angel | dealor

two

I didn't have a lesson last period, but I had made the mistake of telling John to meet me at the end of the day, meaning I couldn't just go home early. Neither Brian nor Freddie were free, Freddie was in Art and Brian one of his many types of maths. In my opinion, maths is maths, so how he managed to take three different maths classes at once astounded me.

Still, them both having classes led to me being alone for the last hour of the day. I sat at our table in the corner of the near-empty study room and decided to get on with the chemistry homework I'd received earlier in the day, hoping to get it done at school so I wouldn't have to waste time on it at home. In that hour I managed to get five of the six questions finished and upon writing out the sixth question and glancing at the clock on the wall I concluded that I'd have enough time to do it before school the next morning, if I didn't do it after school (that last part is positive thinking - of course the work would be left until the morning.)

I waited five minutes after the bell had rung before stepping out of the room, giving John time to get there from his last lesson. I smiled slightly upon seeing him standing there. Half of me had expected him not to show up and, whilst the thought of teaching someone biology didn't exactly excite me, something about his personality made me want to spend more time with him. I'd not really seen much of it, with him being so quiet, and somehow it intrigued me.

"Come on. I'm afraid we've got to walk," I smiled, jerking my head as a gesture for him to follow and starting to head down the hall. "My parents hate me, I'm not seventeen until July so probably won't be driving until the very end of the year," I said, sighing. It really did annoy me that they'd not planned my conception better - Freddie had already turned seventeen and I was incredibly jealous.

"My birthday's the nineteenth of September, so I don't really have that problem.." He mumbled. At least I was getting something out of him, even if it was just his birthday. (a/n, I know his birthday is August but I wanted them both to be sixteen so that rog wouldn't be noncey and i thought moving his birthday a month was the easiest way to do it)

"Lucky thing. I wish I was born earlier so I wouldn't have to walk all the time, around this time of year I'm borderline getting frostbite, and the buses don't run near my house," I explained, smiling over at him. "Sorry for subjecting you to this. You could've planned better if you'd spoken."

"Sorry.." He mumbled, looking down at his feet. "I'm not really, uh. I'm a little shy.." He admitted, fiddling with the straps on his rucksack. Something about his nervousness, although it infuriated me, also made me feel.. Protective, for some weird reason. This kid just seemed so precious.

"You can talk to me. I know that probably isn't very reassuring, but if you want anything out of this tutoring you're gonna have to talk. I'll try not to laugh if you ask a stupid question." I grinned at him as I spoke, trying to ease some of the tension. "I'm kidding, by the way. I'll probably be the one asking stupid questions. I'm not sure why I was chosen to help."

He laughed at that. I was happy to finally get some reinforcement that he was listening, even if it was him laughing at my idiocy. It was a start.

We walked for a while longer, making short conversation until eventually I could lead him up the driveway to my house. He looked up at it with wide eyes, taking it all in.

"It's way bigger than mine.." He mumbled, causing me to snort.

"I get that a lot," I smirked, "Although, not always in the context of my house."

My grin widened as I watched his facial expression change. For a second he looked confused, then his whole face reddened and he had to look away once he'd figured out my innuendo.

I led him in and we both took our shoes off by the door. As usual, the house was empty when I got home so I just led him straight up the stairs and to my bedroom, which thankfully - from some stroke of luck - I'd decided to tidy at the weekend.

My room wasn't too small. It could hardly be described as huge, either, but it was a decent size for a bedroom. Big enough for my wardrobes, desk, a double bed and a drum kit in the corner adjacent to that my bed sat in, with the other furniture lined up on the opposing wall.

"Have a seat," I said, nodding at the desk and dumping my bag on the ground beside it. "I'll just.." I stepped behind the drum kit, grabbing the throne and taking it over to the desk so that we each had a chair to sit on. I took the stool, thinking it would be a little rude for me to take the comfy chair and force him to sit on my drum stool.

"You play?" He asked, nodding at the drum kit. I laughed softly, shaking my head.

"No, it's an ornament. Of course I play." I teased, not wanting to go in too hard on him in case I upset him. He nodded and smiled, and his gaze moved over to the guitar propped against the wall beside it. "Yeah. That too. Do you play?" I asked, trying to put the actual biology off for as long as I could. I wanted to get to know him so that our sessions wouldn't be awkward, it would feel less forced if we could be friendly with one another.

John nodded at my question. "Not drums, but guitar - well, I play bass. I play a little bit of guitar, from learning bass, but I prefer the bass," A smile spread across his lips upon mention of the instrument, and I could tell he enjoyed playing music. It was good, we were already finding common ground.

Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I'd originally expected.

———

Two hours of John being at my house had passed, and all that had happened was a lot of discussions about our interests, mainly to do with music. We'd had a short conversation about cell division, then had given up after the quickest possible explanation of the mitotic cell cycle I could give and a few crappy drawings. It was okay, though. We'd surpassed that awkward phase, which meant next time we could crack down and actually do some work.

I had found out a lot about him. Like how our favourite musicians were similar, and how he'd been in a band up until recently. I told him that I could sing, too, and he didn't really believe me until I dug out a picture of me in my choirboy outfit, which made him laugh. I didn't mind him laughing at my expense, so long as he felt comfortable around me. I'd always had a problem with my over-confidence so couldn't relate to his nervousness, but knew that some of my friends (particularly Brian) had been afraid of the older years when we were lower in the school, and I didn't want him to be afraid of me if we'd have to hang around all the time.

We decided it was probably time for him to get home. Clearly we weren't going to get any more work done, and I hadn't had chance to pre-warn my mum to make extra tea (nor had he told his he wouldn't be home for the meal), meaning he would have to head home in order to be fed. Part of me was thankful when he left, it meant I could finally get changed and just chill out, but part of me felt a little lonely. It was nice to make a new friend, even if we would only see each other a couple of times a week to talk about cells.

Once he had gone I went back upstairs and felt motivated upon seeing my books still open on my desk. Maybe I could get all of my homework done before the morning.

I was in for a long night.