Pirouette

13: Pirouette

• @MalfunctioningMind this drawing was so spot on, I'm going to charge you rent for staying unsupervised in my brain. Thank you so much🙏 (Unedited chapter) •

"So, by factoring the basic trinomials of the form x2+bx+c into 2 binomials—"

"Stop. I think I need a break," Adam sighed and rubbed his hands through his hair as Fiona and he laid stretched out on her bed after dinner at her house, doing their school homework. They had been at it for nearly two hours, and it was almost 10pm. As Adam laid down his pencil, Fiona couldn't help but yawn as well, and then nod in agreement; She was exhausted, too.

"Okay, but we have to finish these before I go to bed. What time do you need to be home?"

"2am," He replied. When Fiona blinked in slight shock, he shook his head with a little grin. "I'm going to work after this."

"Wait, wait," She held up a hand and stared at Adam preposterously while he picked up and sipped his second energy drink of the night. "Are you saying you work on top of everything else you do?"

"Do you think expenses pays themselves, tutu?" He mused with a tired smile. "Clothes, bus fare, school, books—"

"No," She broke in. She just couldn't believe it. How the hell did he find the time? "Where do you work, then?"

"The Junk Joint downtown. Three nights a week, from 11pm to 2am," He told and then reached for the bowl of chips Fiona's mom had put out for them. While he crunched on the crispy treat, Fiona summed it all up in her head.

"So you go to a public high school, work three night shifts a week down at the Junk Joint, and you still have time to come and dance with me every day, on top of keeping up with homework and taking care of your grandmother?"

Adam shrugged and gave a little grin before twirling his pen around on his worksheet. "Yeah. I'm healthy, I'm young and I'm blessed to have so many good things in my life. It's not really about having the time, it's about making the most of every moment. You know?"

"I... I guess," Fiona mumbled and looked down at her own homework. She still had a hard time believing she never knew he worked. He did so much... "But... don't you ever just get... exhausted?"

"Oh, trust me, I sleep well at night," He laughed and then grabbed another chip from the bowl before rising up from her bed and stretching his back. "But I count myself lucky to even be able to maintain a job with my history. Imagine if I was black, too," he teased.

Fiona glared.

"Not funny?" He grinned lopsidedly.

Fiona sighed, but then sat up as well and stretched her stiff body. Adam sat down beside her again, and then for a moment a silence stretched. There was a question in her mind she wanted to ask, but she wasn't certain it was her place to ask about...

And yet still, she did.

"It's what happened to Kalo, isn't it?" She slowly said. She knew he knew what she was referring to.

When Adam didn't move, but merely pressed his lips tightly together, it almost answered the question before he did.

"Yeah," He then said, quietly.

Fiona felt a familiar stab in her chest.

It wasn't often it happened to her, but sometimes she had run into people on the street who had looked at her funnily or failed to hide their opinion of her because of her... appearance.