Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,2
of middle school, that had been
established as his one gesture of affection when he didn’t know how
else to touch her. “Julia! That’s great.”
“You goof, I’m gonna choke on my apple.” She shook him off. “I
don’t want to get my hopes up.”
“Her hopes should be up. Her biological daughter is awesome.”
“She’s lived in eight countries and has worked with famous painters
and sculptors. No offense, dear friend, but I think her standards for
awesome are a little higher than yours.”
Dave took another forkful of rice and chewed it over slowly,
watching the basketball players shoot free throws to decide on teams.
“I don’t care how great of a life she’s led, if she doesn’t come visit you she’s a very poor judge of awesomeness.”
He glanced out the corner of his eye at Julia, who set her apple core
aside and grabbed a napkin-wrapped sandwich out of her bag. He was
waiting to catch that smile of hers, to know he had caused it. Instead,
he only saw her eyes flick toward the Nevers list, which was resting
folded on his knee. They turned their attention to the pickup game
happening on the court, each eating their lunch languidly.
For the last two periods of the day, Dave could feel the seconds
ticking by, like bugs crawling on his skin. He reread the Nevers list,
smiling to himself at the memory of him and Julia stealing the pen
DAVE 15
away from each other to write the next item. He gazed out the window
at the blue California sky, texted Julia beneath his desk, scowled at
the two kids in the back of the room who somehow believed that
what they were doing was quiet enough to be called whispering. Next
to him, Anika Watson took diligent notes, and he wondered how
she was mustering the energy. He wondered how many of the items
on the Nevers list she’d done, whether she was going to the Kapoor
party that he’d overheard was happening that Friday night. Looking
around the room, he imagined a little number popping up above each
person’s head depicting how many Nevers they’d done.
At the final releasing bell of the day, Dave and Julia met up in the
hallway, silently making their way out to the parking lot, where Julia’s supposedly white Mazda Miata should have been glimmering in the
California sun but was barely reflective thanks to the year-long layer
of dust she’d never bothered to clean off.
Before Julia said anything, Dave knew what she’d been thinking
about. He knew her well enough to read her silences, and there’d
been only one thing on her mind since he’d found the list. He smiled
as she spoke. “What if we did the list?”
Dave shrugged and tossed his backpack into her trunk. “Why
would we?”
“Because two more months of this will drive me crazy,” Julia said.
She unzipped her light blue hoodie and threw it into the car on top of
his backpack, then stepped out of her sandals and slipped those into
the trunk, too. “We’ve got nothing left to prove to ourselves. High
school didn’t change us. Maybe it’s time to try out what everyone
16 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES
else has been doing. Just for kicks. God knows we could use some
entertaining.”
It was one of those perfect seventy-five-degree days, more L.A. than
San Francisco, though San Luis Obispo was perfectly in between the
two cities. A breeze was blowing, and now that Julia was wearing
only her tank top it almost tired him how beautiful she was. It’d been
a long time of this, keeping his love for her subdued. It’d been a long
time of letting her rest her head on his shoulder during their movie
nights, of letting her prop her almost-always bare feet on his lap, his
hands nonchalantly gripping her ankles. He’d been a cliché all four
years of high school, in love with his best friend, pining silently.
He opened the passenger door and looked across the roof of Julia’s
car, which was more brown than white, covered with raindrop-shaped
streaks of dirt, though it hadn’t rained in weeks. “I hear there’s a party at the Kapoors’ on Friday.”
Julia beamed a smile at him. “Look at you. In the know.”
“I’m an influential man, Ms. Stokes. I’m expected to keep up with
current events.”
Julia snorted and plopped herself down into the driver’s seat. “So,
no Friday movie night, then? We’re going to a party? With beers in
red plastic cups and Top 40 music being blasted and kids our age?
People hooking up in upstairs bedrooms and throwing up in the
bushes outside and at least one girl running out in tears?”
“Presumably,” Dave said. “I’ve never actually been to a party, so I
have no idea if that’s what happens.”
Julia lowered the top of the car, then