“Yeah. If I can. Remind me not to drink soda, though. I’ve got a serious sugar buzz going. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.”
He rubs his eyes and smears his guyliner.
“Oh, don’t forget to take that off.”
Though I was referring to his eye makeup, Jonah takes off Mack’s shirt instead. I hand him his long-sleeve T-shirt from the back seat. Slowly. Admiring the fine-tuned machine in the process.
“Mack usually has baby wipes in her car somewhere. That’ll take your eye makeup off.” I dig around in Mack’s workout bag. Along with her derby-regulation roller skates, there’s a diaper, some toy keys, a baby blanket, and a pacifier in a plastic baggie. I finally find the box of baby wipes. “Here. One for me. One for you.”
I scoot up closer so I can see myself in the rearview mirror. My forearm drapes over both the seat and Jonah’s muscular shoulder, but he doesn’t move. My face is so close to his. If he would only turn his head. A smear of black eyeliner comes off on the baby wipe.
“You have beautiful eyes.” Jonah catches my eye in the rearview mirror. Challenging me.
I take Jonah’s baby wipe from his hand and bring it up to his eyes. He closes them.
“You do too.” I wipe the makeup gently away. His eyes stay closed after I’m done. I am so close to him. My lips are two inches away from his, max. The caffeine in my blood buzzes to my toes and back. I lean forward to close the space. Challenge accepted.
And then the door opens.
“Damn, kids.” Mack slides into the driver’s seat. “I leave you two alone for ten minutes, and you’re already fogging up the windows.”
The cool air extinguishes my flame. The only heat left is what’s coming off my face.
Mack chuckles, pleased with herself. “Where do you live, Choi? I’ll drop you off first.”
“Oh.” Jonah sounds as disappointed as I feel.
“Unless you want to continue living dangerously for a little while longer, of course,” Mack says with a mischievous smile.
“Yeah. I do.” Jonah pops in the Guns N’ Roses cassette tape and cranks it up. “Just nothing stupid. I gotta skate tomorrow morning.”
As we pull out of the parking garage, Mack drums her fingers on the steering wheel. “What could we do? Something to fully initiate Choi into Phoenix life.”
“We could climb ‘A’ Mountain in Tempe,” I say.
“What is up with you two and exercising all the time?” Mack says.
“According to my student Lina Kitagawa, using a black light and collecting scorpions is fun. That’s a very Phoenix thing to do.”
Even in the low light, I can see Jonah’s grimace. “That’s a hard no from me. I’d rather go mountain climbing.”
“Spoiler alert, Mr. Extra. ‘A’ Mountain is really just a butte,” I say. “It’s only a one-mile hike, but it’s steep. Dad used to make me run up it for conditioning.”
“That sounds like fun.” Jonah looks over his shoulder at me. “Maybe we could do that together another time when you have better shoes on?”
Did he just ask me out? The butterflies alight again.
“You two.” Mack shakes her head. She gets on the freeway headed toward Tempe. “Wait. I got it. You don’t mind getting a little dirty, do you, Choi?”
Jonah’s eyebrow quirks up. “Depends.”
* * *
“Shh,” Mack says as she pulls the side of the chain-link fence back enough for a person to slide through.
Jonah shifts the three blocks of ice wrapped in less-than-clean workout towels and T-shirts onto his shoulder. “Isn’t this considered trespassing?”
“No.” Mack uses her phone’s flashlight to look around us. “Okay, yes. But Granny’s friend owns this land. If he happens to bust us, I’ll talk our way out of it, I promise.”
“I don’t know,” I say, and Jonah nods in agreement.
“C’mon, guys! This is the kind of stuff I did in high school, and I was kind of a nerd. So this is like low-level normal teen behavior.”
“You were a nerd?” I say, because I have a hard time seeing Mack as anything but sassy Mack Truck.
“Yes. And I played it safe. Too safe. Let’s be dangerous.” When Jonah starts to complain, Mack cuts him off. “Not the reckless, stupid kind of dangerous. The pushing the envelope, feeling alive kind of dangerous.”
“One time. Then we go,” I say as doubt grips my gut.
“And you, Choi? You wanna be initiated into the Ice Dreams family tonight?”
“You don’t have to. You can stay here and be lookout for us if you want to play it safe.” I look him in the eye. Challenge him.
Jonah is the first one to squeeze through the gate. And the first one to the top of the steep, grassy hill. And the first one to park his butt on a thick, cookie-sheet-size slab of ice. Mr. Extra to the end.
“So, how do we do this?” Jonah says when a wheezing Mack gets to the top of the hill.
“It’s not rocket science, Choi.” Mack plops down on the slab of ice next to Jonah. “It’s physics. The friction coefficient of ice is—”
“Less talking. More doing!” A squeal rips out of my throat as I tip my body back and take off down the hill.
I hear Jonah’s panicked “Ahhhhhh!” as he slides down behind me. Wind rushes through my deflated hair, and my heart soars. My butt cheeks might have frostbite after this, but it’s totally worth it. That is, until I hit an unseen gravelly patch and the piece of ice stops but I don’t. I slip off the top and tumble down the rest of the hill. Jonah obviously hits the same patch, because a moment later we both find ourselves face-planting into the grassy patch at the bottom. Mack cackles from her perch at the top of the hill. Jonah groans and blows a lock of hair out of his face. I spit out a clump of dried grass. We look at each other. Even in the low light, I can see Jonah’s pained expression melt into a smirk. A laugh bubbles out of my chest despite the pain coming from my elbows and knees where—based on the current stinging sensation—I am now missing several layers of skin. Jonah’s chuckle turns into a full belly laugh as we pull ourselves to our feet. I yank my pleather skirt back down and turn it to face the right direction. At least the new holes in the knees of my leggings will still be on trend for the next derby bout, after I get all the grass out of places where nobody should ever have grass.
“Outta tha wayyyyy!” Mack says as she barrels down the hill toward us.
“Watch out for the … Oh, ow,” Jonah says as Mack hits the gravelly part.
Mack’s stop is just as graceless as ours. If I laugh any harder, I’m going to pee myself.
“That was epic,” Jonah says when he finally catches his breath.
“Welcome to Phoenix, Jonah.” I put out my fist for him to bump. We flick out our #1 signs. “You are now officially initiated into the Ice Dreams family.”
“You two are so adorkable,” Mack says.
“Let’s do it again.” Jonah surveys the rip across the right knee of his jeans. “Only let’s find a different path first.”
* * *