R TWO

On Saturday, I lounged on the stool in front of the cash register at my family store. My cousins sat in the other chairs, manning their own machines. The sign above the grand building proudly proclaimed ‘Kim’s Groceries’. My grandparents bought the land for the store when I was eight but sent for my aunts and uncles in China before they decided to build the huge grocery store on the northern highway.

 Sitting behind the cash register all day during the weekend was supremely boring. My cousins and I had to stay focused, keep an eye out for thieves, and remember to give people their correct change.

The only reason I didn’t go crazy was because of Cece. Whenever I wasn’t busy with a customer or restocking the shelves, I’d be exchanging text messages with her.

Rider, my older cousin, winked at me from the stall next to mine. He wore a grey T-shirt and comfortable jeans pants. Rider played with the slippers on his feet, slapping it against his heel as he spoke. “That your girlfriend again?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Rider narrowed his eyes. “I know you. You get that stupid grin on your face whenever she rings up your phone. It’s pathetic.”

I put the phone down and clutched my chest. “Man, thanks so much for pointing that out. I seriously—I could not live another day without those words of wisdom.”

Rider laughed. “Somebody’s defensive.”

Sky, Rider’s younger sister, passed by with a discarded blue grocery basket. “Leave the boy alone. He’ll find out soon enough that we don’t marry outside of our community.”

“You two are jumping way ahead of yourselves.” I glanced at Rider. “I’m not in love with her.” I turned to Sky. “And I’m not marrying anyone anytime soon.”

“Ha!” Sky pushed her glasses firmly up her nose. “That’s what I said, but you can’t run away from reality. It’s how things are done.”

I strongly disagreed. The Chinese tradition of arranged marriages had been lost somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.

“Grampa and Grandma don’t believe in that,” I insisted, defending myself even though I didn’t have to.

“Grampa and Grandma have become creolized. They have forgotten our traditions, but Mama has been working on them both. Soon, you will feel the effects of that.”

“Whatever.” I disregarded her warning and focused on my phone. Cece had sent me a message. The photograph depicted a chubby child with her face screwed up in fright. She was frozen with her arms pumping by her sides and her body twisted. The caption read: ME RUNNING AWAY FROM MY RESPONSIBILITIES.

I snickered.

Rider made kissy faces in my direction.

I stuck my tongue at him.

Few people understood my connection with Cece. In Belize, Asians stuck to themselves. Over the past few years, we had been breaking the stereotypes and merging with other cultures. But for the most part we were still generally known to be a quiet, close-knit community.

When I started hanging out with a little black girl from the north side, my parent’s friends wondered why Mom and Dad allowed the association. It was unusual for a Chinese boy to latch on to a Creole girl.

 However, my parents didn’t make a big deal. They were cool with it then and they were cool with it now. As long as Cece didn’t distract me from school or work, they saw nothing wrong with our friendship.

I noticed a customer walking toward me and put my phone away. She was a pretty Latina girl with a wide smile and long dark hair that curled to her waist. She tucked her hair behind her ear and batted her eyelashes at me as I checked her items. Cece would say that she was flirting, but I tended to believe that Cece told me such things because she didn’t want me to feel bad about my lack of appeal.

“Hi,” the girl said when I was half-way through her items.

I pushed a bag of rice in front of the scanner and eyed her. “Hi.”

“I’ve always seen you in here but I never had the chance to talk to you.”

I nodded, uncomfortable with the conversation.

“So, a couple of my friends are meeting up at the Platypus Park later, like around nine o’clock.” She glanced around the store that was starting to fill up now that the seven o’clock Saturday rush hour had begun. I quickly bagged her things to move the conversation along, but she held my wrist to stop me. “If you’re free later, you should drop by. It’s a couple of us from the sixth form.”

“Sure. I’ll think about it.”

I smiled shyly at her and declared her total. She handed me the money and then winked. “Keep the change,” the girl said as she gathered her groceries and strolled away.

I glanced up, hoping that Rider had missed the exchange. Thankfully, my cousin was too busy with his own customers to pay my strange conversation any mind.

The hours flew by as they did when the store got busy. I kept my eyes downward and my head focused on counting the correct change. I was ducking my head and minding my own business a few minutes before closing when someone slapped a biscuit package before me. My smile bloomed unconsciously.

 I’d brought Cece a pack of Oreo cookies the day that we became best friends. Since then, the little black circles of goodness were dubbed ‘ours’.

“What can a girl do to get some service around here?”

My head jerked up in surprise. Cece’s answering grin was wide and brought a sparkle to her brown eyes. She was dressed in a fancy blouse and light blue skinny jeans. Her curly brown hair was out and it fell past her shoulders in beautiful ringlets.

“What are you doing here?”

“I begged Mom and Dad to get me out of the house. I’ve been trapped in there all week,” Cece pouted.

 Just as I had a responsibility to my family—and so to the store—Cece had a job with her family. She was the unofficial summer babysitter to her younger sisters. At least I got paid for my work. Cece was often informed that the roof over her head and the food on the table was her allowance.

“I can’t believe they let you go.”

“Yeah. Once they heard I’d be with you they were chill. They trust you so much. It’s insane.”

I didn’t know about that. I’d received the ‘hurt-my-daughter-I’ll-break-you’ speech from Mr. Walker the minute I became aware that girls were more than playfellows. I never overstepped my bounds and was careful to always keep the door open whenever Cece and I were alone in a bedroom. I’d gained Mr. Walker’s respect and I didn’t play around with that. Still, I was surprised that they’d simply dropped her off here knowing that we had no plans.

 “What did you say we’d be doing tonight?”

“Hanging out and watching movies,” she smiled and waved at Rider who was tallying the last customer’s items. My cousin nodded at her.

“What are we really doing?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“So, Shawn invited me to Platypus Park tonight—”

“Nope. I won’t be a part of this.”

She slapped a dollar and twenty five cents on the silver counter and tugged at the ends of her hair. “Why not?”

“Because I can’t stand Shawn,” I insisted, putting her change in the cash register.

“Come on. I just want to go, peek around and see what it’s like and then come back and hang at your place.”

I snorted. Cece was a convincing liar but I had spent too many years with her to turn a blind eye to her tells.

“I promise. That’s all I want to do.” Sensing that I was not convinced, Cece grabbed my hand. “Please,” she gazed at me with her big brown eyes, “I really want to go.”

I caved as she gave me puppy dog eyes. Cece knew I was powerless against that.

“Fine,” I agreed, since it meant that much to her. “But only for fifteen minutes and then we’re leaving.”

“Deal!” She grinned and shook my hand, the gold bangle on her wrist twinkling as brightly as her eyes. “This is going to be so much fun!”

Yeah, I doubted that