Nothing to lose

Chapter 28: Mia

Ella was at the café today and had to admit I missed seeing her face these past few days.

"Hey, beautiful," I said as she walked in.

A grin broke out on her face. "Hi, Mia!" She waved excitedly before walking over to the empty counter.

"How's the knee, kiddo?" I asked. She scraped it up a couple of days ago when she crashed into Grey on her skateboard.

She looked down at her exposed knee, which was still sporting a bandage, and shrugged. "It's not too bad. Healing pretty well for the most part."

I nodded. "That's good. What did your parents say about it?" I noticed she didn't come in here with her skateboard today.

Ella paused and diverted her eyes from mine. "Um, Nothing." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "My mom was kind of worried, and my dad doesn't like to see me get hurt. So I'm sure he was thinking about either placing me in a plastic bubble for the rest of my life or just locking in me the house period altogether." She sighed. "Glad, he came to his senses though because I would have rioted."

I laughed. "You don't strike me as the rebellious type," I told her.

She smiled. "I'm not. Up until the other day, I barely left the house. I still feel out of my element here. I miss South Korea, but the US is growing on me. And I've met some great people here too."

"I'm glad. You already know I haven't left the continent, but I can imagine the culture shock you must feel sometimes." I had visited Montreal with my dad a few years ago, and just being in a city that mainly spoke a different language was my version of culture shock.

"Yeah. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually," Ella said optimistically.

"What about your sister?" I asked randomly.

Something flashed across her eyes before she quickly masked it. "Hmm?"

"Is she transitioning okay?" I asked randomly. I knew Ella didn't talk about her sister much, and it sucked that she doesn't have her to lean on when they're on this new journey together.

Ella swayed her shoulders. "I think so."

"Oh, okay."

It was silent for a few beats, and I took the blame for that.

"So um, I wanted to stop by and ask you something." Ella bit the corner of her bottom lip anxiously.

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the counter. "Sure, what's up?"

"So my birthday is tomorrow..."

I smiled but didn't interrupt her.

"And I know you have the day off. So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at the arcade tomorrow with me?" Her features pinched together as if she was bracing herself to hear me reject her.

"I would love to."

Her eyes widened, and she clapped her hand together. "Really? Like seriously? You don't mind?" She rushed to say. She almost looked like she was in a state of disbelief.

I didn't know why when it was no secret that I loved spending time with her.

I shook my head. "Of course not. I love arcades. But what about your family? Are they going to be there or..."

She cut me off. "My mom is flying in from overseas tomorrow afternoon. My dad is working most of the day, but he took the night off for me. He said it's alright if I want to go out and hang out with friends until we have dinner in the evening. He's cooking all my favorite Korean dishes, and he's also setting up one of those huge blow-up projectors in the backyard so we can watch Transformers." She made her hands into fists and shook them. "I'm so excited!"