Love and Truth (13 page)

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Nicole san. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I smiled and stood.

“Emiko? Hi…um…what are you doing home?”

She sat down beside me and flattened her skirt. “No, school didn’t get out early. I just left early.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding. I felt an awkward tension in the air.

“Nicole san, I know that you know about Jonathan and Mina. I know that he lied to you and he told me how upset you were last night when you made him leave.” She sighed and I stared into the ground beneath our feet. “I’m really sorry that I didn’t tell you myself, but I felt like I’d be betraying my friend if I told you. Mina is already holding so much anger inside and she told me I couldn’t tell anyone about what happened to her. I can’t express to you how many times I came close to coming to your room to tell you everything. I was so infuriated with Jonathan and I almost told you just to spite him.”

I sat next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Emiko. I understand why you couldn’t tell me, and I certainly didn’t make it any easier by taking up for him. I feel awful about everything.”

We sat in silence for a while before she turned to me. “Nicole san, this may sound crazy coming from me right now, but I think you should give Jonathan another chance.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I know what he did was terrible and I know he hurt my friend, but I can’t ignore the pain I saw in him last night when I told him the truth. I’ve never seen so much remorse in another person’s face before. I know what he was going through with his break-up was no excuse, but like my parents said, I’ve known him all my life and I’ve never known him to be a bad person.”

I nodded and stared at her. Her eyes told me she was serious.

“He really loved Leah and she ripped his heart to shreds. For the last year he’s been like a shell of the guy I always knew. He stopped playing the piano except when he had to at work.”

I thought about that a moment. Playing the piano for work was news to me. He never mentioned that he played professionally. I wondered what else he was keeping from me, but then I remembered there were things about myself I kept from him, like being a dancer. Emiko wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I never saw him with a girl for more than one night at a time. He hasn’t been in a relationship since he was with Leah. But when I saw the two of you last night, he looked different. He looked happier than I’ve seen him since Leah left him.”

I was speechless. I couldn’t believe Emiko was telling me to give Jonathan a second chance.

”Emiko? I’m sorry, I just don’t know if I can do that. Even if I can get past the lying, how am I supposed to get past what he did to your friend?”

She reached out and grabbed my hand. “You have to try. You have to know that I sincerely feel like he’s sorry, that he’s more than his mistake. I forgave him last night and it set me free. If for no other reason, forgive him for you.” I looked at her and squeezed her hand. I realized she was something like the sister I never had after all.

“Thank you, Emiko. You have such an amazing heart. Jonathan’s very lucky to have you in his life. Most people in your position wouldn’t be so forgiving. I promise that I’ll think about everything you said. For now I just need some time to think and time to decide what I’m going to do.”

She tugged on my hand and pulled me up, smiling wide. “We’re going shopping today,” she said, a huge smile plastering her face. “I called my
Juku
teacher and let her know I wouldn’t be there tonight. We are going to the mall.”

I smiled and sighed, a huge weight removed. “Yay, retail therapy. My favorite!”

We took a cab up to Chatan and spent hours shopping our way through every store. The fashion in Japan was insane and I felt like I had died and went to shopping heaven. This was just what I needed. I ended up spending way more than I intended, so I was sure I’d be getting an email from my dad about the credit card balance.

Emiko called her parents and told them that we were going to eat dinner out. We went to an amazing little restaurant just off the boardwalk. We sat outside on the deck, overlooking the shore. The slight breeze blowing in off the water made the temperature perfect. I ate sushi for the first time and Emiko explained what everything was. She patiently tried teaching me how to use chopsticks, but I ended up just using a fork or my fingers.

We headed home soon after the sun set, our arms full of shopping bags. Emiko’s phone vibrated in the cab and she answered. She checked her text messages and looked at me nervously.

“What?” I asked. “What is it? Who is it?”

“Um, it was Jonathan. He says not to tell you he texted but he just wants to check on you. He wants to know if you’re okay.”

“Then why did you tell me? Why tell me it was him?”

She looked deflated and looks down at her phone. “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted you to see that he cares. That he’s worried about you.”

I felt immediately bad for being short with her. “Emiko, I understand. I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

“So what should I tell him? Do you not want me to respond?”

“Just be honest. Don’t lie. Lies are part of the reason we’re in this crappy situation in the first place.”

She texted him back, her thumbs tapping. She looked at me when she was done. “I just told him that you’re hurt and need some time, but that you’re okay.”

Her phone vibrated again and she looked up. “He says thank you for telling him.”

We spent the rest of the ride home talking about school and how she couldn’t wait for summer break. I told her about my dancing and how excited, but nervous I was about starting at the academy. She told me that she had plans for us to go to the big arcade tomorrow night because she didn’t have
Juku
on Fridays. She would take me to the beach on Saturday and then she wanted to take me out to a karaoke club. It all sounded really fun and I was glad to be keeping busy. I needed to be clear-minded for Monday morning. The last thing I wanted to do was to be the silly American girl that came in and danced like it was her first day in pointe shoes.

I was exhausted when we got home. I emptied my shopping bags and started putting things away. I changed into pajamas and a tank top and stepped out onto the balcony. I sat in the chair listening to the karate class chants. I wondered if he was there tonight or if he stayed home. I stayed there until the class was over. A few guys I didn’t recognize walked up the street, but there was no Jonathan. I walked back inside and got under my blankets, pulling them up around me. I fell asleep and dreamed about green eyes.

The next day I went for another run and had coffee at the café. There was no sign of him, and I was disappointed. I considered asking Emiko for his phone number, but I restrained myself. I needed to be strong, no matter how badly I wanted to see him.

When Emiko got home, we walked out to the boardwalk and arcade with some of her friends. I nervously asked her before we left if Mina would be joining us.

“No, she’s coming around slowly, but we’re not there yet. I’m sure it’s going to take some time for her to heal.”

I was relieved. I didn’t think I could handle that so soon after finding everything out. Emiko’s friends didn’t speak much English, so she spent most of her time translating. We had a good time and I never knew I could have so much fun in an arcade. But this was not a normal arcade. I’d never seen anything like it. There were three levels and we had to ride an elevator to reach them. There was an entire floor of just photo booths. But these were nothing like the simple photo booths back in the States. Emiko said they were called
purikura
. She explained that
purikura
were a huge cultural phenomenon in Japan. I looked around and there were so many of them, all brightly colored and painted with crazy and wild designs.

“Each one is a different theme,” she said. “You choose from the tons of backgrounds once you get in the booth using the touch screen, and before you print your pictures you use a special pen for selecting and drawing on your photos. You can choose from a bunch of different functions like the
pretty face laboratory
and remove blemishes, or make your eyelashes look longer, or widen or slim your face. You can even lengthen your legs. The most popular function is the
décor
function where you can choose from hundreds of icons to decorate your picture with.”

We kept walking and I was amazed by everything.

“That’s so wild, Emiko. I have to do it! Can we do it? I want to get our picture taken together. It’ll be an awesome keepsake. I’ve always wanted to get rid of the little mole above my lip. Now I can just magically erase it.”

We chose a hot pink booth with neon Japanese script and flowers. It snapped our photos in several different poses. We were laughing and acting goofy when we weren’t preening to look like models. We spent forever decorating, enhancing, and doodling on our images. I got a small sheet of picture stickers and a sheet of regular picture strips.

“This was so much fun,” I said. “Thank you for bringing me here. I can’t wait for my family to see these pictures.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re having fun. We can come back anytime.” We said bye to her friends and caught a cab back home. We got home just as Ms. Nobuko was setting the table for dinner. Mr. Nakamura greeted us from the kitchen.

“Hi, girls. Did you have fun?”

“Yes, Mr. Nakamura. Emiko took me to the arcade and it was great.”

He smiled and motioned for us to come to the table.

“I’m glad you had fun. The arcades here are a big attraction to locals and tourists alike. They’re pretty incredible; the technology these days is hard to fathom.”

Mrs. Nakamura didn’t join us because she had an evening function at school. We ate dinner and chatted about all the other places I wanted to visit. Mr. Nakamura said that he and Mrs. Nakamura planned on taking me to some of the ancient castle ruins that were popular tourist attractions on the island. He said it would be a good opportunity for me to learn more about the culture of ancient Okinawa. We said goodnight shortly after dinner and I went up to my room, intent on going to bed at a decent hour, but I couldn’t resist going out to the balcony to listen to the sound of karate class.