Word Count: 1622
Finn turned his car off, running a hand through the mess on his head. His eyes traveled out of the car to his living room window where Millie was inside, sitting on the sofa, staring at her phone.
Quickly, he got out of the car and paced towards the large house, checking the time on his phone, 5:52 pm. He was twenty-two minutes late. "Dammit Finn," he cursed himself, opening the door and rushing in. Millie jumped at the sound of the door opening and began walking towards him, "Millie, I'm so sorry I went to grab some food with the guys and just lost track of time."
Millie held her books to her chest and forced out a smile, "that's fine. Let's just get on with it, shall we? Neither of us wants to be here longer than we have to."
Finn nodded and motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen, where Millie carefully put her books down on the glass table, "let me just run up to my room and get my stuff, I'll be one second, okay?" Before Millie could even answer Finn he had ran back into the lounge room, and she could hear him bolting up the stairs.
Millie just opened her Social Studies book, working on her own homework whilst she waited. She had barely even started reading the theory they were focussing on that day when Finn's mother, Cara, came into the room. "Millie! What a pleasant surprise."
"Cara, hi! I'm just here to help Finn, you know how it is." She smiled at Cara, and Cara returned the favor. She was wrapping a scarf around her neck, a small suitcase stopped behind her.
Cara noticed Millie staring and glanced at the suitcase, "I have to go away, again." She frowned, checking her watch. "Work has been crazy recently, but it's only for two nights. I'll be back late Wednesday."
Just as she finished speaking Finn came back into the room, "alright! Millie, I found everything I need- oh, hey mum." His gaze shifted from Millie to his mother, who was now pulling the suitcase handle up and walking towards him whilst he had a confused look on his face.
"Hi, honey. My car is here, so I've gotta run," she started, kissing him on the cheek. "Call me if you need anything, but I know you'll be fine. It was wonderful to see you, Millie, wish your mum the best. Bye Finn," her voice raised. "Bye, Nick!" And then, she was walking out the door and the house was silent.
Finn frowned and sat down across from Millie, his entire attitude seemed to have changed from enthusiastic and friendly, to reserved and upset. "Finn, are you okay?" Millie asked, concern clear in her voice.
Finn cleared his throat, shaking his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't know she was even going away." The last part was quieter than the start, and Millie gave him a sympathetic look, but he didn't see because he was busying himself by flicking through his English book. "Sorry, again. You know, for being late."
He finally moved his eyes up, meeting with Millie's, "That's fine Finn, as long as you read the book, right?" She spoke loudly and proudly like it was more of a statement than a question. Her face fell when Finn's eyes wouldn't meet hers. He was looking everywhere but there, not wanting to admit he hadn't even touched his copy. "Seriously?" Finn opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't know what to say. Millie just scoffed, "unbelievable." She whispered, turning her attention to her own work.
"Millie, I'm sorry okay?" He seemed to be apologizing a lot this afternoon, "It's just... I didn't have the time and when I did, I tried to read it," he lied, "I just couldn't get past the first page."
Millie gritted her teeth, her patience slowly disappearing. "Alright, well... you know the animals are the central element of the story, right?" Millie reasoned, trying to salvage this study session, "like, they talk and everything and the narrative is based off of them." She peered into Finn's eyes, searching for any reassurance that he was understanding. Despite his efforts to disguise is confusion, Millie picked up on it and sat back in her chair, looking up at the roof and trying to not lose it at the careless boy.
