4. Kai
CHAPTER 4
KAI
K ai had insisted on helping his “beloved fiancée” get the final round of food from the cafeteria kitchens. He’d followed Amy out of the gym with a stack of empty trays in hand, both of them running through the buildings and giggling like they were five years old and had gotten away with the heist of a lifetime.
“That was ridiculous,” Amy said when they’d reached the safety of the kitchen. But her eyes were bright, and the cloud of despair that had been hanging over her when he’d arrived had vanished.
“Yes,” Kai agreed. “It was. But it was very funny.”
“Yes, it was,” she agreed, tucking her hair behind her ears. Then she started getting the next round of delicious-looking finger food out of the fridge and plated up. “Ridiculous and funny and awesome , just to see the looks on their faces.”
It was funny. That’s why he’d done it on the spur of the moment, even though a part of Kai was worried that it was a Freudian slip, a part of his subconscious imagining a reality where he could propose to Amy, that things could be romantic between them. But to have that reality, he’d have to sacrifice this one where she was his best friend. He’d have to risk losing her altogether, and he wasn’t prepared to do that. So, yes, it was just a joke. That’s all it was.
“Do you need help?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, it’s fine,” Amy said, fingers moving at the speed of light. “Can you help me carry these back, though?”
“Sure,” Kai said, leaning on a counter and watching, surprised that she was even letting him help with that much. She was too independent for her own good sometimes.
“Sorry I was late,” Kai said, meaning it. The way she’d looked when he’d walked in, so downtrodden after just a few hours back in this place… he was sorry that he’d ever even entertained the idea of leaving her to do it on her own.
But Amy just shook her head, her grin still wide. “It was perfect timing. And like I said before, it’s not like you were late . You said you weren’t able to come at all. But what happened to that meeting at the last minute? Wasn’t it super important?”
Kai shrugged, knowing Amy would never forgive him if he said he’d blown it off just to come to her rescue. That would’ve been too much like helping her out for her own comfort.
“We wrapped things up quickly and rescheduled,” he said, and only the last part of that sentence was a lie. If she knew he actually bailed on the meeting just for her, she’d lose her mind and then probably accuse him of losing his mind. Which maybe he had, but it was too late to do anything about it now.
“Oh, okay,” she said with a shrug, thinking nothing more of it. “It worked out well, at least. And this is the last of it that needs to go out.”
“Then do we get to keep torturing everyone with how perfect our engagement has been?” he said with a grin, looking forward to it with a slightly maniacal glee. Amy stopped in her tracks to think about it.
“Oh. Before you got here, I was just going to clean up the kitchen and then hide in my van until I could pack up. But yeah, actually, your plan sounds a lot more fun.”
“Uh, yes,” said Kai with a roll of his eyes. “I think that’s the understatement of the century. But leave your little apron thing here. You got invited to this reunion as much as anyone else did.”
Amy, not even questioning him, took off her catering apron, which had gotten splattered and stained over the course of the night, and presented herself in front of him. “How do I look?” she asked.
She looked beautiful as always. A chaotic, messy sort of beautiful with her ear-length hair always sticking up in different directions, her tan skin managing to glow even under the fluorescent lights, and her almond eyes looking up at him with nothing but trust in them. She looked radiant and diabolical all rolled into one Amy-sized package, and Kai thought she was the best thing he’d ever laid eyes on. But he kept all of that to himself.
“You look great,” he said and smoothed a cowlick down on the top of her head, knowing that it would just bounce back eventually anyway. “Now give me some of those trays.”
“Here, rich, famous, future husband,” she said, doing just that. “Let’s go show you off.”
“Oh, the ring? It’s getting resized to fit a little more snug. I should have it back soon.”
Kai felt drunk with power. He also felt very immature. But that was the lesser of all his feelings, and he shoved it aside in favor of the more fun ones. Frankly, he thought that he’d gotten over how he and Amy had been treated in high school, Amy especially. He’d been so sure that he’d left all that resentment and hurt behind in the dust where it belonged. Kai was beyond successful now, more than his wildest dreams could have ever predicted. He’d been catapulted to a different stratosphere than his classmates, away from this second-rate school on a random block in San Diego.
But he had to admit… seeing them stare as he and Amy mingled, arm in arm, seeing them whisper and gape and then pretend that they weren’t doing anything of the sort… it was the most satisfying thing that had ever happened. If canceling the meeting with Jason Torres at the last minute had resulted in this, then so be it. He’d happily watch that bridge burn.
And Amy, it turned out, was feeling much the same way.
Yeah, they might not have been in each other’s pockets as of late, not like they used to be, so their shared knowledge of more current events in their lives was a little fuzzy. But that didn’t matter when they knew everything else about one another. They just filled in the rest with straight-up lies.
“He proposed on the beach. It was so romantic.”
“We were thinking of Italy for the wedding. There are some beautiful little churches there that would be perfect.”
“Oh no, no plans for kids just yet. We want to travel the world more before we settle down to have a family.”
“I mean, I couldn’t do it without Amy. Run a billion-dollar company without her support? It would be unthinkable.”
They carried on like that for most conversations, tag teaming as they said whatever sounded the most posh and ridiculous at the time. They didn’t keep track of what they had said to whom. Who even cared if one person thought Kai had proposed on a beach and another thought he’d done it in Venice? They were both absurd lies, and the fact that people ate it up without even questioning was both ridiculous and delicious.
People’s reactions were fascinating, and the whole escapade started to feel like a social experiment. All of the jocks who had ever called him skinny or weird in the past now were almost too nice to him, ready with a handshake and loud efforts at conversation. As if an in with Kai would be the lottery ticket to fix all their worries. Kai wondered if they’d genuinely forgotten having thrown his backpack in the dumpsters on a weekly basis or if they somehow thought it no longer mattered? It was fascinating how their minds worked, truly, because in what universe would he grant favors to any of them?
The women were a different matter. Mostly they just stared in shock, which faded to a cool and collected envy directed at Amy. Again, it was simply bizarre, as if they had all, even if just for a second, imagined that Kai would have shown up and swept one of them away on a whim to start a new life together.
Overall, it was the most fun he’d had in a very long time, only made better by the fact that Amy’s warm body was tucked into his side, her hand in his. Kai was enjoying every second of this.
“Do you guys want your picture taken?” The photographer that had been hired for the event was suddenly by their sides, footsteps unheard over the beat of the music. Various couples and friend groups had been getting photos under a balloon arch.
“We would love to,” Kai said, and before Amy could agree or disagree, he dragged her along to the balloon arch — which was now looking slightly limp in the dim light — and stood them beneath it.
“ Let me just fix your collar, honey ,” Amy said, loud and obnoxious enough that her voice carried through the gym. She proceeded to smooth the collar of his shirt down with overexaggerated strokes.
That was when Kai nearly lost it completely, having to literally bite his tongue to not end up in hysterics on the floor, breathing through his nose like you’re supposed to when you’re having a panic attack, except this was a potentially lethal laughing fit. The problem was that it set Amy off as well and she had to hide her face in Kai’s shoulder, which made him want to laugh more. But both of them were so determined to keep up their ruse that they simply refused to lose control, not after all the work they’d put in that evening to rub their “perfect” lives in their classmates’ faces.
So when the photographer snapped away with his camera, the smiles and laughing were genuine, rather than the overdramatic, plastic doll smiles they’d been favoring all evening like politicians, mostly because it unsettled people.
Kai’s chest hurt from trying to control himself, and Amy’s eyes were shining from held-back tears. Every time he looked at her, his heart felt like it was going to burst. He blamed it on the atmosphere, on their shenanigans. That was all. That was all it could be. That was the only reason that he couldn’t bear to let go of her hand…
“I have an idea,” he said into her ear, mostly just to be heard over the music and the crowd, but making himself look very mysterious while he did it. Amy, for her part, put her fingertips to her mouth like she was trying to keep a secret.
“What idea?” she asked.
“We should probably make a dramatic exit. We can come back for your stuff later.”
“Why, what car did you drive?”
“My sports car.”
“The one that looks like it belongs to a supervillain?” Amy asked, eyes lighting up with mischievous glee.
“I don’t think it looks like it belongs to a supervillain, but yes, that one.”
“Oh, my God, yes ,” she said, practically jumping up and down. “But we have to make sure everyone knows we’re leaving, like make a big deal of it.”
“So we’re going to do the rounds and say goodbye to everyone as if we’re ever going to see these people again?”
“Precisely.”
“You’d make an excellent sleeper agent, you know? The way your weird little mind works would be perfect for it.”
“Thank you!” Amy said, seeming genuinely moved by the compliment. They proceeded to go around the room, apologizing for having to leave so early. It was such a shame because they’d had such a wonderful time and wished they could have stayed longer. Suddenly, there were a lot of compliments about the catering she’d provided, praise forthcoming now that people thought she was important. Kai wasn’t even surprised anymore by how these people acted, but it gave him the motivation to put on one last burst of energy for their performance.
They made a big show of saying goodbye to everybody, which took a while, before leaving the gymnasium, continuing the overexaggerated farewells to everybody who had drifted outside, right in view of the parking lot. Then they’d walked over hand in hand to Kai’s six-figure sports car, feeling eyes bore into their backs with every step.
Kai couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun. Finally, at the age of thirty, he had one good memory that had taken place in the halls of Chateman High School.