Resisting the Bad Boy

[21] "Kiss"

     I WATCH as she sighs and steps out of the house, closing the door behind her. She glances over at me, finding my eyes and quickly looking away.

     "I'm sorry about Leila," I say, trying to fill the silence as we walk to my car.

     I open the door for her, watching as she hops inside and buckles herself in.

     "It's not a problem. She's not any different and it's not your fault," Raven shrugs.

     I nod and close her door, making my way to the driver's side. I hop in, turn the car on, put it in reverse, but don't take my foot off of the break.

     I don't even know where we're going.

     I see Raven out of the corner of my eye look at me expectantly. I'm not sure what she wants...do I take her to my place? We have homework that we just got from calculus, and I know she knows what she's doing. I, on the other hand, fucking hate calc.

     "We got calculus homework," I say.

     She turns and looks at me curiously. I have to admit she looks adorably innocent and I turn away. I need to keep focused.

     "So...you're saying we're gonna do calc?" she asks.

     "Unless you had something else?" I look over, an eyebrow raised.

     She purses her lips, nibbling on them slightly.

     "You just want me to help, don't you?" she smiles softly.

     I laugh.

     "How'd you know," I ask.

     She shrugs, laughing to herself.

• • •

     "Wha-how the hell are you on problem 27 already?" I look at Raven scribbling on the lined paper I gave her.

     She shrugs, concentration still evident on her face. I watch as she types away on my calculator and finishes the problem by circling her answer.

     "What'd you need?" she asks, setting down her pencil.

     "I'm on question 5," is all I say.

     She scrunches her face, trying not to laugh.

     "Hey," I crack a smile.

     "Here," she writes down a few things, types in a couple numbers for calculations, and writes down the final number.

It's evident it's her handwriting and not mine, but at this point I really don't care.

"Now...number 6," I say.

She gives me a look.

"Before you go on...um...you kinda got number 1 wrong," she says, sheepish.

I snatch her paper, comparing it with what I did.

"Jesus fuck," I shake my head and turning my pencil around to start erasing.

She giggles and I turn to look at her. She holds my gaze for the first time I can remember. And something comes over me that I've never felt before. Here we sit in the middle of the living room, Raven sitting on the floor and using the table as a desk although she still has to sit up on her knees to write.

"Go out with me. Just once-it doesn't even have to be a date," I blurt out.

"I'm sorry, what?" she says, before her eyes widen and she puts a hand over her mouth.