I make a face at him.
“Because you seem very studious,” he adds.
“Don’t get me wrong, I do want to study a lot, but I can’t do it 24/7. I’ll drive myself crazy. Besides, it’d be nice to earn more money.”
Aaron nods slowly and taps his fingers against his desk like I’ve said something profound. I focus on the stack of old exams before me. They’re meant to go for two hours each, but I’ll aim to complete them in 90 minutes to practice solving problems quickly.
“Actually,” Aaron says, “I might be able to get you a job at my family’s place.”
I stare at him.
“It’s a fan and lighting store. One of our workers is going on holiday to Europe, so you can fill in for him. I’ll talk to my parents.”
“You’re helping me?” I ask.
“Sure.”
“But you hate me.”
He stares at me like I’m insane. “Why the heck would you say that?”
“But it’s not like we’re friends or anything.” Aaron thinks I’m rude and aloof; half the time, he’s right. I could stand to be nicer, like him. I know I purposely alienate people, but I can’t make myself stop. I don’t know if I want to.
Aaron shrugs. “You’re decent. You helped me heaps of times with maths. And besides, the store genuinely needs the extra hands otherwise I’ll be stuck doing double the work. So, really, you’re the one who’ll be helping me.”
“I…thank you.” I clear my throat. “You’re a really nice guy. Though I bet you get told that all the time.”
He laughs awkwardly as a blush spreads across his cheeks. He looks pleased, though, and it’s cute.
The next day at school, Aaron finds me at my locker and tells me he talked to his parents. He asks whether I’d be able to come in for an interview one day after school. “It’s nothing formal, so don’t stress.”
“Okay. I can do this afternoon if that works?”
“Yeah, that’d be perfect. How about 4? Do you know where it is?”
“I can figure it out. There’ll be a bus route, right?” I’ve never used public transport in Easton since Mum drives me anywhere I need to go, and the shoe shop I work at is only a fifteen-minute walk from my house.
“Yeah,” Aaron says. “I can drive you if you want?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, why not? I’ll meet you after school.”
With that settled, he walks away to join his friends. Ricky slings an arm around his neck while Lily gazes adoringly at him. That’s right — he and her are secretly dating or whatever.
I text Mum to let her know I don’t need her to drive me home after school. At lunchtime, I print off a copy of my resume, and after school, I meet Aaron at his locker. Since his last name is Wynn, he’s near the end — just a few away from Locker 99. I eye it. I usually check the locker every day after school, but I won’t have a chance today.
Our last few exchanges have been me asking about R’s art, but he still seems too shy to share it. Which I understand. Honestly, I’m not sure why I’m so eager to see it. It’s not like I’ve ever cared about art, only knowing a few facts about Picasso and Van Gough as part of my general knowledge.
Maybe I’m keen to see R’s work because I think it’ll reveal something about him and how he sees the world, or maybe I just want to learn more about him. I’m too interested in him and should try dialling it down.
“Ready to go?” Aaron asks.
I nod, and we walk in silence to the student car park. Aaron’s car is old enough that it doesn’t have Bluetooth, and when he turns the engine on, the radio automatically plays. He pushes a button to turn it off.
As he drives towards the heart of Easton, it’s painfully silent, and I busy myself by looking around his car. It’s clean, which comes as a bit of a surprise. Not that I thought Aaron was a slob or anything. Now that I think about it, I don’t really know much about him. It’s difficult to discern anything from him apart from “nice”, “not good at maths” and “good at doodling in his notebook.”
Winona’s boyfriend’s car was a pigsty. I was only in it once, and I had to rest my feet on a pile of crinkly fast food wrappers while the air smelled like stale coffee, so that’s probably where I got the idea that teenage boys’ cars were messy.
