Mutual Benefits Ch. 03 – First Time – by BashfulScribe

“I just assume that we’re in different worlds and you won’t need me around after I finish tutoring you.”

Taylor gave me a look of disbelief, then looked straight forward in discomfort. “I sent you that picture because I trusted you.”

I looked from side to side. “I guess this is on me for assuming, but was this meant to be anything more than casual?”

“Well, no, but I don’t just show anyone those kinds of things.”

“You even said you didn’t want to show me. What changed?”

“I felt-” She stopped herself.

I paused. “…Were you about to say, ‘sorry for me?'” I asked, my turn to have a heat to my tone.

She sighed. “I-”

“If it was just that, I would have rather you not sent me anything.”

“You literally asked me to! Do you think I would have sent you a nude without you asking me to first?!” she practically yelled.

I didn’t say anything for a while. After a bit, my house neared. Taylor continued. “And if you decide to send my nude around as revenge for this, I’m gonna make sure you’ll wish you were never born.”

I gave her a weird look. “Why would I do that? You sent it to me privately. For my eyes only. I don’t care if we just fought or whatever, I’m never not going to respect that.”

Taylor gave yet another tired sigh. She put the car into park and looked up at the ceiling. “Are we angry at each other or not?” she finally demanded.

I had to give a small laugh. “I’m definitely okay with not being angry if you are.” I cleared my throat. “Okay, so, let me try to untangle this. You sent me the nude because you felt bad that I’d never experienced anything like that.”

Taylor took a second to process what I said and eventually nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay. And given that it seems like a business transaction from the outside, I assumed we aren’t that special to each other and that I won’t exactly stay in your social circle after tutoring ends or whatever.”

“I just don’t get what that means,” she began. “What does ‘not special’ mean? It sounds, like, harsh.”

“Okay, then let me rephrase,” I replied. “I assume that… despite this new element… what we have… isn’t special to you, and I accept that. Because, like, it’s clear you can get sex easily, so that doesn’t play into it, and we only see each toher because I can teach you math, and I’m okay with that too. I don’t think we’d have a lot to talk about if we ever hung out outside from math tutoring, right? Plus, not to pull the stereotype out, but you’re one of the most popular girls in school and I’m a gifted kid.”

“You just say that like it’s impossible for either of us to see the other as, like, an equal,” Taylor replied with slight disgust. “And that just makes me think you don’t see me as your equal.”

“I mean, I don’t. I see you as my superior,” I replied with a slight humorous smile. “You have friends, you can charm any teacher into an extension, you have way different hobbies and pastimes than me, and you, uh, haaaaave a reallyattractivebody.” I mumbled the last part. “We’re in entirely different worlds here.”

Taylor shrugged at me. “You have a twin. He’s popular.”

“Yeah, he says that too. But, like, he knows how to socialize and I don’t, and he has connections to popular kids and can go to parties, and he looks more attractive. It’s just not fair to compare us.”

“I actually find him less attractive than you,” Taylor bluntly said.

I stopped in my tracks. “…Really?” I finally asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, then smirked. “Don’t get any ideas.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Um… huh. Thanks.”

Taylor shook her head and giggled again. “Believe in yourself more, Quinn. And yeah, it’s not like we’re going to hang out doing anything else together, but it doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate your company when we do hang out. It’s just that we’re going to hang out in, like, certain ways. It looks like you wouldn’t want to drink with Morgan and me and talk about sex anyway.”

Morgan and I. “Yeah, good point,” I admitted.

Taylor took her purse out from between the seats and found a twenty dollar bill for me. I waved it away. “Keep it,” I ordered. “It was a half lesson anyway.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

I gave a nervous chuckle-sigh. “The, um, payment you gave me last time could pay for the whole year if you wanted.” I admitted, blushing.

She shook her head and laughed again. “Okay,” she told me. “See you next week?”

“See you then,” I politely replied, exiting the car.

***

It was nice talking things out with Taylor, but she wasn’t the only one I needed to talk to. Over the weekend, I got a text from, who else, Morgan.

Hey Quin. sorry for the stuff I said yesterday, I was just blowing off some steam, its how I unwind when me and Taylor hang out

I stared at the text for a few seconds, my tongue running over my top row of teeth in thought. After a bit, I reasoned to myself that I was here for Taylor’s benefit, not Morgan’s.

It’s “Quinn.” Do you always unwind by pointing and laughing that I’m a virgin and that I get flustered around sexual topics, or is that only when I’m there? What was that you told me about acting like you’re better than others?

It felt a bit vindictive, but I hit send anyway. At the end of the day, I’d rather Morgan be not talking to me and think less of me than misspelling my name and assuming she could walk all over me anyway. I don’t know what kind of response I was expecting from here, but I never received one, and that suited me just fine.

GameStop was still alright, though it was annoying to balance my school life with my work life now, even before tutoring. I guess this was how most students felt. I couldn’t imagine doing extracurriculars on top of all this. I couldn’t imagine how Kevin was surviving.

“How do you manage to do school, work, and extracurriculars?” I asked him while he was gaming.

He shrugged. “You get into a rhythm, I guess,” he answered, eyes still on the television. “Honestly, fast food isn’t that terrible. You just have to switch your brain off and just do the thing in front of you. It’s like you’re a part of a machine. You watch, dude – all fast food is gonna be automated by, like, 2020. I assume GameStop is kinda the same.”

“Nnnnot really,” I admitted. “It’s more dealing with people than anything. They have questions, they want to know ‘what games are on the PS4’ and expect you to list five games, they ask, like, ‘what’s the game that has a sword in it’ and look at you funny when you say you need more information…”

Kevin paused the game and turned to grin at me. “You would think the worst part of the job is talking to people,” he joked.

“I’m just saying, it’s annoying. I mean, like, I guess it’s better for me, but, I dunno, I just want them to… know their own stuff, y’know?”

Kevin unpaused and resumed playing. “Well, it’s definitely affecting you; you kinda talk different now.”

“How so?”

“Maybe last month, you talked like a politician fresh out of a scandal that just inhaled a Speak & Spell. Like, very careful wording. Now you’re a little more free with it and you say ‘like’ and ‘y’know’ a lot.”

“Is that bad?” I felt myself getting worried. How long has this been going on?

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