13. A Most Unwelcome Blast From The Past #2
He wrinkles his nose like it’s ticklish. “No, you don’t. You get all of this stuff.”
“I do, but I still prefer Dickens and Conan Doyle over Shakespeare,” I coo at him.
He raises an eyebrow. “Who’s Conan Doyle?”
I huff at his cuteness. “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the author of Sherlock Holmes.”
Understanding lights up his eyes. “Oh. I definitely preferred those. I mean, if the stories are so important, then why can’t they modernize them a bit to make them less agonizing to read?
I get the important phrases that come from this, like ‘to thine own self be true’ and ‘I must be cruel to be kind’, but why do I need to know the thees, the thuses, and the thines?
It’s outdated and nonsensical. Technically, Dickens and Conan Doyle are outdated too, but at least there are enough contextual clues for the outdated words to be understandable. ”
“I don’t really get it either. Honestly, I’m not a Shakespeare fan, so when I get assigned something of his, I tend to watch a movie adaptation first, then come back to the reading to make better sense of it.
The movie provides contextual clues to help me decipher the material.
I’m usually more of a ‘read the book before watching the adaptation’ type of person, but Shakespeare is so painfully boring, I can’t get through it without working the process backward,” I tell him.
Kingston’s eyebrows disappear into his hairline. “Isn’t that cheating or breaking some sort of smart person rule or something?”
I roll my eyes at him. “You are a smart person, too, Kingston,” I remind him with an affectionate flick to his forehead.
“And it’s not like I’m pursuing literature, so as long as I get the messages and lessons we are supposed to gain from the material, then I think that’s all that counts.
I can still read for leisure and maintain a comprehensive reading level without needing to understand the thees, the thuses, and the thines.
Although the dictionary reading is handy for certain books that are worth it. ”
“Like what?” he asks me with obvious skepticism in his tone.
“The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of my favorite books, but I wouldn’t understand either of them without a dictionary handy.
Well, I would now, since I’ve read them so many times, but I wouldn’t have the first time around.
It’s easier to make concessions when you enjoy it as opposed to when you don’t.
Like you enjoying old British dudes when their prose doesn’t overwhelm the ghosts and mysteries as opposed to the ones whose prose drowns the fun out. ”
He bites his lower lip for a minute while he processes that. “So not liking Shakespeare doesn’t make me stupid.”
I let out a huff. “I’ve been tutoring you for a while now, Kingston, and I haven’t found anything about you that I’d call stupid.”
His lips frown a bit, and there’s a definite hesitation in his eyes. “Helps that you break the material down, and that you turned math into football,” he says, making arguments to explain away any reason why I might find him anything other than stupid.
I lean down and kiss his forehead, which he responds to by curling his hand around my head and leaning up to brush his lips against mine before I sit back up.
“With how fast you’ve picked everything up that I’ve shown you tells me you already had the knowledge; you just needed better ways to apply it. That’s not a you being stupid moment; that’s the curriculum and teachers not accommodating the concept that there are more ways to learn than just one.”
He sits up and faces me, his eyes searching mine, most likely looking for the lie. It’s sad how stupid his dad makes him feel. I’ve never known anything besides encouragement from mine, and I can’t fathom what it would feel like to be constantly made to feel less than by my own father.
There’s something vulnerable in his eyes for a moment before a gleam in them takes over, and I know what’s coming before he even says it.
This guy is perpetually horny. I was a virgin when we started dating, but yet, not even a month in, and I’d given that up to him. Not that I regret that at all, of course.
“No, Kingston, we still have studying today,” I tell him, beating him to the punch.
“But, baby,” he whines with a puppy-dog pout on his face.
I shake my head at him. “No ‘but baby’, just because I agree that the material isn’t as important as they make it out to be, there are still assignments AND grades attached to it.”
He huffs out a sardonic breath. “You know grades can be bought,” he says in a tone that’s so confident that I’m not sure if he’s teasing or serious.
“Kingston Rowland Adair, you are in no way allowed to buy grades that you are perfectly capable of earning on your own,” I scold, hoping it’s just teasing and not something he’d actually do.
“Okay, okay, okay,’ he says placatingly. “I was just teasing about the grades, anyway.”
“Good,” I tell him, handing him his book back.
He almost scowls at me, then drops the book back onto the bed as he crawls into my space. “I was not teasing about getting you naked, though.”
I sigh at that. It’s not like I don’t want it too, especially when he’s got his handsome face so close to mine that I can feel his breath fan across my lips.
“We still have studying to–”
“Blah, blah, blah,” he interrupts me teasingly. “I already read a passage. We can have some naked time now, and then I’ll read more later,” he barters, trailing his fingers up my arm and smiling smugly at how my skin shivers at his touch.
“Kingston…” I try one more time to be the voice of reason, but the arguments get lost when his lips meet mine in so much more than the brush from a moment ago.
I’m curled up on the couch watching 10 Things I Hate About You when Qi plops down next to me with a bowl of popcorn.
He lets out a sigh before picking up the remote and pausing the movie.
I’ve noticed him giving me sideways glances for a bit now, and I’m hoping he’ll finally open his mouth and tell me what the hell is going on in his brain.
“Qiang, I don’t think he’s good for you,” he says quietly.
I sigh at that because I don’t need him to elaborate on who he’s talking about.
Qi has not been exactly subtle about not being Team Kingston.
I don’t know why Qi so decidedly dislikes him, unless maybe he’s jealous because it’s the first time I’ve ever been in a relationship, and it definitely cuts into our sibling time a bit.
“Qi, he’s not who you think he is.”
He swallows and nods, not looking at all convinced.
“I really hope so, but I saw him with a girl earlier, and he looked at her the same way he looks at you. Like you’re a toy, or a pastime.
It’s not about what he can give you; it’s about how you stroke his ego,” he says, and I can kind of see where he’s coming from because Kingston is more on guard around Qi like he is with everyone else.
They don’t see the sides to him that I see.
“He has to date the girls his dad sets him up with,” I try my best to explain.
He turns, and his dark eyes meet mine with a hint of anger and frustration brewing in them. “He doesn’t have to make out with them in his car, though, does he?”
I swallow hard at that because I knew he was out with her, but I didn’t know he had made out with her; but then again, it’s not the first time it’s happened, nor will it be the last. He doesn’t sleep with them, but he has to play a role, and sometimes he has to act outside himself to convince people of it.
“It’s part of the ruse,” I tell Qi, repeating it in my head to remind myself that Kingston and I have discussed it before.
Qi rolls his eyes at me, then looks away uncomfortably, because it’s not easy for him to talk to me like this. He doesn’t want to hurt my feelings or be wrong, so I know he’s struggling to say what’s on his mind.
“I’m sure it is, but who is the ruse supposed to fool?” he asks, huffing a bit before turning back to face me again. “I just hope that you’re careful with him, Qiang. I don’t want to see you get hurt. That guy gives me bad vibes.”
I reach over and squeeze his arm to reassure him. “Everything is going to work out perfectly, you’ll see,” I’ll tell him.
He doesn’t look convinced at all, but instead of arguing more, he just lets out a heavy sigh and lays his head on my shoulder. It makes something in my tummy flutter uncomfortably because, even though we're as close as we are, Qi isn’t a cuddler very often unless he’s really upset.
I trust Kingston, I really do. But I trust Qi’s instincts too, and he wouldn’t have been this vulnerable and said so much if he didn’t really mean it.
But I’m sure it’s because they just don’t know each other well enough yet.
They’ll get along better, and Qi will get to know Kingston and trust him as I do.
Kingston lets out an aggravated huff when he tries to pull my chair closer to him, and I immediately pull away.
“Why are you mad at me? You’ve been cold since I got here.”
I bristle at that because part of me knows I should know better, because we’ve talked about this before and I said I could handle it, but the jealousy and distrust with it is eating me up harder than I originally thought it would.
I know it’s my fault, but I can’t help the steady trickle of frustration and unease that’s worked its way in since Qi aired out his sentiments, and I’ve noticed Kingston with that same girl several times over the past couple of weeks.
“Are you fucking her?” I spit out with way more vitriol than was necessary.
Kingston’s face falls, and he reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Of course, I’m not fucking her.”
“But you keep seeing the same one, and you were seen making out with her. You’ve never stuck with the same one or made out with them before. Well, not since we got together,” I point out, trying to calm the aching beats of my heart.