“Gimme a second,” he said.
Once he’d gotten Evie under control—which required bribing her with some watered-down apple juice in a sippy cup—he sat back down and leaned over to look at the rest of the practice problems.
“You’re getting the hang of it. But here.”
He showed me where I’d missed a step and then sat back as I worked.
“Ah, wait. You’ve got to factor it first.” He scooted his chair closer to me, so our knees were touching. Evie took the opportunity to wiggle her way from his lap to mine.
“Evie...” Chip began.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
Evie rested her head against the crook of my elbow as she drank her juice and I fought with imaginary numbers.
I didn’t really get the point and purpose of imaginary numbers.
“Okay. Better.” Chip looked over everything and nodded. “I think you’ve got it.”
I sighed. “Now I’ve got to do it on the test.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll do great.”
“Maybe.”
The thing about Chip was, he just got things. And he didn’t know what it was like to not get things.
To try and try and still not succeed.
Evie squirmed in my lap.
“You want down?” I asked.
She nodded. I held her as I scooted away from the table, then set her down. She tossed her juice onto the floor and ran off again.
Chip shook his head and scooped the sippy cup off the floor. He looked at me and did this kind of half smile.
I blinked and then looked down at my hands.
“I guess I better get home.”
“No rush.” He patted my knee. “Hey. What’re you doing for homecoming?”
“I. Uh.” My cheeks started to warm. “I asked Landon to go with me.”
“Cool.”
“How about you?”
“I think I missed my window.” He shrugged. “Should’ve spoken up sooner.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Yeah. Kind of sucks when you like someone but they don’t like you back.”
“As a gay guy I definitely have no idea what that feels like. Definitely never crushed on any straight guys ever.”
Chip snorted.
