“There’s the bluntness again,” she teased.
“You bring it out of me,” I teased back.
She laughed quietly but said nothing. Before long we were in her car on the way back to my place. We’d stayed out longer this time, and the sun was beginning to set when I got to my apartment.
“I hope I didn’t keep you too long,” Taylor said to me.
“I don’t mind. As long as I don’t have work, however long it takes to do the lesson,” I replied.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow. Thanks for the lesson,” she said sweetly.
“Th-thanks for yours,” I replied bashfully. Taylor rolled her eyes and drove off, leaving me with a spring in my step.
When Mother heard me enter, she turned to face me, hands on her hips. “Quinn! You’re home later than normal.”
“The lesson ran a little late, Mother. But for my time, I got paid a bit more than normal.”
A smile brewed on Mother’s face. “Ahh, Quinn! You are learning. Your skills and time are worth money! You are worth it.”
“You know, Mother, I think I’m starting to believe that I am,” I admitted, mostly to myself, as I walked towards my room.
I knocked on the door out of courtesy. “Come on in,” Kevin’s voice greeted me. I opened the door and flopped down on the bed.
Kevin turned back from playing Infamous Second Son and laughed. “She really took it out of you, huh?”
“I’m just tired all the time. School, job, tutoring. I dunno how you do it,” I mumbled into the bed.
“If I was tutoring Taylor Wise I’d be just as tuckered out as you, just for different reasons,” he replied, with probably a more suave delivery in his head than his voice. “Zing!”
“Yeah, bro, nice,” I told him, rolling my eyes.
“Nah, I’m just kidding. Honestly even with my experience I’d probably just shoot a load in my pants from just being around her that often.”
I sat up. “Yeah, that was me. I shot a load in my pants then had to use her bathroom to clean up, then I just awkwardly left.”
Kevin laughed at my ‘joke.’ “Man, I can’t wait until you get a real girlfriend. I’ll have so many things to tell her.”
I snickered in self-deprecation. “If you think I’m getting a girlfriend before we split up and go to different universities, you’ve been spending too many hours playing games; you’re living in a fantasy world.”
“Aiya! Bèn dàn! What are you, Mother? I didn’t expect you of all people to criticize me of all people for enjoying my own down time. I’m working hard here. Sorry for assuming you’re getting better at being around people. If you get a girlfriend before the end of the year you owe me twenty dollars.”
“And if I don’t…?” I challenged him.
Even though he was facing the TV, he still grinned. I could feel it. “Then you only owe me ten dollars.”
I threw a pillow at his head. It was nice to go from ‘why can’t I talk to anyone’ to joking about getting a girlfriend. Things were actually going really nice for me. Nicer than I ever thought they’d be going in my entire high school career, that was for sure. If me from the beginning of grade twelve could see me now… I would have loved to have seen the look on my face.
And sure, things were moving at a bit of a quick pace, but that’s what growing up was all about, the new stuff. The unexpected. And hey, it wasn’t like anything was happening that I wasn’t prepared for. Sure, there were curveballs, but it was clear I could take whatever this weird situation was throwing at me.