Milo cracks his knuckles and repositions on the seat. He leans over the page, dragging his finger over the numbers and letters in the equation. Wow, his nails are really neat. Kai’s are always dirty and chipped, and his hands are calloused. Milo’s appear smooth and probably feel really nice.
“Oh, man. You’re drifting again.”
I blink hard, averting my eyes from Milo’s hands. “What, no. Sorry, I got distracted. Try again. Please?”
Milo huffs and goes back to his explanation. I plant both elbows on the table, positioning my hands on the sides of my head.Come on, Jamie, focus on his words, not his hands. Why are you even fantasizing about Milo’s hands? It’s Milo,for goodness’ sake! Ah, stop talking to yourself, and just listen.
“Got it?” Milo asks, bracing himself with wariness.
I’m so blank I may as well be drooling. “One more time?”
A quirk of annoyance changes his face for a split second. His finger underlines the equation.
-4X + 7 = 15
“We need to find the variable. In this case, X. So we need to move the constants, as in the actual numbers, to one side. In this case, that’s seven. Seven is behind a plus sign, so we need to subtract it from this side and move it to the other side.” Milo draws it out before my brain cracks in two.
-4X + 7 - 7 = 15 - 7
“See how they’re now balanced because minus seven is on both sides? We subtract seven on both sides to move onto the next step.”
-4X = 8
I stare at the now smaller equation. “Is that it? I was moving around so many numbers and was making it so complicated.”
A whisper of a laugh slips out of Milo. “We’re not done.”
My shoulders slump. “Oh.”
“We need to find X, remember?” He taps the page. “There’s still a minus four in front of it.”
“Yeah. It does look messed up. You know, this explanation is still not exciting.”
Milo smirks. “At least you’re actually listening now instead of becoming a glazed donut. I think it's an improvement.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that.”
“So, what would you do now if you got down to this step?”
I stare at the equation, and it distorts into three different layers. “Umm?”
He taps the line above. “What did we do before?”
“Umm. Subtract seven?”
“From?”
My palms lift upwards. “From both sides.”
“Yes!” Milo cheers.
He sits back with a laugh as I peer around us, noting David turning our way and smiling.
“Sorry,” Milo says, stifling his laugh. “I’m just so happy you’re following along. Okay, so what does that tell you to do now?”
I stare at the -4X and my heartbeat thumps loudly in my ears.
He taps the space I'm focused on. “You need to get that number away from the X.”
