The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

14: Stupid Little Talks

14: Stupid Little Talks

I could never find the courage to pass that kiss to my mother.

I knew I was a coward. Trying out new things had never been my forte. Even I almost never wanted to try out foods from unknown origin, such as Ikea Meatballs. Gosh, even I shuddered just thinking about it. 

But then a kiss from Ryder, to my mother?

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to deliver just the kiss, or down to every excruciating effect that I experienced due to it. I definitely didn’t want my mother to have a massive diarrhea after I kissed her. I knew I didn’t expect my bowels to be reacting so massively, and I mean that literally, to Ryder’s lips.

Oh Cowabonga.

I couldn’t even think of Ryder’s lips without feeling the hackles on my neck stood on ends. 

“April,” Quentin called out for me. Not a few seconds later, he broke into my room, wearing a very green, very tribal-y turtle neck that had been trending in instagram for a few months. 

“Aaa? Aaa?” he waggled his eyebrows and held his mouth in a frozen smile as he searched for my approval. “What do you think?”

“It’s green?” I said, because that’s what my limited fashion sense could only register to me.

The instant disappointment that he experienced was drawn clearly on his face. “Come on. I know you’re hopeless, but you’re not that hopeless. At least tell me that I look good or something.”

I knew that my brother was good looking. I mean, his hordes of ex-girlfriends and dates and easy life was enough proof. Quentin had a straight, thin nose with thin lips that were of healthy color. His jaw might be a little bit too small for a guy, though, and he was self-conscious about it before. But then as he started to work out and hit the gym and practiced lots and lots of football, his shoulder made up for it.

And it was a good thing, too, that the swell on his jaw had subsided.

“You look good, Quentin,” I smiled. “Who are you trying to impress?”

He waggled his eyebrows even more, as if glad that I asked. “It’s Crystal Ming.”

“The Mathletes Captain?”

“The very one,” Quentin was grinning so hard his lips might split. “That mixed blood does her good, isn’t it? And I heard from some sources that she doesn’t like guys who go full athlete, so I ditched the varsity jacket and went for something geeky instead.” He looked at himself at the mirror again. “Besides, it’s green. Girls like Crystal Ming must care for ‘Go Green’ and all that shit, right?”

“I don’t know,” I said very truthfully. Crystal Ming might be a Mathematic Goddess, but she was far from being the typical nerd with no friends like me, Marcy and Corinne were. She actually participated profusely in the social scene and was as close as being the boys’s own private Lucy Liu with glasses.

“I mean, her name’s Crystal and all that. I think she might care about rocks more.”

“But rocks are part of nature, and nature is green,” Quentin muttered, more to himself than to me. “Shit yeah. I’m bagging her tonight.”

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say with ‘bagging’, but poo yeah, you will,” I said, meeting his fist with mine.

That seemed to up his morale a little bit. “Even my dorky twin sister gives me the blessing.”

“The ‘dorky’ thing is kind of mean, but yeah,” I nodded.

“Anyway, what about you, sister?” Quentin asked. “Andrew drove you home last week, which was a good progress, but it went downhill after that. He even hasn’t been eating lunch with you lately, and he wouldn’t answer when I asked him why.”