Amidst The Stars

When You Wish Upon A Star

  Something was new again.

  Vicente had thought he'd be free of trying to adapt to something unfamiliar at last, but yesterday proved otherwise. Of course, realising he liked his friend was nowhere near as terrifying as finding out his parents would get divorced or meeting his stepmother, but the discovery had been jarring enough that he'd drifted off in the middle of his evening shift and nearly burned an entire batch of pineapple pastries.

  The inexplicable happiness he got whenever he spent time with Madeline or heard her say something nice finally had a name. Or, at least he thought it did. Acknowledging he liked her didn't mean he had a crush on her, did it?

  For some reason, "crush" sounded like an awfully childish word. It was a word to describe a twelve-year-old wanting to date their classmate because they sat next to each other once; it was a word best-suited for kindergarten kids who played at marriage. It didn't feel like a word that would fit how he felt.

  His younger siblings would call him an idiot if they heard that. Vicente could practically hear Leon scoffing, "whatever word you use, you can't deny the fact that you've got the hots for Madeline."

  Goodness, Leon would have a field day if he heard about all this. He couldn't know, not yet. Ling might handle the news slightly better, Vicente thought, even if she does talk a lot about wanting to be an aunt. And what about Yao?

  "Oi, where the hell have you gone off to?"

  Ling was standing in front of him, her wet hair dripping water onto his shirt. She kicked him lightly, asking, "are you going to take a shower or not? Jia Long and Yao are both done, and all while they were in the bathroom you've been drifting off to Pluto or something. Are you okay?"

  He blinked. "Oh. I'm fine, just a little tired." Vicente got up from their dining table, the ache in his shoulders from a whole day of work making itself known again, and went to the washroom.

  A steaming mug of hot milk tea was waiting on the dining table for him when he emerged, as were his siblings. Leon was munching on a leftover egg tart, and next to him Yao was writing something down in his chequebook. His older brother looked up as he sat down, saying, "just tell me if you need more tea, I know you need plenty of energy for that essay."

  Picking up the mug, Vicente said, "my essay isn't due until next Tuesday. I can wrap it up a little later."

  Leon reached for another egg tart. "Yeah, well, the calendar you hung up in our room says the hard deadline is tomorrow. And the last time I saw you writing it, you were only halfway done."

  "You must be talking about another essay."

  "Yeah, well, your calendar says 'The History of Hotels in East Asia' is due tomorrow, and that's the one I saw was only half-finished."

  He nearly spat out his tea. "Wait, what?"

  "That moment when a high-school dropout has a better memory than a college scholarship student, am I right?" Leon cracked.

  Just barely keeping himself from cursing out loud, Vicente ran into his room to get the laptop that he shared with Yao. Like his brother had said, he still had half of his essay to go. That meant he had a little over twelve hours to write four thousand words.

  "See, this is why we don't leave things 'til the last minute." Leon popped the rest of his second egg tart into his mouth and took another.

  Yao squinted at him. "I swear your stomach is a bottomless pit."

  "Nah, I'm just keeping these tarts from being wasted. It's a very noble cause."

  While his brothers were talking, Vicente opened up his word document and began to write. He only got a few paragraphs in before Madeline suddenly began occupying his thoughts. Madeline talking, Madeline smiling, Madeline writing with that beautiful, intense expression...