She jumped to her feet. “We need to go. Later, Angelika.” She wanted to grab Kh?i by the arm and drag him after her, but she was afraid of touching him the wrong way. After a moment’s hesitation, she limped off on her own, hoping he’d follow. Luckily, he did.
But instead of letting them leave in peace, Angelika tagged after them. “I am thinking of applying here if I pass the GED. But I do not know if I will pass. If you take the test, you will pass.” To Kh?i, she said, “Esmeralda is very smart. She gets As on all of her tests in class.”
Esme’s heart jumped and started beating so fast her vision blurred. Too late.
“You’re taking classes?” he asked. “At the adult school across from my mom’s restaurant?”
She nodded as she stared down at the ground, wishing she could melt into the cracks between the bricks. Now he knew she wasn’t Esme in Accounting. She was Esme who hadn’t even graduated high school.
Angelika took an uncomfortable step back. “I, um, I will see you later. Have a nice weekend. Nice meeting you.”
Esme waved, and Kh?i flashed his usual barely there smile at Angelika before focusing on Esme again.
When he opened his mouth to speak, Esme hurried to say, “We’re done now. We should go.”
As she limped back the way they’d come, she distracted herself by taking in as much of the campus as she could. Her dad had walked on these same bricks, breathed this same air, seen these same trees. This was probably the closest she’d ever get to him.
Kh?i caught up to her with easy strides of his long, uninjured legs. “We should go the other way.”
“The car is this way.” She pointed toward the parking lot.
“There’s another place we should try.”
She paused. “Another place?”
“The alumni building. They might be more helpful. I probably should have taken you there first. Do you need help getting there? It’s not far. It’s just over there.” He motioned in the other direction, toward a cluster of more modern buildings surrounded by old trees.
“I’ll walk. Let’s go.”
Esme hobbled as fast as she could through the student traffic, hoping if they moved quickly, they couldn’t talk. But that didn’t stop Kh?i from asking, “What classes are you taking?”
She hugged her arms over her chest even though she wasn’t cold. “English, social studies, and accounting.”
“Isn’t that a lot? Three classes?”
“Is it?” She didn’t have anything to compare it to. All she knew was she spent a lot of time sneak studying when she thought people couldn’t see her.
“I think so.” He swiped at his hair, but when his hand encountered the shorter locks, he rubbed at his neck instead. “I was never very good at those classes—other than accounting, of course. I do better with numbers.”
She had to smile at that. “Me, too.” They were the same no matter what language you were speaking.
He smiled back at her before he focused on the tops of the passing trees. “If you ever need help, I can try. I don’t mind.”
She watched her feet pad unevenly over the ground, so she had something to look at other than him. Step-draaag, step-draaag, step-draaag. When she’d finally built up the courage, she made herself say, “I’m sorry. For lying. I’m not an accountant. I …” She inhaled. “… clean places.” She exhaled, and her insides shriveled. “Back home. I didn’t finish school. We needed money because Ngo?i was too weak to work, so I started to clean, and then I—” She bit her lip before she mentioned having a baby.
When she glanced at him, she found him watching the way ahead with a small frown. “You didn’t need to lie to me.”