“You’re particularly happy today.” He looked up from his computer.
“It’s Friday!” I nodded enthusiastically. “Two days without school.”
“You have schoolwork to do though, don’t you? It’ll hardly be a break.” He tilted his head inquisitively.
“Yeah, but you know—it’s the spirit of Friday and all.” I opened my textbook and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“So, the fact I saw my brother sneaking into the school earlier has nothing to do with your sudden bout of happiness?” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Oh...” I looked straight down at my paper—we were busted.
“What the hell do you see in him anyway? You know he’ll never be the kind of guy to settle down.” Mr. Thorne sighed and shook his head.
“I like him.” I flashed a half-smile and shrugged as I lifted my head. “We’re happy together.”
“You still want to see him even though he doesn’t sit in this chair?” Mr. Thorne kept his gaze on me.
“The chair has nothing to do with it. Yes, that was how it began, but he really did help me find something I was missing in my life. His influence is why I’m trying to do better in school and graduate. If he never came along, I would still be the bitch you hated.” I shrugged again. “He’s good for me.”
“I never thought I would hear anyone describe my brother that way.” Mr. Sloane rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. “I assume you’re going to be seeing him this weekend?”
“Yes, sir.” I nodded. There was no reason to lie about it at that point.
“Ask him to come by the house on Sunday. I think we need to talk.” He sighed deeply.
“I will.” A smile crept up on my face.
“I got some more of your grades today. I must say, I’m actually impressed by what you’re doing. You got a perfect grade on your Sociology essay.” He shifted the conversation away from Anton, but I didn’t mind since he had given me a morsel of hope to take home with me for the weekend.
“I worked hard on that.” The smile on my face widened.
“It’s a shame you’ve never tried to apply yourself, because you’re actually quite intelligent.” He looked over at my textbook.
“Thank you.” I looked down at my textbook as well and we started discussing my latest assignment.
I did my best to focus on the tutoring, but my thoughts were on Anton. I was finally going to see him again, and I needed to feel his touch so bad that my mind was clouded with it. After a couple of failed attempts at reading the page in front of me to answer Mr. Thorne’s latest question, realized that I was going to have to buckle down or I was going to be there all night. I found the answer to his question and we moved on to the next one.
Mr. Thorne was a really good teacher. He kept things interesting as he helped me learn information I normally thought was boring. When the session finally ended, I was almost in tears from laughing at his corny jokes. I gathered my things and headed to my car. With the tutoring officially behind me, my thoughts shifted back to Anton. I needed to get home quickly or I wasn’t going to have a meal waiting for him like I promised. The excitement was building as I stared at the clock. It felt like more than a week since I had been with him. The stolen moments in the janitor’s closet barely counted after the time we had spent together leading up to it.
THE KITCHEN WAS A BIT of a disaster once I put together a decent dish of spaghetti and meatballs, but I had time to spare. I put the garlic bread in the oven and leaned back against the counter with a sigh of relief escaping my lips. I was going to be able to deliver on my promise of a good home-cooked meal for my starving, homeless man. I grabbed a cigarette and walked out onto the balcony, lighting it up as soon as I was outside. I looked at my phone and saw that I had at least twenty minutes before he would be there if he was on time. My heart started to race and it wasn’t just the fury of the nicotine pushing my pulse higher than it normally was. It was the excitement of seeing Anton, having him there with me, eating dinner with him—all the things normal couples did that we had never done. We definitely weren’t a traditional couple, but I didn’t care. I wanted the happily-ever-after and the white picket fence with him. It didn’t matter to me that he was an ex-con or that we didn’t know a lot about each other—I knew enough to know he was exactly what I wanted.
“Those things will kill you.” A voice broke the silence of the evening and I spun around to see Anton in the doorway leading out to the balcony. “And leaving your front door unlocked will get you killed.”
“You saw the neighborhood, right?” I threw my cigarette off the balcony. “We haven’t had a crime here that didn’t involve a kitten in a tree since I was a kid.”
“I’m pretty sure a few of your neighbors called the cops when they saw me step out of the taxi.” He chuckled and walked towards me.
“Let me get the garlic bread finished and I’ll give you the grand tour.” Our lips met and we kissed until I could hear the beeper
going off in the kitchen.
I pulled the garlic bread out of the oven and put it on the stove to cool. I took Anton’s hand and led him into the living room where I showed him pictures of me growing up—along with the ones of my shining star brother who had more wall space than me. We walked around the dining room, the den, and eventually we got to the stairs. We paused for another kiss before we finally started walking up them. The top of the stairs was mostly bedrooms. My parents had the biggest and my brother had the one next to it. He didn’t live with us, but he had never moved most of his stuff out so it looked like a tribute to his senior year of high school. The spare room was mostly just a bare bones room with a dresser and a bed, so there wasn’t much to show. We got to the end of the hallway and pushed the door open to my private sanctuary. It was decorated with posters of bands I liked, a few pictures of my friends, and a whole lot of pink. I had thought about painting it a few times, but I never had the motivation.
“So, this is where I sleep.” I pointed to my bed.
“It has good support.” Anton pushed his hands against it. “Hopefully it won’t break before we’re done putting it to work this weekend.”
“That will be difficult to explain to my parents, so please restrain yourself.” I nudged him with my elbow. “Come on, we’ll have time enough for that later. We should eat before the food gets cold.”