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Me:Don’t know why you didn’t ditch me a long, long time ago, but I’m grateful for your poor judgement. I’ll keep you posted about the album. Gotta have material first.
Jin:Take care, dude. And don’t be weird to Tali. She’s had enough of that from you.
Me:I like that we’re calling me ruining her life ‘weird.’
My phone rang.Jin.“What’s up?” I answered.
“You ass. Does her life appear to be ruined?”
I huffed a perplexed laugh. “What?”
“You heard me. You keep wearing the claim of ruining Tali’s life like it’s your thorny Jesus-crown.”
“That’s quite a blasphemous metaphor.”
“Amen. My childhood pastor would be proud.” He chuckled. “My point is, her life isn’t ruined. Not even close. You ruined your relationship with her, but not her entire life. She’s too much of a badass lady to let some lowlife scum like you used to be ruin her life. To completely misquote MLK junior, the arc of Tali’s life is long, but it bends toward happiness.”
I laughed again. My conversations with Jin often went this way, until he shed some completely transcendent light on my thoughts.
“You gotta explain,” I said.
He groaned, like I was the dumbass. And maybe I was. “Yeah, some terrible shit went down along the way. Sometimes the bad parts prevailed for a while. But Tali was never going to let that shit stop her. She had to work for it, but she got back on the path that has led her to a place of happiness. You too, Jude. You’ve done the same.”
I exhaled, picking at the tattered hem of my jeans. “I’m gonna have to think on that one.”
“You do that. And maybe write a fucking song about it. You can use the thorny Jesus-crown line for free.”
Fucking Jin. He always got me back to smiling in the end. “You’re a peach.”
“So I’ve heard.” Little girls’ screams sounded in the background. “The monsters have risen. I gotta go before they implement their plan to take over the world.”
“Do you have to? I kinda want to see what they’d do.”
His shudder was audible. “You don’t, Jude. You really don’t. Wait, no, Rebecca, your sister can’t fly!”
He hung up without another word. Guess I’d have to wait to find out what trouble his spawn had gotten into.
Plugging my phone into its charger on the pressed wood side table next to my hotel bed, I laid back, staring at the faux-tin ceiling, thinking about Jin, my shockingly wisest friend who saved my life more than once—who kept saving my life in more ways than one.
Eight Years Ago
“Jin! You gotta come out tonight.”
He knocked my hand off his head. “Dude, I’m here to see you. Clearly I’m going out with you. I just need, like, an hour of silence so I can study. Go play with Jeremy.”
“One hour, Jinny. That’s all you get. I’ll be quiet as a fucking mouse.”
Jin shook his head. “You’re so high. It’s not very cute.”
I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Good thing I’m not trying to reel you in then, huh? My dick will get sucked by the end of the night no matter how ridiculous I act.”
Jin gave me a long, hard look that had me shifting from foot to foot, checking for escape routes. “Not sure that’s something to be proud of,” he said.
I wiped my fake tears with my middle finger. “College boy’s getting all judgey.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’d just like to have a conversation with my friend, not the drugs swimming through his veins.”
I slapped my chest. “This is me, baby.” I jerked my chin toward his textbooks. “Maybe you’re the one who’s changed.”
