(un)Talent, Chapter 1 of 11
Jan. 3rd, 2011 03:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laleiaIn November, I wrote over 50,000 words of a complete novella that is, to be honest, a bit of a self-insert and of very poor quality. Nevertheless, I shed sweat and tears (though thankfully no blood) over it for 30 days, so I'm posting it. I'm going through and editing my NaNo and posting chapters as I finish editing them. This should not take much time, unless I decide to add or expand on subplots (which is a possibility).
Title: (un)Talent
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, No Warnings
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't know who is going to take the time to read this, but I should probably make this clear from the beginning. Although characters may bear resemblances to people in real life (i.e. my main character and myself), all characters are entirely fictional and should not be seen in any way as revealing anybody's true nature. (In other words, just because parts of my main character's experiences are drawn from my own, other parts are not.)
Summary:
Avi Lau is taking a year off before she starts med school -- and she's spending that year in Beijing, teaching English during the day and partying it up at Vic's and Mix at night. She's having the time of her life here -- no tests, no responsibilities, no daily reminders that she's the first unTalented child in three generations. Too bad the very things she's trying to forget are about to reintroduce themselves to her life ...
In retrospect, the first sign of impending doom was when Avi woke up of her own accord early in the morning, alert despite a night spent out partying. She should have picked up on it – she wasn’t a morning person by nature, typically snoozing her alarm at least six times before blearily blinking awake. The only times she woke early of her own volition was when something important was about to happen, or when something was on her mind.
At that time, she’d put it down to serendipity, since she did have a lot to do, and that of course was her first mistake.
So instead of preparing to face the impending doom, she instead spent the morning lounging lazily in bed, surfing the Internet, making herself a positively sinfully tasty waffle, and generally enjoying a slow morning. But then of course she had things she needed to do, and that was when the day went downhill.
Her first task, or duty more like, was to call her parents. She loved her family very much, but extended time spent in conversation with them was so incredibly taxing that she never really looked forward to it as much as she ought. So while the first fifteen minutes catching up with her parents made her slightly homesick as usual, hearing about everything that was going on back home, how Nadia and Susan and Gareth were doing at the family business, grad school, and high school respectively, the next half-hour of pleasantries became extremely tedious. She repeatedly reassured her parents that yes, she was safe and healthy and fine and yes, she was eating her vegetables and yes, she was doing well at work and yes, she was keeping out of the way of the local Talented.
As usual, Dad broadcasted disapproving disappointment, and asked her at least three times how med school applications were going, and four and half times whether she was sure this was what she wanted to do with her life.
(The half-time was when he started waxing on about how Nadia and Susan were upholding the family name, with a pointed subtle reproof that they were doing the Lau Family proud, so why couldn’t she?)
And as usual, Mom was overly worried about everything little thing, wanting to know if she was sure it was safe to walk home from work at night, and whether she’d heard about the recent Family Feuds in the area, and whether she was sure she was keeping mundane, and asked yet again if she was positively sure she was too busy to call home every single day just to reassure her mother she was safe.
Avi just smiled at the webcam, and told her mother that she was too busy to call home regularly when there was such a big time difference, and promised to call more often, and promised to keep safe, and assured her there was no need to worry about what Feuds may or may not be going on in the area.
That was her second mistake, not picking up on the genuine warning her mother was trying to convey about the Family Feuds – instead chalking it up to yet another case of her being a smothering, over-protective mother hen.
It had been a tiring conversation, facing down her father in one breath, then calming down her mother in the next. Defending her choices one moment, then playing down anything remotely upsetting she may have come across (up to and including paper cuts) in the next. By the time the hour-long conversation came to an end, Avi was so emotionally drained all she wanted to do was sleep again.
But for some reason, she couldn’t convince her body to nap.
Deciding she might as well put her time to better use, she stretched her muscles, warmed up with a few jumping jacks, and then launched into her daily workout. She liked to find a different exercise video on Youtube each week, which she’d do for 20 minutes, followed by a 20-minute yoga video. The videos kept on skipping, taking forever to load, but she was patient – Internet in China was never reliable, and logging in through a VPN made the Internet even slower, though it was a necessary evil.
The last 20 minutes she spent going over various forms she’d had drilled into her at Talent School way back when her parents thought she might amount to something. Even though she didn’t have the Talent to give the forms any real meaning, it was still a good workout. By the end of it all, she was so exhausted she only gave a cursory check of her email and blog before heading for the shower.
That, of course, was her third mistake. Failing to notice the buggy Internet was forgivable as that could easily have been a completely inconsequential connection issue. Thinking that the sudden spike in hits to her blog was nothing more than a fluke, chalking it up to happenstance instead of investigating? This was a blog that only a few close personal friends knew about, and to have daily visitors quadruple was certainly suspicious. Choosing to ignore the issue was a mistake, a less forgivable one. Something was up, she just didn’t know it yet.
By the time she was dressed and fit for going out in public, it was time to go to class. The subway was crowded, but not any more so than usual. She put in her earbuds, listening to the latest Wang Lee Hom album, and tuned out the world around her for the next 23 minutes until her stop. That’s why she didn’t pay much heed to the slightly jerky movement of the train, of course, or notice the sinuous dragon in the advertisement on the opposite wall – the dragon whose eyes blinked and followed her movements.
That was her fourth mistake. Not paying enough attention to her surroundings. That was a rookie mistake, so really, she deserved everything that was coming to her.
Class went as well as could be expected considering she’d only crammed for the review quiz in the fifteen minutes before. She spent five minutes after class going over the finer points of some of the Chinese characters they were learning with the teacher, before racing off to work. When she first signed up for Chinese classes, she thought she’d have plenty of time between the end of class and the beginning of work, yet somehow she was always running late and hoofing it.
At work, she spent far too long trying to pound the basics of English grammar (difficult enough for a native English speaker, much less an EFL student whose main exposure to the language revolved around rote memorization) into the brains of teenagers who would really rather be at home, doing everything in her power to get them to pay attention and failing rather abysmally. When class finally ended, she was exhausted, and more than ready to flop down on her very soft bed back at home.
It was at that moment, just as she was about to shut down her stuff and go home, that Aly popped her head in.
Aly was one of the other teachers, a mischievous redhead who loved to have a good time. She had one of those distinctive personalities that drew people to her because she had such interesting stories. Part of that was because she made it a goal in life to live those experiences that became such interesting stories. She never turned down an opportunity to make a memory.
“So … Avi,” she drew out the word, knowing she’d need to do a lot of wheedling. “You have any special plans for tonight?”
“Besides sleeping? No,” Avi said firmly as started packing up her things. She shut down her computer, straightened her papers, erased the board – anything that meant she didn’t have to look Aly in the face. Aly had a very convincing puppy-dog face that overrode rational thought on occasion.
“And … how attached are you to those plans?” Aly asked invitingly.
“How attached am I to sleeping?” Avi asked, turning to face Aly – her fatal mistake. As soon as she turned to look Aly full in the face and took in the hopeful grin, the “Very” that she had been about to say somehow turned into an indecisive “Well …”
Aly smiled encouragingly.
Avi put her bag down, put her hand on her hip, and sighed. “Let me guess. You have a better idea as to how I should spend the night.”
“You can drop your stuff at my place,” Aly said persuasively, “we’ll do a little makeup, a little primping, go out for a couple of drinks, and then spend the rest of the night clubbing. I can get us in for free …”
“I’ve no clothes,” Avi said dryly.
“Wow, you’re naked?” Aly mock-gasped. “How scandalous!”
“You know what I mean,” Avi snorted, shooting her a glare. “All I’ve got is these … school clothes I have on.”
“So you’ll make a sexy schoolteacher,” Aly shrugged. “We’ll just rip your skirt a bit, unbutton that shirt, and you’ll be set.”
“I’m not letting you anywhere near this skirt,” Avi said. “I happen to like it. I think it makes me look very teacher-ly.”
“That’s kind of the point,” Aly said, rolling her eyes, but didn’t push the point. “If you’re going to get touchy about your clothes, I guess I might have a skirt or two in your size. Or at least, not in your size, but they should fit you with minimum alterations.”
Avi hesitated … she should really get back to her apartment and sleep early tonight. She had a long day tomorrow as well.
“Come on,” Aly coaxed. “It’ll be fun. It’s all part of the China experience.”
“Oh really,” Avi said dryly. “Spending all night clubbing—and I know you don’t finish until the subways open again in the morning—wasn’t listed as part of the ‘Teaching English in China’ experience in my brochure.”
“But it was in mine,” Aly said sweetly. “You must have gotten a defective brochure.” She hopped up on the desk, and lay back so that she was looking up at the ceiling where some of Avi’s students had thrown pencils to try to get them to stick. “Avi, why do people come here?”
“To learn English,” Avi deadpanned.
“Let me rephrase the question,” Aly said, mimicking Avi’s dry manner of speaking. “What do people like yourself and myself come to Beijing?”
“For the educational experience of adapting to a new environment, gaining valuable cross-cultural skills, and also to travel the world before they start at graduate school or a more well-paying job,” Avi responded automatically.
“Exactly. To put off the real world for just a little bit longer.”
“There’s also the bit about-”
Aly ignored Avi’s words, and talked right over her. “We’re all college grads looking for our last hurrah, trying to extend the fun parts of the college experience without the tests-and-papers stress. And that’s why we come to a foreign country to teach English. Because it’s a low-stress, high-fun job.”
“Some of us came back to connect with our heritage,” Avi said primly.
“Don’t give me that heritage bullshit,” Aly laughed. “If you really needed to find your roots and learn about your culture, you wouldn’t be so damn good at the language. Trust me, I know a lot of ABCs out there who need to connect with their heritage. You don’t happen to be one of them. What you need is to learn to let loose and have some fun.”
“I let loose and had fun last night, Aly. I don’t know how you do it. You party all night, then work all day – do you ever get any sleep?” By this point, Avi’s shoulders had slumped down, however. She’d given into the inevitable.
“Sleep is for the weak! And the dead,” Aly declared. “Avi – it’s about making the most of our experience. So. With that being said, I’ll meet you downstairs in five.”
And before Avi could object, she’d ducked out of the classroom. Sighing, Avi resigned herself to an evening of loud, boisterous, and presumably alcoholic fun. Somehow, Aly’d convinced her yet again to spend the night clubbing instead of what sane people did – sleep.
And that’s how Avi left to meet Aly without even bothering to check her email.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was her last and most critical mistake. Because right then, in her inbox, sat an email from her mother, subject: URGENT, READ ASAP. And it was quite urgent indeed.
---
Aly’s apartment was cluttered as it always was, but there must somehow be a method to the madness because it took Aly only a matter of minutes to locate an appropriately-short skirt and a pair of strappy black heels.
“So what’s the plan for the night?” Avi asked as Aly curled her hair.
“Same as every night,” Aly said. “Drinks at Sanlitun to loosen you up a bit, and then it’s off to Mix!”
“You really like Vics and Mix,” Avi rolled her eyes. “If it’s not one, it’s the other.” The two clubs were located opposite each other inside the Workers’ Stadium, and Aly sometimes even ditched one for the other if she felt the music was getting too stale.
“Hey, they have the biggest venue, the best music, and,” Aly winked, “I know people who know people, so I can get in free more often than not.”
“And I know you always like free things,” Avi laughed. Not that Avi was any different – just because everything was cheaper here didn’t meant you couldn’t still economize.
“I’m not cheap,” Aly protested. “I just respond positively to bargains. Now turn around and let me take a look at you.”
Avi complied, spinning a little so her skirt flared up. It was shorter than what she usually wore, but in compliance with her sensibilities, Aly had at least chosen something that wasn’t tight. Her collared shirt had been completely unbuttoned and tied in a knot at her stomach, letting her tank-top peek out from underneath. Her dark black hair was still in a bun (Avi had insisted on that – Mix was a popular club, so it was generally packed – letting her hair down meant letting it get soaked in other people’s sweat, something she wasn’t really looking forward to), and her makeup was “smoky and seductive”, whatever that meant.
In short, especially with her square-rimmed glasses, she looked like the epitome of the sexy schoolteacher.
“Hot,” Aly approved. She was dressed in far more colorful clothing – she had on a patterned shirt that swooped down in back to reveal she wasn’t wearing a bra, dark jean shorts with colorful patches of cloth sewn along the seams, and she had a vibrantly-colored scarf woven through her hair. The entire effect was somewhat like a very peppy, very scantily-clad hippie.
“Who else is joining us tonight?” Avi wanted to know, as she tried to fix her smudged eyeliner in the mirror.
“Oh, I thought we’d go with a small group today,” Aly said innocently. “I figured just Eric from work, Lore and her boytoy, of course, and … Jason.”
“Jason’s coming?” Avi asked, barely curbing her shriek down to modulated surprise. She tried to look uninterested, but Aly wasn’t fooled.
“What, he didn’t mention it?” Aly asked. “I asked him last night. He thought it sounded fun.”
“Why would he mention it to me? When would he have had the chance?” Avi said evenly. She carefully did not look at Aly who was no doubt rolling her eyes.
“Well, I thought since you two have been spending an awful lot of time together …” Aly trailed off. She was probably waiting for Avi to turn around in order to give her a lascivious wink. Avi refused to give her the satisfaction.
“What might you be insinuating?” Avi asked instead. “We’ve been meeting up for dinner now and again, if that’s what you mean.” She continued peering in the mirror, even though she’d long since fixed her eyeliner, as an excuse not to have to look at Aly and address her innuendo. “That’s all.”
“Just dinner, then?” Aly said. Avi didn’t have to see her to hear the smirk in her voice. “Sounds … nice.”
“Don’t even go there,” Avi said firmly. “It’s just been dinner.” This time, she turned around to look Aly in the eyes, trying to discourage Aly from asking any more questions.
Of course it didn’t work. “Who pays?” Aly asked innocently, but of course you couldn’t trust that innocent face. Aly hadn’t been innocent a day in her life.
“He pays most of the time, but I have paid a few times.”
“If he pays, it’s a date, darling.” Aly waggled her eyebrows.
“No, Aly, not when you’re in China. If you’re in China, he pays because he’s being Chinese about it. And Jason … Jason is very Chinese.” Avi looked wistful at this. It did make it harder to decipher his intentions.
“Not any more so than you, Miss Perfect-Chinese-Daughter-Act,” Aly teased. “The two of you are both so Chinese for being second-generation. You’d make cute babies. Probably some of the few third-generation babies to achieve fluency in their ‘mother tongue.’”
Avi ignored this. “I can’t deny that I think he’s cute-”
“Avi has a crush!” Aly said in a sing-song voice.
“-but I don’t think the interest is mutual.”
“Are you crazy, girl? You’re having dinner. It’s mutual.” Aly’s look of disbelief would have been comical if Avi weren’t currently more concerned with her relationship angst.
“There are a lot of girls he’s on friendly terms with; he’s always talking on the phone with them, or meeting up with them. I’m no different than the rest.” Avi tried to make it sound like she didn’t care – and she didn’t. This guy was just a crush; what did she care how many friends he had? It wasn’t like she expected anything.
“Avi …” Aly sighed.
“Anyway, I’m not sending off the right signals or something,” Avi said brusquely.
“What, you’re expecting your pheromones to send off neon-green ‘Fuck me now’ signs?” Aly asked wryly.
Avi ignored the vulgarity. “You know I’m not good with the whole flirting thing. I mean, he walked me to Chinese class last Wednesday, and we ran into Caitlyn, and started talking. Then Lore came up-”
“You know,” Aly said tactfully, “if you’re interested in the guy, you really shouldn’t go around introducing him to Caitlyn.”
“It wasn’t a choice, Aly, it just happened. Anyway, Lore automatically assumed he was Caitlyn’s friend, and asked how he knew her. And it was funny at the time, we laughed about it, but when I asked her after why she’d made that assumption, she said my body language was distant while Caitlyn’s was friendlier.” Avi barked out a laugh, a little too self-deprecating to be resentful. “Aly, I don’t even know how to make my body language indicate interest.”
“Hun,” Aly sighed. “If he’s walking you to class, that means way more than what your body language may or may not say. Now, if you’re done moping about this, how about let’s get some alcohol in you, so you don’t overthink tonight as well?”
---
It always takes Avi two drinks at the bar before she starts enjoying herself. Bar-hopping and clubbing are both very loud, very crowded, very social activities. And while she loves hanging out with her friends, she’s still too much of an introvert to like all the people in her personal space, invading her personal bubble. And though she believes in putting herself outside her comfort zone and having new experiences, she’s really too much of an introvert to go through any social situation without at least minimal awkwardness, so it’s impossible for her to actually enjoy any of these experiences sober.
Of course, back before she was legally allowed to use alcohol to supplement her introverted nature, she had just been the socially awkward black sheep at the fancy Lau Family galas, where her brother and sisters charmed their patrons with their silver tongues and pretty tricks, and she had just remained the perpetual disappointment.
Generally, two drinks was enough to lower her inhibitions, make her less hyper-sensitive to the people around her and how much they might be judging her – any more, though, and she started losing her sound judgment. As Aly had once put it, two drinks “was enough to loosen you up, but not so much that you act crazy.”
(And Avi could tell you a few stories about acting crazy, but that was neither here nor there.)
“When’s everyone getting here?” Avi asked as she drained the last of her second drink. The alcohol burned going down her throat, before settling in a warm pool in her stomach.
“Why? Getting antsy?” Aly smirked. Aly thought it was funny that Avi needed to drink before she could enjoy herself – Aly was always so high on life, she never needed to drink to loosen up. For a girl who partied all night five nights a week, Aly never touched a drop of alcohol if she could help it.
“I’m just ready to dance,” Avi laughed. She noticed the eyes drawn to her when she laughed, even though they couldn’t possibly hear her over the loud music and ambient noise. Because she was feeling mischievous, she even winked in the general direction of a few.
Aly raised an eyebrow. “Feeling in a frisky mood tonight?”
“Where are the others?” Avi demanded. “The longer we stay here, the more tempted I am to have just one more drink, and to that wa leads madness.”
“You’re in luck. Eric and Jason just walked in the door, and Lore and her boytoy will be meeting us at the Worker’s Stadium,” Aly said, though she identified the location in Chinese.
“Nice accent, there,” Avi complimented even as she turned to watch “five-foot-ten of pure studliness”, as Lore had once described, walk inside.
If she hadn’t marveled over his physique multiple times sober, she might think it was just the alcohol talking, but Jason was a very attractive man. His physical appearance wasn’t the reason she’d accepted three or four dinner invitations, though, as fine as it was. It was how fluent he was in Chinese, how intelligent he was, how well-spoken and eloquent, how kind-hearted he was, how … she could go on, but the point was made.
It was too bad she was too socially inept to convey that she was interested – attempts at flirting had thus far ended in failure.
“Hi Jason, Eric,” she chirped. “What took you so long?”
“Avi, glad to see you,” Jason smiled (god, such a dreamy smile!).
“Jason,” Avi beamed. “Are you ready to dance?”
Jason lifted an eyebrow. “Always.” He held out a hand, and she gladly took it as she hopped off the barstool and stooped to grab her purse.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Aly asked dryly from beside her, but waved Jason off and hopped off on her own when he made a belated, aborted attempt to help her as well. “I got it.” She turned and surveyed her mini-posse, and nodded approvingly. “Now let’s head out!”
Avi laughed, and followed, hand still entwined with Jason’s. So giddy was she on alcohol and so ready was she to go dancing, she never noticed the pair of eyes that followed her out the bar.
---
The club was crowded, as might be expected, but somehow they managed to squeeze their way through the masses of people until they found a space in the middle of the dance floor that they – well, that they infiltrated and spread out until it became a breathing space, and then a dancing space.
If Avi were sober, this would be the bit where she awkwardly bobbed in time to the music, hoping nobody was watching her. The alcohol changed all that. Regardless of how graceful she may or may not have looked, she was at least confident of what she was doing, each body roll and shake of the hips an assertive one. She wasn’t a particularly skilled dancer or a particularly sexy one by any stretch of the imagination, but she didn’t care because when she got those drinks in her and came out to dance? It wasn’t about how her dancing looked to other people, it was about how much fun she had while dancing.
And while even the thought of dancing with a guy flustered her when sober, she had no problem leaning back into Jason’s very warm, very firm body and wrapping his arms around her. She didn’t like meeting people when dancing because the things she cared about were the kind of things you found out through conversation (and the idea of trying to have a conversation inside a loud club was ludicrous), but dancing with someone you already knew? She felt like she knew Jason better already! (For example, the way they were grinding against each other certainly didn’t leave much to imagination …)
More seriously, Jason was actually a good dancer, much better than her. It was important to note, however, that he was also a gentle one, who was good at guiding her and accommodating her less-than-stellar dancing. She’d gone clubbing with Aly before, and with other friends back in the States, and if it’s one thing she hated, it was dancing with a guy who made the dancing feel awkward. Even when completely drunk (as had happened in the past), the wrong guy could still make dancing and clubbing an awkward, unhappy experience, could still make her feel self-conscious and graceless.
Jason made her feel graceful, feel sexy. And when he leaned down to whisper in her ear, Avi simply shivered in excitement. “You want a drink?” he asked, whispering just loud enough that she could hear over the music.
“Nothing alcoholic for me,” Avi said apologetically. She couldn’t exactly hold her alcohol well.
“How about something non-alcoholic? An Arnold Palmer?” he coaxed. “You must be thirsty by now.”
Avi had to admit that the heat and the crowd and the people were getting to her just a little. “Sure, why not?” she said.
“I won’t be long,” he said, touching her shoulder in assurance before leaving.
As she watched Jason wind his way through the crowd until she could no longer see him (or his very fine ass), she felt a presence behind her. “Look,” she started to say as she turned around to tell whoever it was that she already had a dance partner and she wasn’t interested (even though she knew the other party wouldn’t be able to hear her over the music).
The next words out of her mouth were going to be, “Back off,” but they died on her lips when she took a good look at the person in front of her – someone from her past who she thought she’d never see again.
To be continued ...
Title: (un)Talent
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, No Warnings
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I don't know who is going to take the time to read this, but I should probably make this clear from the beginning. Although characters may bear resemblances to people in real life (i.e. my main character and myself), all characters are entirely fictional and should not be seen in any way as revealing anybody's true nature. (In other words, just because parts of my main character's experiences are drawn from my own, other parts are not.)
Summary:
Avi Lau is taking a year off before she starts med school -- and she's spending that year in Beijing, teaching English during the day and partying it up at Vic's and Mix at night. She's having the time of her life here -- no tests, no responsibilities, no daily reminders that she's the first unTalented child in three generations. Too bad the very things she's trying to forget are about to reintroduce themselves to her life ...
In retrospect, the first sign of impending doom was when Avi woke up of her own accord early in the morning, alert despite a night spent out partying. She should have picked up on it – she wasn’t a morning person by nature, typically snoozing her alarm at least six times before blearily blinking awake. The only times she woke early of her own volition was when something important was about to happen, or when something was on her mind.
At that time, she’d put it down to serendipity, since she did have a lot to do, and that of course was her first mistake.
So instead of preparing to face the impending doom, she instead spent the morning lounging lazily in bed, surfing the Internet, making herself a positively sinfully tasty waffle, and generally enjoying a slow morning. But then of course she had things she needed to do, and that was when the day went downhill.
Her first task, or duty more like, was to call her parents. She loved her family very much, but extended time spent in conversation with them was so incredibly taxing that she never really looked forward to it as much as she ought. So while the first fifteen minutes catching up with her parents made her slightly homesick as usual, hearing about everything that was going on back home, how Nadia and Susan and Gareth were doing at the family business, grad school, and high school respectively, the next half-hour of pleasantries became extremely tedious. She repeatedly reassured her parents that yes, she was safe and healthy and fine and yes, she was eating her vegetables and yes, she was doing well at work and yes, she was keeping out of the way of the local Talented.
As usual, Dad broadcasted disapproving disappointment, and asked her at least three times how med school applications were going, and four and half times whether she was sure this was what she wanted to do with her life.
(The half-time was when he started waxing on about how Nadia and Susan were upholding the family name, with a pointed subtle reproof that they were doing the Lau Family proud, so why couldn’t she?)
And as usual, Mom was overly worried about everything little thing, wanting to know if she was sure it was safe to walk home from work at night, and whether she’d heard about the recent Family Feuds in the area, and whether she was sure she was keeping mundane, and asked yet again if she was positively sure she was too busy to call home every single day just to reassure her mother she was safe.
Avi just smiled at the webcam, and told her mother that she was too busy to call home regularly when there was such a big time difference, and promised to call more often, and promised to keep safe, and assured her there was no need to worry about what Feuds may or may not be going on in the area.
That was her second mistake, not picking up on the genuine warning her mother was trying to convey about the Family Feuds – instead chalking it up to yet another case of her being a smothering, over-protective mother hen.
It had been a tiring conversation, facing down her father in one breath, then calming down her mother in the next. Defending her choices one moment, then playing down anything remotely upsetting she may have come across (up to and including paper cuts) in the next. By the time the hour-long conversation came to an end, Avi was so emotionally drained all she wanted to do was sleep again.
But for some reason, she couldn’t convince her body to nap.
Deciding she might as well put her time to better use, she stretched her muscles, warmed up with a few jumping jacks, and then launched into her daily workout. She liked to find a different exercise video on Youtube each week, which she’d do for 20 minutes, followed by a 20-minute yoga video. The videos kept on skipping, taking forever to load, but she was patient – Internet in China was never reliable, and logging in through a VPN made the Internet even slower, though it was a necessary evil.
The last 20 minutes she spent going over various forms she’d had drilled into her at Talent School way back when her parents thought she might amount to something. Even though she didn’t have the Talent to give the forms any real meaning, it was still a good workout. By the end of it all, she was so exhausted she only gave a cursory check of her email and blog before heading for the shower.
That, of course, was her third mistake. Failing to notice the buggy Internet was forgivable as that could easily have been a completely inconsequential connection issue. Thinking that the sudden spike in hits to her blog was nothing more than a fluke, chalking it up to happenstance instead of investigating? This was a blog that only a few close personal friends knew about, and to have daily visitors quadruple was certainly suspicious. Choosing to ignore the issue was a mistake, a less forgivable one. Something was up, she just didn’t know it yet.
By the time she was dressed and fit for going out in public, it was time to go to class. The subway was crowded, but not any more so than usual. She put in her earbuds, listening to the latest Wang Lee Hom album, and tuned out the world around her for the next 23 minutes until her stop. That’s why she didn’t pay much heed to the slightly jerky movement of the train, of course, or notice the sinuous dragon in the advertisement on the opposite wall – the dragon whose eyes blinked and followed her movements.
That was her fourth mistake. Not paying enough attention to her surroundings. That was a rookie mistake, so really, she deserved everything that was coming to her.
Class went as well as could be expected considering she’d only crammed for the review quiz in the fifteen minutes before. She spent five minutes after class going over the finer points of some of the Chinese characters they were learning with the teacher, before racing off to work. When she first signed up for Chinese classes, she thought she’d have plenty of time between the end of class and the beginning of work, yet somehow she was always running late and hoofing it.
At work, she spent far too long trying to pound the basics of English grammar (difficult enough for a native English speaker, much less an EFL student whose main exposure to the language revolved around rote memorization) into the brains of teenagers who would really rather be at home, doing everything in her power to get them to pay attention and failing rather abysmally. When class finally ended, she was exhausted, and more than ready to flop down on her very soft bed back at home.
It was at that moment, just as she was about to shut down her stuff and go home, that Aly popped her head in.
Aly was one of the other teachers, a mischievous redhead who loved to have a good time. She had one of those distinctive personalities that drew people to her because she had such interesting stories. Part of that was because she made it a goal in life to live those experiences that became such interesting stories. She never turned down an opportunity to make a memory.
“So … Avi,” she drew out the word, knowing she’d need to do a lot of wheedling. “You have any special plans for tonight?”
“Besides sleeping? No,” Avi said firmly as started packing up her things. She shut down her computer, straightened her papers, erased the board – anything that meant she didn’t have to look Aly in the face. Aly had a very convincing puppy-dog face that overrode rational thought on occasion.
“And … how attached are you to those plans?” Aly asked invitingly.
“How attached am I to sleeping?” Avi asked, turning to face Aly – her fatal mistake. As soon as she turned to look Aly full in the face and took in the hopeful grin, the “Very” that she had been about to say somehow turned into an indecisive “Well …”
Aly smiled encouragingly.
Avi put her bag down, put her hand on her hip, and sighed. “Let me guess. You have a better idea as to how I should spend the night.”
“You can drop your stuff at my place,” Aly said persuasively, “we’ll do a little makeup, a little primping, go out for a couple of drinks, and then spend the rest of the night clubbing. I can get us in for free …”
“I’ve no clothes,” Avi said dryly.
“Wow, you’re naked?” Aly mock-gasped. “How scandalous!”
“You know what I mean,” Avi snorted, shooting her a glare. “All I’ve got is these … school clothes I have on.”
“So you’ll make a sexy schoolteacher,” Aly shrugged. “We’ll just rip your skirt a bit, unbutton that shirt, and you’ll be set.”
“I’m not letting you anywhere near this skirt,” Avi said. “I happen to like it. I think it makes me look very teacher-ly.”
“That’s kind of the point,” Aly said, rolling her eyes, but didn’t push the point. “If you’re going to get touchy about your clothes, I guess I might have a skirt or two in your size. Or at least, not in your size, but they should fit you with minimum alterations.”
Avi hesitated … she should really get back to her apartment and sleep early tonight. She had a long day tomorrow as well.
“Come on,” Aly coaxed. “It’ll be fun. It’s all part of the China experience.”
“Oh really,” Avi said dryly. “Spending all night clubbing—and I know you don’t finish until the subways open again in the morning—wasn’t listed as part of the ‘Teaching English in China’ experience in my brochure.”
“But it was in mine,” Aly said sweetly. “You must have gotten a defective brochure.” She hopped up on the desk, and lay back so that she was looking up at the ceiling where some of Avi’s students had thrown pencils to try to get them to stick. “Avi, why do people come here?”
“To learn English,” Avi deadpanned.
“Let me rephrase the question,” Aly said, mimicking Avi’s dry manner of speaking. “What do people like yourself and myself come to Beijing?”
“For the educational experience of adapting to a new environment, gaining valuable cross-cultural skills, and also to travel the world before they start at graduate school or a more well-paying job,” Avi responded automatically.
“Exactly. To put off the real world for just a little bit longer.”
“There’s also the bit about-”
Aly ignored Avi’s words, and talked right over her. “We’re all college grads looking for our last hurrah, trying to extend the fun parts of the college experience without the tests-and-papers stress. And that’s why we come to a foreign country to teach English. Because it’s a low-stress, high-fun job.”
“Some of us came back to connect with our heritage,” Avi said primly.
“Don’t give me that heritage bullshit,” Aly laughed. “If you really needed to find your roots and learn about your culture, you wouldn’t be so damn good at the language. Trust me, I know a lot of ABCs out there who need to connect with their heritage. You don’t happen to be one of them. What you need is to learn to let loose and have some fun.”
“I let loose and had fun last night, Aly. I don’t know how you do it. You party all night, then work all day – do you ever get any sleep?” By this point, Avi’s shoulders had slumped down, however. She’d given into the inevitable.
“Sleep is for the weak! And the dead,” Aly declared. “Avi – it’s about making the most of our experience. So. With that being said, I’ll meet you downstairs in five.”
And before Avi could object, she’d ducked out of the classroom. Sighing, Avi resigned herself to an evening of loud, boisterous, and presumably alcoholic fun. Somehow, Aly’d convinced her yet again to spend the night clubbing instead of what sane people did – sleep.
And that’s how Avi left to meet Aly without even bothering to check her email.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was her last and most critical mistake. Because right then, in her inbox, sat an email from her mother, subject: URGENT, READ ASAP. And it was quite urgent indeed.
---
Aly’s apartment was cluttered as it always was, but there must somehow be a method to the madness because it took Aly only a matter of minutes to locate an appropriately-short skirt and a pair of strappy black heels.
“So what’s the plan for the night?” Avi asked as Aly curled her hair.
“Same as every night,” Aly said. “Drinks at Sanlitun to loosen you up a bit, and then it’s off to Mix!”
“You really like Vics and Mix,” Avi rolled her eyes. “If it’s not one, it’s the other.” The two clubs were located opposite each other inside the Workers’ Stadium, and Aly sometimes even ditched one for the other if she felt the music was getting too stale.
“Hey, they have the biggest venue, the best music, and,” Aly winked, “I know people who know people, so I can get in free more often than not.”
“And I know you always like free things,” Avi laughed. Not that Avi was any different – just because everything was cheaper here didn’t meant you couldn’t still economize.
“I’m not cheap,” Aly protested. “I just respond positively to bargains. Now turn around and let me take a look at you.”
Avi complied, spinning a little so her skirt flared up. It was shorter than what she usually wore, but in compliance with her sensibilities, Aly had at least chosen something that wasn’t tight. Her collared shirt had been completely unbuttoned and tied in a knot at her stomach, letting her tank-top peek out from underneath. Her dark black hair was still in a bun (Avi had insisted on that – Mix was a popular club, so it was generally packed – letting her hair down meant letting it get soaked in other people’s sweat, something she wasn’t really looking forward to), and her makeup was “smoky and seductive”, whatever that meant.
In short, especially with her square-rimmed glasses, she looked like the epitome of the sexy schoolteacher.
“Hot,” Aly approved. She was dressed in far more colorful clothing – she had on a patterned shirt that swooped down in back to reveal she wasn’t wearing a bra, dark jean shorts with colorful patches of cloth sewn along the seams, and she had a vibrantly-colored scarf woven through her hair. The entire effect was somewhat like a very peppy, very scantily-clad hippie.
“Who else is joining us tonight?” Avi wanted to know, as she tried to fix her smudged eyeliner in the mirror.
“Oh, I thought we’d go with a small group today,” Aly said innocently. “I figured just Eric from work, Lore and her boytoy, of course, and … Jason.”
“Jason’s coming?” Avi asked, barely curbing her shriek down to modulated surprise. She tried to look uninterested, but Aly wasn’t fooled.
“What, he didn’t mention it?” Aly asked. “I asked him last night. He thought it sounded fun.”
“Why would he mention it to me? When would he have had the chance?” Avi said evenly. She carefully did not look at Aly who was no doubt rolling her eyes.
“Well, I thought since you two have been spending an awful lot of time together …” Aly trailed off. She was probably waiting for Avi to turn around in order to give her a lascivious wink. Avi refused to give her the satisfaction.
“What might you be insinuating?” Avi asked instead. “We’ve been meeting up for dinner now and again, if that’s what you mean.” She continued peering in the mirror, even though she’d long since fixed her eyeliner, as an excuse not to have to look at Aly and address her innuendo. “That’s all.”
“Just dinner, then?” Aly said. Avi didn’t have to see her to hear the smirk in her voice. “Sounds … nice.”
“Don’t even go there,” Avi said firmly. “It’s just been dinner.” This time, she turned around to look Aly in the eyes, trying to discourage Aly from asking any more questions.
Of course it didn’t work. “Who pays?” Aly asked innocently, but of course you couldn’t trust that innocent face. Aly hadn’t been innocent a day in her life.
“He pays most of the time, but I have paid a few times.”
“If he pays, it’s a date, darling.” Aly waggled her eyebrows.
“No, Aly, not when you’re in China. If you’re in China, he pays because he’s being Chinese about it. And Jason … Jason is very Chinese.” Avi looked wistful at this. It did make it harder to decipher his intentions.
“Not any more so than you, Miss Perfect-Chinese-Daughter-Act,” Aly teased. “The two of you are both so Chinese for being second-generation. You’d make cute babies. Probably some of the few third-generation babies to achieve fluency in their ‘mother tongue.’”
Avi ignored this. “I can’t deny that I think he’s cute-”
“Avi has a crush!” Aly said in a sing-song voice.
“-but I don’t think the interest is mutual.”
“Are you crazy, girl? You’re having dinner. It’s mutual.” Aly’s look of disbelief would have been comical if Avi weren’t currently more concerned with her relationship angst.
“There are a lot of girls he’s on friendly terms with; he’s always talking on the phone with them, or meeting up with them. I’m no different than the rest.” Avi tried to make it sound like she didn’t care – and she didn’t. This guy was just a crush; what did she care how many friends he had? It wasn’t like she expected anything.
“Avi …” Aly sighed.
“Anyway, I’m not sending off the right signals or something,” Avi said brusquely.
“What, you’re expecting your pheromones to send off neon-green ‘Fuck me now’ signs?” Aly asked wryly.
Avi ignored the vulgarity. “You know I’m not good with the whole flirting thing. I mean, he walked me to Chinese class last Wednesday, and we ran into Caitlyn, and started talking. Then Lore came up-”
“You know,” Aly said tactfully, “if you’re interested in the guy, you really shouldn’t go around introducing him to Caitlyn.”
“It wasn’t a choice, Aly, it just happened. Anyway, Lore automatically assumed he was Caitlyn’s friend, and asked how he knew her. And it was funny at the time, we laughed about it, but when I asked her after why she’d made that assumption, she said my body language was distant while Caitlyn’s was friendlier.” Avi barked out a laugh, a little too self-deprecating to be resentful. “Aly, I don’t even know how to make my body language indicate interest.”
“Hun,” Aly sighed. “If he’s walking you to class, that means way more than what your body language may or may not say. Now, if you’re done moping about this, how about let’s get some alcohol in you, so you don’t overthink tonight as well?”
---
It always takes Avi two drinks at the bar before she starts enjoying herself. Bar-hopping and clubbing are both very loud, very crowded, very social activities. And while she loves hanging out with her friends, she’s still too much of an introvert to like all the people in her personal space, invading her personal bubble. And though she believes in putting herself outside her comfort zone and having new experiences, she’s really too much of an introvert to go through any social situation without at least minimal awkwardness, so it’s impossible for her to actually enjoy any of these experiences sober.
Of course, back before she was legally allowed to use alcohol to supplement her introverted nature, she had just been the socially awkward black sheep at the fancy Lau Family galas, where her brother and sisters charmed their patrons with their silver tongues and pretty tricks, and she had just remained the perpetual disappointment.
Generally, two drinks was enough to lower her inhibitions, make her less hyper-sensitive to the people around her and how much they might be judging her – any more, though, and she started losing her sound judgment. As Aly had once put it, two drinks “was enough to loosen you up, but not so much that you act crazy.”
(And Avi could tell you a few stories about acting crazy, but that was neither here nor there.)
“When’s everyone getting here?” Avi asked as she drained the last of her second drink. The alcohol burned going down her throat, before settling in a warm pool in her stomach.
“Why? Getting antsy?” Aly smirked. Aly thought it was funny that Avi needed to drink before she could enjoy herself – Aly was always so high on life, she never needed to drink to loosen up. For a girl who partied all night five nights a week, Aly never touched a drop of alcohol if she could help it.
“I’m just ready to dance,” Avi laughed. She noticed the eyes drawn to her when she laughed, even though they couldn’t possibly hear her over the loud music and ambient noise. Because she was feeling mischievous, she even winked in the general direction of a few.
Aly raised an eyebrow. “Feeling in a frisky mood tonight?”
“Where are the others?” Avi demanded. “The longer we stay here, the more tempted I am to have just one more drink, and to that wa leads madness.”
“You’re in luck. Eric and Jason just walked in the door, and Lore and her boytoy will be meeting us at the Worker’s Stadium,” Aly said, though she identified the location in Chinese.
“Nice accent, there,” Avi complimented even as she turned to watch “five-foot-ten of pure studliness”, as Lore had once described, walk inside.
If she hadn’t marveled over his physique multiple times sober, she might think it was just the alcohol talking, but Jason was a very attractive man. His physical appearance wasn’t the reason she’d accepted three or four dinner invitations, though, as fine as it was. It was how fluent he was in Chinese, how intelligent he was, how well-spoken and eloquent, how kind-hearted he was, how … she could go on, but the point was made.
It was too bad she was too socially inept to convey that she was interested – attempts at flirting had thus far ended in failure.
“Hi Jason, Eric,” she chirped. “What took you so long?”
“Avi, glad to see you,” Jason smiled (god, such a dreamy smile!).
“Jason,” Avi beamed. “Are you ready to dance?”
Jason lifted an eyebrow. “Always.” He held out a hand, and she gladly took it as she hopped off the barstool and stooped to grab her purse.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Aly asked dryly from beside her, but waved Jason off and hopped off on her own when he made a belated, aborted attempt to help her as well. “I got it.” She turned and surveyed her mini-posse, and nodded approvingly. “Now let’s head out!”
Avi laughed, and followed, hand still entwined with Jason’s. So giddy was she on alcohol and so ready was she to go dancing, she never noticed the pair of eyes that followed her out the bar.
---
The club was crowded, as might be expected, but somehow they managed to squeeze their way through the masses of people until they found a space in the middle of the dance floor that they – well, that they infiltrated and spread out until it became a breathing space, and then a dancing space.
If Avi were sober, this would be the bit where she awkwardly bobbed in time to the music, hoping nobody was watching her. The alcohol changed all that. Regardless of how graceful she may or may not have looked, she was at least confident of what she was doing, each body roll and shake of the hips an assertive one. She wasn’t a particularly skilled dancer or a particularly sexy one by any stretch of the imagination, but she didn’t care because when she got those drinks in her and came out to dance? It wasn’t about how her dancing looked to other people, it was about how much fun she had while dancing.
And while even the thought of dancing with a guy flustered her when sober, she had no problem leaning back into Jason’s very warm, very firm body and wrapping his arms around her. She didn’t like meeting people when dancing because the things she cared about were the kind of things you found out through conversation (and the idea of trying to have a conversation inside a loud club was ludicrous), but dancing with someone you already knew? She felt like she knew Jason better already! (For example, the way they were grinding against each other certainly didn’t leave much to imagination …)
More seriously, Jason was actually a good dancer, much better than her. It was important to note, however, that he was also a gentle one, who was good at guiding her and accommodating her less-than-stellar dancing. She’d gone clubbing with Aly before, and with other friends back in the States, and if it’s one thing she hated, it was dancing with a guy who made the dancing feel awkward. Even when completely drunk (as had happened in the past), the wrong guy could still make dancing and clubbing an awkward, unhappy experience, could still make her feel self-conscious and graceless.
Jason made her feel graceful, feel sexy. And when he leaned down to whisper in her ear, Avi simply shivered in excitement. “You want a drink?” he asked, whispering just loud enough that she could hear over the music.
“Nothing alcoholic for me,” Avi said apologetically. She couldn’t exactly hold her alcohol well.
“How about something non-alcoholic? An Arnold Palmer?” he coaxed. “You must be thirsty by now.”
Avi had to admit that the heat and the crowd and the people were getting to her just a little. “Sure, why not?” she said.
“I won’t be long,” he said, touching her shoulder in assurance before leaving.
As she watched Jason wind his way through the crowd until she could no longer see him (or his very fine ass), she felt a presence behind her. “Look,” she started to say as she turned around to tell whoever it was that she already had a dance partner and she wasn’t interested (even though she knew the other party wouldn’t be able to hear her over the music).
The next words out of her mouth were going to be, “Back off,” but they died on her lips when she took a good look at the person in front of her – someone from her past who she thought she’d never see again.
To be continued ...
