The smell of greasy meat and spilled beer was thick in the air, laced with the faint scent of cigarette smoke wafting from the back door of Miguel's. Haruka ducked her head to keep from bumping into the green shaded light at the entrance and scanned the dim Mexican restaurant. She couldn't tell if the combination of familiar smells was making her feel nostalgic or nauseous. She used to come here with her grandma when she was a kid, so frequently that the waitresses knew their regular order.
As she made her way up to the bar, she was filled with a peculiar sadness, realizing that the waitresses probably couldn't even recognize her anymore. She was still the tall lanky girl she was at 11, but ten years had brought so many changes to her appearance. Her long, pale blonde hair had been chopped short and naturally darkened to a dirty dishwater color. Her chubby face had narrowed, her baby fat replaced with a well earned toned physique after years on the track team.
Thinking about her grandma brought back the guilt she and been swallowing since she had left her hometown right after she graduated high school. It was strange; despite her grandma's passing her junior year, she still felt like she had betrayed her by moving to Los Angeles those few years ago to play softball at UCLA. She knew, of course, that was nonsense- her grandma would have told her she was an idiot if she had stayed. She was so supportive of Haruka in all her endeavors- she was the first person Haruka came out to, and she sat front row at every high school track meet she had run. God, Haruka missed her every second.
She was abruptly pulled from her thoughts by the bartender asking politely what she cared for. She handed over her ID and asked for a Coors Light, thanking him with her charming grin when he set it down. The tinkle of the bell on the front door caught her attention and she glanced over, remembering why she was here with the flip of her stomach. A family with three rowdy young boys walked in and she sighed in relief, the anticipation of her blind date's arrival putting her on edge.
Haruka had always been great with women, her nerves easily hidden underneath her attractiveness and charm. In LA she had been a bit promiscuous, feeling the pressure of her classmates' The L Word-like lifestyles. The first thing her foster brother, Liam, had said to her in the car from the airport when she came back to her hometown was that he'd met a girl that would be just PERFECT for her. "JUST PERFECT," he said. "She saw the picture of us with grandma in my wallet, and asked if you were single."
She dismissed it at first, asking about his boyfriend, teasing him about prolonging his proposal he'd been planning for months. He simply laughed off her jokes and returned the conversation to this PERFECT girl, and she knew it was because he'd seen her Instagram posts and snaps the past few months. She'd been out with different girls every night.
What Liam didn't know was that Haruka hadn't slept around the way it seemed. The first year or so she had been with one girl, fallen in love with her, and had her heart promptly broken. So she went out every night seeking companionship, but that's all it was. Companionship. She won over the hearts of girl after girl to the point that guys on campus were threatening to fight her almost weekly. But she never slept with them- things got too messy that way.
So Haruka was reluctant to accept Liam's offer to set her up with a blind date, but the minute he insinuated the reason she refused was that she slept around too much to have time for dates, she gloweringly accepted. He squealed with delight, exclaiming again how PERFECT this girl was for her, that she was on the dance team at the community college, that's how he met her. Haruka rolled her eyes and snorted, though girls who danced were kind of her weakness sometimes.
She drummed her fingertips on the bar top a few times, then gulped her beer half empty. Liquid courage, right?
The tinkle of the bell on the front door caught her attention. Haruka glanced over to see a blonde girl near her age, so she quickly looked away and tried to slouch into a casual position. She crossed her legs, then uncrossed them. How the fuck do you sit on a barstool casually?
"Are you Haruka?" a loud, chesty voice asked from behind her. Haruka turned and smiled at the blonde girl, taking note of her very short skirt and very red bow in her hair.
"Yeah, I am," Haruka smirked. "How'd you know?"
The girl shrugged and gestured to her side. "You're the only dorky butch softball player I see in this restaurant," she stated matter of factly. "Mind if I take a seat?"
Haruka chuckled and nodded, quietly scheming a prank to play on Liam to get him back for that one. "You're Minako, then?"
"Mina," she said, flashing a brilliantly white grin. She was incredibly beautiful- naturally tan, with freckles across her nose and cheeks, sparkling blueish eyes.. she was thin in a muscular way. Haruka could tell she was an athlete. The white of her top was so crisp, Haruka wondered if she used color safe bleach, or like, a clorox pen or something. Maybe when she got home she could try getting out the stain on her softball pants again- "Are you going to check me out or buy me a drink, dude?"
Haruka raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't checking you out, actually, I was just noticing the whiteness of your shirt," she said, gesturing to the bartender for another beer.
"The whiteness of my shirt?" Mina raised both her eyebrows right back. They stayed in the air when the bartender brought over a beer for her. "Is this for me?"
"Uh, yeah, unless you want something else?" Haruka asked, cocking her head to the side. Girls didn't usually complain when she bought them drinks.
"No, it's fine," Mina took a large gulp of the light beer, her eyes never leaving Haruka. "You're lucky I like beer. Most girls dressed like me don't."
Haruka's eyebrows furrowed. "Girls dressed like you? What, like, wearing white?"
"No, like, ten girls," Mina said, mimicking Haruka's use of the word. "Girls who are a ten. If you buy a ten a beer, you're insulting her."
"You're saying you're a ten?"
"Are you saying I'm not?"
Haruka opened then closed her mouth. "I don't believe in tens," she resolved, turning back to face the bar.
"Oh, jaded are we?" Mina said, a sarcastically jolly lift in her voice. "Interesting. So when your brother set me up with you, was it because you're an egotistical asshole who needs a soft, sweet woman's touch? Or because your ex-girlfriend dumped you and you're in a rut?" she asked sweetly, sipping her beer.
Haruka snorted. "I'm an egotistical asshole? You just met me!"
"You lied about checking me out and bought me a beer, dude," Mina held out her hand like it was obvious why she was offended.
"I didn't lie about checking you out, I really was thinking about color safe bleach-"
"Right, sure." Mina cut her off and took a last swig of her beer. The girls were silent for a moment, and Mina drummed on the bar top the same way Haruka had done earlier. She sighed and glanced around for a few moments, then finally slapped her hands against her thighs. "Wanna, like, go to my place and play Mario Kart and get pizza or something? I just want to put my pajamas on, and we're obviously not having sex tonight." Mina hopped off her barstool and without an answer from Haruka she was out the door.
Haruka turned to see the bartender watching her go. "What just happened?" she asked him/no one.
—
Haruka loved Mina's apartment the minute she walked in. It was small, but incredibly warm, and smelled of peaches and rich vanilla. The ceiling was laced with hanging plants, their vines intertwining in a few places. The walls were covered with colorful paintings, sprinkled with posters of bands and pictures of Mina's friends and family.
While Mina turned on the lights and lit candles, mumbling something about her roommate not being home, Haruka removed her coat and admired a framed picture over the entry table. It was of Mina and a few other girls that also looked their age. Mina had her arm around another blonde girl, this one with long pigtails in her hair, her mouth wide open and her eyes scrunched up in laughter. Next to the blonde girl was a pale girl with dark, raven hair. Her mouth was in a tight line, but her eyes were soft and happy. Kneeling on the ground in front of them was a small girl with a bright blue pixie cut. Her eyes were shielded by thick black rimmed glasses and her small giggle shielded by her dainty hand. They were all wearing big sweaters, posed in front of a lopsided Christmas tree covered in pink tinsel. When Haruka turned to study Mina's living room, she could tell it had taken residence next to her fireplace.
"They're basically my family," Mina called over from the stereo where she was flipping through channels.
"Mm!" Haruka nodded in acknowledgement. "You guys are all adorable."
She looked over to see Mina had come to admire the photo with her, a wide smile dancing on her freckled face. She pointed to a tall girl on the right side of the picture, who Haruka hadn't noticed before. She was carrying a tray of cookies into the room, waving at the camera with one of her pink oven mitts. Haruka could practically see her tall brunette ponytail bouncing with her steps. "That's my roomie, Makoto," she said. "She'll probably be home in a few hours, maybe you'll get to meet her. She'll be fucking delighted someone her height is around, she's always complaining that we're all midgets."
Haruka laughed. "You all are pretty tiny."
"Yeah, but Mako likes it I think, secretly, you know?" Mina said as she hopped over to flip on the TV and set up her video games. "She likes being the one who takes care of all of us. We're a big family, and she is our big strong momma." Mina's loud, throaty laugh filled the room along with the Mario Kart theme song. She sat on the couch and picked up her controller, setting a second down on the coffee table in front of her.
Haruka took one last look at the picture before joining Mina on the couch. "You all look really happy. It must be nice to have a family on top of your real family."
"Eh, I don't see my real family much," Mina shrugged, offering Haruka a beer from the mini fridge under the TV. "They all live in Europe, moved there when I was 14. I came back to California the minute I could. Cloudy skies and no cheeseburgers? Yeah, I lasted like three seconds."
"They don't have cheeseburgers in Europe?" Haruka asked, cracking open her beer.
"No," Mina shook her head, her eyes widening with seriousness as she selected a course from the menu. "They don't have cheeseburgers, or country music, or Obama. It's a horrible place, Haruka."
Haruka snorted. Mina was incredibly strange. Her sense of humor was the weirdest combination of dry sarcasm and ridiculous outlandish statements. Yet, Haruka strangely felt like she had known her her whole life. She found herself sitting on the couch next to her 'blind date' having no nerves in her stomach at all, only hunger. Her stomach grumbled. "So are we gonna get pizza, or not until I kick your ass in Mario Kart?"
Mina cackled. "Oh Haruka, don't you realize this is why we're playing Mario Kart? Whoever loses pays for pizza." Right as she said that, her little Peach driver threw a red shell at Haruka's Waluigi, knocking her off course.
It was Haruka's turn to cackle. "Oh my god dude, you are such a weasel!" her character got back on course and she started to pick up speed, snagging a few items to speed her up. "But you underestimate my Mario Kart skills."
"We'll see, Tenoh."
Haruka's body felt warm after three beers and a few rounds of Mario Kart. She sat cross-legged on Minako's dark red couch, which was incredibly soft and squishy, and made Haruka feel like she was sitting on a giant version of Mina's bow. She had won every game, which had only made Mina want rematch after rematch, punching Haruka in the arm every time she lost.
"I think you owe me like ten pizzas now," Haruka sang smugly as she crossed the finish line first yet again. She got up and did a tiny dance to the winner's music. Mina cackled and chucked a few pillows at her. "You are are such a sore loser dude!" Haruka laughed, dodging the attacks.
"Alright, let's go then," Mina said, hopping up and pushing Haruka out of the way. She collected her keys and pulled her coat over her small shoulders, and Haruka followed. Mina opened the door to leave, but whipped around, pushed her finger in Haruka's face, gritted her teeth and said, in an extremely stern tone, "but we have to get Hawaiian."
Haruka chuckled. "Okay. Why Hawaiian?"
Mina crinkled her eyebrows. "Because I fucking love Hawaiian, duh," she said, her arms out, and she shut the door in Haruka's face.