"Moving Day" => A Tale of Where We're Going PT 4

“I take it that it didn’t end well.”

“Yeah, see, she introduced him to ‘Hey There Delilah’ by the Plain White Ts two years before it was all over the radio. And the thing is, she moved to Maryland from NYC, so he associated that song with her even more. He found some way to make an ass out of himself. I mean, embarassing and not actively rude or mean or anything like that. He wrote his own version of the song when he tried to ask her out. She was…well it was almost like when Marc sang to Jenna, only in a dorky and adorable way. I can’t remember why she turned him down. I guess it doesn’t matter now. They stayed friends through the rest of high school.” 

“Wait, I don’t get it, how was she worse than the others? She didn’t say anything fucked up to him, or do some fucked up shit, you know?”

Missy pressed her hands together and brought them to her face. She cradled them against her nose and mouth. “Riv, you’ve got to understand. He’s never felt Asian enough, never Chinese enough. Brandon and his brothers were part of this group of Chinese kid friends Henry had when he was little, in elementary school. His cousin Dean was in it, too. Before he moved to Rochester, that is. But all of them felt more Chinese than him, at least they acted that way. Once he became friends with us, he just started being and acting more ‘white’, and I know that doesn’t make sense. It probably didn’t help that as we entered middle school, Auntie Miranda and Uncle Russell pulled him from Chinese school so that he could focus better on American school. So if you ever hear him talking about being a gweilo, now you’ll know why.”

“I think you need a hug now, M,” River said. 

“I always need a hug,” Missy said, and they hugged. 

River’s phone started ringing. The ringtone was “YYZ” by Rush. 

“Oh, it’s Brandon!”

“Hey,” he said, over the phone, “I’m here.” It might have sounded like an unnecessary announcement, but it was just how they were together, the two of them. Plus with no doorbell or anything like that presently available, it was another form of common courtesy. River went to let him in. When he entered the apartment, he scanned the room. Then he walked to the bedroom as River came in and pointed him that way. Upon reaching his destination, he promptly waved to Missy, who said “Hey, Brandon! You’re here early,” but the first thing he said was not to her. Instead, he said, “Riv, it’s a shame we had to pack up your bass guitar already.”

“Really? How come?” Missy asked, genuinely curious about it. 

“Because she could teach me a thing or two about ‘YYZ’ by Rush that Guitar Hero simply can’t.”

“Geddy, Alex, and Neil got me through some rough times. They were more my friends than like, actual people I knew from school and around town, you know?”

“Yeah, exactly. Henry and I grew up listening to Third Eye Blind and Linkin Park. We both think of the guys in both bands as those utterly cool older friends of ours. They just get us, in that weird liminal way. From LP, Henry latched onto Chester most, and I latched onto Mike the most.”

“So is that something you and River bonded over, Brandon? Iconic musicians who feel like friends?”

“Yeah, and music in general, art, and manga, that sort of stuff.  You weren’t here when I helped her pare down her vinyl record collection. I mean, some of it she’s got stored at my place, but like, she wanted to keep her ultimate favorites close.”

“Yeah!” River interjected. “Like Brand New Eyes by Paramore. I’d put it on, but we took my record player over to your place.” 

“Well shit, if I knew we were going to bring this back up, I would’ve brought it over again. Even though, you know, you need to keep most of your stuff at my house. Some of it’s already at Lambeth, right?”

River smiled before she replied, “Yup, but nothing too heavy yet.” 

“Hold on, what do you mean, ‘bring this back up’?” Missy inquired. “What did you two do back then?”

“After we finished getting my stuff unpacked and set up, I put the record on. And asked him to dance with me.”

“Ooh, really? To which song?” Missy interest was piqued. She knew that River and Brandon were already close long before Henry entered the picture. And it had always intrigued her if the two of them had tried to be anything more than friends. After all, Missy (and Zoe) knew full well Brandon’s effect on women. Every girl he encountered was drawn to him in some mysterious way. To Missy’s knowledge, the only person immune to this charm was Savannah Shearer, Brandon’s current girlfriend. 

“All I Wanted,” River replied. Her eyes were glimmering again.

“But that’s not a love song,” Missy said, perplexed by their choice. 

“Yeah, well, we know it’s not. But that makes it even more meaningful. We changed its meaning to suit ourselves better.” Missy saw the way he gazed at River, just then. His gaze was filled with a tenderness that Missy surmised he saved for River alone. Nobody else, not even Savannah, could draw this kind of attention from him. 

Missy tried to see if River was looking back at Brandon the same secret way. She was. They looked at each other this same way, but not at the same time. Brandon’s eyes had moved. Missy knew before they did where this was going. “Slow dancing, secret codes, and letting a woman move her entire apartment into your house? Brandon, you’re going to make her really happy one day.”