“You’re shivering,” he said.
“Only because I stopped to talk to you. Don’t worry, I’m used to the cold. I like it.”
“Can I buy you a hot chocolate at Serendipity?” He had no idea where his boldness was coming from.
Kimmie looked confused. “Steven sent you to take me to get hot chocolate?”
“No. He sent me to ask you if you would cover for your sister with your parents tonight. She’s going to be home late.” He felt immediate relief now that his mission was over and done with. “I’m the one asking if you want to have hot chocolate with me. Or a frozen hot chocolate, since you like the cold.”
Kimmie studied Dustin’s face for a few seconds, then checked her phone pretending to look at the time. When she saw she had no new texts, she looked up and smiled. “Sure, why not? But you should know I’m a feminist so I’m going to have to pay for myself.”
“Cool. I’m a feminist, too, so I’ll let you pay for mine.”
Kimmie surprised herself by laughing out loud again. But no one was more surprised at Dustin’s wit and charm than he was.
VIII
After they dropped off Vronsky’s mother at 834 Fifth Avenue, Steven joined his sister in the backseat of the Uber Select. Anna had been very quiet during the entire journey so far and he knew she was still thinking of the poor dog who had been hit by the train. And while this was true, Anna’s thoughts were also on the handsome boy who was at this moment rescuing another helpless dog. Is he a dog lover, like me?
Steven grabbed his sister’s hand and squeezed it, and as if he knew what she was thinking, he said, “Hey, thanks for coming to this dog’s rescue, too.”
They were crossing Central Park and the snow was still falling, faster and thicker than before. “Perhaps we’ll have a snow day?” she said, pretending she had been thinking of the weather.
“Dude, I’d fucking kill for one,” he responded, checking his phone to see if there was any news yet. “Sorry, I know you don’t like it when I call you ‘dude.’”
Anna heard something in her brother’s voice that made her realize it was time to deal with his massive screw-up. She pushed all thoughts of dead dogs and blue-eyed heroes from her mind and turned toward her brother in the dark of the backseat. This was not the first time she had come to his rescue, and she knew it was far from the last. She had been covering for him since they were little kids. “Okay, I’m ready,” Anna said. “Tell me everything.”
And Steven did. He told her how he met “Brad,” whose real name was Marcella, a seventeen-year-old public-school girl from the South Bronx who had approached him at the Union Square Starbucks a few days before Christmas on a dare from her friends. “She walked right up to me, smacked me in the chest with the back of her hand, and said, ‘Gimme twenty bucks.’ When I asked her why me, she said I looked rich and bored. Then she…” He trailed off.
“I need to know everything Steven, just tell me. I’m not a baby.”
Steven continued, “She told me I looked like I had BDE.” He paused and then finished. “You know, Big Dick Energy.”
“I knew that,” Anna lied, but then let out a small laugh. “Okay, I didn’t. But she really just walked up and said that when she didn’t even know you?” Anna tried to picture herself ever doing such a thing, but it seemed impossible.
“Marcella gives zero fucks. She’ll say anything to anyone.”
Anna’s eyes widened at her brother’s admiring tone, but she didn’t say anything. Steven went on to say he gave Marcella a twenty to buy coffee for her friends but found himself asking her if she wanted to grab dinner. She accepted on the spot, abandoning her friends, and the two of them ended up at Joe’s Pizza where he watched in awe as she ate half an order of garlic knots and two slices of pizza, finished the end of his calzone, and washed it all down with a large pink lemonade. “And she did it without once talking about carbs, calories, the evils of refined sugar, or apologizing for her large appetite. It was baller AF!” Steven explained he was further entranced with Marcella because she seemed so much freer than any girl he had ever met before. She wasn’t polite or perfectly dressed. She laughed at all his jokes and kept telling him he was funny for a rich dickhead.
“Lolly thinks you’re funny, too,” Anna reminded him.
Steven agreed, but he couldn’t help but point out that Lolly often refrained from laughing at his dirtier and meaner jokes, always calling him out when he said something in poor taste. “I keep telling her since I’m half a minority I’m allowed to say off-color things.” Anna swatted her brother even though she had heard him say this type of thing plenty of times as well.
“See, you do it, too. You can’t help but correct me, but here’s the thing. I’m just talkin’ shit. I’m not racist, so what’s the big deal? Comedians do it all the time. I know I said Marcella seemed so free, but maybe it’s me. Maybe what I liked about her was she allowed me to feel free. Don’t you just want to be yourself sometimes, Anna? Flaws and all?”
Though Anna did understand her brother’s feelings, she also didn’t want to encourage his way of thinking at this moment. She knew this was a reaction to how hard their father was on him, all this talk of wanting to be free. Their father kept her on a short leash, too, but with her it seemed overprotective and endearing, almost. With Steven, it was different somehow. Steven never talked about it with her, though she often wished he would. So now she stayed silent and motioned for him to continue, because it was clear he had more on his mind.
“I’m so fucking tired of everyone having to be so PC all the time,” Steven said. “Why does everyone get offended over every little thing these days? I’m eighteen, why can’t I just have a little fun when I want to? I didn’t ask to be born into privilege.”
It was here that Anna spoke up, reminding her brother that having fun had never once been his problem, though she conceded it was certainly difficult to deal with the high expectations placed upon them by their parents. And since Steven was the only son, which in Korean culture meant that the responsibility to step up and take care of the family would fall on his shoulders when he was older, Anna knew he had the tougher road. “I know you’re upset, and I know it sucks for you, how Dad can be so tough.… But we’re getting off track, Steven. Can you finish telling me about the girl?”
Steven told her that after pizza, they had gone to Ace Bar in Alphabet City and played arcade games. Marcella’s cousin was the bartender there and let them drink. At the end of the night, Marcella dragged him into the girls’ restroom, took him into a stall, and …
Anna nodded. “I’m pretty sure I can guess what happened next.”
Her brother was totally hooked after that, and he’d been seeing her in secret now for the last two months or so.
“But do you have feelings for Marcella?” she pressed. “Not sexual ones, I mean, but real ones. You know, like heartfelt feelings.”
“Anna, I barely know the girl. She’s sexy and DTF. I love Lolly. But sometimes … well, you know how boring it can get when you’ve been in a relationship for a while.”