Teaching Noah | √

021

“I WON’T STOP poking you until you give me attention,” Lennon said as she poked a finger at my arm non-stop.

I groaned, trying to pour some food in Coco’s bowl, “Lennon stop.”

“What? Didn’t you miss me?”

Mom chuckled at Lennon’s response as she pushed a cookie into her mouth.

Lennon won Mom’s heart in so many ways. One of them was when she made desserts and brought them over. Like today, she made chocolate chip cookies which mom was clearly enjoying.

I dropped Coco’s bowl and pushed it to her as I tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear. “There you go.” I turned fully to Lennon, “Now you have my attention.”

I blinked.

“Riley, you’ve ticked three times already since I got here,” Lennon frowned.

“My tics have been a little on the wild side for a while now. . .”

“Honey, why didn’t you tell me about that?” Mom looked at me.

“I thought it would stop,” I shrugged.

No, not really.

I was just in denial and didn’t want to bring it to her attention.

“Have you seen Simon this month? Maybe you need to talk to him,” Mom said.

I hadn’t seen Simon physically in almost a month. In the past few weeks, I spent most of my time with Camden and our friendship had only become stronger. Me and Simon had chats from time to time, and a few calls, but that was about it. I couldn’t really figure why I’d been ticking more than usual, but I was sure it would subside.

“I’m fine,” I told mom. “It’s possible it’s just some subtle trigger.”

“Well, why don’t you want to find out what the subtle trigger might be?” Lennon quipped. “I think you should go to Simon’s, Riley.”

Mom nodded, “I think so too. Plus, won’t it be good to see him?”

“That’s right, you’re going. Matter of fact, I’ll take you,” Lennon got off the stool.

“That’ll be great, Lennon,” Mom gave her a hug. “You’re always such a sweetheart.”

I just stared back and forth between them. The way both of them talked as if I wasn’t standing right in front of them sometimes, amazed me.

“Oh! I’ll take some cookies for Simon too,” Lennon grinned madly.

“Why does it feel like you’re just going so you can market your goods?” I asked Lennon the moment we got into her car.

“No, you idiot,” she laughed. “While I do love and care about you, I think it wouldn’t be fair to deny Simon of these goodies.”

“I’m sure he’ll love them.”

“Wouldn’t it be great if I start to make good money from these things? Like, start my little business? You could be in charge of keeping account of all the cash that comes in.”

I chuckled, “I’m surprised you even trust me with money, but did you know Camden wants to be a chef?”

Lennon wiggled her eyebrows, “A man than can cook, huh?” She threw a glance at me before turning her eyes back to the road, “Getting to know each other more, aren’t we? That’s mad cute.”

“He’s mad cute, what did we expect?”

“He said hello to me the other day at school, and he has this very pleasing essence.”