A Beginner's Guide to the American West ✓

chapter twenty-one

t w e n t y - o n e

*

I could have stayed by the pool all day, but eventually, the sun conquered us and we had to move. After a couple of hours in our room – dechlorinating in the shower, then napping in the respite of the air con – we checked in with the girls, but they were still locked in the embrace of the outlet malls. So we lunched alone together, catching up on our books and avoiding talk of the future, and ended up back out at the pool for the afternoon.

Now, evening has long since fallen and we're meeting Young-mi, Klara and Kristin for supper before they head back out for a night of drinking and gambling. Arjun's and my night won't be quite as exciting, I imagine. Even if I was twenty-one, I'd probably still get turned away from casinos and bars – I have a baby face, and I bet they'd think I had a fake ID.

Arjun and I arrive first, but not by long – we've only just stepped into the restaurant when the door opens behind me and Young-mi hugs me as though we haven't seen each other for days.

"Hi, March! How was your day?" she asks when she lets go. "You smell like a pool."

"We spent a lot of time at the pool," I say, catching a distinctly chlorinated tang when I push my hair off my face. "It was too hot to do anything else. Then it was too hot even for the pool."

She sighs dramatically, rolling her eyes. "So hot. Too hot outside." Nodding at the twins as they bustle in behind her, she says, "They shop more than me. I found coffee shop. Nice and cold. I think pool was a good idea."

"Well, it's open until midnight, I think," I say, "so it's there if you change your mind about gambling tonight."

"Oh, no. No." She shakes her head and wiggles her fingers. "Tonight we go to rollercoasters, then we drink and go to casino."

I can't think of anything worse. Stomach-churning, head-spinning rollercoasters followed by drinking and frittering away money in an overly-bright windowless room teeming with people. "Sounds good," I say. "You'll have an awesome time!"

Young-mi grins. "So will you."

"I don't even know what I'm doing yet."

She winks. Glances at Arjun. I follow her gaze. He's talking to Kristin and beckoning for Young-mi and me to follow him.

"What?" I ask. "What're you winking for? I don't get it."

"You will."

*

Young-mi refuses to answer my questions all evening so, of course, it's all I can think about. I'm pretty sure she knows I have a huge, blazing crush on Arjun but I don't understand her winking or her vague words. I manage not to zone out too hard as we eat, engaging in conversation with the twins and practically inhaling my food even though I'd thought I wasn't hungry when we arrived.

Somehow, by the time we've all paid – a confusing affair that takes too much maths for me, which makes Arjun laugh when I surrender my card and get him to fill out my receipt – it's ten o'clock. Two hours have passed in a flash, and I should be sleepy but after a day of resting and dozing, I'm wide awake.

And, yet again, we're alone. Arjun and me. Too young to enjoy everything Vegas has to offer.

On the way back to the hotel, we wander through the Neon Museum, and we manage to catch another show at the Bellagio fountains, and I'm sweating when we make it back to our room.

"So, Young-mi may have hooked me up," Arjun says as he heels off his shoes. I hear him wrong at first, my heart squeezing when I imagine that he and Young-mi hooked up, but after a couple of seconds my brain processes the words properly.