“I saw your mom’s post in the BHS alumni Facebook group about how you had gotten into an accident, and I knew I had to come to visit,” she said. She set down a Tupperware container on my desk. “I made scotcheroos. I bet they don’t have those on the East Coast.”
She was right. My mouth was watering.
“Do you mind if I try one now?”
“Sure thing!” she said. “Just give me one moment. I’m going to ask your mom for a plate and napkin.”
As soon as she left I opened the camera on my phone and tried to do something with my hair. I considered tying it in a ponytail but that just brought more attention to the pimple on my forehead. I kept it down instead. I wished I could conjure my appearance from the clip, like those video games that let youchoose the makeup and clothes for your avatar. I couldn’t believe my mother had posted about my condition, going as far as inviting my high school archnemesis over. Especially in the state that I was in now. Talk about kicking someone while they’re down.Georgiana must be so happy to see me like this, I thought.She’s going to tell everyone about how Elizabeth Zhang came back from New York an absolute mess.
A couple of minutes later, Gigi returned with two plates, each with a scotcheroo.
“I hope you don’t mind if I have one too,” she said, giggling. “My excuse is that I thought it’d be rude to just watch you eat.”
I tried to maintain my emotional distance from Georgiana. I remembered how she watched in silence as her friends from the football team asked me if my family ate dog. I remembered how she played the lead in the all-white school play in which two students dressed up as Chinese railroad workers, putting on black wigs and black winged eyeliner, using exaggerated accents as the butt of each joke. But even as I tried to hold on to these reasons why I should dislike her presence, I hadn’t spoken to anyone in person for so long, with the exception of my mom, and I couldn’t help but feel intrigued by her presence. She shared the gossip about people we went to high school with, the best entertainment I had gotten in weeks. Shauna O’Connor was having twins with a real estate agent ten years older than her. Michelle Nelson’s home had just gotten foreclosed on. Jack Murphy cheated on his high school sweetheart, Liza, with some girl who was underage. “The dad beat him up and reported him to the cops. He’s now out on bail,” she said. “You can still spot him at Hy-Vee from time to time, but he won’t say hi. He’ll just avert his eyes.”
She told me about her trip to Hawaii with her boyfriend,Sam, who she had met during college. She showed me a picture of Sam. “You’re out of his league,” I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t. She asked me if I was dating anyone, and I didn’t want to say “no,” so I said “kind of” and showed her a picture of David.
“Oh, he looks sweet,” she said. Then she looked at me with a sly smile. “You’re out of his league though.”
“Oh my god,” I said, pressing my palm against my forehead. “I was going to say the same thing about your guy, Sam.”
We laughed so hard that my mom came in to check that we were okay.
“You know, we weren’t sure if we’d ever see you again,” she said.
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“You know, all the people from BHS.”
“Oh. I mean, it’s not like you guys would want to see me again.”
“That’s not true! When we saw your mom’s post, everyone wanted to come. But my mom said it’d be better for one person at a time.”
“Wait, really?”
“We didn’t think you’d want to seeus.”
“What? Why?”
She shrugged. “I mean, we know you didn’t have a good time in high school, which is totally fair. And we remember how excited you were to leave the Great Plains.”
I snorted. “I guess.”
“Everyone was so intimidated of you in high school. You were so intense. I mean, in a good way. You were so ambitious. Everyone knew you were going to do great things.”
“Intimidated?”
“Yeah. I remember you raised your hand for like every single question in class. You must’ve thought the rest of us were idiots.” She laughed.
“No, wait, it wasn’t that. I thought you guys didn’t likeme.”
“What? You can’t be serious. We all liked you, but honestly you were kind of scary.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Joshua Sanders. You remember him, right? He told me to say hi.”
“Joshua Sanders used to call me a chink.”
Gigi winced. “Okay, that’s terrible. And you’re right, I do remember that. He was such an asshole, my god. I totally understand why you would never want to hear from him again. But if it’s any consolation, I promise that he’s gotten a lot better since high school. I think we all have. I mean, are you the same person you were when you were sixteen?” She grabbed her bag from the ground. “Anyway, I guess this is as good a time as any to give you the card.”
“Get well soon” was printed on the front. It was made out of heavy card stock, the kind you bought from a gift shop or boutique. Inside there were signatures from over a dozen people, all classmates from high school who I hadn’t spoken to in years.
