Thirteen Summers

ten

J O S E P H I N E

It turned out that Roman was serious about helping me study, he came to get me from my room around eleven o'clock in the morning, the next day.   

He was dressed differently from his normal attire, instead of his suit he wore a muscle t-shirt and sweatpants. I don't think I'd ever seen him dressed as casually as he was till this day.

We entered the home library which was a fairly large room, the light seeped in through its tall windows. We took a seat at the long oak table that stood in the middle of the room, I looked around, still in awe. I always studied in my room so I hadn't even known this room even existed.

I put down my binders, textbooks and my pencil case neatly onto the table, I then looked up at Roman, who sat beside me.

He gave me a light smile, which was rather unusual of him. For some reason, Roman actually seemed happy to be studying with me.

"What are we starting with?"

"Uh.." I mumbled, not sure what to say.

I don't know why I couldn't just pick, I was nervous. It was awkward, Roman was one of the siblings I'd spoken to the least.

"What have you been struggling with the most?" Roman asked instead.

"I guess, Math." I took my Math binder from the pile and placed it directly in front of me. "I get stuck all the time."

"I see." Roman replied simply, he slid the book over to him and started flipping through the pages.

I had a binder for each subject, they contained all my past and current class worksheets and homework from summer school, they were neatly organised according to topic.

His eyes would linger on one page before going to the next, his brows raised but nothing else about his face gave away what he was thinking.

"Do you struggle with fractions?" He turned his head to face me.

I nodded, frowning. I felt embarrassed that it was so clear within my work.

Roman nodded, more to himself and continued flicking through the binder. After a few minutes of inspecting it, he closed it and pushed it aside.

"You get feedback and corrections on your homework but your class worksheets are full of mistakes. Little ones that make it all the more confusing to you." Roman explained, his eyes pierced into mine as his focus returned to me.  "Do you ask for help in class?"

I took my eyes away from his as I shook my head.

Aiden helped when he could but I rarely asked for help, with anything.

"Why not?" Roman sighed, he was disappointed I could tell.

I shrugged, not wanting to answer.

"Josephine." His voice became soft then, he asked again. "Why not?"

The change in his tone encouraged me to speak up, I felt like I was seeing a different side to the brother who seemed to frighten me the most.

It was different with him than it was with Kai, the latter was prone to anger and lashed out at those who rubbed him the slightest wrong way so most of the time, I knew what to expect with him.

Roman was another story, he was quiet and serious and he had a menacing stare but always seemed to surprise me when I'm not expecting it, much like in this moment.

"I don't know.." I started, fidgeting with my fingers. "I try..well, I spend the entire class just thinking about raising my hand but for some reason, I can't."

This is the reason I'd spend a lot of time studying at home but in the end, I never got to where I needed to be.

I could only study if I did an entire topic all in one go, which didn't work most of the time since I'd get confused and eventually give up.

If I didn't complete it, I couldn't get back to where I was and then everything would get worse, that was happening a lot more recently.

"Your teachers should be picking up on this stuff." He shook his head, scowling. "You're not at the level you should be at this age."

I looked down at my lap, my ears burning. I really was dumb, even my brother thought so.

This was embarrassing.

"No worries, I'll help you get to where you should be, even higher." Roman casually announced. "Let's get to work."

An hour or two went by, at some point Nick came in to do his own studying, he sat on the opposite end of the table across from us and worked silently, with his headphones on.

Roman did his best to try to explain things to me clearly and slowly enough for me to catch on. I did still get confused but it would quickly be resolved, it did help to have someone by my side as I did each problem.

One of my main issues at school was that the teachers went too fast and I couldn't keep up, it didn't seem to bother anyone else but that's how it's been my entire life. The entire world went on too fast and I was always too slow to catch up.

Two maids walked into the room, one had a tray with three plates of food, the other had a tray that held a large jug and three glasses.

I gave them a smile, as they placed a plate and a full glass of lemonade in front of me, it still made me uncomfortable that I now had people serving me on a regular basis but I tried to make peace with it.

"Thank you, ladies. I'll have mine in the office." Roman spoke, putting his red pen down. He turned to me and said, "It's a good time for a break now, eat your lunch."

With that, he left the room and it was just Nick and I in the room.

"Wanna watch with me?" Nick suggested, he had his laptop in front of him and had set his work aside so he could eat. "I'm watching The Maze Runner."

I agreed and grabbed my plate, going over to sit beside him. I had read the book but I never watched the film so I was excited.

He started the film and we began eating.

For lunch, we had burgers, wedges and a side salad

I picked apart my burger, separating the patty from the buns. I picked off all the seeds from the bun and put them on a napkin. The lettuce and tomatoes, I put to the side next to the salad. I felt eyes on me and looked to the side to see Nick watching me, squinting.

"What?" I asked, innocently.

I had some odd habits I could admit and I'd been eating my burgers like this for as long as I could remember, I had gotten many comments on it before.

"You're an interesting kid." He shook his head, smiling and then he chuckled.

I returned the smile and took a bite of one of the seedless buns.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

A short, sweet chapter where we get to see a little more of Roman.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, let me know your thoughts!

I feel like I'm back in my groove with writing, I'm trying not to go too slow with this book but also not too fast.

There's a few major plot points, the main already being slowly introduced, and important milestones for Josie but I'm trying to work my way up there at the right pace. I do struggle sometimes because I'm impatient but it's all worth it in the end!

Ghost readers, please give my book a vote (and maybe a comment)! It means a lot when you guys interact with me :)

Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys next chapter!