Faulty Wiring [Ashton Irwin, AUS]

Sitting in an empty library with him sitting across from me is not the way I plan to spend my summer. But I have to study, and he has to help me. If I didn't study, then I didn't get a chance at life. (According to my parents, that is.)

"Ugh why are we here Marilyn? I'm bored as fuck!" I roll my eyes, he was always like this. I didn't ask to be put in this situation, and neither did he, but in the end, he was a good tutor, even if he was an incompetent idiot.

"Get over it will you? When these holidays are over you won't ever have to see me again and you can go play drummer in your stupid band." I return to the worksheets he had handed me the night before. He scoffs loudly, too loudly in fact, as the librarian scolds him for being 'way too loud for a public library'.

"I will, but the holidays aren't over for another eight weeks. I don't understand why you need me, you blitz the worksheets I give you and you already know the stuff I teach..." I look up over the top of my glasses and click my pen in an irritating fashion. He hated when I did that, and that is exactly why I did it.

"My parents feel like I need extra help. They think there is something wrong with me. But there isn't. They even took me to a therapist for three weeks."

"No way. You seem normal enough,"

"Gee, thanks." I sarcastically reply.

"Shut up, will you? I didn't mean it like that." I sigh deeply, incredibly annoyed at my parents for making me be tutored by an idiotic drummer of a band I didn't even know the name of. He had only finished school last year, what makes him so special? Or smart? He didn't look like a genius, but I guess, neither did actual geniuses.

"I have to study, because if I don't, then I don't get a good grade and if I don't get a good grade then I don't go to university and if I don't go to university I don't get a degree, and if I don't get a degree, I won't make a living because I won't have a career." He studies me silently as I continue to rant, his eyebrows raised and his lips closed tightly.

"No one is going to want a homeless, broke young girl. I'll have no one. I won't have a boyfriend, I won't have kids, I'll just be alone." He nods his head loosely before shifting in his seat. I lean forward to hear a reply, my anticipation showing through. He leans forward aswell, our faces becoming awkwardly close, he licks his lips lightly before speaking in a voice so low, I barely hear it.

"I don't believe that for a second."

I laugh dryly, unamused at the situation I was thrown into. He sighs, leaning back into the wooden chair, drumming his long fingers on the table. He goes quiet when I speak again.

"Well, quite frankly, I'll be dead before I've even had the chance to feel alive."