2.

  Cody

  We got the grades back Monday, I’m not going to lie, I was sweating over that weekend. Had a lot riding on this, at least I thought I did at the time. Making a B in high school English is nowhere near enough to screw your life forever, it’s kind of silly that we, as the children that we were, worried about stuff like that. Just another part of this world that Christian probably despised, another motivation for him to have made the choice he did.

  Ninety-four, what a relief it was. I came to Christian after class with a hard pat of gratitude on the shoulder. “We did it man, we fucking did it, you’re a genius,” he said, “Ninety-four, can you believe it? I can’t believe you had the balls to go to the bathroom twice. I swear to God I could feel her eyes on me, I could feel those daggers, but I know I’m clean, I could spot the harder questions and I just put a random answer down, I even got one of them right. What did you get?”

  “I got a hundred and two,” Christian said, laughing nervously. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was probably the nicest anyone in our class had treated him since he felt bold enough to share his playdough in kindergarten.

  “A hundred and two? You’re telling me you got every question and the bonus question?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it was about sleeping beauty’s name, sleeping beauty is my favorite of the Grimm stories,” he said.

  “Wait, sleeping beauty has a name? I thought it was Aurora? That’s what my little sister said, that’s what I put,” I said.

  “It’s Aurora in the Mouse’s version, the Grimm Brothers called her Briar Rose, it’s a name rooted in the Germanic tradition of the story,” he said.

  “See, I knew you would get me through this, thank you, I mean it. I want to thank you,” I told him, my arm around him as we made our way out of school to the school parking lot. “Listen, you’re a cool guy, what you did, that was really cool, thank you,” I told him.

  “You know, I could help you some more,” Christian said, “I mean, I can tutor you, the subjects we have are pretty easy if you can get through how boring class is,” he said.

  Did Christian want to be my friend? He was coming to me with an offer of help, sure our original deal may have been just about three hundred dollars. In a way it was hard not to feel sorry for this guy, as Susie will accuse me of doing, he may have been a bit off, but like I told him when I came to him with my proposition, a friend could be good for him.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “How’s your pre-cal? I’m getting by, but a little help could probably go a long way,” I said, I didn’t need that much help, like I said I was getting by, but if this is the kind of guy who could get me a ninety-four in English, he could probably be the kind of good influence on me like my parents always said I needed more of.

  “That sounds great, I’m pretty free Saturdays, you should come over. I could use some help in math, I’m doing okay but I still haven’t gotten the difference between SIN, COS, and TAN,”

  “Oh? That’s really easy, all it is is-” Christian lit up with the kind of excitement a five-year-old has when he finds out another kid wants to use the same color crayon that he’s using.

  “Save it for Saturday, listen,” I took a deep breath, I thought he deserved this, he helped me out, helped the team, kept me on the team, and he was being so cool about it. As awkward as he was, he had a bit of charm to him, I was sure that with the right guidance and motivation, he could probably come out of his cocoon and hope to be a social butterfly if he was welcomed by a gregarious enough group, “After we do some studying, I’m going to a party, you can come if you want,” I told him.

  It was going to be a gathering at the backside of the Freeman’s Farm, the team would be there, a couple other movers and shakers. I never kept up with what the so-called popular kids’ lives turned into after high school. I’m sure a good bit of them became insurance salesmen or car dealers, carved out a nice life. A nice life like Christian had wanted, one we thought he might pull off for a moment. I was so sure that if he just got a hit of positive social interaction that could be enough to get him out of that damn shell he had been spending his entire childhood building around himself.

  “I don’t know, I’m not good at parties, too much noise,” he said.

  “No, it’ll be fun, I heard someone’s getting a keg, you’ve had beer, right?” I asked

  “I mean, there’s always beer in my house, I tried it, it tastes terrible,” he said.

  “Your first twenty drinks taste terrible, that’s something everyone has to get over, we get a few in you, I think you could shine, you’re smart as hell and I think you need a reason to unwind,” I said, “You kept me on the team, they’re going to love you, I’m going to talk you up to them, tell them it was you, you’re going to a party where literally everyone there is going to want to thank you, it’s a safe space man, come on, who cares about three hundred dollars? I want to give you something that truly shows my gratitude, you’re an interesting guy. If you opened up a bit, people are going to love talking to you, I swear,” at the time I saw this as some charity of gratitude, I really did want things to work out for Christian. I knew, or at least at the time I thought, that with just a bit of a push he could have had a nice life, he could have had the opportunity to make at least a few good memories in the mess that was his adolescence.