Chapter 12 #2
There was a honk, and she looked up. Immediately in front of her car was the humongous family RV, dusty from the long drive but still as impressive as ever.
She gasped in surprise, but quickly recovered.
She was climbing out of her car as Wayward hopped out of the driver’s side, smiling broadly to greet her.
“Ape!” He bounded up to her, full of heavy-handed cheer. “I’m so sorry you got here first. I was probably only a few minutes
behind you but then I got a flat.”
He held open his arms at her and she stared back at him for a moment before letting him hug her. “It’s all right,” she said
a bit cooly. “But I could use a drink.”
Wayward kept on smiling. “The fridge inside is full of cold beers. I got IPAs for you, the kind you like that taste like grapefruit.”
April nodded, softening a little. “That sounds lovely, Weiwei.”
The passenger door of the RV slammed open and Lola hopped out, her beehive of hair bouncing wildly. “What up, April!”
“Baby cousin!” More warmly April hugged Lola, then started to enter the RV.
Immediately, a white pit bull puppy with a dark spot on his forehead appeared at the doorway, ferociously barking at her as
though she were an unwelcome intruder. With a scream, April leaped back.
“Holy shit, it’s the biter!” she exclaimed.
“Bindi!” Wayward scolded, leaping to pick the puppy up as it continued to growl at April. “Don’t you recognize your Auntie
April? Don’t bark at her!”
Shaken, April sidestepped the dog and its owner, exchanging wary eyes with Bindi. “Oh, he recognizes me all right,” she grumbled.
“I thought this was going to be cousins only, so why is the evil runt here?”
Wayward grimaced apologetically as he and Lola followed her inside. “I need to find a dogsitter still. Sorry about that, Ape.
He’s just a bit territorial . . .”
If the outside of the Sun family RV was imposing, the inside was downright imperial.
As they entered, Wayward pressed a button on the side of the door, and a complex mechanism of unseen pistons began to raise the roof of the vehicle, extending its internal space to an impressive fifteen hundred square feet.
The automated soft lighting all turned on at once, setting the beautiful woodwork and marbled surfaces aglow.
Immediately within the front door was a full kitchen and an elegant dining nook that could easily fit four cousins trying to reconnect with each other.
April opened the double-door fridge and saw that it was stocked with all sorts of booze, but not a single item of food. She
rolled her eyes—typical Wayward. She grabbed three beers and joined him and Lola at the table.
Wayward raised a toast. “I can’t remember the last time it was just us three.”
Ignoring his toast, Lola took a sip of beer. “Yeah, I get to sit with the honored cousins for once.”
April chuckled a bit awkwardly. “It’s not like that, baby cousin.”
Lola stared at the two of them, gnawing on her lower lip. “That’s true. You two aren’t what you used to be, are you? Forget
us three, I can’t remember the last time it was just you two.”
Wayward and April gave each other uncomfortable sideways glances.
“Well,” Wayward said hesitantly, “I hope that changes after tonight.”
April looked down at her beer. “What happens tonight?”
Wayward paused as he stroked Bindi on the forehead. “Let’s wait till Sunbern gets here.”
At the mention of her loose cannon’s name, Lola leaped at a chance to change the narrative, or at the very least, knock it
off its course. “Why wait to announce good news? You’d be proud of Weiwei, for what he’s doing!” She grinned that megawatt
grin at them.
Startled, Wayward frowned at her. What was Lola up to?
April was frowning too. “What would I be proud about?”
Lola took a swig of her beer, her first taste of alcohol in years. She wiped a bit of foam from her upper lip.
“Wayward,” she announced, “is going back to rehab.”
April’s mouth dropped open in shock and she quickly turned to Wayward, wondering what the hell was going on.
His face said it all. He was staring at their baby cousin with the telltale face of someone who was being sabotaged.
As his trusty Camaro convertible vroomed through the desert, its brand-spanking-new engine humming like a champ, Sunbern blasted
loud EDM music through his speakers, singing along to the three-word chorus. He was in the best of moods, having woken up
next to the love of his life, Shannon. After some excellent morning-wood sex, he had told her that his mother, Hyacinth, had
agreed to spend some quality time with her.
“Oh,” Shannon had said, rolling her eyes as she popped in her trademark blue contacts. “How generous of her.”
In the distance, Sunbern could see the massive black RV, gleaming in the bright sun like polished obsidian. He shifted his
car into high gear. He was ready to get fucked up like the old days, the way only the Sun cousins could!
As he approached the RV, April’s car was parked alongside it, and Lola’s motorcycle was strapped to the back.
“Saved the best for last,” he chuckled to himself, grabbing his Bluetooth speaker from the passenger seat. His turntables
were in the back, but this would tide them over as he got set up.
Pumping the speaker above his head as it throbbed to a kicky beat, Sunbern charged toward the RV’s front entrance, already
whooping. “Let’s do some drugs, y’all!” he hollered as he pounced inside, throwing in a booty shimmy for good measure.
But the mood inside was like a wake. Sitting at the dining nook, Lola, April, and Wayward were as still as statues. Only Lola smiled when she saw him, a strange look of satisfaction on her face.
His cheer faltering, Sunbern lowered his speaker. “Whoa, weird vibe in here. Are Ape and Shortcake at it already?”
April stood to give him a hug. “No, nothing like that. You look good, Sunbern.”
Sunbern reached over the table to muss up Wayward’s pristinely coiffed hair. “Why the long face, Shortcake? Did something
not go PERFECTLY to plan?” He chortled.
With a bit of a pained smile, Wayward stood up on his toes to give his taller cousin a quick squeeze. “Now that you’re here,
everything’s perfect, Sunbern.” He quickly fixed his hair.
“The old RV is looking good too,” Sunbern said as he strode over to the fridge. He grabbed a whole bottle of pinot grigio
and twisted off its cap, chugging half of it in one massive gulp. He let out a loud, wet burp. “Seriously though,” he said,
“what are we waiting for? I brought my turntables, but let’s drop now so we’re nice and rolly by the time I’m plugged into
the sound system.”
“Weiwei has an announcement,” April offered, but she was inspecting Lola carefully. Why did their baby cousin look so pleased
with herself?
“Oh yeah?” Sunbern sat down at the table. “What is it? Did Auntie Roses finally promote you, Weiwei?” He did a salute. “Are
you President Shortcake now?” He looked down at Bindi, noticing the puppy next to him. “Did someone shrink Houyi? Who’s this
cute lil homie?” He poked Bindi directly on the lips.
“Careful . . .” April breathed.
Bindi licked Sunbern’s fingers. The puppy liked this new person, who had good energy while everyone else was making him anxious.
Lola leaned forward to speak, but Wayward pressed her back down against her seat. “We were just joking about rehab, and how
much we all need it,” he said firmly. He shot Lola a warning glare.
Lola bit her tongue in momentary retreat and took another sip of beer. She knew there was no stopping Wayward. Once again, April took note of their tension.
Wayward stiffly raised his drink once more. “Well, now that we’re all here . . . well, most of us anyway . . .” He cleared
his throat, having practiced this speech for two hours in his bathroom the night before. “It’s been four years since we came
to our secret desert together as cousins. That is three years too long. Starting when we were all teenagers, other than April,
of course—”
“Yes, of course,” April agreed grandly in a near-perfect imitation of Wayward’s voice, as Sunbern snorted out some wine trying
not to laugh. Ever since they were toddlers, the two eldest Sun cousins often slid into mean-girl territory when together.
Wayward sat down but raised his voice to try to drown them out. “Starting when we were all young, we created a tradition of
coming out here to the desert every Lunar New Year’s Eve to party away our bad luck and ring in a new year together as the
inseparable Sun cousins. I mean,” he continued and looked at Lola, April, and Sunbern earnestly, “how many times did we just
barely make it to Auntie Roses’s party? Do you remember kowtowing for red pockets when we were so hungover and Sunbern—”
“I threw up everywhere!” Sunbern crowed, putting his face in his hands.
“Not everywhere. Just over Auntie Roses’s house slippers,” Lola said, laughing despite herself.
“You know she kept those slippers,” April said. Everyone turned to her in surprise.
“Well yeah, she’s waiting for a dramatic moment to present them to Auntie Hyacinth,” Wayward said, cocking an eyebrow. “On
a silver platter.”
Everyone laughed, and even Bindi yipped a little. He had crawled his back onto Wayward’s lap and peed just a tiny bit, but
not enough for Wayward to notice.
“Listen,” Wayward said, holding out his hands, “I take full responsibility about what happened last time we were all here . . .”
He stopped, and glanced over at April, wondering if she was going to say anything about her role in their infamous clash.
But April leaned back, crossed her arms over her chest, and only smiled at him with tight lips.
Wayward cleared his throat again. “Full responsibility, but we can’t allow ourselves to fracture the way we have.”
“And why not?” Lola asked suddenly. “Plenty of cousins aren’t as close as we were. What makes us so special?”
Wayward shot her a fierce look of resentment that startled her. “Lola,” he said, sounding disgusted by her question. “We’re
the grandchildren of Big Boss Sun.”