two magnets pull towards each other. As if Hollywood sent the perfect love interest for the perfect girl to our high school. Their conversations flowed back and forth, always coming up with witty oneliners to one up the other. 

But what gutted me the most was watching her play hangman with him.

I thought it was our game, but I guess I was wrong.