The Other Side of Apart (The Other Side of Together #2)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
R ed and blue lights swirl with morning fog, making a purple haze like the sky is bruised. I grip the handlebars and glance over my shoulder at the cop car speeding up behind us.
No way this is happening. I clench my jaw and focus on the road, hoping the lights and speed are for someone else, but the siren blares a warning. Only three hours out of San Francisco, and it’s already over. Cop’s gonna recognize us. Or maybe the motorcycle. Both. Not to mention we have a tampon box full of diamonds stolen from a criminal burning a hole in Mei’s bag. If the cop goes through our stuff, it’s over.
I swear and veer to the shoulder, slowing to a stop.
Mei’s arms tighten around me from behind. “Why are we getting pulled over?”
I swallow and shake my head to disrupt the hot surge of fear, mentally scrambling for what I’m gonna say to the cop to get us out of this. If I say the wrong thing, I could be in handcuffs, headed back home to answer to Dad. Mei could have a one-way ticket to Taiwan, or worse, back to her parents. Nick. No way am I gonna let that happen.
“You weren’t speeding, though.” Mei’s words scatter as the fear we’ve been running from for the past three hours catches up.
I shake my head again and glance at the cop car behind us, talking to Mei over my shoulder. “Not sure what’s happening. Just…keep your helmet on.” Our helmets are the only shield we have if Dad sent out an alert with pictures of us and the bike.
The cruiser door shuts behind us and gravel crunches, but I stare straight ahead. My eyes move up the road, over sun-bleached asphalt and along double yellow lines that stretch around the bend we would’ve been way past by now. But Dad’s found us, and I’m seconds away from losing Mei all over again. Panic curls my fingers around the handlebars and floods my legs, hardening like lead in my feet.
“Hi there,” the officer says as she approaches on our right. “Mind taking off your helmet for me?”
Curse words explode in my head like fireworks. I fumble with my chin strap, then peel off the helmet, exposed and vulnerable. Mei keeps hers on, and the officer doesn’t say anything, her eyes laser-focused on me. She’s seen my picture—she’s doing mental facial recognition. Scanning all the details. But at least she’s not looking at Mei’s black-and-blue face. That would get her asking questions I can’t and won’t answer.
“Was I speeding?” I ask, my voice ragged and shaky. The wind whips it away and blows my hair across my eyes.
“Everything’s fine,” the officer says, “Just a courtesy stop to let you know your bag’s blocking your license plate.” She waves her hand to Mei’s duffel strapped to the back of the bike.
“Oh. Yeah, sorry.” I twist on the seat, then hesitate, but Mei’s already tugging the bag free. Now the officer will see the temporary license plate. She’ll log it into her database, and Dad will know exactly where we are. I gotta get us out of California.
The officer laughs, and my eyes snap to her, searching for any hint of a way out of this. Steep hills and forest on the right, cliffs and angry ocean on the left.
“I promise I’m not going to arrest you or anything. But I do need your driver’s license and registration.”
Fear splinters any remaining hope of escape as I pry my fingers off the handlebars again and reach for my back pocket in slow motion. “I have no idea where the registration is…” The words are metal shards scraping up my throat, but I hand her my license.
“New bike?”
I nod. “Graduation present.”
“Nice.” She smiles. “I’ll pull up your registration.” She takes my license, then turns to Mei, and my heart slams against my chest. Mei’s helmet shields most of her bruises but not the purple splotches. Bruised cheekbone. Finger marks on her neck.
“Where are you two headed?”
Her question is directed to Mei, who immediately responds. “Checking out the coast before we head east. Graduation trip. Finally!” Her voice is light and calm. Smooth. Like this isn’t her first time looking a cop in the face and pretending everything’s all good.
“Congratulations.” She smiles, glances at my license, Mei’s face, then up the coast to the wall of dark clouds stacking over the ocean and spreading toward us. “You need to be careful. Storm’s coming.”
Of course there is. Probably a hurricane. Dad probably arranged it.
“There are a couple of roadside motels ten or fifteen miles up the highway, and if I were you, I’d pull in. You don’t want to be riding when it hits.” She taps my license against her thigh. “Sit tight. I’ll run this, then get you on your way.”
She heads back to her car and its flashing lights, and I close my eyes. I’d rather ride straight into that storm than be on the side of this highway waiting for whatever’s coming.
“That was close,” Mei whispers over my shoulder, and when all I do is nod to my lap, she leans against my back. “You okay?”
I pause and nod again. “Yeah, just…it’s not over yet. If my dad found the message I left, we’re done.”
Her body stiffens against my back. “What message?”
I look at the waves losing the battle as they slam against jagged rocks and thrash like my insides. Mei and I haven’t exactly had time to discuss everything that happened between me finding her at Guo’s, and what went down with Dad. “He basically put me on house arrest, but I left a note saying I was out.”
“House arrest?”
“He has pictures of us together. From Nick’s phone.” I pause as a semi-truck rumbles past, sending a gust that makes me dig my toes into my shoes to keep us upright.
“What?”
“Yeah…” I look at the ocean again, since it’s just as frantic as I am right now. “He knows about us. And that you’re involved with Nick.” How involved is still the question.
“Marcus, I’m not?—”
I shake my head and sort through responses, but the cruiser door shuts again, and I close my eyes. My heart pounds up my throat as the officer approaches.
“Good to go,” she says, handing me my license.
Relief gusts through me and I let out a shaky breath. Forcing a smile, I shove my license back into my wallet. The cop’s eyes sweep Mei’s face again. Even with her helmet on, it doesn’t hide everything, so I rush a “thank you,” put on my helmet, and start the engine.
The officer pulls a card out of her shirt pocket and holds it out to Mei. “If you need anything, call this number.” Mei takes it and the officer walks back to her car. She thinks I did that to Mei’s face. If only she knew those bruises are why we’re running.
I rev the engine and pull back onto the highway. Mei’s arms tighten around me. I focus on breathing through anger and confusion and all the hurt that’s settling inside me now that we’ve been still for twenty minutes too long. Jaw clenched, I check the rearview mirror every other second.
With each mile marker we pass, my head clears a little like the wind is taking pieces of my freak-out and scattering them behind us. Mei’s arms are wrapped around me, and I relax into her. She’s here. We’re together. I haven’t lost her, and I’ll do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m gonna make this new life perfect for her so she never has a reason to leave.
Thunder rumbles through my thoughts and lightning slashes at the sky as the clouds break open and dump everything they’ve been collecting on us. I shoot forward on the seat and slow way, way down.
Mei huddles against me, yelling above the storm, “We should pull over.”
But we’re not far enough away. I want to keep going until we hit Seattle. Until all the stuff left unsaid between us blows away or dissolves in the rain. Until my thoughts are jostled into place by this bumpy road. But if I don’t stop, I’ll lose control of this bike, and I’m so tired of not being in control.
Rain runs off my helmet and down my face and neck as I search for somewhere to wait out the storm. When my eyes land on a rickety lifeguard hut down the beach, I veer off the highway and race across wet sand. Mei holds on tighter, and we roar to a stop beside the hut.
I push the motorcycle under the deck, pull off my helmet, and hang it on the handlebar. Grabbing our bags with one hand, I take Mei’s hand with the other and we sprint up the ramp. I crank the rusted knob and shove against the door. When it scrapes open, we dart inside and flinch when it slams shut behind us, throwing us into stale, murky darkness. The smell of rotting wood and rusty metal hangs in the air, and I hope nothing’s alive in here.
Crusty towels slump in one corner next to a couple of cracked plastic chairs. On the floor, toppled beer cans rock from the breeze squeezing through the wooden slats. It smells like old pee and seaweed, but I drop our bags onto the floor anyway, like they’re anchors to this reality I don’t want, but am too tired, wet, and windblown to think beyond.
Why did we think any part of this would work?We still have ten hours of driving, but don’t have that long before Dad finds out I’ve left and sends someone after us. Or Nick. He might be in jail, but that doesn’t stop his guys from coming after us.
Mei fumbles with her helmet beside me, her hands trembling, body shivering. I reach out, unbuckle the helmet, and carefully slide it off. Her face is outlined by a sliver of light coming through the broken blinds over the window. “You okay?” I ask, my voice raspy, and she nods, meeting my eyes. My fingers twitch to pull her close, but her whole body is shaking, her teeth chattering, so I snap into motion, yank open the zipper on my bag, rummage through it. A section of the aluminum roof flaps against the rafters as I hold a dry hoodie toward her.
She takes it from me and holds it to her chest. I shake my head.“This is insane. What are we doing here?”
“At least it’s not a hurricane in here.” Her voice lilts at the end as if she’s trying to smooth it out—make everything alright. But it’s not alright. Maybe it never will be.
“Yeah, but you’re freezing. And exhausted. And we’re…here.” I’m stuck in a tangled mass of things I should say and things I shouldn’t, and I can’t sort through it all right now. Perfection is impossible when everything has been blowing up in our faces for the last twelve hours.
She searches my expression. “Marcus, you don’t have to be here. I can?—”
“You look exhausted. And you’re soaked.” My eyes trip across her face, then across the floor, over the cracked counter, the craggy rafters. “We’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so I’ll make a spot for you to rest after you change.” And avoid conversations that take us back to unresolved issues I don’t know how to deal with right now.
I reach for a life raft drooping over a weathered wooden beam above us, and it falls to the sandy floor. Fumbling along the side, I twist a nozzle and the raft hisses to life, filling the space between us.
“I’ll just wait outside.” I turn and reach for the doorknob, but pause when she says my name.
“It’s pouring out there.”
“It’s okay. Can’t get any more soaked than I already am.” Honestly, I’m more afraid of the emotions that caught up to me on our ride slipping out than I am of the rain.
“Marcus?” Mei’s voice is small, and I turn to face her, one foot out the door. “Thank you.”
A dry laugh rushes up my throat. “For bringing you to this hellhole?”
“No. For making me feel safe. This place is gross, yeah, but it’s the safest I’ve felt in weeks.”
I glance at the floor, swallow, then nod before stepping onto the narrow deck, hugging the wall under the overhanging roof. I lean my head back, close my eyes. My brain buzzes, my body vibrates and twitches, knowing it should be on the road, putting more distance between us and San Francisco. Wondering how long it will take Dad to find us and hoping Guo’s brother won’t give up on us if we don’t arrive tonight. Wondering how to help Mei and what we should and shouldn’t talk about, but knowing it all—everything left unresolved when we hit the road—will have to come out, eventually.
When I shiver, I peel off my soaked shirt, fling it over the rickety railing, count to thirty, then sixty, then ninety before stepping back through the door, hoping Mei’s dressed. But when my eyes adjust to the murky room, she’s lying on the raft in my hoodie, her legs pulled inside it. Asleep.
Warm.
Safe.
I watch her, grateful she’s here and feels safe enough to crash. One of us needs to, but it’s not gonna be me with my head this full. Even if I haven’t slept in…two days? Don’t know. I don’t know so many things. Like what’s hiding in Mei’s head after what happened to her. What ifs and whys race through my mind so quickly I can’t keep up. They turn to fear and unexpected anger, and they’re crowding me out of this space.
I slip off my soggy shoes, reach for the knob and hurry out of the hut toward space and fresh air. I sprint down the ramp, burning off energy and emotions—anger about Dad’s lies, guilt over leaving the way I did. Fear from the pictures of Mei and me on Nick’s phone. Leftover anxiety from driving the motorcycle at top speed to outrun our old lives. Confusion about why I found Mei broken at Guo’s and why she left me for that. Self-loathing for being at prom with another girl while Mei was getting beaten. Worse.
I break into a run, rain slashing at my face and blurring my vision until I’m at the water’s edge. All the brewing emotions stretch inside me, blending light with dark, calm with frantic, assault and surrender. I jumped back into Meiland headfirst when I found her at Guo’s, but slammed against new, impenetrable layers. And now? I’m trying to find my footing and balance, but maybe I’m trying too hard. Maybe I reacted too quickly when I found her at Guo’s and my emotions drove us here, not my logic. Maybe I’m desperately holding onto something that was never solid in the first place. Maybe I’m not supposed to be here and was never meant to have Mei.