MIRROR UNIVERSE
Our next soccer match was an away game, against Poplar Grove High School down in Salem.
After school, we grabbed our away kits and boarded the bus waiting in the student parking lot. I ended up in the middle of the bus, with Chip right across the aisle from me. At the front, Coach Bentley cleared her throat.
“It’s your first away game, gentlemen,” she said. “I’m not going to bore you with the Code of Conduct or anything. You all know what’s expected of you. So why don’t we go make it three and oh?”
We all cheered. The airbrakes hissed, the door hinged shut, and the bus lurched into motion, but Coach Bentley stayed standing, swaying as the bus mounted the speed bumps at the parking lot’s exit.
“Some of you have been asking about recruiters.” She glanced around, her eyes lingering on Gabe. He was, empirically speaking, our best player, and had a real chance of getting scouted. “I suspect there will be some today. I know it’s pointless telling you not to feel pressured. But I hope you’ll remember that this isn’t a singular opportunity, for any of you. There will be other games, other recruiters, and other paths to the future you want. So just get out there, play hard, and have fun. Go Chargers!”
“Go Chargers!” we shouted.
The bus bounced as we got onto the highway, and the guys settled into the ride, playing on their phones or talking or, sometimes, shouting from one end of the bus to the other.
In front of me, Gabe and Jaden speculated about which schools might have scouts at our game.
“Probably UW and UO, at least,” Jaden said. “Maybe Idaho?”
Gabe laughed. “Do they have schools in Idaho?”
“No idea. Hey, Darius.”
“Yeah?”
“Who do you think is gonna be at the game?”
“Oh,” I said. “I dunno.”
I was a junior. And besides, I was a defender. No one ever paid attention to defenders.
Plus, like I said, I was pretty sure college wasn’t for me. I knew Mom and Dad wanted me to go, but I just couldn’t see myself being happy there.
Across from me, Chip frowned at his phone, thumbs jabbing the screen. He huffed, crossed his arms, and stared out the window.
I watched him for a second, and then looked out my own window. It was one of those perfectly clear fall days where you can just barely make out Mount Hood to the east. I watched it as best I could, my view interrupted by billboards every so often, but the back of my neck prickled.
Chip huffed again, and then sighed.
I leaned across the aisle. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, but he kept his arms crossed and his shoulders up around his ears.
And then he said, “You’ve got a sister, right?”
“Yeah. Laleh.”
“She ever do anything that just makes you want to, like, murder her?”
“Not really. She’s nine.”
“Yeah, well, that’s okay then.” Chip puffed his cheeks and blew out a heavy breath. “My brother was supposed to look after Evie tonight, since Ana and Jason both have class, but now he says he’s sick and wants me to do it instead. Like I could just turn this bus around. Like our game calendar isn’t on the fridge.”
“That sucks,” I said.
And then I said, “Who’s Jason?”
“Jason Bolger? Evie’s dad?”
My brain executed a swift and painful change in inertia.
“Is he related to Trent?”
“Yeah, Trent’s brother. Graduated when we were first years?”
I had about a million questions.
I couldn’t ask any of them.
So instead I just said “Oh.”
Chip blew out another sigh.
“I guess I should be used to this.”
“Sorry.”
I didn’t know what else to say.
I thought maybe Chip didn’t want me to say anything else. Just listen.
Sometimes people just need you to listen to them.
Chip shrugged and turned back to the window. I watched him for a second. The sunlight silhouetted him in gold and caught the fine hairs at the nape of his neck.
My chest gave a little squeeze.
I shrugged myself, and blinked, and turned away.
Our game against Poplar Grove High School was a complete and total victory for us.
I almost felt bad for the other team.
Almost.
Gabe got a hat trick in the first half, while James and Jaden each scored a goal in the second.
We shook hands with our vanquished opponents, and then Coach pulled some of the guys (including Gabe) aside to talk to a pair of track-suited adults in the first row of the stands. I couldn’t make out the logos on their breasts, but it was pretty clear they were recruiters.
As we walked to the guest lockers, Chip put his arm over my shoulder.
He’d never done that to me before.
It reminded me of the way Sohrab always did that to me.
“Good game, huh?”
“I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “I only touched the ball twice. But Gabe was awesome.”
“Yeah.”
Chip’s arm left my shoulder, but then he put his hand on my back.
“Um.”
“Hm?” Chip said.
“I didn’t say anything.” I swallowed.
The silence between us hummed against my skin where Chip’s hand warmed it.
Poplar Grove High School’s locker room smelled so sterile it made my eyes water, like someone had poured ammonia over every single surface, and then maybe added some rubbing alcohol on top of that, and then filled the sprinkler systems with bleach and ran that for a couple hours too.
The back of my throat burned, and I hacked and coughed as I changed. Chip stood right next to me, radiating body heat and a faint scent of sweat and deodorant as he pulled his shirt over his head.
I slipped my joggers on and got out of there as fast as I could, because I didn’t want anyone to see my erection.
What was wrong with me?
It was dark when the bus pulled back into the student parking lot at Chapel Hill High School.
“Good job today, guys. Get some sleep.”
A row of cars lined the curb, parents picking up their sons. Some of the seniors headed deeper into the lot to pick up their cars and give their friends rides. I grabbed my bag and one of Coach’s and helped her inside.
“Good work today, Darius,” she said.
“Thanks, Coach, but I didn’t do much.”
She smiled.
“You never give yourself enough credit.”
“Well.”
“Your parents waiting for you?”
“I rode my bike.”
“All right. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See you.”
I grabbed my messenger bag and helmet out of my locker and went out to the bike racks.
Chip Cusumano was there too. He’d unlocked his bike, but it was lying on its side in the grass next to the curb, where he was sitting with his chin in his hands.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.”
I sat down next to him, but with a good foot between us, because I was still feeling weird about getting an erection when I was changing next to him, and the way my skin hummed when he was close to me.
I didn’t like it.
I didn’t like that my body responded to him the same way it did to Landon. Like it didn’t matter who it was I actually liked.
Like it didn’t matter who I wanted.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I guess.”
He looked out into the parking lot. Orange cones of light dotted the empty asphalt, catching the misty rain that had begun to fall.
I ran my hands through my hair at the same time Chip did, trying to get the damp bits out of our eyes.
Chip made a popping sound with his lips. “It just sucks.”
“What does?”
“My sister is mad I couldn’t take care of Evie. Like it wasn’t my brother’s night in the first place. And my mom is taking her side.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Right? It’s like, it’s not my job to fix all their messes. But for some reason everyone expects me to be ‘the mature one.’ The one who’s got it all figured out.” He sighed and flopped back, stretching his arms over his head into the wet grass behind him. “I never get to be the one who needs help.”
I leaned back too, using my hoodie to protect the back of my head, and rested my hands on my stomach. The misty rain tickled my eyelashes.
“That sucks.”
“Yeah.” Chip leaned over to look at me. “Whoa.”
“What?”
“You just have really long eyelashes, dude.”
My cheeks burned.
“Oh. It’s a Persian thing.”
“Huh.”
Chip stared upward again.
“Sorin’s always been a mess. And Ana was never really responsible until she had Evie. And Mom’s got her hands full with both of them, and now Evie too.”
Chip ran a hand through his hair again, leaving it even messier than before.
Somehow, it made his whole face look more open.
Vulnerable, even.
“It’s like, they already sucked up all the air in the house. Now there’s Evie too. And I love her, god I love her, but what’s left for me? Nothing.”
“I’m sorry. That really sucks.”
“Yeah. Well. I’m pretty sure I’m Evie’s favorite at least. She can’t even say Sorin’s name.”
“Sorin’s your brother?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s kind of a cool name, though.”
Chip snorted.
“Sorin?”
“Yeah.”
“Better than Cyprian at least.”
“What do you mean? I like Cyprian.”
“No one can spell it.”
“What does it mean?”
“Man from Cyprus.”
“It suits you. I mean, you seem like a Cyprian.”
“Thanks,” Chip said.
And then he said, “Hard to beat being named after a king, though.”
“Technically Darius the Great was an emperor.”
“Yeah, well. Darius suits you too.”
My ears burned. I thought maybe the rain would start steaming off them. “Thanks.”
“And it’s cool you have this, like, connection. With your family back in Iran.”
“I guess. It’s hard sometimes too. I’m still only a Fractional Persian. And sometimes the Persian part is all that matters. And sometimes, the American part is too much of a barrier.”
Chip looked at me for a second.
I blinked away the rain.
“You know what?” he asked.
But before he could finish, his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and held it above his head, typing into it as a grin crept across his face.
He sat back up. “Sorry. That was Trent.”
“Oh.”
I still couldn’t wrap my brain around the idea of Trent Bolger, Soulless Uncle of Orthodoxy.
It seemed to violate some fundamental law of the universe.
I sat up and wiped my palms on my knees.
“I’m gonna go hang out with him. You want to come?”
I stared at Cyprian Cusumano as my brain experienced a cascade failure.
Maybe when you’re a guy like Chip Cusumano, and Trent Bolger has always been your friend, you can’t conceive of why anyone would want to avoid him like a hull breach.
“I think I’m gonna head home. I need to shower anyway.” I stood and pulled my helmet on.
“Aww, come on.”
Another cascade failure.
Why would Chip want me to come along, anyway?
Chip reached his hand out, and I helped him up. “Maybe next time?” he asked, his eyebrows all perked up in hope.
“Maybe.”
Like if we ever found ourselves in mirror universe where people had goatees and inverted senses of morality.
“Cool.” Chip hopped onto his bike. “See you, Darius.”
“See you, Cyprian.”
He grinned at me and pedaled away.
I shook my head, wiped off my face, and headed home.