“I don’t know.”
He raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Liar.”
I sighed. He was right, but I was used to not talking about this. David and Mika got bored whenever I tried. “Astrophysics,” I said. “I guess I’ve just—I’ve always been fascinated by the universe, about all the things we don’t know and just by how malleable everything is…” I trailed off. “Okay. That was super dorky. I’m stopping now.”
“Don’t,” he said.
I blushed. “It’s really not worth thinking about. I’ll have to get a scholarship because my parents can’t afford the tuition. If I go to Rutgers, I’ll get reduced tuition because of my mom.”
“No,” he said. “You won’t need to do any of that. You’ll get a scholarship and go to MIT.”
The firm way he said it—like he didn’t doubt for a second it was true—made my gaze skitter down to the floor. Whenever I told someone about MIT, they’d usually give me a spiel about having backup options. I felt like one of us should be practical. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a scholarship to M-I-freaking-T?”
“No? Very difficult? You’ll still do it.”
I shoved his knee, and he shoved mine. His impossibly bright smile was back, and it made me feel light-headed. This was the Jamie I remembered, the one who couldn’t contain what he felt or believed in. I was so relieved to be with him and so overwhelmed by his belief in me, I wanted to reach over and touch him one more time. Just to make sure this was really happening.
He threaded his leather wristband around his index finger. “Anyway, Mika told me how you kicked everyone’s ass in that AP Physics class. If you don’t go to MIT, you’ll do something else awesome. I know this for a fact.”
“For a fact?” I shoved his knee again, lightly this time. “Are you a visitor from the future or something? Did you cross the boundaries of space and time to be here, Jamie?”
His eyes warmed up ten degrees. “That is exactly what I did.”
Outside, the heat was crawling back into the air.
Music slid out the windows of karaoke places. People glided in and out of nightclubs, out of konbinis, out of izakaya. Some entrances were shuttered, but others were thrown open to the street, spilling light onto the sidewalks.
In fact, all I could see was light. Unfurling on the ground, bursting in windows, glowing on the vertical signs that ran all the way up the sides of buildings. Shibuya fizzed with light, pushed back the darkness.
“What should we do?” I asked.
Jamie walked a few steps in front of me and then walked back again. “What do you want to do?”
“I really have no idea.”
“Karaoke?”
I tightened my ponytail. “Don’t feel like it.” The thought of being inside made my skin feel itchy. The thought of Jamie and me in a small, dark room… I couldn’t even begin.
“Let’s walk,” I said. “I want to see it all before it disappears.”
The roads were bright passageways. All of them strange and new in the middle of the night. Even the people seemed different, less inhibited than they did during the day. They were taking pictures with their phones, checking their reflections in darkened windows, sitting on the curb outside the 24–7 McDonald’s eating hundred-yen ice-cream cones.
“I’m not sure how to proceed,” Jamie said. “I feel like we have to talk about everything just because we can.”
“We can’t talk about everything,” I said. “We have a limited number of hours.”
He contemplated it for a moment. “That is some serious pressure.”
We reached a quieter, narrower street. I was startled when a group of people sprinted out of an alleyway and crossed in front of us, a blur of glittering colors and loud voices.
Jamie and I stood still. We briefly made eye contact and then looked away at the same time, which made me feel all weightless and fluttery. I was falling for him. That was why I was so determined to stay out with him all night. That was why I kept moving toward him even when I didn’t have to. It was daunting and it was scary, but I was drawn to him, like he had his own gravitational force.
“My first question,” he said, “is where are you from?”
I touched the strap of my watch. “Um. France, Japan, Poland, New Jersey.”
“Never mind. Next question.” He stepped in front of me. We were by an Internet café pumping techno music into the street. Black lights lined the stairs that led up to the entrance, giving us both a blue glow. It heightened the curiosity on his face. “My question is, do you even know how intimidating you are?”
I pulled my cardigan around my rib cage. “Intimidating?”
“Yes. From the moment I met you, you intimidated the hell out of me. You’re so cool. And terrifying.”
“Terrifying?”
“I don’t mean it like that,” he said. “You’re terrifying in a good way.”
“Obviously. Like spiders or serial killers or life-threatening diseases.”
“You’re terrifying the way a book is right before it ends. You know? When you have to put it down because it’s too much to take in at once. You are the most terrifying person I know.”
He was smiling at me. Even in that aquarium light, I could see the freckles dispersed across his nose and cheeks, and the gold flecks like matching freckles in his eyes.
“My question for you,” I said, “is why do you have all those Japanese books in your room?”
“That’s easy,” he said. “I want to be a translator.”
“Like you want to work for the UN or something?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I think I want to translate books. Novels, actually. It sounds pretty stupid, I know.”
I gave him a mock scowl. “No. It’s amazing. I can’t speak Japanese. I still can’t speak any French.”
He lowered his eyes self-consciously. “Trust me. I have to get a lot better. Right now, I wouldn’t have a shot in hell of translating a street sign.”
“You’re smart.”