EASTSIDE

12 .

HARD WORK DOES
PAY OFF. NOT IN
THE MOMENT, BUT
EVENTUALLY.

"What's the quadratic formula?"

Finn looked down at his paper before Bayley took it away. "No references."

The past couple of days, Bayley had stayed over at Finn's house to help him study for his test. It wasn't anything major. It was more along the lines of an algebra retest. Everything that was on it was going to be used in pre-calc and he had to understand it if he wanted to pass the year.

He groaned. "I don't remember it. Let me see the paper," he says reaching for it. Bayley pulled her arm back. "No. You're being lazy. I know you know it. You just told me like five minutes ago. You know it."

Finn shrugged. "I'm not gonna pass this test. I'm never going to use this shit. Why can't you take the test for me?" Bayley frowned at her boyfriend's discouraging words. "Stop it. You're not being fair to yourself. You're gonna play. Babe, it's very simple. Look, I'll give you a hint. X equals?"

Finn thought to himself. "Negative B, plus or minus B squared minus four AC, all over two A?" He asked. Bayley smiled. "You're missing one small thing," she corrects. Finn looks down at the scribbled-out answers that he has written on the paper. "Square root?"

"Where is it placed?" Finn rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Pam?"

She shrugged. "Don't 'seriously, Pam' me. That silly mistake could be the difference between you getting the correct answer or not." He sighed as he thought to himself. "Is it like after the B squared shit?"

Bayley smiled as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "See now was that so hard?" Finn scoffed. "Yeah, it was. Literally, me passing this test determines if I can play tomorrow," he stands up from the table and makes his way over to his room. "Finn," he hears her call after her.

He sits on his bed, rubbing his hands through his beard. He watched as she got down on her knees and kneeled in front of him. "Wait, I probably shouldn't be like this. It looks like I'm going to give you a blowjob."

The two laughed at the joke as Finn pulled Bayley up to him, making her sit on his lap. "You have so much potential, Finn. I know you do. You know you do too. You're just not showing it off."

"I'm not as smart as you, though," he whispers, pushing the hair out of her face. "You don't have to be smart like me. Everyone thinks that being super-smart is a blessing, but it's not. You're constantly overthinking if you put your best work into something. When you don't get a good grade, you go crazy as to what you missed points on and beat yourself down on why you didn't think through."

"Finn, I'm really tired," Bayley sighed, "I'm tired of being super smart. Like, I want to stop, but I can't because I do set myself up on a super high pedestal, and I really don't want to throw everything away by giving up, but I'm so tired. I guess that's why Sasha wanted me to loosen up this year."

Finn brought Bayley into his chest and started to stroke her back. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to, princess. And I don't want you to start losing where you are right now. You've worked too damn hard to give up."

"Look, I'm gonna try harder in school, alright? I don't want to disappoint you. I've already disappointed my folks and they've practically given up on me," he admitted. Bayley looked up at Finn. "You won't disappoint me, Finn. You work hard and you don't give yourself enough credit for it. That's why you act the way that you do."

Finn sighed. He never thought of it like that. It had always been him against the world in his mind. He felt like he had no one on his side. It made sense for him to act like this.

"I wanna have sex," he hears making him look up at her. "What?"

"I said I want to have sex. I trust you."

Finn sighs. "Princess, I want to have sex too," he starts, making her smile, "but you have to put this into perspective. We just started dating a little less than a month ago. It's too soon."

A frown came upon her face. "You're not attracted to me?"

He let out a humorless laugh. "Princess, I am so attracted to you. I find you the sexiest person I've been with. And I have been with a lot of women. I've had sex with a lot of women who I have no feelings for, alright? When we have sex, I want you to feel my feelings. I don't want to have sex with you and not mean it, alright?"

Bayley sighed as she took the hair tie on her wrist. She reached to tie her hair up, but Finn stopped her. "No. You do that when you're stressed. Princess, I want to have sex with you. So badly. I need you to understand that. We are going to have sex. I promise you that. You trust me, right?" She nods.

"Then trust me when I say that we need to wait a bit more. You're not a side piece that I'm going to throw away when I'm done. You are my girlfriend. You're stuck with me."

Bayley sighed. "Are you scared that you're going to hurt me when we have sex?" Finn chuckled. "I don't do soft sex, princess. But for you, we'll go whatever pace you want."

[ edited 08-13-21]
[ word count 950 ]