Page 114 of End Game

“Well, it was good seeing you,” she lies.

“Do you want to grab some coffee?” I’m not sure where the idea comes from. We’re not friends; we’re hardly acquaintances. We don’t exactly like each other. And then there’s the fact that the last time we had coffee together…

“I think we’d better not,” she says.

“Why not?”

“We’re not friends, Barrett,” she reminds me.

“So?”

“So people who aren’t friends don’t grab coffee.”

“We can change that.”

“Why would you want to?”

I shrug. “I’m having a good time talking to you. More than I expected. And I don’t have anything else going on this afternoon.”

To my surprise, she isn’t offended by my comments—if anything, I think she respects me more for admitting it.

“Lead the way,” she says.

The coffee shop is crowded with the weekend hubbub of life in a small college town. We order our drinks and find a table in the center of the shop, one of the only free tables at this time of day.

Johanna crosses her arms over her chest. “You wanted to talk? So talk.”

“How have you been?” I venture neutrally.

She rolls her eyes. “You don’t care.”

Not really. She has a chip on her shoulder now and she’s been a total bitch to Diana. I have no reason to be nice to her.

I don’t deny the point. Instead, I take a sip of my drink and fold my hands on the table.

“I need your help,” I admit.

She scoffs. “Let me guess. This is about your little friend.”

“Yes, actually.”

Johanna rolls her eyes again. “I don’t know why you think I’m the person to help you.”

“You’re teammates. Roommates,” I remind her. “You’re both Chinese. You know of my family. That’s not nothing.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

“You called that I had feelings for her within, like, five seconds of us meeting.”

She looks uncomfortable. “So?”

“So. Maybe you have some ideas. How can I get her to see me as more than a friend?”

“I don’t see why you’re asking me. I barely even know her.”

“You have more in common than you think you do.”

Knowing them both—Diana so well, and Johanna so superficially—I know that they’re both athletes, both fierce competitors, both seniors, both Chinese-American, both hard workers, both deeply connected with their families, and both intense about school. Where Johanna is more social and connected to her team, Diana is finding it harder to settle in and make friends, and where Diana is effortlessly outgoing with new people, it’s harder for Johanna to let people into her circle.