The Epic Crush of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo 1)

Instead I looked for Mr. and Mrs. Park and found them in the corner, avoiding the game of conversational one-upsmanship breaking out over the foyer. (“Oh, so your Guadagnini’s a rental? How sensible of you.”)

They looked relieved to see me. Yunie’s parents were square, honest, open people, unsuited for this shark tank. Both were podiatrists who met each other at a podiatrists’ convention. It was extremely difficult to figure out where Yunie got her sharper edges from, in both looks and attitude.

“Genie!” They got on their tiptoes to give me a barrage of kisses on the cheek. “We haven’t seen you in so long. When was the last time you came over for dinner?”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been really busy lately.” With demons. And gods. I’m in over my head. Send help.

Mrs. Park nodded solemnly. “It’s a tough time for everyone in your grade. SATs are coming up, college apps are around the corner. I don’t know how you kids these days handle so much pressure. It was easier for us when we were young.”

Mr. Park clapped me on the shoulder. “We’re just glad you could make it. And so is Yunie. She was getting really lonely without you.”

I winced upon hearing that. Then I did a mental backtrack to confirm exactly how much time I had been spending with my best friend in recent weeks, and I winced much harder at the result.

Compared to how entwined we normally were, I’d basically cut her off. And she hadn’t said a word. She’d picked up that I had something else going on and left me to it.

I was a terrible friend. Or at the very least, acting like one.

I’d make it up to her after the performance. Right now I had to focus on being a terrible daughter.

“My dad should be here somewhere,” I said. “Have you seen him?”

Mr. Park arced his arm to mimic the curve of the hallway. “He’s around the corner. I saw him talking to another student from your school.”

I said goodbye to Yunie’s parents with a big smile on my face that vanished instantly the moment I turned around. Quentin, I thought with murder on my mind. Whatever had passed between us on my doorstep didn’t give him the right to sneak in here with magic. To introduce himself to my father without me being there. I stomped around the hallway to the other side of the auditorium and found Dad talking to . . .

Androu?

“Oh hey,” he said.

I blinked a couple of times. “I didn’t invite you,” I blurted out.

Androu took my rudeness in stride—as if he had girls greeting him with insults all the time. “My cousin who lives in the city is performing tonight. He’s a timpanist. Holds a beat like superglue.”

“Androu here was filling me in on your volleyball season,” Dad said. “He’s a big fan of yours.” Then he made the most obvious, over-the-top wink possible.

I stood there, catching flies with my mouth. The silence emanating from my throat was so thick that Androu coughed and excused himself to go to the bathroom.

Once he was gone, Dad turned to me with a twinkle in his eye. “I knew there was a boy,” he said. “Given how mopey you were at the gym? There had to be a boy.”

This . . . this wasn’t so bad. Of all the misunderstandings.

“You should tell me about these things,” Dad said. “You know I don’t judge like your mother. I’m okay with you dating.”

I could triage this. The patient was stable.

“We have to have ‘the talk’ though; I won’t have you making irresponsible choices.” He tried to say it sternly but couldn’t hide his glee at getting to check off one of those American-style parenting milestones he’d read so much about in magazines. I wasn’t sure if he fully understood what “the talk” entailed.

Androu came back. “We’ll save it for later,” Dad whispered.

“So yeah,” Androu said, doing his best to ignore my father’s blatant winking again. “I didn’t know Yunie was performing tonight. Wild, huh? We should plan to go to more concerts together. It’d be fun.”

Dad was about to joyously agree, but then he suddenly deflated, his high spirits gone with the wind. There was only one person who could make him go one-hundred-to-zero just like that. And she was right behind me.

My mother didn’t say anything in greeting. She glanced at me. Then my father. Then up at Androu.

EKG flatline. Code Blue.

“I found a space,” she announced.