The Fragile Ordinary(26)

There was a knock at the bedroom door and it opened. The top half of Lena’s body appeared around the door. “One, I told you to keep this open,” she said to her son. “Two, it’s getting dark outside and time to wrap this up.” She looked at me. “How are you getting home, Comet?”

“I’m walking so, yeah, I better go.” I said, gathering my notes and sliding them into my bag. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to walking home in the dark.

“I’ll walk you,” Tobias said.

The thought of having to endure a thirty-odd-minute walk with the American sent me into a fluster. “No, that’s okay.”

“Tobias will walk you, Comet, no arguments,” Lena said before turning to her son again. “Where’s Stevie? I’m going to help Carole to her bed and she hasn’t seen him all day.”

I glanced from one to the other, curious over the strange look that passed between them. Why was Lena helping Carole to her bed? Was she sick?

“Out, I guess. I’m not his keeper.”

Lena sighed. “Fine. Good night, Comet.” She disappeared before I could return the sentiment.

“So...” Tobias dragged a pair of trainers out from under the bed. “When are we doing this again?”

“When are you free?” I asked, watching him shove his feet into the trainers and not do up the laces correctly. I’d noticed it was the fashion among Stevie and his friends to not tie their laces. I didn’t get it. Who wanted their shoes to be flopping off their feet all the time?

“You’re frowning.”

“I’m not,” I denied.

His lips curled up. “Okay, whatever you say.” And then he further surprised me by holding the door open for me and gesturing for me to walk out ahead of him.

Very gentlemanly.

When we passed the sitting room I saw that it was empty, and once again I wondered about the situation here. Why was everyone crammed into this tiny flat? What was wrong with Carole? Where was Stevie? And where was Tobias’s dad?

“So I want to get this presentation out of the way,” Tobias said as he closed the front door of the flat behind us. Although I was dreading the walk home with a cute boy who flustered me, I was suddenly very glad for his presence. Outside, there was a group of boys I didn’t recognize, one on a bike, the others sitting on the wall of the building next to Stevie’s. They looked at us as we approached, their loud conversation halting, and I noticed two of them were holding bottles of cheap wine. They couldn’t have been much older than us, perhaps even our age.

“Awright, King?” The one on the bike gave Tobias a chin lift.

Tobias merely nodded, but I felt him shift closer to me.

“Who’s the bird?” The blond with one of the bottles in his hand called out, and my gaze flew to the ground as I found myself center of their attention. “Gie us a look at ye, then. Nice legs.” He whistled loudly.

I tensed as we passed, listening to their laughter.

“Keep walking,” Tobias said under his breath, like I needed to be told that.

“No’ in the mood for sharing the night, King?”

“Not tonight. Later.”

It was only when their laughter was a distant noise that I let myself relax marginally.

“Like I said, I want this assignment over with. Think we can get it finished up if you come here after school tomorrow?”

The thought of traversing his neighborhood again made me anxious, but I wanted the presentation finished, too. “Possibly. We’ll need more than an hour. But if we get the work done I can type it up, and then we could get together to practice it before our talk date.”

“Fine. Can you come here straight after school? That way I can walk you here. Then get one of your parents to pick you up?”

Right. Like that would happen. “They’re busy. I can walk.”

He was silent a moment. “I’ll walk you.”

“You don’t—”

“You want to be alone, passing guys like that?” he interrupted me, sounding snarky.

I shot him a look of annoyance. “Fine, you can walk me.”

For some reason that made him smile.





THE FRAGILE ORDINARYSAMANTHA YOUNG





8

Those are my words, my thoughts, my soul,

You took them from me without apology.

So why do I want to forgive what you stole,

And hope that you like my ideology?





—CC


It took me a while to fall asleep that night. The walk with Tobias had been mostly silent, the quiet between us broken only by passing traffic and my murmurings of “It’s this way” and “We need to cross here.”

He’d insisted on walking me right to my door, and he’d stared at my town house for so long that I wished I knew him better so I could work out what his expression meant. Eventually, he’d looked at me and shrugged. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Then he’d started to walk down my garden path.

“Uh...can you find your way back okay?”

Tobias glanced over his shoulder. “I’m good.” He pushed open the garden gate.

“Uh...well...”

He looked back at me again, and this time I did recognize his expression. Impatience.