Noah & Navid

Chapter 61 - Science Hates Noah

"What's wrong, Noah? What hurt my love?" Navid squatted down in front of me in his business suit. 

He looked so handsome and grown. He barely resembled the easygoing foreign muscle-jock I'd met a year and a half ago.

He never just flopped his black hair back anymore. Now he had it cut shorter, gelled into spikes combed to the right. It was thinning in some places. It looked good though and added to his daddy appeal. 

Graduation, a career, the little home we shared were turning him into a man. I felt like his child sometimes when he picked me up from campus.

I knew he wanted to lift me up from where I perched atop a low wall that held in the plants outside the health building where he usually met me. I had my knees drawn up into my chest with my arms folded across them. My chin was resting on my knees when he found me. He was on the phone, but quickly finished up when he saw my face and came to squat in front of me.

"I failed... I failed," I said quietly. 

I was beating myself up pretty badly and lost in my thoughts. I needed a hug, but I didn't feel like I deserved one. I wanted him to yell at me. I reached down to take the folded paper out of my pocket. It was the grade sheet from my project for the Biology class. 

Science always bites me in the bottom, and not in an enjoyable way like Navid does.

"You work hard to study for this, my love. I hate that you hurt," Navid whispered as he read it.

"It sucks. I did my best and... it sucks," I sighed. I had a hard time meeting his eyes.

"Well... I tell you this, Noah. Taking five classes is hard for you. You are good boy who does too much. You take care of the home for perfect condition, take care of me, and then take five class. We try this and it does not work, so next semester we know. Ok? Less classes so you can do better," Navid explained.

I wasn't in the mood for an "I-told-you-so" speech, even if he looked handsome squatting in front of me and putting his hands on my legs. 

Was he saying he expected me to fail? I always suspect he just has me in college so he knows where I am during the day, something to keep me entertained. Did he really not expect me to succeed?

He squeezed my right calf muscle and looked at me with sad eyes. He knew I wasn't happy. He got that fatherly look like he just wanted to give me whatever it was that would pacify me.

I shook my head. I didn't have it in me to argue with him. He knew his answer didn't make me feel better. He stood and offered me his hand.

"Come, my baby. We get take-out food tonight and I make you feel better at home," he said in a low voice. I sat there for another minute berating myself in my head for imaginary things I could have done to get a better grade. In reality I'd done my best. I hate science.

"I'm going to fail and have to take it all over again. I wasted your money on tuition. All this work was for nothing," I looked at his eyes. 

He was trying to figure out what to do with me. I always felt like I was his child when we had these talks. He was so authoritative, parental.

"Noah please. We talk about this at home. I am hungry and tired for day and need hold my baby at home. You always feel better in my arms." He sat down next to me and put his arm around me. 

He pulled me against his side and laid his head on mine even though people were passing by and could see us. "Do you want I carry you? I will do for you, but please is time to go home."

"I belong at home? That's where I should be the rest of my life? I should stop wasting your money on classes?" I whispered. The tone of his words made it seem that way.