Victor: Her Ruthless Crush by Theodora Taylor (beach read book TXT) 📕

lie exactly. But I also didn’t correct my mother when she congratulated me on spending so much time attending to my studies.

I mean, who was I hurting? I was still going to apply to all those other schools. And the chances of me getting into RhIDS’ new animation program were pretty much zero. I figured what my mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her…or make her flip out so bad she set all my art supplies on fire.

So yeah, I missed Victor. But I kept myself pretty occupied without having our Thursday tutoring sessions to look forward to every week.

Still, the thought of never seeing him again made me a little sad when we returned to school after the big break.

There were a few new students in our classes. Mostly the progeny of fathers who had transferred to the Japan flagships of their international corporations. Their parents had moved them here without regard to disrupting their kid’s school year by putting them into a school system that ran from April to March instead of September to May.

New blood happened at the beginning of every third term, but Byron was even more excited than me.

“There’s a new international kid in my deaf studies class,” he told me when we met at the fence for lunch, the first Monday of the third term. We’d been eating outside ever since Byron became persona non grata in the school cafeteria. It had been a little cold since winter set in, but whatever. Better than having to sit by while Jake and his friends bullied Byron.

I was glad to hear my brother had made a new friend after a whole term of having nobody to talk to but me.

“He knows ASL too,” Byron added. “So the teacher said we could be classroom assignment partners, even though he’s in your year.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, happy for Byron. He was the only American in his Deaf Studies program. So the classes were conducted all in JSL, which made it hard for him to keep up. It also meant he was the last pick when people paired off for in-class assignments. “Is he from the States?”

“Not sure. He’s Asian, but I don’t think he’s from Japan,” Byron answered. “He knows JSL too, but he told the teacher he preferred ASL. And he doesn’t speak when he signs, so I’m thinking he probably has a serious deaf voice. But he’s pretty tall, and he told me he signed up for the basketball team.”

“Deaf voice” referred to how people talked when they had trouble forming words due to never having heard them. Byron had zero deaf voice since his hearing had only started gradually declining right before we moved to Japan. But the people in his class fit in a whole range from hard of hearing like Byron to completely deaf.

“How did he learn ASL if he’s not from America?” I asked Byron.

Byron shrugged. “I dunno. After he said he was into basketball, that’s all we talked about. He’s joining the team. Even got his uniform and everything.”

I paused before taking another bite of the curry rice Mom made us for lunch to ask, “Do you like him-like him?”

Byron shook his head. “Nah, he’s just cool. It’s nice to have a friend at school again, you know. Somebody to talk to other than you. Too bad Jake will probably mess it up for me.”

Byron slumped his shoulders, and some of the excitement faded from his expression. “The new guy won’t want to be my partner when he finds out I’m a homo.”

“Don’t call yourself that.” I still wasn’t sure if homo was considered a derogatory term for gay people in Japan. Either way, I hated Jake and his friends for using it on Byron like it was.

I put down my bento box and rubbed his shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with liking girls and guys. You just have to make it to college back in the States. Two more years.”

“Yeah, two more years,” Byron agreed. But the way he said it made two more years sound like twenty. He replaced the lid on his bento box and threw it into his backpack with the curry rice only half-eaten. “See you after practice.”

That useless feeling I hadn’t had to think about over winter break came roaring right on back as I watched him walk away. Basketball practice was every Monday and Thursday, and there would be even more games with tournament season was coming up. How was Byron going to get through this?

I spent the rest of my day racking my brain about what to do. Maybe when I left to go back to the States for college, I could convince Mom and Dad to let Byron come with me too. I knew Dad liked his job here in Japan, but I wasn’t sure how much more of this Byron could take.

That’s what I was mulling over later that day when the basketball team came streaming out into the hallway.

But all thoughts of possible alternative futures for Byron disappeared when I saw he once again wasn’t among the ranks of the guys coming out of the locker room.

This time I didn’t bother to ask his teammates any questions. I rushed straight inside the boys’ inner sanctum. And my stomach turned when I rounded the corner to see Jake and his two friends once again surrounding my brother.

But then I stopped and double took.

Because though Jake and his friends were arced around my brother, none of them were looking at him. In fact, the American was visibly trembling.

I followed his gaze and immediately realized why he appeared so terrified.

Victor.

Victor was standing at the other end of the locker row, dressed in a basketball uniform. And he was flanked by Donny and a huge guy I didn’t recognize.

“Which one?” Victor was signing to Byron. “Which one of them hit your sister?”

Oh. My. God.

8

It was Victor. And it wasn't Victor.

I had never seen this version of him before. He was wearing the same basketball uniform