Coke at a birthday party
During the summer vacation, the sun is scorching and the air is filled with the sweet fragrance of summer heat.
"Happy birthday!"
Today is Lu Xingye’s birthday.
In the only KFC in Hanchuan, the air conditioning is turned on very high to isolate the door from the heat waves outside.
Today is Lu Xingye's birthday. The paper birthday hat he wore seemed to be a little too small, barely fitting on his head that was fond of wild imagination, which made him look a little funny.
Lu Xingye was unusually generous today and took out the New Year's money he had saved for a long time to treat everyone.
This is considered a luxury for us junior high school students.
We sat around a round table piled high with golden crispy fried chicken, wavy French fries,
"I wish you another year older"
I smiled and took out the birthday card I made last night from my schoolbag and handed it to Lu Xingye.
The pattern above is an NBA star cut out from a basketball magazine.
I definitely don't know what it's called, I just know that Lu Xingye is crazy about it and has several similar posters in the studio.
Sure enough, he held the card in his pocket, his eyes shining.
He stroked the picture, his mouth grinning from ear to ear.
"Thanks, Lin Nian! I've been looking for this Kobe fadeaway jump shot for a long time!"
"My mom's been thinking about hiring me a tutor this summer," Lulu said glumly, taking a bite of spicy chicken wings. "She said she wants me to prepare for the physics and chemistry classes for ninth grade."
She pushed her new, thinner-rimmed glasses up her nose.
"Wow, your grades are already firmly in the top five in the grade, and Aunt Zhou is still not satisfied? How can we ordinary people hold our heads up high?"
I pretended to click my tongue twice, then reached out as usual and took the cup of Coke from Jiang Yuanzhou next to me.
We have been accustomed to this action since elementary school.
"What are you doing?"
Lu Xingye, who had just been holding the greeting card and grinning foolishly, suddenly frowned and looked at me with disdain. "Two people having a drink? What does that look like?"
I was a little confused, and when I met Jiang Yuanzhou's equally puzzled look, I was sure that Lu Xingye's words were directed at the two of us.
"Lu Xingye, did you take the wrong medicine? Today is your birthday, can you be a little kinder?" I asked back in confusion.
“That’s right!”
Lu Xingye's voice rose a little, and he was rarely unhappy. "How old are you? You're not three or four-year-old kids anymore. You're still slurping each other's mouths. The cups are all covered with saliva. Isn't that disgusting?"
Jiang Yuanzhou was unhappy about this. "You just had your birthday and you're already lecturing others. You're not a child anymore."
"Nian Nian, don't worry about him, just drink!" He pushed the cup of Coke in front of me again.
I reached out to take it and agreed, "That's right! Lu Xingye, when did you become so particular? Haven't we always been like this?"
"If I say no, it's no!"
Lu Xingye, however, was like a lit firecracker. He snatched the Coke from my hand, raised his voice, and placed it heavily in front of himself, "Today, I have the final say."
In an instant, the atmosphere dropped to freezing point.
"What's going on?" Ye Zhixia saw that the atmosphere was not right, and hurriedly tried to smooth things over in the aside, "It's a good birthday, don't quarrel."
Lu Xingye refused to give in. With a tense face, he took out a crumpled ten-yuan note from his trouser pocket and slammed it on the table in front of me.
He said in a stern tone, "Go, buy another Coke."
What does it mean?
I curled my lips, looked at the stubborn Lu Xingye and the helpless Jiang Yuanzhou, and reluctantly took it, "Come on, come on, it's your birthday today, you're the biggest."
I grabbed the money and turned to the counter.
When I came back with another iced cola, Lulu and Ye Zhixia had already changed the subject and were now enthusiastically discussing the newly released summer movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2)".
Jiang Yuanzhou lowered his head and poked at the French fries on the plate without saying a word.
Lu Xingye fiddled with the greeting card I gave him, his expression still a little stiff.
Carbon dioxide bubbles rose happily upwards, making a crackling sound.
I took a sip, the cool liquid sliding down my throat.
I don’t know if it’s a psychological effect, but I feel like this newly bought cup of Coke has extra ice cubes in it, and the coolness goes straight to my heart. It’s colder than any other cup I usually drink.
When the party ended, it was almost dusk.
The summer heat has subsided a little, but the air is still filled with that sweet scent.
We each went home, and our goodbyes to each other seemed briefer than usual.
Lu Xingye put his hands in his pockets and mumbled "let's go".
Jiang Yuanzhou and I were going the same way. We walked side by side, but we were silent for a short while, which was rare.
"What's wrong with Lu Xingye today?" I asked Jiang Yuanzhou in a low voice.
Jiang Yuanzhou kicked the pebble at his feet and shook his head. "Who knows? Maybe... adolescent turmoil?"
He chuckled, and after a moment, added, "But it doesn't seem completely unreasonable."
I turned my head to look at him, "What do you mean?"
"It seems... a little different." Jiang Yuanzhou lowered his voice and did not look at me.
My heart inexplicably beat faster as I thought of those figures standing side by side by the river.
That night, perhaps because I drank the ice cola too quickly, or perhaps because I was worried about something, my stomach started to rebel.
In the afternoon, because I didn't want to waste it, I drank the whole glass of ice cola without leaving a drop.
The result was that I ran back and forth between the bathroom and the bedroom, holding my stomach.
While my mother was looking for medicine for me and handing me hot water, she scolded me with both heartache and anger, "You're such a grown-up girl, and you don't know how to avoid certain foods. You drank so much of something so cold in one go. How can you not get a stomachache?"
I drank a cup of hot water, curled up on the sofa, and finally felt better.
I took out the first slider phone my mom bought me after I started middle school and texted Jiang Yuanzhou, "I have diarrhea... From now on, let's drink one cup each to share the risk. A whole cup of iced Coke is too strong."
Jiang Yuanzhou replied quickly, "Is it serious? Do you want me to buy you some medicine?"
"I've taken medicine, I'm fine."
"I just wanted to stay cool. Drinking some hot water will make me feel much better. I guess I drank too many cold drinks at once today." I replied, but inexplicably thought of Lu Xingye's abnormal attitude today, and the complicated look in his eyes when he looked at Jiang Yuanzhou and me.
Jiang Yuanzhou quickly responded with a smirk, "Okay, I'll listen to you."
I held the phone and the corners of my mouth curled up unconsciously.
That summer, many things were quietly changing.
Like the bubbles rising and bursting in a Coke cup, like a voice quietly changing, like certain boundaries and distances that you suddenly start to care about.
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