by Reni Huang
“Should’ve known you’d be at the trouble-maker table,” came Elliott’s teasing voice as he grinned at Lexi. Julia smiled up at the two guys towering over their table holding the little wicks of fire in their hands.
“We found some birthday candles,” Wynn announced, his face glowing slightly from the dim light. He tossed a handful on to the table which the guys immediately scooped up. “And a box of matches, but don’t waste those.”
“How much longer until the lights turn back on?” Lexi asked as she scooted over to make room for Elliott to join their table. Turning a paper cup upside down, Elliott poked a hole on the bottom of the cup and stuck his melting candle in the makeshift holder.
“Fire department should be here soon.”
As if on cue, the wail of sirens could be heard, just as the guys at their table were starting to burn everything from chop sticks to egg shells. As if to jostle for the best seat at a street parade, the social hall quickly emptied out as everyone hurried outside to the wet parking lot to greet the firemen.
The rest of the night carried on a similar tone of merriment. Even after dinner recommenced, and then later as the youth group was herded into the sanctuary and into their costumes then onto the stage, their parents and friends followed behind them like groupies and stagehands rather than audience members.
“You know these are the same people who are going to be watching us perform on Sunday,” Pamela whispered to Vangy off the side of the stage. But they didn’t seem too disheartened by that fact.
After running through the entire performance twice, the first time with Wynn making last minute corrections, and the second time all the way through with no cues or interruptions, it was already past ten. As everyone changed back into their regular clothes some parents came up to express their gratitude and praise for the new leaders.
“Seems like your skit was a hit,” Wynn said, “And it’s not even the real performance.” He leaned casually against the pew Julia was perched on.
“It was Lexi’s idea.”
“You wrote it.” He turned his head sideways and smiled at her.
“It was a group effort, you and Elliott …”
Wynn laughed and shook his head. “You just can’t take a compliment, can you?” Straightening up he added, “So what do you think about writing something for Easter? Maybe we can try something a little longer.”
“I like it. I’ll start working on it,” she said, and grinned happily at him.
* * *
Sunday evening finally brought with is a sense of calm. The weekend had been a whirlwind. The morning performance was decidedly a success according to the proud group of families and friends gathered at Leavesly Church. Now back on campus, Julia had a few minutes before the airport shuttle was scheduled to arrive to pick them up for their flight back home for Christmas vacation.
Lexi was in the common room watching Elliott unhook his videogame console from the TV to be stored away during winter break. Julia had spent a good portion of her time the day before working on the Easter script Wynn had suggested, and had shown it Lexi after church. She was excited about returning to Leavesly Church after vacation and getting back into working with the youth group.
Julia was turning off her laptop when she heard voices coming down the hallway. She looked up in time to see Wynn appear from the open doorway. He hesitated then said, “Lexi said you were in here. I just came by to drop off your gifts.” He unceremoniously handed her a Best Buys gift card.
“I have something for you, too,” Julia said, going to her closet to pull out the little craft project she’d been working on since the embarrassing incident at his parent’s home. “I didn’t get a chance to wrap it, but here, Merry Christmas.” She held out the bulky objects towards him.
Wynn tilted his head back with laughter as he took the gift. Julia had found a pair of oven mitts at Marukai during her Thanksgiving vacation. With her rudimentary sewing skills, she had sewed together pieces of brown and black cloths together to create two faux burnt toasts on top of the oven mitts.
“This is the second part of your gift,” Julia said, biting back a smile as she handed him another package.
“Let’s me guess, a matching apron?” he teased.
Julia laughed. She had custom ordered an apron to match the mitts, with the words “Dinner is ready when the smoke alarm goes off” scrawled across the front, with a picture of two burnt toast popping out of a toaster oven on it.
Lexi and Elliott entered the room then, and seeing the gift, Lexi said, “Do you like them? Lia’s been working on those things everyday.”
Julia blushed and said, “I’m a little slow at sewing.”
“Thanks. They’re great.”
Before he left, Lexi said, “Oh, did Lia show you the Easter play she’s been working on?”
“It’s not completely done yet, but I have a pretty good idea about what it’s going to be about.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Lexi offered. From below their building a car horn honked twice. “Our airport shuttle is here,” she announced after peeking out the window. She reached over to pull the black memory disc from Julia’s laptop and handed it to Wynn.
“Wait, let me print you out a hard copy,” Julia offered, but the shuttle bus honked impatiently again.
“C’mon, Lia, we got to go,” Lexi insisted from where she stood by the door, suitcase in hand.
Wynn stretched out his hand to give back the small disc. “Did you want it back? I can just look at it later.”
Julia quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, it’s fine. It’s not completely done yet, I’ll probably still edit some stuff, so let me know if there’s anything you want me to change.”
“Ok, cool. Thanks,” with that he shoved the memory card into the pocket of his jeans, gave her a wave with the hand holding the oven mitts, and headed out the door.
Grabbing her laptop and bags, Julia followed her friends out and locked the door.
Chapter Thirteen
The two weeks of Christmas vacation flew by with an unexpected flurry of activities, and Julia soon found herself back on the airplane with Lexi and Elliott. They were headed back to campus early in order to attend A.A.C.F.’s Winter Retreat at Big Bear Lake.
Settling into her airplane seat with her journal and favorite green ink pen, Julia reflected on the past couple of days.
Elliott’s family had hosted their annual Christmas Eve party at their large estate home, which Julia usually attended with her parents. Her parents didn’t ordinarily come out to church-related events, but ever since the first time Elliott’s mom called her parents back in Elementary school, Julia’s parents have consistently accepted the invitation until it became tradition.
Julia was waiting by the door, ready to leave for the party, when her mother came walking down the stairs alone.
“Where’s dad? We’re going to be late.”
“Dad won’t be coming tonight.”
“Why not? He always comes.”
Her mother didn’t answer, and instead walked past her to open the door.
Julia threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. “Whatever.”
The drive to Elliott’s home was less than ten minutes, and they soon pulled up the cobblestone driveway leading up to the front of the large English manor style mansion.
They had barely rung the doorbell, when the twelve foot tall double oak doors flew open and Lexi rushed out to greet them.
“Hi, Mrs. Kyoto,” Lexi had greeted her mother, promptly grabbing Julia’s arm and pulling her back a couple steps away from the entrance.
“My, that’s quite the greeting,” Elliott’s mom commented from behind her retreating figure before ushering Julia’s mom inside.
“What’s going on?” Julia yelped as Lexi practically dragged her into the row of overgrown Ficus trees outside the home.
“Craig’s here,” Lexi informed her, eyes wide with meaning.
Julia felt her breath escape her for a moment. But
she forced herself to calm down. “Oh,” she said, staring blankly ahead.
“Are you okay?”
“Um, yes,” she nodded then looked up at Lexi, saying in a firmer voice, “Yes, I’m fine.”
“They’re in the game room shooting pool, want to join them? Or we can hang out up in Ellie’s room for a bit,” Lexi suggested.
Julia shook her head resolutely. “No, I don’t want to hide out.”
“Ok, ripping the Band-aid off it is, fast and easy,” Lexi smiled reassuringly at her as they headed back inside. Festivities were at a high with crowds of parents from her home church laughing and enjoying the Hors d’oeuvres being passed around by hired waiters. A few of the parents noticed her arrival and called out a greeting as they walked by. Julia caught a glimpse of the beef carving cart being set up in the grand dining room as they passed by and she guessed dinner would begin shortly. The classical music accompanying the formal rooms faded as they cut through the kitchen and headed towards the back of the house. It was all so familiar yet her stomach twisted uncomfortably as they reached the far set of stairs that led down to the game room.
Julia hadn’t seen Craig since her junior year in high school, not since the day Elliott fouled him hard on the basketball court sending Craig crashing to the ground. The shouts led to shoves, followed by a couple hard punches before the rest of the guys got a strong enough hold to pull them apart. Julia hadn’t been there to witness it. But the stories spread far and wide, unfurling across their different groups of friends like a banner being raised, a flag signifying the downfall of The Perfect Couple: Craig cheated on Julia, and her bodyguard knocked him out.
“Julia!”
The greeting was sent out like a warning, and the previously rambunctious room suddenly fell silent except for the booming bass from the stereo. All eyes swiveled to where Julia and Lexi stood framed by the open arch of the doorway. The music that had previously remained in the background suddenly seemed deafening and someone reached over to lower the volume.
“Hey, Julia.”
She blinked, barely seeing, all thoughts refusing to register.
“Hey, Craig,” she heard herself say, as if on autopilot. She hadn’t seen him for year since he left for college in the East Coast. Whenever he came home for vacation, they avoided seeing each other, either one or the other forgoing any group events that would place them in the same room.
“Lexi, Lia, over here,” Elliott called out to them from the far side of the room.
Julia felt Lexi tug her along, as the room came back to life. As they passed by a group of people sitting on the couch, and Julia recognized one of them to be Craig’s cousin. Julia overheard him say, “Awkward,” in a joking voice. Something flew across the room and hit him squarely on the head. “Ow, Elliott. Relax,” he complained, and Julia looked up to see Elliott raise his hand threatening to chuck another magnetic dart his way.
“You girls in for a game?” Elliott asked them as they reached his side.
“Love to,” Lexi grinned, grabbing the darts from his hand and preparing to aim them at Craig’s cousin haplessly cringing on the couch.
Elliott laughed appreciatively but placed his hands on her shoulders and steered her towards the dart board hanging on the wall. A moment later a clamor of feet could be heard racing down the stairs followed by a noisy group of kids appearing at the doorway to announce, “Dinner is ready!”
Julia lingered back as the room slowly emptied out. From past experience, Julia knew how long a wait it was before finally reaching the banquet table so she was in no hurry. But she did have to fight the strong urge to runaway and hide upstairs in Elliott’s bedroom. She looked towards the door struggling with the desire to flee when she noticed Craig also hanging back, chatting with one of Elliott’s older brothers.
“I think he’s waiting for you,” Lexi whispered, and Elliott moved to stand on the other side of her.
At the same moment, Craig glanced over in their direction and raised one hand in a slight wave. “How’s it going?” he mouthed, and Julia felt obligated to move towards him.
Be brave, she chided herself. It’s been years, you’re over it. He can’t hurt you anymore.
She tossed her hair back, threw him a brilliant smile, and said in a voice that didn’t belong to her, “Long time no see.”
His eyes widened approvingly and a wide smile flashed across his face. Once upon a time his was a look that could melt her heart into a puddle. But all she felt now was tension knotting itself in her stomach as she worked at keeping up the pretense of being confident and alluring.
Beguiled by her new attitude Craig stuck by her side for the rest of the night unable to see beyond the surface. That night Julia left the party feeling drained and regretting how she’d hastily agreed to join Craig and his friends on a snowboarding trip.
The moment Julia stepped into her bedroom, her cell phone rang.
“Are you sure you’re up for spending five days up in the mountains with Craig? You won’t be able run away or hide,” Lexi asked without preamble.
“I’ll be fine. You’ll be there. And anyways,” she added in a hushed voice, “It’ll be better than staying at home. My parents are acting really strange.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for one, they don’t speak to each other.”
“That’s normal … for them.”
“No, it’s different. I don’t know how to explain it, but before it was like they were silent because they had nothing better to say to each other. But now it’s at a whole new level of weird. It’s like they’re purposely not speaking to one another.”
“Are you sure you’re not just imaging things?”
“Lexi, I don’t even think my dad lives here anymore.”
“What? No way.”
Julia stared at the fancy wallpaper and sighed. The heavy sense of dread that had first entered her heart when she came home for winter vacation had refused to disappear. She had noticed little odd things like her dad’s shoes not being on the shoe rack next to the garage door. Of course there was the possibility that her mom had donated them all to a charity and was planning on replacing all of them as a Christmas gift, but it seemed unlikely.
Her parents were early risers and workaholics, and she had often woken up to an empty house. But now he was almost never at home, some nights showing up long after dinner was over. And he no longer parked in the garage, but on the street. Julia had a nagging feeling that after she went to bed, he crept back out and drove … to wherever it was he was staying now.
But her bedroom window faced the backyard, and she hadn’t snooped in her parent’s closets, or asked them right out, so she wasn’t sure.
“Well,” Lexi said softly when Julia hadn’t responded. “Are you going to ask your parents about it?”
Julia scoffed. “And have them lie to my face? They’re obviously trying to keep it hidden from me if my dad’s pretending like he’s still living at home.”
“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think. Maybe there’s some sort of explanation to everything,” Lexi insisted, always the optimist.
“We’ll see,” Julia said wearily. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the truth.
* * *
The trip up to the cabin was quite the nightmare. Wanting to avoid spending five hours stuck in Craig’s SUV, she had chosen to ride in the other vehicle carpooling up. Unfortunately this placed her next to Craig’s cousin. He was a bit of a know-it-all, but one with no skills to back up his claims.
“Do you snowboard much?” he had asked her.
Hoping to cut the conversation short, Julia had said, “No.”
He, however, took this as an invitation to be her personal instructor the next day on the slopes. Julia was horrified to find out he was an even worse snowboarder than she was. On more than one occasion, his scientific analysis on the best way to land while coming off the ski lifts ran a little long, and before he was able to finish his sentence, the lift was alread
y wrapping around the rails to head back down … with him still on it.
Another time the cousin insisted on bringing Julia up to the steepest slope, convinced she wouldn’t improve if she didn’t face her fears. But at the last turn, he lost control of his balance, and to recuperate, he ended up crouching down low with his board angled straight down. Luckily he didn’t knock anyone over, but as his snowboard picked up speed, he was unable to stop and continued sliding down past the edge of the snow and all the way out the entrance of the ski resort and into the parking lot.
Needless to say, Julia was forced to fake a cough for the remainder of the trip. She hid out in the cabin with a book and a couple magazines she bought at the lodge gift store. The awkward weekend was further dampened when Craig decided to seek her out.
“What are you reading?” Craig asked her leaning in close to check out the title of the book Julia was curled up on the sofa with. “North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell,” he read then said, “Well, I guess some things never change, huh?”
Julia looked up and saw his teasing grin. “I haven’t changed, Craig,” she insisted, wanting to put a stop to any misleading ideas he might have about her. “I’m still the same, quiet, boring girl you broke up with two years ago.”
Craig laughed in a shocked kind of way. “I never thought you were boring.”
Not bothering to respond, Julia just turned her attention back to her book.
“Hey, no,” Craig said, anger tingeing the edge of his voice. “Don’t ignore me. That’s what I didn’t like about you. You never communicated anything to me. It was always guesswork with you. You lived inside your own little bubble. How was I supposed to have a relationship with someone I barely knew?”
Julia looked up at him, hurt. “Why didn’t you say something to me? I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”
“C’mon, you can’t tell me you thought our relationship was working.”