Chapter 12
Twelve
Enoch
“Dude, that was kinda crazy, right?” Jae asked me before taking a bite of his brownie.
“Right?” I said with a head nod in agreement. I stared down at Shiloh’s half-eaten plate.
We sat in silence for a while, and I sighed grabbing my phone. “Dang it,” I muttered, dropping it back down on the counter.
“What?”
I chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I was going to text Shiloh. Make sure she got home okay”
“Bro, you are so whipped.”
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
“Well…go on,” he gestured. “Text her.”
“I can’t,” I said with annoyance. “She doesn’t have a cell phone.”
“No way. She had to be joking when she said that. She probably just didn’t want you to have her number.”
I furrowed my brows in thought. Was she though? She seemed pretty sincere, but then again, she said everything pretty seriously. Her sarcasm level was so off the charts it was difficult to determine exactly when she was joking.
“I dunno,” I muttered with a shrug. “She’s not exactly an open book, is she?”
“You could say that again,” Jae nodded. “Did you notice how she got freaked out about the lights?”
I gave him an ‘are you for real’ expression and he rolled his eyes.
“I mean, like, with that and then the whole friends-with-benefits thing…do you think she was scared?”
“Scared?” I deadpanned. “Shiloh, scared? Nah. People are scared of Shiloh, not the other way around.”
Jae laughed. “Maybe you’re right. You think she’s gonna ignore us at school next week?”
“Probably. I mean she ignores us as it is already,” I chuckled. “Won’t stop me from trying to sit with her at lunch though.”
“Alright, alright. You couldn’t have picked a crush that was a little less intimidating?”
I shoved his shoulder and stood from my stool.
“I’m gonna head home. It’s getting late.”
Jae pouted for a moment before shooing at me to leave. “Seriously, next time I’m going to tie y’all down. No one is leaving until we get through at least one full episode.”
I chuckled and shoved him once more before heading to the door. I swapped house shoes for my sneakers and grabbed my keys from the bowl by the door.
“Later, dip!” I called out before leaving the house. I locked the door behind me.
The drive home took less than five minutes, and I was looking forward to maybe playing some video games before bed. When I walked inside, I noticed the kitchen light on.
My dad was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal.
“Late night snack?” I asked, grabbing a bowl to join him.
He nodded and smiled.
“How was the show? You’re home pretty early.”
I let out a sigh, placing the cereal box on the counter and shaking my head.
“We didn’t finish the first episode,” I grumbled. “We kind of got into it with Shiloh and she left.”
“What?” he asked in shock.
“Yeah. Well, you know how she is. I mean, from what I’ve told you about her.
She’s kind of…prickly and always has her guard up.
And she curses more than Uncle Adam does.
” My dad raised his eyebrows in astonishment.
“Anyways, we told her to, you know ‘cause of Auntie’s house rules, to not curse so much. And she kind of flipped out and wanted to leave.”
My dad squinted his eyes at me and pursed his lips as if he didn’t quite believe what I was saying. “I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Tell me exactly what was said.”
I relayed him the conversation as accurately as I could remember. My dad gave me a dramatic eyeroll when I told him about the friends-with-benefits joke we’d made. When I was done, he nodded in thought, leaning back in his chair.
“Well, it sounds to me like she might have felt a little defensive because you did sort of attack her.”
“What? I didn’t attack her!” I shot back in defense.
My dad gave me a look, and I sighed. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have said that she couldn’t speak without cursing. But it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Maybe to you, but maybe she has a reason for being defensive. Think about it from her perspective for a second. She felt like you guys were asking her to change something about herself to fit in, right?”
“I guess,” I shrugged.
“Well, you didn’t exactly explain why you were asking her to not curse so much. You boys were criticizing her without asking her to be mindful of her language at Ha-Eun’s. It might be second nature for you, but Shiloh doesn’t know the rules. You just singled her out.”
“Well, we did try to explain but she didn’t want to listen. She’s really stubborn,” I said.
“Not everyone has parents that show them what it looks like to be respectful or have been taught to put themselves in other people’s shoes. It’s hard to listen and put your own pride aside especially when you’ve never been expected to do so,” my dad explained.
I chewed on my lip in thought before responding.
“I guess you’re right. I mean, she probably doesn’t have any rules about swearing at home, and we could have been more tactful with how we told her the rule,” I finally relented, admitting that I was at fault too. “It probably did make me seem like an ass.”
My dad nodded, satisfied with my response. I rolled my eyes and gave up on pouring a bowl of cereal.
“Don’t worry. You’ll work things out,” my dad said confidently, standing up. He leaned over and kissed the top of my head before ruffling my hair. “Put my bowl in the sink, will ya? Dad tax on the advice I just gave.”
I chuckled at his joke and rolled my eyes. “Sure. G’night.”
???
My mind felt foggy from lack of sleep as I stretched out my tired limbs on the mats.
I glanced at the clock and sighed, hopping to my feet to get some water before I started teaching my next class.
I chuckled at one of my students who was frantically waving at me from across the gym as her mom adjusted her hair. Her smile widened as I waved back.
I walked down the hall to the staff room to get my water bottle from my bag. I was walking back when I thought I saw a familiar redhead standing at the counter talking to Becca.
Becca and I locked eyes, and she smiled, saying something to Shiloh that made her turn around and find me with her hazel eyes.
“Hey,” I smiled, watching as she wrapped her fingers around the hem of her baggy hoodie. “What are you doing here?”
We stepped to the side of the front desk, so we weren’t in the way of the parents and kids piling in presumably for the class I was about to teach.
She sniffled, bringing attention to her cheeks that were probably red from the cold.
I couldn’t help but wonder how long she’d been waiting outside for her to wind up with a red nose and cheeks.
It wasn’t that cold in the mornings. She must have been outside for a while. Was she nervous to speak to me?
“I came to see you. I stopped by your house and your mom said you’d be here.”
“Oh,” I nodded, trying not to seem overly excited. “Well, I’ve got to start class in just a minute. If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll be free for an hour afterwards.”
She looked around before meeting my eyes and nodding.
“Okay.”
I smiled and suggested she could watch the class or hang out in the break room. I told her she could use my phone to scroll or watch something, but she declined and decided to observe my class.
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t distracted by her the whole session. I kept glancing at her from where she was seated on the mats. I was curious if she was here because of what went down last night or if maybe she wanted to tell me she no longer wanted to tutor me.
I was usually ready to have a break from the seven to twelve kids I taught on Sunday mornings about halfway through the session, but today I was especially impatient.
When we finally bowed and they were dismissed, I let out a big sigh.
I held out my hand for Shiloh to help her up and she surprisingly took it.
“We can talk in the break room,” I offered, and she nodded in agreement.
I put my water bottle on the kitchenette counter and leaned against it, crossing my arms.
“So, what’s up?” I asked.
She cleared her throat looking around the room for a few moments before meeting my eyes. I was captivated by her eyes which seemed redder than normal. Had she been crying? I obviously wasn’t going to ask, but it made me curious as to whether she was upset about last night.
“Um, I just wanted to say that your aunt told me why she made the no cussing rule,” she said.
I nodded, feeling like she had more to say, so I waited.
“Yeah. So, I get why, um, why you guys were asking me to not cuss,” she said, staring at her shoes.
She looked cute when she was flustered, her hands grazing her black leggings, not so discreetly wiping her palms across her thighs.
“Is this supposed to be an apology?” I questioned with a raised brow.
She glanced at me and bit her lip before looking up at the ceiling and releasing a breath.
“I guess,” she said, clearly uncomfortable.
Had she never apologized before?
The thought of this being her first apology made me nearly chuckle to myself. That so accurately described who Shiloh was.
“You guess?” I pressed, struggling to maintain my serious expression.
“No, I mean, yeah,” she paused and groaned, kicking the ground softly with her shoe. “Look, I’m not used to doing this, so I’m sure this is like the worst apology you’ve ever heard. But yeah. I’m sorry for last night.”
I bit my lip, ultimately unable to hold back my smile.
“Thanks for apologizing. I wouldn’t say it was the worst apology I’ve received, but don’t worry, we can work on your apology skills,” I teased.
She looked up, scrunching her brows in confusion.
“Wait, so, you still want to be friends?”
“Yeah,” I said with a teasing eyeroll. “Of course. I wouldn’t stop being your friend over something as dumb as what happened last night.
I was planning on finding you at school to sort it out.
I wanted to apologize to you as well.” I paused and smirked.
“Pay attention now, this is what an apology sounds like.”