No Cars Go for perdiccas
Author: unlurkster
Title: No Cars Go
Recipient: perdiccas
Skaters/Pairings: Gen - Evan Lysacek, Mirai Nagasu (Mirai/OMC)
Rating: G
Wordcount: 3380
Warnings: None
Prompt: Gen, Evan & Mirai friendship fic: anything with the two of them being dorky skating siblings--going to see Wall-E together? Evan giving Mirai driving lessons? Light-hearted; no Frank bashing, please.
Disclaimer: The events portrayed in this story are fictional and do not reflect on the actual people written about.
A/N: Major major props to A. for practically co-writing this with me, and thanks to E. for the beta. Title from Arcade Fire, uh. Also, this is slightly AU, as Mirai attends an online high school in real life.
Summary: To say that Mirai really wasn't having the greatest day would have been a severe understatement.
To say that Mirai really wasn't having the greatest day would have been a severe understatement. Between third and fourth period, in the hallway, Mark had approached her and said, "Hey, I need to talk to you."
Mirai stopped, hoisting her backpack on her shoulders. She really needed to stop carrying so many extra books around, but it saved her the trouble of having to pack her bag every night. Mark seemed worried, and he wasn't meeting her eyes.
"Sure," she said, flashing him her best smile. It didn't seem to be working. "What's up?"
"I don't think it's working out," Mark muttered, and raised his eyes to Mirai's disbelieving face for the briefest instant before dropping his gaze to his shoes again. "Uh, sorry."
"What?" Mirai said. She maybe said it louder than she'd expected, because two girls passing them in the hallway turned their heads before realising it was a private thing and then scurrying off.
"Uh --" Mark said, and looked around nervously before wetting his lips. "It's not you, it's me?"
"But why?" Mirai asked. Embarrassing as it was to admit, Mark was her first boyfriend. She didn't think she was doing that badly with being a girlfriend, and all.
"It's just -- I never see you," Mark said. "You're always away, and stuff. It's hard to work this out."
"But we like being around each other when I'm here," Mirai said. Alarmingly, she felt her lip begin to quiver and bit down on it, hard.
"But you're never here!" Mark burst out. "You aren't even going to be around for Homecoming."
"Oh," Mirai said dangerously. "So is this what that's about, then? You're dumping me so you can get a date for Homecoming?"
She could tell that that made Mark angry; he looked up straight away as if he'd been jerked up by a string connecting the top of his head to the ceiling.
"Think what you want," he said. "It's over."
Then he walked away, sloping away in the direction of his Geometry class. Mirai didn't know if she was more upset that they'd broken up, or angry that she didn't get the last word in.
Mirai did the only thing possible. She turned around, and stalked off to her class. No boy was going to get in the way of her receiving an education.
---
Only, that didn't work so well. Mirai spent the rest of the day in a daze; she couldn't believe the whole thing had happened. Fourth and fifth periods were spent tuning out completely as Mr Hahn waved his arms around talking about Nefertiti, and sixth and seventh periods weren’t much better. So much for momentum, she thought, as she gazed at the chalk diagram of the seesaw on the board. She hadn't had any idea this relationship was ending until it did.
She was going to fail physics and it was all Mark's fault.
She took a deep breath. Focus, girl, she told herself, and squared her shoulders. She could do anything, if only this day would end. She kept telling herself that until the syllables lost all meaning to her. And it worked, kind of -- she didn't actually start paying attention to the lesson, but at least she managed to take the notes.
---
The last class of the day was health. Mirai skipped it in favour of going to the library to nap. She’d been up since five a.m. and she needed another shower just to wake her up. Or coffee, that’d be good too. But nothing could make up for the bliss of more sleep.
Catching up on sleep, she thought muzzily, as she placed her head on her arms, mouth resting against her hoodie sleeve, would probably be way healthier than learning to put on a condom. She probably wouldn’t ever need to know how to do that crap, anyway. She was never even going to have any sex.
---
One thing that really sucked about not having your best friend go to the same high school as you was that you couldn't just accost them after class and make them hang out with you. You had to call, and even then the chance was only fifty-fifty. In between her skating and Emily's after-school job, Mirai didn't see her BFF a whole lot.
She sighed and fished her phone out of her jean pocket, scrolling through the phone directory.
When Emily picked up, she didn’t even bother exchanging greetings - “I’m so pissed off, Emily,” Mirai said into the phone. “Mark broke up with me and it wasn’t like I even saw it coming, and today’s been a shitty day and I hope you don’t have a shift today because I don’t want to be alone, which is weird, because I’m not even sad, I just,” and here she swallowed, it wasn’t her fault she was feeling emotional, “I just don’t want to be alone.”
"Hello?" instead of Emily, it was -- Mirai pulled the phone away from her ear to check, and scowled as she realised. It wasn't Emily, of course. It was Evan. She’d been so distraught she hadn’t even bothered to make sure she’d called the right person.
"Oh, hi, Evan --" oh, crap. "Um. It's Mirai."
"I know," Evan said, and Mirai strained to hear his voice over the noise of the traffic right outside her school. "Um -- "
Suddenly Mirai felt very tired. It had become hot in the space of a couple of seconds -- probably something to do with clouds moving -- but she didn't bother to remove her hoodie; that would just be inconvenient since she was wearing her backpack too. She slouched against the wall, lolling on the edges of her sneakers.
"Sorry, sorry," she said. "Um, wrong person, obviously. I was supposed to call my friend -- Emily -- only I called you by accident. I just broke up with the boyfriend."
Evan sucked in a huge breath. "Oh," he said. "That sucks."
"Yeah," Mirai said. She wouldn’t have told Evan, except, well -- too late, it seemed.
"Do you need me to do anything?" Evan asked and -- oh, for god's sake, he couldn't be serious. "Like, beat him up, or --"
"No!" Mirai yelped. Why was that even considered a valid way of retaliation? What if Evan got caught pulverising some high school boy -- Mirai could picture the headlines, Olympic Gold Medalist arrested for assault, what a nightmare that would be. Visions of Harding-Kerrigan flashed into her mind, even though that totally wasn't the same thing.
It took her a while to realise that Evan was laughing at her. Laughing quietly, but totally laughing.
"I was just kidding," he said, although something in his voice made Mirai think that he mightn't have been, not completely. "Listen, do you -- want me to talk to him, though, or anything --" and now Mirai could tell that he was completely earnest. She absolutely did not want that, either.
"No," she said.
"What's his name?" Evan asked, and Mirai thought, crap.
"Don't do anything, I mean it."
"I just want to help," Evan protested, and Mirai couldn't help feeling oddly touched. She was glad that Evan couldn't see her rolling her eyes over the phone, though.
"If you want to help," she said, "You could -- um -- come pick me up," she said, with a burst of sudden inspiration. She didn't feel like braving public transport today, anyway. "We could hang out at my place." It was totally lame, but that was actually the first time she'd invited a boy -- inasmuch as Evan could be considered a boy -- home. She was just glad her parents would be at the restaurant today so they wouldn't ask too many questions. Her parents tended to look at boys Mirai talked to with a certain distrust, even if they held off talking to her about it, and she thought she knew where they were coming from, even if they were completely overrating her. No one was going to get her pregnant, jeez. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t told them about Mark, let alone brought him home.
"Okay, got you," Evan said, sounding determined. "Do you want anything -- ice cream, movies --" and Mirai was about to snort, until she changed her mind.
"We can't have ice cream," she said, dipping her fingertips into the waistband of her jeans. "But yeah, bring a movie, that'd be great."
---
Evan must have been in the area, because he swung around in only fifteen minutes, honking at her so she'd notice despite the fact that Mirai had totally spotted him first. She picked up her backpack and her now-divested hoodie, and opened the car door and jumped in.
Evan had stopped the car, even though the engine was still running. When Mirai threw her backpack in and then climbed in after he peered anxiously at her.
"Mirai," he said, "Were you crying?"
"No!" Mirai said. Well, maybe that was a lie. She'd ducked into the toilets for a quick cry in between fifth and sixth period, but she was all better now. Right? If her eyes were still swollen, it was from her nap, and she was going to say something to that effect, but Evan had leaned over and crushed her into a gigantic hug. Mirai tried not to flail, but really, Evan was so much taller than her that she was practically suffocated.
"Oh my god, Evan, everyone's watching," Mirai said, when he finally released her. She felt kind of self-conscious. "They're going to think you're my older boyfriend, or something."
Evan looked alarmed, and pulled away quickly. "Shit, I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry if I was... inappropriate."
"No, you weren’t," Mirai said quickly, because when Evan got uncomfortable he always looked at the other person like he was expecting them to sort him out. She couldn't help feeling weirdly irritated, too, because she really didn't want to deal with his issues right now.
"Anyway, I'm not creeped out. I'm heartbroken, remember?"
"Okay," Evan said. There was a pause as they pulled out into the street, and then Evan flicked a look at her, uncertain and careful. "I brought popcorn," he said. "No butter."
"Thanks," Mirai said, and meant it.
---
The house was quiet when they arrived, and Mirai was glad. She didn’t think her parents would be home, but sometimes her dad made her mother go home and take a rest when things at the restaurant got too busy. Sometimes Mirai’d come home and find her mother reclining in the massage chair in the living room, eyes closed and complexion wan. She’d learnt to enter the house quietly for that reason.
"Take off your shoes," Mirai said, and Evan bent down to toe them off and slot them on the shoe rack, in the space her father's shoes usually took up when he was home. The apartment seemed too small for Evan somehow, and Mirai couldn't help feeling amused when he straightened up and glanced around, hands hanging by his sides.
"Want a drink?" Mrai asked, and Evan said, "Oh -- water, please."
Mirai nodded. "You go start the DVD player," she said, and Evan nodded and moved off in the direction of the living room. She guessed that was where her afternoon was going, then. Mirai had homework -- term paper, her gut clenched uneasily at the thought -- but she figured heartbreak would totally justify ignoring it, just for today.
"High School Musical?" she asked when she came out of the kitchen, bowl of popcorn and two mugs clutched precariously in one hand. "Seriously?"
Evan coloured. "I thought that was what teenagers were watching these days!" he protested, and Mirai sighed.
"Tweens," she said with as much dignity as she could muster. "It's a whole different demographic," she said, and Evan shrugged condescendingly. Mirai rolled her eyes and propped her feet on the table in front of her, the way she never did when her parents were home. She'd have to remember to wipe it later. She'd never seen the movie before though, so.
"Put it on," she ordered imperiously, and Evan pressed play.
---
It wasn't that bad, actually. Or -- well -- it didn't resemble any kind of high school experience Mirai had ever had, but then again she hadn't ever watched a movie that mirrored what it was like to be in high school. But the whole thing was fun in a ridiculously cheesy way, and Mirai soon found she could devote approximately one third of her brain to following the plot, another one third to going through the homework she was supposed to be completing right that very moment, and the next one third to brooding over what Mark had said to her. She could multi-task.
"Are you humming?" Mirai said, looking at Evan disbelievingly. Evan looked at her and shrugged. "It's catchy," he deadpanned.
"How do you even know the tune?"
"Everyone knows the tune," Evan said. "It's like osmosis!"
"... okay," Mirai said. She dipped her hand into the popcorn bowl and chewed on a handful. Mmm, popcorn. There wasn't any butter or sugar on but it tasted good anyway. Maybe that was a sign that she wasn't as bummed about the whole thing as she'd thought she was.
"Aren't you enjoying it?" Evan said, looking warily at her.
"I'm fine," Mirai sighed. "Look, I just think it'd be way more entertaining if we fast-forwarded through the speaking parts and skipped to the ones where they sing, that's all."
Evan shrugged, so she took hold of the remote and within twenty minutes they were finished.
"Ha!" she said. "I bet we got the whole story, too," and Evan laughed.
"So," he said, placing his hands on his knees and giving her what he probably thought was a significant look, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Do you?" Mirai countered, and wasn't surprised when he shook his head.
"But if you need to, I'm totally here," Evan said. There was a mulish look on his face, like this was something Evan wasn't looking forward to but was determined to plow through anyhow. Mirai felt irritated -- she wasn't anyone's obligation, dammit -- but also kind of grateful.
"Thanks," she said, and there was a pause before Evan said, "Will it affect your skating?"
Mirai glared at Evan and he spread his hands in front of him. "I was just asking!"
"Yeah, no," Mirai said. She let her shoulders sag a little. "Valid question, I guess. But Mark broke up with me because of skating."
She heard Evan's sharp intake of breath, and knew that she probably ought to be restraining his homicidal tendencies, or whatever, but she felt like wallowing. She continued looking down and playing with the fringe on the cushion tucked on her lap.
"Tell me about it," Evan said, and Mirai took that to mean a literal request instead of an empathy thing. It was hard to tell, since it didn't really sound like a question, but Mirai felt like talking about herself instead.
"It's not like I expected it to be true love forever," Mirai said. "I just thought that if anyone was going to be doing the breaking up it should be me, you know?" Oh, shit, that sounded totally arrogant, and she glanced up worriedly but Evan was nodding away.
"He said he never sees me anymore," Mirai said glumly. "I just expected him to be more understanding." He just couldn't deal with a girlfriend who was more successful than him, Mirai thought meanly.
"You've been really great about balancing everything," Evan said. At the Olympics she'd been kind of mocked for doing her homework there, but Evan had nodded like he got it. Junior year was pretty crazy.
There was a pause, then Evan chuckled. "Did I tell you how when I was in high school, no one even knew I skated?"
"Seriously?" Mirai said. That was pretty incredible. "How'd you even pull that off?"
Evan shrugged. "I just didn't talk about it," he said. "I mean, I wasn't at the Olympics in high school, so..."
"But -- competitons and things," Mirai said. She thought of all the times she'd relied on her friends to do stuff like pick up assignments for her when she was away.
"Just didn't talk about it," Evan said. He shrugged.
Mirai sighed. She seemed to be doing a lot of that today. "It's just difficult," she said in a small voice, and Evan nodded and put an arm around her. Maybe difficult was an understatement.
"Skaters aren't normal," Evan said wisely. "You just have to learn to fake it."
Mirai didn't know if she agreed. She thought about how she'd be missing Homecoming again -- it'd be sad if she had to miss prom next year -- and how it was getting harder and harder to just hang out. Things were changing fast. She used to be pretty close to Caroline a couple of years ago. It was like something happened and Mirai was moving forward faster, and they saw each other around at events but it just wasn't the same any longer. They weren’t even competing in the same division any more, and that should have made things easier, but it was hard. Still, though --
"It's so hard being an Olympic athlete," Mirai said wryly. She thought about all the free stuff she'd got at the Olympics. That part was pretty awesome. Her hoodie, resting on top of her backpack, was a Vancouver edition one.
Evan smiled and shrugged, his arm jumping up and landing on Mirai harder again, and she wriggled out of his grasp. They smiled at each other and Mirai rolled her eyes.
"Do you have another movie?" Mirai asked. They'd barely made a dent in the popcorn bowl.
"Yeah," Evan said, and tossed it over. La Vie En Rose.
"My, what eclectic taste you have, Evan," Mirai said, grinning. Maybe it would have been better if they'd just watched this first instead of stupid High School Musical. She turned the plastic DVD case over to read the blurb, and she couldn't decide if it sounded boring or fun. Hey, only one way to find out, right? And it'd won an Oscar, which she could totally respect.
"It's inspirational," Evan said.
---
They watched the film without fast forwarding through any of it. Mirai ended up tearing up a little bit after all, because Marion Cotillard was really great, and Mirai scrunched her face up trying to figure out how she did that with her own face, until she wasn't and she was crying instead.
(It was good practice for French, too.)
She sniffled, and Evan looked over at her. Mirai managed to smile back, and evidently Evan was reassured that those were good tears.
When the movie ended it was pretty late, coming on seven. Mirai was relieved that at least she didn't have ballet class today, even if she had a ton of homework.
"Thanks," she said, as she walked Evan to the door. "Thanks for - everything, Evan," and Evan just nodded at her, oddly solemn, until Mirai rolled her eyes and launched at him for a hug. She had to reach up, and Evan had to reach down, so it wasn't the most comfortable, but it was pretty awesome anyway. Even if Evan wore more cologne than she was used to. Mirai's dad never did. He smelt of soap and vinegar most days. Clean smells.
“Say hi to Nastia for me,” Mirai said, feeling daring, and Evan looked at her weirdly before smiling back. Mirai hadn’t ever met her.
"See you at training," was all he said, and Mirai waited as Evan put his shoes on and took his leave before closing the front door. She felt much better now, which was weird. Maybe she'd even manage to go to school with her head held high tomorrow, and glare at Mark in the hallway.
"You're too good for him," Mirai told herself, even though she didn't quite believe it yet, and went into her room to start on her homework, and call Emily after all.
-END-
Title: No Cars Go
Recipient: perdiccas
Skaters/Pairings: Gen - Evan Lysacek, Mirai Nagasu (Mirai/OMC)
Rating: G
Wordcount: 3380
Warnings: None
Prompt: Gen, Evan & Mirai friendship fic: anything with the two of them being dorky skating siblings--going to see Wall-E together? Evan giving Mirai driving lessons? Light-hearted; no Frank bashing, please.
Disclaimer: The events portrayed in this story are fictional and do not reflect on the actual people written about.
A/N: Major major props to A. for practically co-writing this with me, and thanks to E. for the beta. Title from Arcade Fire, uh. Also, this is slightly AU, as Mirai attends an online high school in real life.
Summary: To say that Mirai really wasn't having the greatest day would have been a severe understatement.
To say that Mirai really wasn't having the greatest day would have been a severe understatement. Between third and fourth period, in the hallway, Mark had approached her and said, "Hey, I need to talk to you."
Mirai stopped, hoisting her backpack on her shoulders. She really needed to stop carrying so many extra books around, but it saved her the trouble of having to pack her bag every night. Mark seemed worried, and he wasn't meeting her eyes.
"Sure," she said, flashing him her best smile. It didn't seem to be working. "What's up?"
"I don't think it's working out," Mark muttered, and raised his eyes to Mirai's disbelieving face for the briefest instant before dropping his gaze to his shoes again. "Uh, sorry."
"What?" Mirai said. She maybe said it louder than she'd expected, because two girls passing them in the hallway turned their heads before realising it was a private thing and then scurrying off.
"Uh --" Mark said, and looked around nervously before wetting his lips. "It's not you, it's me?"
"But why?" Mirai asked. Embarrassing as it was to admit, Mark was her first boyfriend. She didn't think she was doing that badly with being a girlfriend, and all.
"It's just -- I never see you," Mark said. "You're always away, and stuff. It's hard to work this out."
"But we like being around each other when I'm here," Mirai said. Alarmingly, she felt her lip begin to quiver and bit down on it, hard.
"But you're never here!" Mark burst out. "You aren't even going to be around for Homecoming."
"Oh," Mirai said dangerously. "So is this what that's about, then? You're dumping me so you can get a date for Homecoming?"
She could tell that that made Mark angry; he looked up straight away as if he'd been jerked up by a string connecting the top of his head to the ceiling.
"Think what you want," he said. "It's over."
Then he walked away, sloping away in the direction of his Geometry class. Mirai didn't know if she was more upset that they'd broken up, or angry that she didn't get the last word in.
Mirai did the only thing possible. She turned around, and stalked off to her class. No boy was going to get in the way of her receiving an education.
---
Only, that didn't work so well. Mirai spent the rest of the day in a daze; she couldn't believe the whole thing had happened. Fourth and fifth periods were spent tuning out completely as Mr Hahn waved his arms around talking about Nefertiti, and sixth and seventh periods weren’t much better. So much for momentum, she thought, as she gazed at the chalk diagram of the seesaw on the board. She hadn't had any idea this relationship was ending until it did.
She was going to fail physics and it was all Mark's fault.
She took a deep breath. Focus, girl, she told herself, and squared her shoulders. She could do anything, if only this day would end. She kept telling herself that until the syllables lost all meaning to her. And it worked, kind of -- she didn't actually start paying attention to the lesson, but at least she managed to take the notes.
---
The last class of the day was health. Mirai skipped it in favour of going to the library to nap. She’d been up since five a.m. and she needed another shower just to wake her up. Or coffee, that’d be good too. But nothing could make up for the bliss of more sleep.
Catching up on sleep, she thought muzzily, as she placed her head on her arms, mouth resting against her hoodie sleeve, would probably be way healthier than learning to put on a condom. She probably wouldn’t ever need to know how to do that crap, anyway. She was never even going to have any sex.
---
One thing that really sucked about not having your best friend go to the same high school as you was that you couldn't just accost them after class and make them hang out with you. You had to call, and even then the chance was only fifty-fifty. In between her skating and Emily's after-school job, Mirai didn't see her BFF a whole lot.
She sighed and fished her phone out of her jean pocket, scrolling through the phone directory.
When Emily picked up, she didn’t even bother exchanging greetings - “I’m so pissed off, Emily,” Mirai said into the phone. “Mark broke up with me and it wasn’t like I even saw it coming, and today’s been a shitty day and I hope you don’t have a shift today because I don’t want to be alone, which is weird, because I’m not even sad, I just,” and here she swallowed, it wasn’t her fault she was feeling emotional, “I just don’t want to be alone.”
"Hello?" instead of Emily, it was -- Mirai pulled the phone away from her ear to check, and scowled as she realised. It wasn't Emily, of course. It was Evan. She’d been so distraught she hadn’t even bothered to make sure she’d called the right person.
"Oh, hi, Evan --" oh, crap. "Um. It's Mirai."
"I know," Evan said, and Mirai strained to hear his voice over the noise of the traffic right outside her school. "Um -- "
Suddenly Mirai felt very tired. It had become hot in the space of a couple of seconds -- probably something to do with clouds moving -- but she didn't bother to remove her hoodie; that would just be inconvenient since she was wearing her backpack too. She slouched against the wall, lolling on the edges of her sneakers.
"Sorry, sorry," she said. "Um, wrong person, obviously. I was supposed to call my friend -- Emily -- only I called you by accident. I just broke up with the boyfriend."
Evan sucked in a huge breath. "Oh," he said. "That sucks."
"Yeah," Mirai said. She wouldn’t have told Evan, except, well -- too late, it seemed.
"Do you need me to do anything?" Evan asked and -- oh, for god's sake, he couldn't be serious. "Like, beat him up, or --"
"No!" Mirai yelped. Why was that even considered a valid way of retaliation? What if Evan got caught pulverising some high school boy -- Mirai could picture the headlines, Olympic Gold Medalist arrested for assault, what a nightmare that would be. Visions of Harding-Kerrigan flashed into her mind, even though that totally wasn't the same thing.
It took her a while to realise that Evan was laughing at her. Laughing quietly, but totally laughing.
"I was just kidding," he said, although something in his voice made Mirai think that he mightn't have been, not completely. "Listen, do you -- want me to talk to him, though, or anything --" and now Mirai could tell that he was completely earnest. She absolutely did not want that, either.
"No," she said.
"What's his name?" Evan asked, and Mirai thought, crap.
"Don't do anything, I mean it."
"I just want to help," Evan protested, and Mirai couldn't help feeling oddly touched. She was glad that Evan couldn't see her rolling her eyes over the phone, though.
"If you want to help," she said, "You could -- um -- come pick me up," she said, with a burst of sudden inspiration. She didn't feel like braving public transport today, anyway. "We could hang out at my place." It was totally lame, but that was actually the first time she'd invited a boy -- inasmuch as Evan could be considered a boy -- home. She was just glad her parents would be at the restaurant today so they wouldn't ask too many questions. Her parents tended to look at boys Mirai talked to with a certain distrust, even if they held off talking to her about it, and she thought she knew where they were coming from, even if they were completely overrating her. No one was going to get her pregnant, jeez. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t told them about Mark, let alone brought him home.
"Okay, got you," Evan said, sounding determined. "Do you want anything -- ice cream, movies --" and Mirai was about to snort, until she changed her mind.
"We can't have ice cream," she said, dipping her fingertips into the waistband of her jeans. "But yeah, bring a movie, that'd be great."
---
Evan must have been in the area, because he swung around in only fifteen minutes, honking at her so she'd notice despite the fact that Mirai had totally spotted him first. She picked up her backpack and her now-divested hoodie, and opened the car door and jumped in.
Evan had stopped the car, even though the engine was still running. When Mirai threw her backpack in and then climbed in after he peered anxiously at her.
"Mirai," he said, "Were you crying?"
"No!" Mirai said. Well, maybe that was a lie. She'd ducked into the toilets for a quick cry in between fifth and sixth period, but she was all better now. Right? If her eyes were still swollen, it was from her nap, and she was going to say something to that effect, but Evan had leaned over and crushed her into a gigantic hug. Mirai tried not to flail, but really, Evan was so much taller than her that she was practically suffocated.
"Oh my god, Evan, everyone's watching," Mirai said, when he finally released her. She felt kind of self-conscious. "They're going to think you're my older boyfriend, or something."
Evan looked alarmed, and pulled away quickly. "Shit, I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry if I was... inappropriate."
"No, you weren’t," Mirai said quickly, because when Evan got uncomfortable he always looked at the other person like he was expecting them to sort him out. She couldn't help feeling weirdly irritated, too, because she really didn't want to deal with his issues right now.
"Anyway, I'm not creeped out. I'm heartbroken, remember?"
"Okay," Evan said. There was a pause as they pulled out into the street, and then Evan flicked a look at her, uncertain and careful. "I brought popcorn," he said. "No butter."
"Thanks," Mirai said, and meant it.
---
The house was quiet when they arrived, and Mirai was glad. She didn’t think her parents would be home, but sometimes her dad made her mother go home and take a rest when things at the restaurant got too busy. Sometimes Mirai’d come home and find her mother reclining in the massage chair in the living room, eyes closed and complexion wan. She’d learnt to enter the house quietly for that reason.
"Take off your shoes," Mirai said, and Evan bent down to toe them off and slot them on the shoe rack, in the space her father's shoes usually took up when he was home. The apartment seemed too small for Evan somehow, and Mirai couldn't help feeling amused when he straightened up and glanced around, hands hanging by his sides.
"Want a drink?" Mrai asked, and Evan said, "Oh -- water, please."
Mirai nodded. "You go start the DVD player," she said, and Evan nodded and moved off in the direction of the living room. She guessed that was where her afternoon was going, then. Mirai had homework -- term paper, her gut clenched uneasily at the thought -- but she figured heartbreak would totally justify ignoring it, just for today.
"High School Musical?" she asked when she came out of the kitchen, bowl of popcorn and two mugs clutched precariously in one hand. "Seriously?"
Evan coloured. "I thought that was what teenagers were watching these days!" he protested, and Mirai sighed.
"Tweens," she said with as much dignity as she could muster. "It's a whole different demographic," she said, and Evan shrugged condescendingly. Mirai rolled her eyes and propped her feet on the table in front of her, the way she never did when her parents were home. She'd have to remember to wipe it later. She'd never seen the movie before though, so.
"Put it on," she ordered imperiously, and Evan pressed play.
---
It wasn't that bad, actually. Or -- well -- it didn't resemble any kind of high school experience Mirai had ever had, but then again she hadn't ever watched a movie that mirrored what it was like to be in high school. But the whole thing was fun in a ridiculously cheesy way, and Mirai soon found she could devote approximately one third of her brain to following the plot, another one third to going through the homework she was supposed to be completing right that very moment, and the next one third to brooding over what Mark had said to her. She could multi-task.
"Are you humming?" Mirai said, looking at Evan disbelievingly. Evan looked at her and shrugged. "It's catchy," he deadpanned.
"How do you even know the tune?"
"Everyone knows the tune," Evan said. "It's like osmosis!"
"... okay," Mirai said. She dipped her hand into the popcorn bowl and chewed on a handful. Mmm, popcorn. There wasn't any butter or sugar on but it tasted good anyway. Maybe that was a sign that she wasn't as bummed about the whole thing as she'd thought she was.
"Aren't you enjoying it?" Evan said, looking warily at her.
"I'm fine," Mirai sighed. "Look, I just think it'd be way more entertaining if we fast-forwarded through the speaking parts and skipped to the ones where they sing, that's all."
Evan shrugged, so she took hold of the remote and within twenty minutes they were finished.
"Ha!" she said. "I bet we got the whole story, too," and Evan laughed.
"So," he said, placing his hands on his knees and giving her what he probably thought was a significant look, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Do you?" Mirai countered, and wasn't surprised when he shook his head.
"But if you need to, I'm totally here," Evan said. There was a mulish look on his face, like this was something Evan wasn't looking forward to but was determined to plow through anyhow. Mirai felt irritated -- she wasn't anyone's obligation, dammit -- but also kind of grateful.
"Thanks," she said, and there was a pause before Evan said, "Will it affect your skating?"
Mirai glared at Evan and he spread his hands in front of him. "I was just asking!"
"Yeah, no," Mirai said. She let her shoulders sag a little. "Valid question, I guess. But Mark broke up with me because of skating."
She heard Evan's sharp intake of breath, and knew that she probably ought to be restraining his homicidal tendencies, or whatever, but she felt like wallowing. She continued looking down and playing with the fringe on the cushion tucked on her lap.
"Tell me about it," Evan said, and Mirai took that to mean a literal request instead of an empathy thing. It was hard to tell, since it didn't really sound like a question, but Mirai felt like talking about herself instead.
"It's not like I expected it to be true love forever," Mirai said. "I just thought that if anyone was going to be doing the breaking up it should be me, you know?" Oh, shit, that sounded totally arrogant, and she glanced up worriedly but Evan was nodding away.
"He said he never sees me anymore," Mirai said glumly. "I just expected him to be more understanding." He just couldn't deal with a girlfriend who was more successful than him, Mirai thought meanly.
"You've been really great about balancing everything," Evan said. At the Olympics she'd been kind of mocked for doing her homework there, but Evan had nodded like he got it. Junior year was pretty crazy.
There was a pause, then Evan chuckled. "Did I tell you how when I was in high school, no one even knew I skated?"
"Seriously?" Mirai said. That was pretty incredible. "How'd you even pull that off?"
Evan shrugged. "I just didn't talk about it," he said. "I mean, I wasn't at the Olympics in high school, so..."
"But -- competitons and things," Mirai said. She thought of all the times she'd relied on her friends to do stuff like pick up assignments for her when she was away.
"Just didn't talk about it," Evan said. He shrugged.
Mirai sighed. She seemed to be doing a lot of that today. "It's just difficult," she said in a small voice, and Evan nodded and put an arm around her. Maybe difficult was an understatement.
"Skaters aren't normal," Evan said wisely. "You just have to learn to fake it."
Mirai didn't know if she agreed. She thought about how she'd be missing Homecoming again -- it'd be sad if she had to miss prom next year -- and how it was getting harder and harder to just hang out. Things were changing fast. She used to be pretty close to Caroline a couple of years ago. It was like something happened and Mirai was moving forward faster, and they saw each other around at events but it just wasn't the same any longer. They weren’t even competing in the same division any more, and that should have made things easier, but it was hard. Still, though --
"It's so hard being an Olympic athlete," Mirai said wryly. She thought about all the free stuff she'd got at the Olympics. That part was pretty awesome. Her hoodie, resting on top of her backpack, was a Vancouver edition one.
Evan smiled and shrugged, his arm jumping up and landing on Mirai harder again, and she wriggled out of his grasp. They smiled at each other and Mirai rolled her eyes.
"Do you have another movie?" Mirai asked. They'd barely made a dent in the popcorn bowl.
"Yeah," Evan said, and tossed it over. La Vie En Rose.
"My, what eclectic taste you have, Evan," Mirai said, grinning. Maybe it would have been better if they'd just watched this first instead of stupid High School Musical. She turned the plastic DVD case over to read the blurb, and she couldn't decide if it sounded boring or fun. Hey, only one way to find out, right? And it'd won an Oscar, which she could totally respect.
"It's inspirational," Evan said.
---
They watched the film without fast forwarding through any of it. Mirai ended up tearing up a little bit after all, because Marion Cotillard was really great, and Mirai scrunched her face up trying to figure out how she did that with her own face, until she wasn't and she was crying instead.
(It was good practice for French, too.)
She sniffled, and Evan looked over at her. Mirai managed to smile back, and evidently Evan was reassured that those were good tears.
When the movie ended it was pretty late, coming on seven. Mirai was relieved that at least she didn't have ballet class today, even if she had a ton of homework.
"Thanks," she said, as she walked Evan to the door. "Thanks for - everything, Evan," and Evan just nodded at her, oddly solemn, until Mirai rolled her eyes and launched at him for a hug. She had to reach up, and Evan had to reach down, so it wasn't the most comfortable, but it was pretty awesome anyway. Even if Evan wore more cologne than she was used to. Mirai's dad never did. He smelt of soap and vinegar most days. Clean smells.
“Say hi to Nastia for me,” Mirai said, feeling daring, and Evan looked at her weirdly before smiling back. Mirai hadn’t ever met her.
"See you at training," was all he said, and Mirai waited as Evan put his shoes on and took his leave before closing the front door. She felt much better now, which was weird. Maybe she'd even manage to go to school with her head held high tomorrow, and glare at Mark in the hallway.
"You're too good for him," Mirai told herself, even though she didn't quite believe it yet, and went into her room to start on her homework, and call Emily after all.
-END-