Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,10

always seen her out

of the corner of his eyes, blond locks and not much more, talkative,

active at school in the way that he and Julia inherently disapproved

of. Her legs were tan from soccer practices in the sun, and she wore

scuffed beige sneakers that didn’t really go with her dress. “This one’s an adventure-slash-love story,” he said, looking at the faint dimple in

her chin.

“Ooh, that’s my favorite genre! And here I was judging the book

by its cover.”

“What was your guess? Judging by the cover.”

“Erotica,” she said, nodding. “I would have definitely thought

hard-core erotica.”

40 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

He laughed, the image of her reforming itself, starting to fill up

with color.

“So tell me about this adventure-slash-love story.”

Maybe for the first time, he looked at her and saw more than just her

face. The words that he would have used to describe her yesterday—

that she was just another popular pretty girl, a soccer player who maybe ran for student council or worked on the yearbook or something like

that—suddenly seemed to lack any real description. That was true

of many of the people at the party, he realized. It was like he’d been

carrying around a coloring book that hadn’t yet been drawn in. He and

Julia knew the outlines of people, but not much more.

“Well,” he said, and he took a seat on the leather couch behind

them. Gretchen sat down next to him, the space between them hard

to distinguish because of how her dress fell onto his jeans. “It’s about this guy named . . .” He struggled for a name, then grabbed the book

from Gretchen’s hand and flipped to a random page. “A guy named

Californian Tort Law.”

“He sounds cute.”

“So cute.”

“Is there a girl?”

Dave smiled at her, at the way she’d positioned herself to face him,

at the way she was smiling back, at all the unexpected turns his night

had taken, normal as it may have been to everyone else at the Kapoor

house. He wondered only briefly about how Julia’s night had gone

since they’d split, whether she’d discovered some of the same things

he had about their classmates.

DAVE 41

“Well, I wouldn’t want to give it away. You’ll just have to read it

yourself.”

“No! Don’t be like that. I want to hear the whole story tonight.”

“I don’t think there’s much left of tonight,” Dave said, looking back

toward the living room, which had definitely quieted down. The party

was emptying out. Julia must have left to go home by now, and he

should probably do the same soon.

“Come on. Tell me about the girl. What was her name?”

“Her name,” Dave said, looking down at the open book in his lap,

“was Section 16520 of the Family Code.”

“Interesting name.”

“Swedish,” Dave explained.

Gretchen beamed a smile at him and gave him a head nod to

continue. With a quick, appreciative thought for the Nevers list he’d

found stuck in his locker, Dave continued his story.

When Dave walked out of the Kapoor house, it was past three in the

morning. Tiredness was starting to dull the edges around the thrill

of the night, a faint headache building up as payback for all that beer.

He was so ready to go to bed that he almost missed Julia sitting on

the curb in front of the house, her head on her knees, arms curled

around herself. He leaned over and could hear her softly breathing,

asleep.

“Julia,” he said, putting an arm on her shoulder. When she stirred,

eyes darting, confused, he asked her how long she’d been waiting for

him.

42 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

“I don’t know. An hour, maybe. Where the hell did you run off to?”

“Nowhere. I was in the den downstairs.”

“You weren’t answering my calls.” She put her hands on either side

of her and stretched her back out. “What gives?”

“My phone died, sorry.”

“Fuck, Dave, you couldn’t have come to tell me that?”

“I tried.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, not knowing what else

to do with them. He hated making her upset. “I couldn’t find you

anywhere, so I thought you’d left.”

“Without you? Please.” She yawned. “You know you’re an awful

human being for letting your phone run out of battery. Come on,

David Montgomery Burns, it’s the twenty-first century. Stay plugged

in. You made your friend worry.”

“Why didn’t you go home?”

“Again. Without you?” She let out a groan and then reached her

hand out. “Help me up, you forsaken supposed friend.”

“I’m sorry,” Dave said, pulling her up gently. “I feel like shit.”

“Good. Wallow in that for a second.”

They started walking down the middle of the road, the streetlights

casting hazy shadows. Earlier in the night, it had felt so bizarre to be walking toward a party. Now the fog was starting to roll in and the

trees