LIVING & GRIEVING

16. come to joes

Thankfully, school was taking a break for easter, and we were off for the next two weeks. If I wanted to pass these exams, I needed to start revising desperately. My only issue was, I had nothing to revise. I basically needed to start all of the material from scratch. My attendance hadn't been great. I went to school maybe two or three times max a week. And when I was there, my level of concentration was extremely low. Everything seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

I was grateful my friends had chosen similar A levels to me. I had James in geography, both Olivia and Hannah in psychology, and Hannah and Mark in English literature. This should have made it a bit easier as they all took notes for me, I just didn't have the motivation to read them.

English was the one I was really struggling with, which was surprising as it had always been my favourite subject. But we were studying Chaucer for the exam which was a nightmare to learn because it was written in old English, practically a foreign language. Miss. Brannan translated and annotated a different chapter of The Canterbury Tales each week in class. And I had obviously missed a lot of this. I didn't want to admit it, but I knew someone that could help me. It only took a week into trying to study before I gave in and marched next door.

"Hi Angela, is Quinn home?"

"Ivy, what a surprise. Yes, he's just upstairs in his room. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, just hoping to pick his brain with some English work."

"He's the second door on the left," her eyes lit up as she smiled, letting me through.

I marched up the stairs, trying to stay confident. I was trying my hardest to ignore the thoughts circling my mind. I was meant to hate Quinn. He was meant to hate me. But he confused me. I had been avoiding him ever since he tried to kiss me outside his house, though I couldn't stop thinking about it.  The way his hands felt around my waist. The way he looked at me, like he really did want to kiss me, and he wasn't just trying to annoy me. I took a deep breath and knocked on his door deciding to just push it open anyway.

Quinn was lying on his bed, PlayStation controller in hand and a headset on. He was wearing a grey t-shirt with The Smiths on it and a pair of black training shorts. Even when he was just lounging around, he really was gorgeous. It had always been easy to ignore that fact when he was rude and annoying, but recently he had been showing a different side to him. One that was thoughtful and kind and incredibly nice to look at. I didn't even realise I was stood staring until his voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"Can I help you?"

"Uhm, yeah. I was just hoping you would give me a hand with some English revision. I know you got an A on yours."

"What is it on the exam?"

"Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale in specific."

"Easy," he scoffed, "sit down."

Quinn's room was sort of what you would expect from a typical boy with clothes on the floor and empty glasses on his dresser. But it was also mature and well decorated. Thankfully it was big enough to have a small sofa in it too, where I decided to sit. He soon followed, taking his place at the opposite end so that there was considerable space between us.

"So, what part is it you need help with?"

"All of it. I haven't been to many classes."

"Have you even translated it?"

"Not even the prologue."

"Great start," he rolled his eyes. "Wait here."

He began rummaging through some drawers in his desk and picked out a folder, presumably his English notes from two years ago. Hopefully better than the ones Hannah and Mark gave me. He pulled out a booklet that was big enough to be the entire book itself, "right so, this is all the important bits translated." There is no way I had enough time to learn all this.