CHAPTER EIGHT

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Once again, I was completely, utterally, confused. What is with this kid? First, he's literally gifted in art, then he's in an english 11 honors class, and now he needs me to tutor him in something as simple as geometry? I looked over to him, he was staring at me. I looked over to Mr. Vallen, he was staring at me too. I felt awkward and uncomfortable and confused, all at the same time.

"Take a seat please, Brooke." Mr. Vallen said happily. I slowly walked into the room and sunk into the seat next to Ashton. Mr. Vallen began to talk about how Ashton is terrible at all types of math, especially geometry. I began to zone out even though I was still looking and Mr. Vallen, as if i was giving him my full attention. My focus shifted to the corner of my eyes, to see Ashton looking down at his fumbling hands. "So are we good?" Mr. Vallen said.

"What? Oh, yes sir."

"Awesome! Make sure to come by my office every now and then to update me on his progress."

We said our goodbyes, and I slowly followed Ashton out of the office. By now, everyone had gone home, and the courtyard was completely empty except for the two of us. "Can you go any slower?" Ashton said behind his shoulder. I sighed and caught up to him. "Don't be so rude to your tutor." I fought back. Ashton let out a laugh and rolled his eyes. He didn't say anything else, but I still felt like he had won our little spit.

"You seemed nice to me last week."

"Yes, because I was compulsivley obsessed with your lack of talent for drawing ears."

I had no idea what to say next. I decided to be quiet the rest of the walk. We finally got to the south parking lot, and I continued to follow Ashton until we finally got to a junky, dirty, and extremely old pick up truck. Ashton caually got in the front seat and waited until I got into the passenger. It smelled like cigarrets in here. I decided to keep my purse on my lap; there's no way I'm putting it on the floor.

We drove in silence for about 5 minutes. "Why do you need a tutor?" I decided to ask.

"Didn't you hear that fucker? I'm 'terrible at all kinds of math'."

I cringed at his choice of words. Once again, I stopped talking. We kept driving, past my neighborhood, past all the shopping centers, and past the Strip. Pretty soon I began to notice that where he was driving, there were no houses at all. I started to feel very nervous...and scared. "Where are we going?"

"My house?" Ashton said, keeping his eyes on the road. We kept driving until we had left all the hotels of the vegas strip behind. We took a few turns until Ashton pulled up to a little trailer sitting in the desert sand, surrounded by nothing but the desert sand. I hesitantly stepped out of the car, the heat even more unbarable out here. "Hurry up." Ashton said as he walked to the door of the trailer. I followed him inside, the heat even more unbarable. "Sorry I didn't tidy up." he said.

There was a small room with an old couch and coffee table, and a couple cabinents near the front that indicated that was the kitchen. This thing looks like it hasn't been moble in at least 30 years. "Pretty cool right? Found it myself." Ashton said to no one in particular. He must've noticed my eyes wondering over to the door at the end of the small room. "That's the bedroom," Ashton said to me. "My grandma sleeps in there. I sleep here." He sat down on the couch and I reluctantly sat down next to him. He pulled a geometry book out of his backpack and threw it on the table.

"Okay," I said, staring at the textbook. "You're in a geometry class, right?"

"Yeah."

"What lesson are you on?"

"Like some shit about angles."

"That doesn't give me much to work with."

Ashton groaned and flipped through the book until he found the page that talked about angles and congruency.

I spent the next hour trying to explain to him what it means when angles are congruent and how they can be supplementry or complimentary. None if it made sense to him. This was going to be hard. Why did I do this again? Or right, college credit. "The fuck do we need to know this?" Ashton said.

"Look, just bare with me," I said. "Pretty soon we're gonna have to throw in algebra into all this so might as well get used to it."

"FUCK -"

Ashton couldn't finish yelling at me, for the door to the trailer opened. An old lady walked inside, she looked about 65. I'm guessing its Ashton's grandma. She looked over to Ashton and then to me, and smiled. "Is this your tutor?" she asked. Ashton nodded and I waved hello. She said hi back and came into the room to shake my hand. "Call me Irene." She said sweetly. She was a jolly person with a smile on her face. The complete oppisite of her grandson. "I'm going back out for a while," she said. "I'm gonna get dinner."

"Okay." Ashton said as he turned back to the practice problems I had given him.

"I love you."

Ashton looked back up, showed a little smile, and then looked back down. Irene left.

What the heck did I just wittness.

"The answer is 72."

I looked down at the paper.

"Thats right!" I said.

"Hell yeah, I just guessed."

"Well," I sighed. "At least its a start." I tried to expalin to him why that was the answer, but he didn't understand. Pretty soon the 2 hours was up, and it was time for me to leave. "I have to drive you home," Ashton said. "Lets go."

I followed Ashton out to his dirty car, and I was confused, because Irene wasn't back yet from the grocery store. "Does your grandma have a car?" I asked, getting back into the passenger seat.

"Nah, she uses mine. But the dollar store is only a half-mile away, so I guess she didn't need to use it today."

That statement hurt my heart a little, and I don't know why. We drove in silence, once again, until we were back by Palo Verde. "Now where?" Ashton asks. I give him directions until we pull onto my street. I heard Ashton gulp beside me, but I didn't look over at him.

"And... here." I said as we stopped infront of my house. Ashton looked out and his eyes windened.

"This is your house?" he said. I nodded.

"Well shit how many people live with you?"

"Just...my family."

"Oh." Ashton said. "Okay. Get out."

His tone of voice wasn't mean or angry...it was just...lost. I gave him a quiet "thank you." and I hopped out of the car. Ashton sped away as soon as my feet touched the ground. I stood on my driveway and looked at my house. It was the average sized house... obviously he's seen one of these before, they're everywhere. Why was he so surprised?

I slowly walked into my house and headed straight for the stairs. My mother met me half way. "Oh! Hey, sweetie!" She said as she hugged me. "Aren't you going to stay downstairs? Dinner's almost ready."

"I'm not hungry, but thank you." I said. I turned my face from her because I wanted to cry. I don't know why, but I did. I hurried past her and into my room and shut the door right behind me. I slumped down on my bed and pulled my own homework out, but I couldn't focus. My mind kept going back to that hot, old, disgusting trailer i had to sit in for 2 hours. Ashton called that place "home".

Where were this boys' parents? Why is he so distant? Why is so mean to people? There was something about this boy that I didn't know. No one knew. What was it? This is one question that I did not know the answer to.

But, I'm almost positive I'm going to find out, somehow...hopefully.

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