Chapter 21
Aya
When Aya came downstairs and looked at her phone, she found a missed call, but it wasn’t from Mrs. Irving. It was from her thesis advisor, which was even scarier. Professor Jin only called when she had something serious to talk out.
“Good morning,” Emi called out weakly. Then she looked at Twyla. “Does Aya know yet?”
“I know Mrs. Irving called,” said Aya. “I guess she called Mom to get to me. But my advisor called too.”
“Yeah,” said Twyla. “Well, we probably know why Mrs. Irving called. Here’s what seems to have happened—”
“I have to call the professor back,” interrupted Aya. “When she calls, it’s always about something important.”
Twyla looked at Emi, who was frowning. “Um, you might want to read today’s headlines first.”
“We’re not all obsessed with the news, like you are,” said Aya, looking around for her hair tie.
The problem about her mom’s house was if she put something down, someone else might use it.
And she felt an illogical impulse to look at least slightly dressed up for her mentor.
It wouldn’t do to come across as sloppy in front of Professor Jin.
“Some of us are obsessed with things that happened many, many decades ago. If it’s not on microfiche yet, I don’t need to be bothered. ”
Emi grabbed Aya’s phone. “You do need to be bothered with this, though.”
Aya tried to take her phone back, but Twyla thrust her own phone in front of her.
“Aya. Seriously. You need to read these.”
She snatched Twyla’s phone then sank into her seat at the kitchen table.
A dark, grainy photograph showed her with Noah in the parking lot.
It must have been taken just at the minute she pulled away.
Neither face was perfectly visible, but plenty of her nearly naked back was.
And from the angle the photograph was taken, it looked like a smoldering affair, not two friends pulling away from a platonic embrace.
Twyla smirked. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” she said.
“Why didn’t you tell me you kissed him?” asked Emi.
Aya frowned. “I didn’t kiss him! I just gave him a hug.”
Chuckling was their only response, so she kept defending herself.
“Seriously, that was it. Whoever took this probably has a bunch of others where it’s obvious that we just had the world’s quickest hug.”
She tried not to blush as she said it. In fact, it had not been the world’s quickest hug, not exactly.
“No surprise they chose to publish that one, then,” said Twyla. “Want to call your mentor now?”
Aya would have much preferred to call her friend Sheena. What she needed was Sheena’s frank, swear-ridden take on what was going on. But she also didn’t think she could handle any more teasing about Noah, so she didn’t make the call.
She was pretty sure nobody could have recognized her from that photo, but apparently, her name was already all over the internet.
She was referred to as a “local dancer” more than once, which might have been funny if it didn’t have definite “stripper” connotations.
She hoped that showed that some sneaky non-local photographer snuck into the parking lot to take the picture.
It was a little easier to hate a villain who was from out of town.
Nobody in Love Hollow would ever have made that mistake.
Out on the porch, Aya took a deep breath to steady herself before she called her mentor.
“Nice celebrity boyfriend,” said Professor Jin, answering on the first ring. “Mind telling me why you’re off dancing with Noah Kato rather than sending me your next draft?”
“It wasn’t for fun,” said Aya. “That was work.”
Professor Jin did not suffer fools gladly. “Well, Aya,” she said, “I might remind you that your work is still paid for by this university.”
“If they funded it better, I wouldn’t have had to take the job at the museum,” said Aya.
She hated going against Professor Jin, but she had gotten a lot out of the protests she saw happening at other universities.
Finally, it seemed, there was at least a little acceptance that it wasn’t right for only people with trust funds to be able to live on graduate student salaries.
That activism had not exactly spread to Eastern Rock University quite yet, but it might in the future.
“You will have to choose,” said Professor Jin. “Or perhaps you already have. And, Aya, I do not think your choice is a wise one.”
Aya stuck her lip out. This was much harder than arguing with Emi. “I have time,” she said. “There’s no rule saying I have to finish the dissertation right away.”
“Nor is there a rule saying you have to run that museum,” said her mentor.
“If the job is too much for you, it would be better to find one less demanding while you finish your work. I respect that you need employment, but surely being the sole employee of a very busy nonprofit is not ideal for a scholar.”
“They weren’t able to find anyone,” said Aya. “Not with how the salary is. And the lack of benefits.”
Professor Jin sighed. “I cannot tell you how to live,” she said. “But with the archive you have at your fingertips, it would be a shame to throw away both your research and your training.”
You are telling me how to live, Professor, thought Aya. In fact, you always have.
But she didn’t say that. And she regretted speaking her mind, as her professor’s next words chilled her.
“Be careful about the sort of attention you attract,” she said. “The new leaders of our university are extremely conservative, and they have already talked about changes they would like to see. Do not give them any excuse to think you are not a serious scholar.”
“I didn’t ask to attract attention!” cried Aya. “I was helping my mom with a class, for my job, on a weeknight. Love Hollow is the most boring town on earth. I never thought it would become a national story.”
“Well, you know how quickly narratives can take on a life of their own,” said Professor Jin. “If nothing else, you should have learned at least that from your work.”
Aya remained silent.
“Is there anything in it?” asked the professor.
“What?”
“I mean, this thing with Noah Kato. You’re not going to give up your career for him, are you? Because he seems like someone who would not be able to make the accommodations needed for you to continue your work.”
Aya clutched her phone. “There is nothing in it. There were rumors in high school.”
Her professor was too smart to be put off by that. “Were the rumors true?”
Aya shook her head, though Professor Jin wouldn’t be able to see it over the phone. “We went to prom together. That was it. Classic case of people thinking the two Japanese kids in the school needed to date each other.”
Another silence followed. “Well, good. Have your next draft to me by the end of the holiday.”
Only Professor Jin would expect one of her mentees to finish a dissertation draft over the Fourth of July weekend. The troubling thing was she must have been very serious. And her tone had been sterner than usual. If she dropped Aya, that might be it for the doctoral program.
And all at once, it felt just as awkward and twisted as that fateful night in high school.
Aya ended the call but was unable to head back into the house. Professor Jin’s questioning had taken her straight back to prom night—otherwise known as the most beautiful, torturous night of her life.