All This and $10 on 2

Kayla's Approval

The rain returned the following morning so instead of walking as I had planned, to steal more time from the day to spend with my new girlfriend, I had an extra passenger on the way to school. Austin grumbled loudly about having to sit in the cramped space of the back seat in my car until I reminded him that he was free to walk to school if he didn’t like his seat. He continued to grumble, albeit much quieter, as Lauren fell into the front passenger seat with all the grace of a…well, a self-conscious high school senior girl filled with nervous energy who was also dressed for much colder weather and a backpack filled to capacity. I could tell she was embarrassed, but seeing her so emotionally open and fragile like that only endeared her to me even more. I smiled brightly at her and she relaxed visibly.

I saw her shiver, “Here, take your jacket off.”

Lauren looked at me as if I was insane.

I took off my hoodie and offered it to her. Lauren reluctantly began undoing her jacket. “Won’t you be cold?” She asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep her teeth from chattering.

Austin leaned forward, “Brandon is his own personal heating system. In all the time I’ve known him; I have never heard him complain about being cold once.”

I raised a hand in objection. “Well, there was that one time…”

Austin immediately dismissed me. “You were sick, it doesn’t count.”

Lauren put my shirt on, and sighed contentedly.

“Better?”

“A lot better thank you. Are you sure you won’t be cold?”

I pointed to my window which was fogging up rapidly and smiled, “I’m pretty sure.”

Lauren snuggled in my shirt and we drove off.

"Hello, by the way." I said as warmly as I could.

"Good morning." She smiled back.

"Aas Salamu alaay kum." Austin added.

"Ah! Nei ho!" Lauren said excitedly.

"Ni hao." I laughed.

Austin shoved his knee into the back of my seat, “Cheater! You can’t use bad pronunciation and try to pass it off as a different language.”

I threw the pencil I keep in my car at him, “Different dialect. The lovely Lauren used Cantonese and I used Mandarin.”

“Challenge!” Austin nearly shouted. “Judges?” We both looked at Lauren expectantly.

“Sorry Austin, Brandon’s correct.”

"A simple ‘Ding!’ or ‘Bwaaa!’ will do thanks.” Austin muttered ‘fix’ under his breath and continued as if we hadn’t heard him, “Bonjour."

"Guten Tag."

"Yia Sou."

"Aloha."

"Hawaiian? Really? Does that even count?”

Austin leaned forward so that his head blocked my peripheral view of Lauren’s profile and said, “Judges?” Lauren nodded, “Yes, they’ll allow it.” He flopped back in the back, “On to you Brandon.”

I shook my head at Austin and his smugness in the rear-view mirror and continued, “Shalom."

"Buon giorno"

"Konnichi wa."

"Pree-vyet."

Lauren was impressed, “Russian, nice! Did we do Spanish yet? Hola."