Hex

Chapter 13

"What are you doing here?" I asked, seeing Finn in the coffee shop and feeling like I just saw a fish out of water.

"In the neighborhood." He put his hands in his front pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet, looking at me awkwardly.

"Oh okay. Well, how was it?"

"How was what?"

I pushed him back away from the counter jokingly. "Your exam, silly! How did it go?"

"It was alright."

"Well, did you pass?" It was like pulling teeth trying to get an answer out of him.

"Yep."

"Well, what did you get?"

"92."

My jaw dropped open and I held up my hand to high five him. He left me hanging, in typical Finn fashion. "That's awesome! Especially when 24 hours ago you didn't even know what the derivative was! I'm so proud of you!" I jumped up and down and clapped my hands for him, thoroughly excited.

"Alright, alright, alright, calm down. Make me an iced black coffee."

"Anything for the apartment genius!" I turned to the only other customer seated in the café. "He grew up so fast," I said, wiggling my fingers at him. The older man just ignored me, but I didn't care.

I handed Finn his coffee and he handed me a $20. "On the house!" I insisted, pushing the money back across the counter to him.

"Nah, take it and keep the change. I need an A in this class to keep my scholarship, and I guess you were slightly helpful with that."

"No thanks necessary," I deadpanned and rolled my eyes. "But no way! It's a $3 coffee, and it's on the house." I pushed it back to him once again.

"No, you helped me last night, and we need to be even. Take my fucking money."

"Finn, we're friends, we don't need to be even. I'm sure there will come a time when I need your help. Like with an oil change or something, you look like you know how to change oil. At some point, I could get a car, and then I would need your help. It all works out. Plus, you probably need this more than I do."

"What the fuck did you just say?" His tone was ice cold and he glared at me so hard that I wanted to disappear.

"I just meant that, like, I know you're in a tough situation, financially, and I-"

"No, shut the fuck up. Don't act like you know me, you don't. Just when I thought you could be okay sometimes and not always act like a privileged little bitch roughing it for her little dream of being a popstar." He pointed his finger at me, spitting out the words. He was so tense and filled with rage that he was shaking. I was genuinely afraid of him.

"Look, Finn, I'm sorry-"

"I don't need your fucking charity, you privileged, out of touch piece of upstate trash." He threw the bill in my face, grabbed his coffee off of the counter, and left, shaking his head in anger and disbelief at me as the bell dinged over the closing door.

"Is that your boyfriend?" The older man, asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"No."

"I'll be your boyfriend."

"No, thank you," I said politely, before making a face and scurrying off to clean the counters.

     After work, we had a band practice, where I showed them the new song Finn had helped me with. It took us a little bit to get it, but by the end of that session we sounded pretty good.

     "You made this one all by yourself?" Zane asked afterwards.

     "I wrote it, but Finn completely changed the tempo. I was thinking it would be a lot slower." Zane tossed me a beer, but I threw my hands up to block my face and would have sent it crashing to the carpet, if not for Bishop catching it right before it hit the floor.

     "Mine now," he said, popping it open.

     I huffed and sat down on a stool, where Zane carefully placed one into my hands. "Try catching it next time," he said, rolling his eyes.

     "So, uh, Finn helped you?" Bishop asked, nonchalantly.

     "Yeah, I just didn't want to bother you, I guess."

     "It wouldn't have bothered me, you know, I like, um, songs and shit, but like it's no big deal." It was awkward. Incredibly awkward. Finn and Zane were looking between the two of us like they were watching a tennis game. Back and forth. Back and forth.

     I chugged my beer, so I didn't have to respond. "Why you being weird dude?" Zane asked.

     "I'm not, I'm just, uh, making conversation."

     "No, you've been being weird for days now. What the fuck is it? Did you two bone or some shit?" Zane asked, only half jokingly.

     "Shut the fuck up," Bishop said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, man, you did, didn't you?" Zane burst out laughing, looking between the two of us. His eyes were wide, and he elbowed Finn aggressively in excitement.

"I'd rather die," I said, before smiling at Bishop, hoping to get across my point that I'm joking. He didn't look at me though, and I instantly felt guilty.

"Yeah, I've had enough of this," Finn said, brushing past us and heading towards the living room. He turned a football game on and plopped down at the end of the couch.

"Definitely something going on with you two," Zane laughed and narrowed his eyes at us, before following Finn.

After the two of them had gone, and it was just me and Bishop in the kitchen, he turned to me. "We're cool, right?" He asked.

"Of course," I said, though I wanted to say much more. We joined the other two on the couch, and for the first time in a few days, things felt normal.