Gloria and Izzy exchange a look. Gloria whips out her phone and, squinting at her screen, types out a text. She eyes me after throwing her phone back into in an abnormally shiny Louis Vuitton tote. “You come to the house after this, okay?”
“Wait. Wh-What?” I stutter.
She waves her hand towards my body. “You need to eat. Look at you. You are so skinny, and you are traumatized. You need somelechonin your life.Lechonmakes everything better.”
Confused, I look at Izzy, who shrugs. “She cooked already. We’re just eating dinner. Come over. No big deal.”
“I-I’m not sure that’s okay. Have you asked Oliver? I’m one of Oliver’s teachers, I don’t think?—”
“Well, I’m Oliver’s boss,” Gloria tells me, matter-of-factly. “Which makes me yours. And this is an explicit directive,” she says to me, her face looking identical to Oliver’s in that moment. “You come to the house, and you eat.”
We wrap everything up in the next fifteen minutes, ushering everyone out of the yard. Oliver finally makes his way over to us, the first time I am seeing him in hours. “Hey,” he says to me, in a tone somewhere between pissed and worried that immediately calms my soul.
“Hi.”
“You doing okay?” he asks, searching my face, looking for something.
“I’m doing okay. Thanks… Thank you for stepping in earlier. And… I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t call you or Lina right away, it just happened so fast, and he came out of literally nowhere, and he was screaming and harassing Dorothy’s parents,” I’m rambling, the stress of earlier making my mouth disconnected from my brain. I feel tears welling behind my eyes.
“Hey… Hey,” he says, stepping closer, arm reaching out for me. I take a step towards him.
A small squeak sounds next to me. We look over and see Gloria and Izzy, watching us with gleeful faces, Izzy eating popcorn from one of the bags handed out at the beginning of the movie.
Oliver drops his hand, sighing. “Hi, guys.”
“Hi,anak,” Gloria says, delighted. “You were so brave earlier,hah. So strong.Para kang Pinoy Clark Kent.”
Izzy screams with laughter and punches her brother, popcorn flying everywhere. “Hell yeah, Filipino Superman.”
Oliver rubs his arm where Izzy hits him. He turns back to me. “It seems like it escalated quickly. I didn’t even notice it was happening until Izzy pointed it out. That man is a sneaky bastard.” He frowns. “But I still would prefer it if you wouldn’t put yourself in danger. Or call people ‘jerks.’ Even if they deserve it. Especially in front of about five hundred other parents. That’s still never okay. Itoldyou, Georgia.”
“He went from zero to ten in seconds. I didn’t have a choice.”
He runs his hands through his hair, frustrated. “Are you okay, though?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I tell him, gesturing to Gloria. “Your mom made it all better with her hugs.”
A vein pops as he clenches his jaw.
Gloria bounces on her toes. “And now Georgia is coming to the house to get even more better. She will heal with food. I didn’t even have to cook anything new.”
Incredulous, Oliver whips his head towards his mother. “Ma… no.”
“That’s okay, Gloria, I told you, I don’t want to intrude—” I attempt.
“You are, actually,” Oliver tells me.
Gloria smacks Oliver. Hard. “Angrudemo talaga,” she growls at him. “How dare you? We’ve already extended the invitation. You can’t just rescind it. She is coming.” She vibrates with a power, seeming to grow taller than everyone standing around her. Or at least, everyone seems to shrink, everyone including Oliver, who in actuality stands over a foot taller than her. He pokes at a loose piece of gravel with his toe.
Izzy claps her hands. “Great! That’s settled, then.” She loops her hand through my arm, Gloria taking my other side, and together, they drag me towards the exit of the schoolyard.
I turn my head to look at Oliver, using my eyes to try to conveyS.O.S.. He doesn’t see though, because he is busy crushing his hands into his eye sockets.
“This is insane,” Oliver is mumbling to himself on our walk over. For some reason, he is carrying a plastic bag filledwith what looks like several empty Tupperware containers. Gloria and Izzy power walk ahead of us, chattering like chipmunks.
I keep my mouth shut.
He turns to me. “Can I ask you a favor, Georgia?”
