Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,37

she was sharing the song with him. When the song faded away,

Gretchen reached to turn the volume down. “If you hated it, don’t say

anything.”

“I loved it,” Dave said, wondering if this was it, the moment when

the ball of energy finally made its way up and he would lean to kiss

her. She was smiling at him and their eyes held each other for long

enough that Dave thought there was no way a good-bye could happen

without a kiss. But he had no idea how to accomplish such a thing.

When the time came for a good-bye, he leaned across the shift stick

and gave Gretchen a hug, which was quick, and warm, and stayed

with him as he lay in bed awake all night.

124 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

NUTELLA & CUPCAKES

DAVE UNWRAPPED THE lunch his dad had packed for him: a

chicken torta, the tomatoes, lettuce, and chipotle salsa on the side to keep the bread from getting soggy. He was in the tree house, looking

out at the blacktop. There’d been a test in class and he’d finished

early, so he was the first one out for lunch. It was April. AP tests,

finals, and graduation were within reach.

The bell rang and within a few seconds the doors to the building

broke out into a stream of people. Everyone headed for the cafeteria,

or for their usual lunch spots. A table had been set up near the

blacktop to collect votes for who would go on the prom ballot, and

though Dave had avoided it, a steady flow of people came by, dropping

their folded ballots into a wooden box with the world’s flimsiest lock

on it.

He spotted Julia as soon as she was outside, her pink hair acting like

a beacon, in case her attractiveness wasn’t enough. It’d be convenient

if he could forget his best friend was so pretty, if the attraction just kind of melted away as soon as he’d decided to see her the way she

saw him, as soon as Gretchen started taking up his thoughts. But,

clearly, life wasn’t so convenient. Dave took a bite from his torta and

chewed slowly, struggling with the fact that an attraction to Julia

and a desire to keep her as a friend could coexist. It reminded him

of how grief had made his dad both more quiet and more loving.

The father he remembered before his mom died sometimes seemed

like a whole other person, always laughing and teasing, encouraging

roughhousing between his two sons. Now he was quieter, seemingly

more distant, though his affection showed through more often.

Things overlapping, contradictions; Dave knew these were common,

that they were everywhere and he’d have to get used to them.

Julia joined him in the tree house, taking the stool next to him and

jolting him out of his ruminations. “Hey, goof. Sorry I missed you in

homeroom today. The dads are so hungover from the weekend that

I think it spread to me. I’ll tell you all about it, but first, I’ve got the best story of all time.”

“Ugh, the hyperbole.”

Julia picked a tomato that had fallen onto Dave’s napkin and

popped it into her mouth. “No hyperbole here, I promise. I was in

Marroney’s class . . .”

“He still lets you attend class? You haven’t been served legal papers

of some sort yet?”

“The looks the man gives me, I’m surprised we haven’t made sweet,

sweet love and eloped. But shush, let me tell you this story. It’s actually a metastory, because he’s the one who told it.”

Dave’s phone buzzed in his pocket as Julia started her story, and he

had to fight to ignore it.

126 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

“So, a few years ago, this guy gets assigned as the ambassador to

a small African country. He and his wife are thrilled. They’ve been

going there for years for charity work or to in some other way assuage

their white guilt.”

“Is this in Marroney’s words or are you adding your own

commentary?”

“He didn’t have to say it, Dave. We’re so connected, I caught all the

subtext.” She mockingly rolled her eyes, pulling out pizza in tinfoil

from her Ecuadorean bag. “Anyway, once this ambassador and his

wife arrive in the country, they want to establish a good relationship

with the local tribe. They reach out to the chief, who invites them to a feast at his house, asking only that they bring a dish to share.

“But this couple hasn’t spent enough time in the country to learn

about the local cuisine, and this happens before the time of Google, so

it’s hard for them to just look up what would be an appropriate dish to

bring. At a loss, the wife spots some Nutella at the supermarket and

she decides that she’ll plate it all fancy-like with a