Cupid's Sabotage (COMPLETED)

Chapter 11

The next day on the bus ride to school, Reggie was whining about his test results. He kept muttering how he felt he "Totally aced that driver's test" and "They obviously don't have Fast and Furious over in Australia". Both of us had received our results shortly after nine o'clock last night. I read my results quickly and saw I had passed. Reggie, on the other hand, did not. That didn't come as a surprise, at least not for me. Though, Reggie seemed genuinely shocked to discover he had failed. I told him it wasn't a big deal and that he could retake the test in a few weeks.

He continued to whine.

Even though I now officially have my license, I still don't have my own car. And since mom needs the minivan to travel to work each day, I have no choice but to ride the bus to school. It was a glorious moment being told I am now legal to drive without parental supervision, but that privilege doesn't come without its own set of disadvantages.

"Like car insurance," dad had said this morning over breakfast; a Western omelet and potatoes. "You can't drive without it."

"How much will that cost?" I said. I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice, but I'm fairly certain it showed.

"Depends on the type of coverage. Plus, with you being under twenty-five, it's an automatic bump in price. You'd be lucky to pay a minimum of one-hundred-dollars a month."

I nearly choke on a potato. "One-hundred-dollars!" The only money I make is the ten dollars I receive for cutting Ernie Mills' lawn. I guess there's only one thing I can do.

"Get a job." Dad had said as if he could read my thoughts. "We're hiring at the store." And by "store" he's referring to the hardware store he's worked at for nearly fifteen years.

It's not that I mind the thought of stocking shelves as my first job, but—I don't know—I was hoping for something a little more thrilling. A job that allows me the freedom of working on my own schedule, my own time; low hours, high pay. Then again, I don't have a clue just what type of job that would be.

Dad took a sip of coffee. "You're sixteen, Christian. Haven't you thought about college, about what you want to do for the rest of your life?"

No! What kid my age knows precisely what they want to spend the next forty years working at? "Yeah, of course I have," I answered in a low voice, secretly hoping that he wouldn't pursue the thought any further.

"Good! Let's hear it then."

A hard swallow. I wasn't expecting this conversation to happen. "Automotive mechanics." Those words spew forth from my mouth without much thought.

"You don't know anything about mechanics."

"Isn't that the whole point of going to college? To learn something you didn't initially know?"

He frowns at me. "The point of college is to choose a field you feel passionate and confident about and forge a livelihood from it. College is a career move, not a field trip."

His stern response catches me by surprise. I guess if I have any chance at all with Gwenevere, I'll need a car. And in order to get a car, I need a job. "Reality blows!" I slid deeper into the kitchen chair. "Alright. I'll take the job."

And that's pretty much how that conversation went down.

"I start Monday," I say to Reggie as the bus pulls into the school parking lot.

"A job? You actually got a job? Like a real one?"

He makes it sound like I'm one of those rental clowns, the ones that make animal balloons for six-year-old's birthday parties. "Yes, a real job. I'll be working at the same hardware store as my dad. It's minimum wage, but once I'm established, I'll have the opportunity to work more hours and even get an occasional raise. Oh, and get this—I even get paid vacation! One week out of every year, they're willing to pay me to not work. How cool is that, right?"