“Okay, if I were to go with your plan, how might an almost seventeen-year-old purchase this booze you speak off?”
“How might?” Keith mimicked me. “How come you talk like a character in a prehistoric novel? Newsflash, Sam. You live in the 20thcentury. Act like it.”
I cringed. We had such a long way to go. I considered correcting him on his centuries, but he seemed a little overwhelmed by the heavy influx of learning, so I let it be. “I know. I need to loosen up. I wish I were more like you. Sometimes I feel so old.”
Again, Keith reached out and glided his fingers over the back of my hand. Aside from the occasional nudges and arm punches, he’d never touched me, and now all of the sudden my study buddy had octopus tentacles. What was happening and why was my body shuddering under waves of heat? Was it so wrong to ache for affection from him… or really just from anyone?
“Keith,” Miss Markel interrupted, her eyes gliding over him in a knowing manner. This woman had been aiding in the delinquency of a minor. I had no respect left for her. “Off the table, please.”
They exchanged a glance before Keith morphed into a sloth-like creature and, in the slowest most deliberate movements possible, returned to his chair. I watched his whole show in amusement. Clearly he was making a statement, and Miss Markel had no choice but to allow it.
I met Keith’s eye, questioning. He grinned, shrugged, and dove back into his geometry homework. Reluctantly, I returned to my AP English assignment.
Several minutes passed before he nudged me and whispered, “Hey, Sam?”
I tilted my head. “Yes?”
“I care.”
“What?”
“That you’re turning seventeen. I care.”
9
Keith: Trust Me
Sam was in the library when I arrived for my tutoring session, papers spread out around her. Her shiny brown hair grazed the table as she concentrated on the task at hand. Sensing me, she glanced up from her work and smiled. Not the kind of smile to simply acknowledge one’s presence but a wide, glowing one that worked in conjunction with her sparkling eyes. My pulse quickened, as it did more often now. I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening but the uptight girl I’d met a month and a half ago was mutating into my dream girl before my very eyes. How did she keep getting hotter?
Clearly, I’d underestimated Sam. At the start of our partnership, I’d viewed her as nothing more than a pass off, a way to get to the end zone with the least amount of work possible. But there was no willy-nilly homework copying with this girl. Oh, no. Sam wasn’t like most girls, who seemed perfectly happy caving to my will. This one always had to push back, make me think. I’d never worked harder or thought deeper.
As strange as it sounded, she was single-handedly rewiring my brain. Aspiring to become a pirate just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I wanted more for myself. She’d opened my eyes to a future I might not have known about had I never met her. To Sam, I wasn’t Kali, the drug-dealing stoner. Instead, I was the guy trying to rebuild the life he’d nearly thrown away. And the distinction hadn’t escaped her. She was proud of me, and that was validation I clung to.
And now for the weird part: the more she challenged me, the deeper I fell under her spell. She was like every wicked teacher fantasy I’d ever had come to life. Who knew I liked girls with brains? Not me. But the way my timid cottontail bunny morphed into a quick-witted Jessica Rabbit, I could do nothing but become a believer. Suddenly, taking my sexy nerd behind a rack of hardcovers and teaching her a few things she wouldn’t find in any of her dusty books was all I could think about.
I stopped in front of the table, tilting my head and flashing what I hoped would be my most affecting smile. “Hello, Sam.”
“Well, hello yourself, Keith.” She smiled. “Are you ready to get started?”
“Actually, no.” I held out my hand to her, urging her to take it without complaint. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What? Where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
She eyed me suspiciously. Because Sam was a calculating person, every decision took time and careful consideration. I knew this and patiently waited for the refusal I assumed would be coming. ‘No’washer motto, after all. Only today, on her seventeenth birthday, I wouldn’t be accepting that as an answer.
“What about your test this Friday?” she asked.
“What about it?” I shrugged.
She put her pencil down, staring at me with an intensity I hadn’t expected. “What about your friends? What if they see us together?”
I flinched, embarrassed she’d even needed to ask such a question. As much as I was digging this girl, I had kept her hidden from my buddies, knowing if I revealed my connection to Sam, they’d rip her – and me – to shreds. I told myself it was to protect Sam, but I knew better. My position in Utopia was precarious now that I no longer had my fledging business to fall back on, and one misstep was all it would take to be cast out. And so, to protect myself, I kept the connection between Sam and me a secret from everyone but the mega geeks in the library, who couldn’t give a Millennium Falcon fuck about the status quo.
“Who cares?” I said. “Let’s go.”
The glow that passed over her face twisted a knot in my stomach. She thought I was finally ready to present her to my world, when in reality, I’d arrived at the library fifteen minutes late, allowing ample time for my crowd to disperse. I was such a dick.
