Teenage Millionaire

Chapter 13: Irrational

I really should know better than to get in a car with him. I'm gripping the dashboard for dear life while he breaks every law I know of.

"Relax, Todd!" he yells at me over the engine and wind.

"Not with your driving!" I yell back, and he gives me a smug grin.

"Has anyone ever told you-" the rest of his sentence gets drowned out as a car honks at us. He ignores it and pulls into a parking lot, doing the worst parking job probably in the history of automobiles (he's taking up at least three spots. It's horrible).

"Sorry, has anyone ever told me what?"

He grins and leans across the console, putting his mouth near my ear. It's unnecessary now that he's not driving, but I feel frozen to the spot, so I don't (can't?) move away.

"You worry a lot," he whispers in a low voice, his breath fanning over the outer lobe of my ear. I swallow as he pulls away and shoots me another smirk before hopping out of his car. If I thought I was frozen before, I feel paralyzed now. Still, I manage to somehow get myself up and out of the car.

"You shouldn't be allowed to drive on public roads," I tell him once I've caught up with him (he didn't wait for me, so I'm a bit behind. I feel like I'm also a bit behind in this conversation, and every other interaction I've had with him). "How do you still have a license?" I pause. "Do you have a license?"

"I'm rich. I can have whatever I want."

"That doesn't answer my question."

He flashes me a toothy grin. "Yes, I have a license. My parents like me to."

That's a bit of a surprise. His parents don't seem to exercise (or even really have) a huge deal of control over him. I decide to ignore that in favour of the topic of him having a license, though. "How has it not gotten suspended? You must get tickets all the time."

"Surprisingly, I don't get too many." That's not a surprise, it's a shock. He must have bribed the entire police force. "I don't drive on public roads a whole lot."

"Ah, that makes sense."

He smirks and pushes open the door of wherever we are. I glance up and see that we're at a restaurant. An actual sit-down-and-order-and-eat restaurant, not a fast food place. I stop walking. He rolls his eyes at me.

"What is it now?"

"We don't have time for this. Lunch period ends in less than an hour."

"Don't worry, Todd. I know how important your perfect record is to you."

I would glare, but I don't want him to get annoyed at me and then try and make me skip class again. And since I would have to literally run all the way back to school right now if I wanted to get to class even remotely close to on time without him driving me, I can't afford to antagonize him. So I just sigh and give in instead.

He doesn't acknowledge me, but I know that he heard because he smirks a bit and puts an arm around my shoulders, pulling me inside. The woman at the front desk looks up at him.

"Do you have a reservation, sir?"

"Nope. Table for two, please"

She shoots him an apologetic look. "Sorry sir, this is a reservation-only restaurant."

I glance into the dining room. It's almost completely empty, which makes sense considering it's lunchtime, so no one actually has time to leave school or work to come to a restaurant.

"Hm. I'm a big tipper."

"Sir-"

He pulls out his wallet and pulls out the first bill he sees. I catch a glimpse and see two zeroes. He slides it across the tabletop to her and smiles. "Such good customer service should be rewarded. We'd like a window booth, please."