Chapter 26
Moments of Stars
Jem
Our trip dredged on in mud with cleats in a series of impromptu booked tours to sightseeing places, ventures to the local marketplaces (chaperoned and highly supervised; after that 'getting lost for a night' gimmick we pulled, there was no way Lula would let us out of her sight- even if it was just a detour to the toilet, thus resulting in some very awkward and humiliation-inducing situations for some of us) and eating the local delicacies at questionable street side vendors.
It was Wednesday night when Lula finally entrusted Ellis and me to be on our own once again, by making us swear and promise and performed a whole bloody sacrifice ritual fifty times that we have our cell phones so we could call her and inform her of our whereabouts. Though I deemed it to be slightly dramatic, it was nice somebody was so concern about us. We all went to this place call Wangfujing, which was according to Ellis was a night market and a renowned row of Chinese snack street food.
My stomach growled, striking me with vengeance for gurgling down the far too little of the Peking duck lunch we had. Ellis adorned a fashionable navy blue sundress with a pattern of sunflowers, some flats and her leather knapsack, her ancient bronze wristwatch reflecting the redness of the sunlight spilling messily over the grey clouds as it descended into the other side of the globe. Our minds were refreshed with the search for food and the delight of enjoying it, no longer gripped by the effects of jet-lag and officially immersed in China's time zone. People dotted throughout the whole concrete jungle in the flow's chase. Even though the square was densely populated with people of all kinds, dressed differently, spoke different languages, here for a variety of reasons, they all moved in slightly the same direction and slightly the same way. Their mannerisms vocalised each other. It was both unnerving and fascinating to spot how alike and unique each individual was.
"Over here," ushered Ellis, bestowing me a rare excited smile. She looked tired, worn out, but a good type of tired, a good type of worn out. She led me over to the fervent knot of amazed and gobsmacked Australian tourists surrounding a vendor, selling fried grasshoppers on a stick. They looked around the age of nineteen, a group of friends on a backpacking trip before college semester started. "Holy shit," a blonde one said after the vendor had handed him a stick for an exchange of some money. The blonde boy waved the flailing crispy grasshopper in front of his face as if expecting it to come to life. He took a hesitant bite out of its head, crunching its eyes, brains and overall antenna head inside its mouth.
"That looks awesome!" I grasped her wrist, over her watch, a layer away from her skin, just one old leathery layer, "I want to try!"
Ellis grimaced, wrinkling her nose as the boy chomps through the crispy shells of the grasshopper and avoided gagging. "Ew. No. Gross."
"You're Chinese."
"So?" her tone vaguely replied racist much?
"Please." I pouted, putting all efforts into my puppy-dog face.
She sighed, turning from the revolting sight of me begging. "Your money to waste."
I cheerfully dragged Ellis to join the queue behind the Australians, a cheery bunch who were indeed on a before-college trip together. They made fantastic conversations too.
"You lot still in high school?" The blonde one, who finished his grasshopper, asked, not unkindly.
"Yeah," answered Ellis.
"Are you two a couple?"
"No," we both replied instantly and the boy scrunched up his forehead, blue eyes flicking both of eyes like he was perceiving a tennis match.
"Alrighty then," he chuckled, toasting his empty grasshopper stick to us. We both smiled at the same time. "Best be off, mate. I'm Toby, by the way. And this is my sister- Leighton," he gestured to a girl with sandy hair, the same as his, "And a friend of ours- Kristen-" A redhead with green eyes smiled at them, "And this dick over here," he smacked a guy in the arm, a burly guy with curly hair, who appeared terrifying but for the five minutes, we've been standing in line all he could talk about was his cute girlfriend in Brisbane, "is Derrick. Nice to meet you," he shook my hand, his grip was rough but warm and friendly, his callouses rubbing against mine. "and Ellis." He nodded his head at her. She returned a smile.
The four of them stalked off, leaving both of us to move up the front to the sweaty guy operating the vendor. He barked at us in heavily accented English, noting my Caucasian features as an immediate sign of a language change. "Grasshoppa fa two yuan," he bellowed, right in my face, busy as he dealt with exchanging a change of notes with another Taiwanese tourist, "Grasshoppa fa two yuan."
I whipped up a five yuan note and handed it to him. He plucked one of the grasshopper sticks attached to the styrofoam box advertising the display of crispy grasshoppers and gave me back my change. We quickly skedaddled out of the line to the side and Ellis crossed her arms as I eagerly brought the grasshopper up to my nose, inhaling its salty oily scent.
"Moment of truth," I said dramatically and she rolled her eyes. I took a bite into its head, expecting it to be gross, but it was actually not that bad. A little salty, crunchy. Kind of like fries, to be honest. Crispy fries. "It's good." I choked, "Really good." I held it up to her face. "Want some?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Um, ew. No. I want actual food."
"Prissy rich girl."
She elbowed me hard in the stomach, almost making me drop my grasshopper but because of my fast football reflexes, I didn't. "Oi," I said indignantly, "You nearly made me drop my grasshopper!"
"And what a tragedy that would make," she drawled but kissed me on the cheek, a token of affection I totally didn't expect. I recoiled and she raised her eyebrows. "What?" Her tone sounded accusing.
"I just didn't...expect that..."
"I was kissing your cheek to make you feel better," she pointed to my stomach, where she elbowed me. "God knows how you Leightons are so delicate."
"Hey!"
My only response was her twinkling laughter.
-
So according to Ellis, also known as 'Little Miss Priss', crunchy grasshopper weren't 'real' food so we escaped to this cosy outdoorsy corner shop, tucked in the end of Wangfujing Street, where they sold noodles in tiny but 'ohmygodsocute' (Ellis's words, not mine) clay bowls with soy sauce and chopped chilli, cilantro and white pepper. But before we did that, I somehow convinced Ellis to barter for alcohol down the street.
"Come on, it's the only way we'll have fun!"
"No."
"Lula isn't here. Golden opportunity."
"For what?" she demanded sharply as we stood outside the shop, arguing. "Doing stupid things?"
"Exactly!" She still wasn't convinced since her eyebrows furrowed, her delicate lips were clasped together like a complicated opening to a woman's purse. "Come on, Porcey. Live a little. Don't be such a prude."
That struck a nerve. "Fine," she snapped, "But you're paying."
I grinned and wrapped her into a hug, lifting her from the floor as I picked her up easily. "Let me down," she grunted unceremoniously, patting my shoulder to indicate she couldn't breathe in my bear grip.
"Jesus."
"You're the best, Porcey."
"Whatever." I took that holy last word as Godspeed into the alcohol store.
I didn't know how they did it in China but the shopkeeper barely blinked as I carted off two bottles of vodka onto his counter. He didn't even ask for an ID. He just swiped it through the scanner and asked for money. I was assuming they didn't care as long as they got paid.
Goddamn, I loved this country.
So basically, that was how we ended up dining outside the noodle shop, sucking delicious wheat noodle drenched in salty pork soup with tiny meatballs and drinking 'water' out from my trusty flask. The alcohol had done its trick to Ellis, seeing as how she wasn't pissed anymore and she was gradually loosening her up by the cheery grin on her face, easing up her troubles from getting caught by Lula on alcohol. She twirled a noodle with her chopstick and swallowed it effortlessly in one gulp, then graciously dabbed her tissue on her mouth and reapplied her Burt Bees lip gloss, causing it to become slick and shiny. I attempted to look anywhere else but her lips.
"Pass it over," she motioned a come hither sign at my flask.
"Greedy," I retorted at her but relented. She drank heavily, swallowing and wincing as the fiery drink burned her throat. She swirled my flask and went for another dip, despite being the party pooper who was originally against the idea of buying alcohol while underage. "You know for someone who said no, you're shockingly eager."
"Well, I'm taking your advice," she replied coyly, setting down her chopsticks parallel on top of her bowl and lacing her fingers into fists, "I have to live a little, don't I? Life is short."
I snatched the flask from her fingertips but she wasn't mad about it. She didn't even register it. I toasted to her and she sniggered, raising her ceramic tea cup to collide with my flask. "Damn right it is," I thumped my chest, heart swelling with pride. Because she finally got it, finally understood my whole cause, and honestly, I felt like she would be the only one smart enough to get it.
-
Basically, we were hungover for the remainder of Thursday morning so we were awake but we weren't properly functioning until Thursday morning. I made the discovery that Ellis was even less of a party when hungover.
"Ow," she groaned, shuffling into breakfast the next day, glaring at the kind waitress who directed her over to our table. The waitress scattered, her cheongsam tightening against her thighs as she escaped back to the podium to greet other guests. Ellis rubbed her forehead and eyes, moaning as she thumped her head against the table and the cutlery rattled, attracting some weird glances from the nearby tables but most of them returned to their own business. "I hate my head."
"Coffee?"
She lifted her glare onto me as she unceremoniously sat onto the spare chair with a huffy fit, lips pouting like a petulant child. "I hate you."
"Hungover?" I chuckled, pouring coffee into my cup. My hangover was not as acute as it used to be. Or maybe after years of hardcore partying and drunken encounters, my brain had numbed itself to the headaches. Or maybe I was just numb all over the place.
"Go die."
"You're not fun."
"Ugh."
"Coffee is your best friend." I pushed my cup towards her and she accepted it without a thank-you, taking in miniature sips.
"Where's Lula?" she squinted at the breakfast buffet stations, looking for her maid. "And why is it so bright?"
"Lula's at the toilet and I recommend sunglasses. You don't look good."
"No shit." She rubbed her temples and abandoned her coffee as she stood up, "I'm heading back to the room."
"You just got up."
"Shut up."
"Okay."
"I can see you smiling."
I wiped all traces of happiness from my face forcibly but it wasn't easy. I relaxed my jaw and maintained a casual demeanour. "No, I'm not."
She pointed a slender manicured finger at me. Though she was petite, small and half my size, I felt my skin crawled, frightened like the same way I did whenever I was up against the seven-footer captains of other schools on the field. "You're lucky I'm tired," she mumbled and trod miserably back to the lobby, over to the elevators in a half-zombie trance.
-
Thursday ended up being a lazy day. We stayed at the hotel for the most of it, only going out for dinner just down by the street and returning straight back to the hotel because Ellis was growing cranky (not particularly news) and my energy was simply spent from the night before.
"Honestly," chastised Lula after Ellis and I had pleaded to head back to our rooms. "Teenagers and their drinking problems."
"I don't have a drinking problem," grumbled Ellis, tilting her head so the streetlights bathed her pale skin in it's brimstone glow. "I'm Ellis Chan. I'm too classy for that."
I snickered.
She caught it and pierced me with a glare that was even more threatening from the curtain of hair that had fallen out from her short-haired bun. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing," I struggled to compose myself but managed it by relaxing my jaw. "I swear."
"Right." A beat between her sentences to indicate she was diverting subjects. "I'm heading up."
We both went to our different rooms, separating into other paths. Ellis and Lula called it a day and bid me goodnight, I exchanged similar condolences and collapsed into bed without a fight, tired even though I didn't really contribute to anything productive for the whole day. It was one of those days when you were just tired. I was sleepy but at the same time, I wasn't. My eyes wanted to close but my brain was on overdrive, sprinting at a million miles an hour.
I watched some TV, some reruns of an HBO show I didn't know the name of, hoping that my cluelessness of what was going on would let me drift off into sleep. Eventually, I did but it wasn't anybody. I seemed to completely lose the capability to fall asleep and became nocturnal, waking up sporadically, barely falling asleep in little time but hardly satisfying spaces of thirty minutes. I tried to go back to sleep, reminding myself I won't only be cranky and moody the next morning but also extremely pissed off with everything and anything.
But I just couldn't and spent the past few hours thinking about life until I heard a voice hum my name and I was three seconds into thinking I've gone insane when a hand from the shadows pushed me hard on the shoulder.
"AHHHHH!!!!!!"
"IT'S ME!"
"OH MY GOD, ELLIS!"
"YES, YOU DUMBASS!"
Ellis switched on the nightlight on the bedsides table, draping the room in a nightly dull glow. "You scare easy," she remarked, eyes bright when her head was particularly close to the lamp. Her sniggers were punctuated by the shuffles of her elbows rubbing into the sheets. She was not moody anymore, perfectly at ease again with her dark hair out of her bun, fanning her small face, a mist of her cherry perfume clinging onto the satin pairs of pyjamas she was wearing.
"It's-" I cut off to look at the digital clock, "-one o'clock in the morning."
"I couldn't sleep."
"How the fuck did you get in?"
She guiltily held up a hotel key card. It glistened. "I had a spare."
"Jesus Christ," I clutched my chest.
"Yeah," she said drily, snickering, "You almost overreact or something."
"What do you want?" I snapped, not particularly proud she caught me in a moment when I was not my finest.
"I'm bored." She rested her head on a stack of balanced hands, establishing a semblance of eye contact. She was technically on her knees, by the hotel's low bedside, looking up at me in an almost childlike manner if it wasn't for the intelligent glint in her eyes because you could never worry if Ellis was smarter than you because she already was and everything from the angular jaw to the militant bob haircut to the wise eyes, it proved that she was.
"Well?"
"You're the fun person, right?" She furrowed her eyebrows.
"What do you want to do?"
"Don't know."
An idea struck me. It was dangerous if we get caught but priceless if we didn't. Fifty-fifty chances but I liked those type of odds. Add sort of a thrill to your life, it livened it up and dazzled it slightly. Especially since life was short, thanks to time pouring away through our hands like water through a cupped hand, haemorrhaging- if there was a more appropriate metaphor. "I got an idea."
"Hmm?" a smile coiled her lips. "Oh, do share."
"What do you say to a bottle of vodka, you, me and the hotel's closed swimming pool?"
She considered it. "Sounds like you're trying to get me drunk so I would sleep with you," she joked.
"I wouldn't do that to you," I said, blinking innocuously, "We're friends."
She unravelled herself into a sitting position and cocked her head, then shoved me playfully and spoke, like it was a reminder: "Hypothetically."
Correction: painfully.
-
They located the pool on the rooftop- one of those super fancy infinity pool that overlooked Beijing's star-spangled skyline. Beijing was fantastical, a whizzing maze
We abandoned our towels on the empty pool lounges. I wiggled free out of my shirt and adjusted the straps of my Billabong swim shorts. Ellis self-consciously slipped out of her kimono cover-up. "What?" she questioned when she caught me looking.
"Nothing," I promised, averting my eyes as she tightened the straps of her bikini bra, making sure it didn't fall off her A-cup breasts. Not that I was looking at them or anything. Jesus, Jem. She's your friend, I chided myself.
I stood by the edge of the pool, propelling my legs to jump in. I glanced over at Ellis, who was sitting by the lounge pool. "What are you waiting for?"
Ellis speechlessly dawdled over. She wore a bikini but it wasn't like those teeny tiny triangular bikinis held by multicoloured pieces. It was an A-line style with a high-waisted shorts so it covered more skin, showing off her flat stomach and the underwire padded bra supported her small breasts. She went over to the railings. "Come on," I bellowed, waving her over to me, "Jump over."
"No, I'm going in like a lady." She lowered herself onto the railing and shivered when the water consumed her halfway. She stopped for her body temperature to adjust, hands gripping her sides and she turned to me, staring at me with eyes so brown, so empty it stole my breath. They were pools of an abyss, nothing. "It's freezing. You might want to take it slow when you go in."
"Haven't you heard?" I said, "I don't 'take it slow'." And I jumped off the ledge, gaining height as I retracted my legs and tucked them under my arms, tumbling into a pool with a powerful impact, sending waves to ripple and curl over the squared corners. The coldness was so icy it numbed me until I couldn't feel it, shocking my nerves system to the core. I gasped underwater, bubbles fizzed out of my mouth and I swallowed the chlorine water before my head broke out of the surface, spluttering.
I wiped my face with my hands, scrubbing my closed eyes free of water and opened them, fluttering, and saw that Ellis was now fully submerged in the water. I could easily stand in the pool, since it was a 1.5-metre deep pool but Ellis was virtually on her tippy toes, her neck stretched out so her head could be out.
"It's a struggle," She doggy-paddled her legs and hands consecutively to float,"to be this freaking short."
"Dwarf," I smirked.
"Friend or not, if you call me that ever again, I will sue."
"Princess."
"At least, I'm titled."
"I think you mean entitled."
She opened her mouth wide, feigning offence, and splashed me with water. I roused up the other way, freestyling to end of the pool, enjoying the coolness of the water running down my arms as I drove through.
"Cheater!" She accused of me, doggy-paddling over- painstakingly slow, paling in comparison to me.
"Come on, Ellis, don't tell me you don't know how to freestyle. I thought you knew everything."
She huffed, "Academically. I'm not a sporty person. I only know how to float."
I craned and stared. "Seriously?"
She dropped her head automatically, dully, as though she wished it wasn't true but she hoped to ignore it would do any good even though it doesn't grant her much hope. "Yeah," she blushed faintly, "I never had the time to swim. Y'know, studying."
"I swear if we can count the hours of how many time you 'study', we be able to build a lifetime."
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with studying," she defended, "Knowledge is power."
"Stop trying to milk your lack of skills in the pool and get over here. I'm going to teach you how to swim." She shot me a dirty look but tiptoed over. "Get closer," I laughed, "I don't bite unless you're into that shit."
"So you are here to get me drunk and sleep with you," she joked, leaning over towards him and pulled him towards her, squeezing a few inches of his wrist into her fist.
I clouded my face over. Not grimly- thoughtfully. "Maybe," I sent her a lazy half-smile, "But we haven't even crack open the vodka yet."
"Oh God," she exhaled like she was giving up.
"It's Jem but I've been told the resemblance was uncanny." She elbowed me and I chuckled, guiding my palm to trail down her back. I felt her tighten. "Relax."
Her shoulders loosened. She stayed silent as I assumed a calm voice, "Now I'm gonna let your body tilt forward and the stroke I'm teaching you is the breaststroke. It's easier than freestyle."
"Okay," she nodded timidly, super aware of my hands- one on her stomach, touching her bare wet skin, and another on her back.
"But before you tilt forward, your arm movements have to be like this." I stepped away from her and the warmth between from our touching bodies vanished. I imitated the breaststroke action, moving my arms largely outwards, "And you have to kick so that the energy of movement will support your legs."
"Yeah, yeah." She watched me intently, "We get that you got an A in HL Physics."
"Jealous?"
"You wish?"
"So you want to try it out?"
Nervously, she flipped her wet hair out of her eyes. "Why not?"
"Ready?"
She nodded again and set off according to my instructions. She was less smooth and fluid than I was, slightly shaky, but she moved all right. Her legs kicked, sending white spurts of water flying behind her and her arms rounded the water like I taught her to.
"Hey, not bad!" I followed her.
"Really?" Her arms stopped moving- a massive mistake because she slanted a little too forward and plunged into the water.
"Ellis!" I rushed towards her and grasped her small body up into the air. She had her eyes closed, eyelashes glimmering with water droplets clinging to them, choking and gurgling as she spat out water. She shook her head.
"I think water came up to my nose," she said, muffled and nasal. "Ah."
"Blow out," I said. She sneezed.
"Ouch," she winced, tugging on the back of her skull, "That hurt."
"You stopped that's why."
"Jem." Hearing her saying my name finished the destruction inside of me. Something, maybe my trepidation, gave up on the ghost. I was holding her rigid in my arm and she was hovering slightly because the buoyancy caused her to float. She reached out suddenly and appreciatively stroke my cheek, a gesture I wasn't expecting but I didn't recoil. She gripped me tightly for balance and pushed her chin onto my shoulder. She was smooth as satin and her chin smelt like cherry there. A light came into her empty eyes, browns lit by the softly faded blue glow of the pool. "Jem," she said my name again, just breathing it, AN expel of air, and I never knew how that single syllable could transform me into a living human being. The pain wasn't fear escaping the body. This was. She traced her hands up, outlining my eyebrows, and travelled them down to my bottom lip and it resting delicately on it for one miraculous nanosecond- not even a second because the Universe didn't work that way and I tasted salt on his skin- then she dropped her hand and tore herself away from me, embarrassed.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"S'okay." My body was humming, alive with her touch, alive from that nanosecond. It's okay because I knew we would be.
ah hah. they were SO CLOSE. AHHH.
HAHAHHAA. I'm sorry. lol not really. vote, comment and tell me what you think. ;)