Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,39

pile

of dirty dishes scattered around the counter. “The dads will kill me if

they come back home to that.”

“What if I’m a hit man and this was all part of my plan when I

befriended you?”

130 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

“Who the hell would hire the world’s nicest thirteen-year-old as

an assassin?”

“A criminal mastermind,” Dave answered. “Plus, how do you know

I was nice before I met you? Maybe it was all an act.”

“Dave, you are the best-hearted person in the world. Even if you

were a murderer, you’d still be introducing yourself to homeless

people and getting them cups of water from the coffee shop. Maybe

you’ve been plotting my doom all these years. But the niceness is not

an act.”

“Well, shit. Now I feel bad about fooling your dads into murdering

you.” Dave turned on the faucet, taking his time with the soiled

mixing bowls, shutting the water off while he scrubbed to avoid

wasting water, to listen to Julia’s movements.

“David Beth Kacinski, are you blushing?”

“What? No. It’s all the steam from the water.”

“I made you blush!” She set down the tray of unbaked cupcakes

and came over to where he stood by the sink, wrapping him up in a

hug, her face pressed against his back. “No hit man blushes when he

gets called nice.”

“You don’t know that. . . .” Dave said, the water from the faucet

momentarily forgotten, little lumps of flour and sugar clinging to the

lips of the bowls. He wondered why it was that his mind kept going

to whichever girl was not with him.

Once they’d packed the cupcakes into a baking tray covered in foil,

they climbed into Julia’s car and headed to Marroney’s house. For

DAVE 131

the first time in his life, he felt like driving. But there was too much to explain in asking Julia if he could drive, since they’d forgotten to

recount their weekends. Or maybe he hadn’t so much forgotten as

chosen not to bring it up. He still didn’t know how to explain to Julia

what was happening between him and Gretchen. It was unknown

territory, dreams meeting reality but with a different set of characters, and so he didn’t even know how to explain it to himself.

Which isn’t to say he didn’t try. “You remember Gretchen,” Dave

said, knowing immediately that the non sequitur would sound weird.

Julia was driving, following her phone’s GPS directions. “I saw her

this weekend. Slash ran into her. Though not literally ran into her.

There were plans involved, I guess I should say.”

“Cool beans. Keep working that popularity angle. I think even

numbers are on your side,” Julia said, clearly too wrapped up in turn-

by-turn instructions to tune into Dave’s rambling.

“Do I want to know how you got his address?” Dave asked, happy

to divert the conversation elsewhere. “I kind of feel like asking just to find out a new euphemism for stalking.”

“Oh, no euphemisms this time,” Julia said, turning down a street

and looking at the house numbers. “Just flat-out stalking.”

Dave had thought she was kidding about dressing in black, but she

was in full stalking regalia, the only parts of her that would be visible in the dark were her bare feet and hands, the pink hair poking out the

side of her hoodie. “All right, so, what’s the plan here?”

“The plan? We walk up to the front door, ring the doorbell, and

hand him the cupcakes.” Julia parked the car in front of a nondescript

132 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

house, the kind that half of San Luis Obispo residents lived in:

single story, white garage door, perfectly triangular roof like the kind children always drew in pictures.

“So what’s with the ninja outfit?”

Julia looked down at her attire, as if noticing it for the first time.

“Oh. Right. I don’t know. I guess I’m just in stalker mode.”

Dave laughed, and out of habit put his hand on her head and shook

lightly, trying to determine if he could do this one gesture of affection he had with her and separate it from the feelings he no longer wanted

to have. “I worry about you,” he said, pulling his hand away and

unbuckling his seat belt. “So, am I coming with?”

Exactly half of him wanted her to say no, so he could avoid getting

sucked up in her craziness, wonderful though it may be. Three text

messages to and from Gretchen. He could stay in the car and text

Gretchen back and forth for a while until Julia came back. That was

exactly what he should do.

“Yeah, I need you for moral support. But if things are going well I

may need you to run to the drugstore to buy condoms.”

“That’s it. I’m throwing up.”

“I’m kidding,” Julia said with a grin. “I’ll want to