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Tenzin was the only one of their family to have the day off from school or work, so by default, the job of taking care of his big sister after her wisdom teeth surgery fell to him. He didn’t mind, really, although he was well aware that Kya on a bunch of painkillers would probably be even more of a handful than regular Kya.
He was just starting to get nervous and antsy about the amount of time it was taking her to wake up from the anesthesia when her eyelids fluttered and she began to stir. She opened her eyes, blinking them to adjust to the room’s light, and pushed herself up in the chair. “Is it all done?” she asked, with more lucidity than Tenzin would have expected.
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “How are you feeling, Kya?”
She turned to him with a wide grin on her face and an unfocused look in her eyes, and he realized that his initial assessment of her mental clarity was probably a little off. “I’m fantastic ,” she declared loudly, as if she were talking to a crowd of people and not just him in a dingy little dental office.
“Uh, good, glad to hear it,” he said, helping her to her feet. “Let’s get you home so you can rest, and I’ll bring back food for you.” He escorted her out the doors of the office and through the parking lot to where his car was parked.
“No,” she said absently, and he wondered if he’d heard her right.
“No?”
In the middle of the parking lot, she turned to him and gripped his arms with surprising ferocity. “We need to go to Lin’s work.”
Tenzin’s brow creased in confusion, until he remembered that their family friend Lin worked at a cafe nearby that sold smoothies and beverages. Kya must want something to eat after her procedure. “The smoothie place, right? Tell me your order. I can go get you a smoothie from there while you lie down at home.”
“I wanna go with you,” she insisted, looking up at him earnestly. With the swelling that was already beginning to form around her jaw and the cotton stuffed in her mouth post-procedure, any attempt on her part to look determined ended up seeming rather comical. For her sake, Tenzin schooled his features into a neutral expression.
“Are you sure? The pain meds are probably going to start wearing off soon.”
“I need to see Lin,” she said solemnly as he finally shepherded her into the passenger’s seat of the car and got her seatbelt on.
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation, but finally acquiesced. She was chatty on the way over, jumping from topic to topic without settling on anything, but didn’t offer further explanation.
“Kya, Tenzin, what are you doing here?” Lin asked from behind the counter as the two of them walked in. She turned to Tenzin and narrowed her eyes, as if it was somehow his fault that Kya had demanded to come here. “Didn’t she just have her surgery?”
Kya crossed her arms and glared at Lin, trying and failing to look intimidating. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.”
Lin made no attempt to hide an eye roll in response. “Sorry,” she said, the word flat. “Kya, didn’t you just have your surgery, and aren’t you probably hopped up on pain meds right now?”
“Yep,” Kya answered brightly.
Lin sighed and shook her head. “Okay, I’ll make your usual order, then.” Tenzin hadn’t realized that Kya frequented this place enough to have a regular order, let alone one that Lin would’ve memorized. “You realize there are like, a dozen smoothie places closer to your house, right?”
“She insisted on coming here specifically,” Tenzin told her.
Lin shot Kya a bemused look, but there was something almost resembling softness in her eyes that Tenzin had never seen coming from her before. “Well, I’m glad the surgery seems to have gone smoothly. Make sure to elevate your head in order to reduce swelling and keep the healing time to a minimum,” Lin directed, the words brusque.
With little warning, Kya gasped and turned away from the counter, hiding herself behind Tenzin. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“My face,” she said, eyes wide and horrified. She lifted her fingers up to her jawline and touched it gingerly with her fingertips. “She can’t see me. My face is all swollen and ugly. I shouldn’t have come here.”
Lin, though she’d been busy blending Kya’s smoothie, seemed to have heard the whole exchange perfectly. “Your face looks perfectly normal, Kya,” she said, which was the closest thing to a compliment Tenzin had ever heard exit her mouth. “Get better soon.”
Kya took the smoothie from her and stared for a moment, looking like a deer in the headlights, before rushing out of the cafe. Tenzin waved a vague goodbye at Lin and didn’t realize until Kya was safely back in the car that both of them had forgotten to pay.
Once they were back on the road, Kya seemed subdued, drinking her smoothie in small sips, but Tenzin was still concerned about her bizarre behavior. “Kya, what’s going on?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”
“Shhhh….” Kya said in response, her head lolling to the side. “Nobody knows.”
“Nobody knows what?” Tenzin asked, even more perplexed than before. “What are you talking about, Kya?”
“Nobody knows I’m a lesbian,” she said, the words slurred.
Tenzin’s eyes widened, but he kept his attention on the road. He had, quite honestly, never thought about his big sister’s dating life, although he had noticed that she tended to get quiet and evasive at family dinners when their parents teased her about whether she had a boyfriend. Prior to now, he’d assumed it was just general discomfort talking about personal matters with her family.
He wondered if she was out to Lin, and if Lin had sensed that Kya had a crush on her. He guessed not ― Lin was many things, but she wasn’t necessarily attuned to the feelings of others.
“Um, okay,” he finally said. “I’m going to act like I didn’t hear anything, and we can talk when the drugs wear off, alright?”
She didn’t respond, and he glanced over at her to see if she was okay. She appeared to be fast asleep, her head against the window, smoothie in her hand long forgotten. Once they arrived home, he gingerly picked her up, carried her to her room, and tucked her into bed.
Kya woke up hours later, her jaw throbbing. Her head was propped up on what seemed like a mountain of pillows, and it took her sleep-addled mind a moment to reconstruct the day’s events.
She picked up her phone from her nightstand and checked it. One missed message from Tenzin. Two missed messages from Lin. She sighed, and clicked on Tenzin’s first. It, of course, had perfect grammar and capitalization.
baby brother 2:23 PM
Kya, you fell asleep in the car so I carried you inside. Come find me when you wake up so I can get you some more food and administer your next dose of pain medication. If you feel up to it, I would love to talk. I’m here for you.
Oh, damn it, she’d told him, hadn’t she? She let out a groan, her head falling back on the stack of pillows. Oh well. She supposed he would’ve found out eventually, and for what it was worth, Tenzin was very discreet.
With even more apprehension, she clicked on Lin’s messages, not wanting to know exactly how much she’d embarrassed herself in front of her longtime crush.
Lin 4:36 PM
Hey, just got off work. Are u okay?? Lmk if there’s anything at all u need
The second message, sent a minute later, was simply a pink emoji heart. Massively unusual for Lin, who typically “didn’t believe” in emoji usage. Kya smiled and thought that maybe today wasn’t unsalvageable after all.