“Yup, they are,” he replied in a low-energy voice. “How was the party?”
“Amazing,” I replied honestly. “How was your night?”
He sighed, and turned to me with a morose smile, pausing his game. “Y’know Quinn, I really am so happy for you that you turned yourself around,” he began. “But man. I look at you, how you’re getting invited to parties and stuff, and I just… did I do something wrong?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my tone losing its jovial nature. I sat down next to him, and he unpaused.
“Well, you didn’t care about getting in,” he noted. “You just happened to tutor one girl, get with her friend, and suddenly, you got an in to the Love party. I’m just feeling bummed, I guess.”
“Trust me, you didn’t miss much. Most of it was just needless drama and bad feelings,” I replied earnestly.
He laughed. “We both know that sounds up my alley,” he replied. “I dunno. I’m happy for you and all, but I can’t help but…”
I felt bad about it, but I broke into a grin. “Are you jealous of me?” I realized. “Oh, how the tables have turned.”
“I just feel like I dedicated myself to the wrong allegiances is all,” he noted. “What do you think? I mean, you’re kinda past me in the food chain at this point. You could even say I helped you. So, got any advice for me?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I thought to myself for a bit and let myself speak. “Well… I don’t think I could help you, but my friends could,” I began.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, when I was shopping, I talked to Morgan and Lexi about you.”
“Aw, they don’t count, they don’t like me,” he butted in.
“Well, exactly,” I pointed out. “They think you… saw high school as this… transactional thing. Like, it’s too much about allegiances, and not enough about people. They saw you as this brown-noser who wanted connections, and thought that whenever you felt you could benefit from being around them, they felt drained to be around you.”
“Like I’m a parasite? Jeez. And what did you say in my honor?” He asked, his mind on the game.
“I… don’t disagree,” I said gingerly. He paused the game. “Like, I get why they would feel like that. Maybe they need to see you as a person, not a businessman of clout or something, but I think you’ll need to put in effort too.”
Kevin looked at me for the longest time. “That’s how you see me?” he asked, clearly emotionally affected.
“It’s how they see you, and it makes total sense why they see it,” I corrected him. “They’re wrong, but… you could care more about them too.” I got up. “Maybe I could put in a good word for you and get you invited to a party or something, but if you want to be invited back, that might depend on how you treat people. Like people? Or like transactions.” I stood up. “Is it okay if I go to bed? I had a long day.”
Kevin watched me trudge off to our room. I hoped I hadn’t gone too far, but I really did want to see things get better, and this seemed like the best way to go about it. Before I got out of earshot, I heard Kevin call, “Quinn!”
I turned around. “Yeah?”
He looked at me with this half-mesmerized, half-offended smile. “…Who are you?” he asked with a lilt of humor in his voice.
I smiled back. “Changing, I think,” I joked back.
His smile got bigger and lost its offended look. “It suits you,” he replied back. “Morgan must be, uh… quite a girl.”
“She really is,” I replied, then turned back to walk to my room. That night, I’m pretty sure I hadn’t stopped smiling until after I fell asleep.