mine first

•2•

"Today has sucked," I say as I throw my lunch tray on the table causing it to make a loud thud.

"What crawled up your ass?" Chloe asks.

"Brandon," I roll my eyes.

"As in Brandon Arreaga?" She asks as she shoves a grape in her mouth.

"Yes," I say. "Mr. Hayes is making me tutor him because he's failing the class."

"Shouldn't that be a good thing? Isn't he like super hot?"

"I don't know and I don't care," I say. "I'm surprised you don't know. Haven't you seen him before?"

"No. I don't pay attention to people at this school," she says. "I've only heard of him and people says he's hot."

"He's whatever," I say. "But he's also a douche and doesn't know when to keep his mouth closed."

"Talking about me, are we?"

I turn around quickly to see Brandon standing there with a big smirk spread across his face. That was not meant for him to hear.

"Uh, no," I say.

"Sure," he says. "Anyways I really need to get this tutoring over. If I don't pass the class then I can't play basketball this season."

"Boo hoo," I say.

"It's important to me," he says.

"Then maybe you should take school more importantly then," I say. "Good grades has always been a rule for sports."

"Whatever," he says. "Is after school today okay for you?"

"I guess," I say. "We can come to my place. Just meet me in the parking lot and you can follow me."

"Okay, thanks."

"Yea," I say quietly. He walks away and goes to sit with his friends. Chloe starts talking about how hot he is, but I zone her out completely.

The only thing I can think about is Brandon coming to my house. I'm nervous, but glad at the same time. Since he will be there my dad can't do anything to me. I'll have some free time to not get hit. Hopefully we study at my place all the time.

[After school]

"This is your place?" He asks as he gets out of his car.

"Uhm, yea," I say.

He walks up to me and smiles lightly, "It's really nice. Do you live here with your parents?"

"Just my dad," I say.

"Oh," he says.

"That shit doesn't matter," I say as I start to walk to the house, "Let's just do this shit."

He follows me into the house and I set my keys down on the table. I take my shoes off and he does the same.

"Damn," he says. "It's beautiful in here."

"Thanks," I walk to the dining table and I put the mail on it. My dad never gets it. I'm always the one to grab it. If I don't then I'm punished, "We can study in my room."

"Okay."

I walk up the stairs and Brandon follows behind me. This will be the first time a boy will ever be in my room. I never have people over unless it's Chloe. Having Brandon here is kinda weird.

"You can put your things on the desk," I say.

He sits at my desk and starts to get his things out. I do the same and we stay in complete silence. I'm really hoping it's not this awkward the whole time.

"So what do you specifically need to work on?" I ask. "Did Mr. Hayes say anything about that?"

"No," he says. "He just said I needed tutored in my class because I suck."

"Don't say that. Don't have that type of attitude or it will get you nowhere." He smiles lightly and I quickly look away. I can't look at him too long. I fall too easily. "Do you understand what we are doing now in class?"

"Not at all," he says.

"Okay," I say. "Well you basically are just putting the fractions diagonal from each other to get the conversion."

"Across from each other?"

"Yes," I grab my pencil and I write it on my paper to show him, "Like this. They are diagonal which will now help you turn the grams into liters. That's why you use the chart."

"Oh, okay," he says. "So I use the chart and I plug the numbers in?"

"Correct," I say. "And then you multiply across and then divide the two. Then you will get your answer."

"Okay."

"Here, try number four."

He moves his book a little bit and then starts to write on his piece of paper to do number four. As he's writing I watch him the whole time. Since he is thinking his eyebrows go down and he scrunches his nose a bit. He seems so focused and it's so cute, but I can't talk like that. I'm not supposed to think he's cute or anything. He can't be cute to me.

"Okay, I'm done," he says.

"Let me see."

I take the paper from him and I start to look at all his work and then his answer. He actually did do it right. Hopefully my teaching will actually help him.

"Perfect," I say. "Now do seven."

***

After about four hours of studying we decide to call is quits. We didn't even study as much as we should have. We started talking which felt really good. I always thought of Brandon as a dick, but he's actually really nice.

"She died," I say. He just asked about my mom. I knew he would ask because almost every person does. I don't blame them though. Everyone has a mom, so they are always curious as to where mine is.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay," I say. "She died when I was really young. I don't remember much about her. My grandma told me a lot about her though once I got older. She sounded magnificent."

"If she's anything like you then I know she was amazing," he says.

When he says that I feel my face heat up. Nobody talks about me like that. I'm the nobody in that school. I don't get talked to or anything. How is Brandon complimenting me right now?

"Thanks," I say.

"We should hang out sometime," he says.

I chuckle, "We are right now."

"Not like that," he laughs. "I mean go out and do something. Something that doesn't have anything to do with tutoring."

"Uh, okay," I say. "I would love that."

"Me too," he says.

Right after he says that I hear a big bang from downstairs. Shit. My dad is home. This will be interesting.

"Natalie! You better have gotten dinner made!" He yells. "And who the hell is here?"

"Is that your dad?"

I sigh, "Yes."

"I'll get going then," he says. "Thanks again for everything."

"No problem."

He packs up all of things and then we walk downstairs together. Once we are downstairs I see my dad taking his shoes off my the door.

"Who is this?"

"I'm Brandon, sir. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm tutoring him," I say.

"Yea, I'm sure you are doing just that," my dad says as he stares me down. Brandon looks over at me with a concerned look on his face. The only thing I want to do is tell Brandon about my dad, but I can't.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow, Nat."

"Bye, Brandon."

Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.