“Did you also hack their backend or whatever?”
“Bruh, no, that’s not…” He rolls his eyes and groans.
“Respect your elder!” I yell, throwing a wad of newspaper at him.
“I’m still on probation, remember? Any of that business and I’ll get in trouble.”
He grabs the rumpled newspaper and shoots for the open trash bag, but misses.
“What about the business of all Nai Nai’s contest wins?” I ask, grabbing the last scraps from the floor.
He shrugs. “That wasn’t hacking. I was just using her information.”
I’m teaching him bad habits.
“Zixin, you know I love you, buddy, and I’m just worried. I don’t want you to—”
“End up like you?” he asks, and it stings a little but…
“Yeah.”
He scrunches his nose. “But you cook.”
I laugh. “All the girls in my high school would disagree. They’re graduating with four-year degrees by now, and I’m slaving away as a janitor at my grandma’s coffee shop in witness protection.”
“That’s pretty cool, though. Plus, those girls got, like, millions of dollars of debt, too,” he says and makes a silly face.
I tie off the trash bag and grab the broom.
“Pfft, but prospects to pay it off. I’ve got a retro café in a tiny town…”
“Still a net positive.”
“Ugh, are you like, made of sunshine today?”
He puffs up his chest. “I’ll beam positivity right into your eyes!”
We laugh and I try to pretend like I’m not disappointing everyone for a while. I turn on some music and we really get to work cleaning the place up. By dinner, the windows are sparkly, the floors are spotless, and all the seating has been cleaned off.
Nai Nai made my favorite—a simple pork congee—on account of the fact that all we have is a rice cooker. After we eat, Ace and I dig the rest of the stuff out of the trailer, and I set an alert on my phone to make sure I drop it off at the local towingplace in the morning. We have a small living room, so all the stuff gets piled there for the time being.
Finally, nine rolls around and I get the bathroom to myself. The shower feelsso goodafter being sweaty all day. The heat wraps around me, courses through me, fills me up.
Tomorrow night, Firecracker…
I growl at the intrusive thought. How dare a warm shower remind me ofhim.I don’t even know his name. Asshole it is, I guess.
I finish my shower, definitely not thinking about Asshole and his weird tail, big forearms, and burning eyes. The mirror reflects a healing black eye and short, messy, dark hair. The pink is already fading from the two stripes up front. Maybe there’ll be some fun hair dye options at the grocery store, which I desperately need to go to.
My mental checklist is getting really long. Fortunately, I’ve already forgotten half of it. If it’s important, it’ll come up again, or an alarm will go off for it.
I throw on a nightshirt and some sleeping shorts, then head out to the kitchen to help Nai Nai clean up. The rubber plant in the corner sends me nasty vibes and I stick my tongue out at it while I boil more water in the electric kettle for tea and dishes.
She tells me about her grand ideas for redecorating the apartment while I scrub the caked-on congee out of the rice cooker. Green paint is soft and calming; it pairs well with the warm wood floor. Red trim for the windows, best for keeping demons out when she scrawls her black lacquer wards on them. I justmight watch her and learn some new things that I can use to show up Mr. Hot and Grumpy.
Shit. I’m supposed to meet him down there tonight to do just that.
“Hey, Nai Nai, what ward would you use against a cockroach demon?” I ask.
