Muse. | Fionn Whitehead

5. Second Time

"My Mom's Filipino and my Dad's Mexican," I tell Fionn as I showed him a photo of my parents back when they were still married. "I speak two languages."

We've been asking each other questions, on the ride to my house, back and forth as curiosity grew. Fionn's temperament is very laid-back and I enjoy talking to him.

He asked me about my half siblings and I mentioned all eight of their names, oldest to youngest — Jude, Naomi, Michael, Jenna, Alexis, Troy, Tina, and Yasmin. I add that I have a step sibling from Sam, my mother's husband, and he's about 25. His name is Cedrick, but we all call him Ced.

After awhile I move the topic to Fionn. He tells me he has an older brother named Ethan who's eight years older than him. He said that considering the 8-year age gap, Ethan would always be the one to pull him out of whatever trouble he was in when he was a teenager. Fionn's mother is from Washington hence their residence here after a couple of years in England.

We pull up in front of my porch.

Fionn then asks me if I always walked to where I needed to be. "Only when my Dad's working I guess," I said. "I don't take the bus when my friend Ronny  doesn't decide to be late for school."

"Oh," I add, remembering what I told Elsie about Fionn. "Elsie, my other friend,  she saw me looking through the photos I took of you. She asked who you were and I said you were my cousin. Now that I think about it, it doesn't make any sense. . . a distant cousin I guess?"

"Oh god." Fionn laughs. "Really?"

I nod. "I didn't want to tell her I had a whole photo shoot session with this guy I don't know. . . She's just so nosy all the time."

"Are we still?"

"Hm?"

"Strangers, I mean."

"Well, if we were still strangers I wouldn't know that you have an older brother and you wouldn't know that I have a total of eight half siblings and a step brother. Also, I wouldn't be in this wonderful car of yours for the second time."

He nods, impressed that I didn't take a breath on that one. "Well said."

It's suddenly quiet, but it's the comfortable, and I still have no idea why I'm not stepping out of his car.

'Aawake At Night' by half•alive plays.

"They're underrated," I say, looking at the screen.

"I agree. You've never heard of them before?"

I shake my head.

"Say what, I'll send you a link to my playlist."

He points to my phone in my hand and I hand it to him.

"Here," he says after adding his phone number. I start to have a split second thought about his playlist being a way of him giving me his number, then I remember he told me he has a girlfriend.

"Bye, Fionn," I say, grabbing my things and stepping out of his car.

"Bye, Lola," he responds before I shut the door.

The headlights of his car finally fades once I shut the door behind me and I smile, thinking it was nice of him to wait until I got inside, just like he did the first time.