Only Fools

Chapter Forty Two

"No. Because in class, when she was explaining it, it made sense. Now...."

"It all just disappeared from your brain?" Margot finishes.

"You know me so well," I tease the girl sitting across from me at the table as I send her a wink.

"Back to derivatives," Margot announces with a small smile threatening to spill onto her lips. I let out a groan as I let my head fall down onto the opened notebook set in front of me.

"We're talking about natural logs," Margot reminds me, resulting in yet another groan as I shake my head, forehead in constant contact with the notebook paper.

"The formula you need to know is that the derivative of ln u equals u prime divided by u," Margot continues on despite my unwillingness to actually work.

"Where the fuck did the u come from....?" I ask slowly as I finally lift my head back up.

"It's just a variable. For the formula," Margot explains calmly as she continues to write down practice problems for me.

"And why do I have to do this?"

"It's part of the calculus curriculum,"

"But why are derivatives a thing?"

"Remember learning about limits?"

"No," I say in a rather deadpanned and completely honest tone. Margot lets out a sigh at my words.

"....you do know there's a final right?"

"Shit. Might as well fail me now," I say as I throw my hands up in exasperation.

"You have an A in the class, Aspen," Margot says flatly.

"Yeah. But I'm this close to slipping off the edge," I say as I mime just how little with my thumb and pointer finger, "and once that happens, then it's completely hopeless. F."

"How about we keep studying so you don't have to get to that point?" Margot offers.

"Or.... We could quit now and just make out," I provide a counter offer as I wiggle my eyebrows at her.

"What if math's a turn on for me?" Margot challenges me as she raises her eyebrows.

"Is reciting the multiplication table worth anything? I could probably go up to ten," I offer as I stand up and take a step over to her before setting myself down on her lap.

"Unfortunately, you would have to go up to twelve," Margot says as I adjust myself so that my legs are on either side of her, straddling her lap.

"Well, shit. But since I'm already here...." I say increasingly quiet with every word as I lean forward so that our noses are nearly touching. Margot smirks before raising her head up so that her lips almost graze my ear, sending chills down my spine.

"Since you're already here.... You'll have to use my notebook to write down the problems instead. It's closer," she whispers in the most seductive tone she can manage without breaking and ending up laughing.

I groan as I pull away from her and lean my back against the table, not quite ready to get off of her yet.

"Can we at least take a short break? No quitting. Just.... Break?" I bargain with my girlfriend as I attempt to give her my best puppy dog eyes.

"And do what?" she questions, her eyes darkening slightly.

"That train already left the station, dude,"

"And yet you're still sitting on my lap," Margot counters.

"Being on your lap means nothing. I'm on people's laps all the time,"