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I shrug. “It’s a gift.”
“Well,are you?” she presses.
I frown at her. “You need to tell your classmates not to take such an interest in what goes on at the high school. You really care about who’s dating whom?”
“Uh, yes.” She beams at Colt. “You’re the most popular guy at Edenbury High. Practically every girl in my class has a crush on you.”
Colt shifts in his seat, clearly uncomfortable.
“Well?” Mia demands. “Are you dating? Don’t try to sidetrack me again.”
Colt raises a brow at me, asking if we should tell her the truth. Again, I hate lying to her. But the kid really can’t keep her mouth shut.
“Yes, Mia,” I say. “Colton and I are dating.”
“Woohoo! Iknewit. The girls in my class couldn’t believe thatmy sisteris Colton’s girlfriend! Everyone wants to hang out with me now. But I’m not stupid. I know the only reason they want to be my friend is because they hope they can meet you, Colton. So I told them they could only hang out with me if they likedme. So they took out their phones and tried proving to me how much they like me by telling me what movie or TV show I was in, or what my favorite Korean food is, or basically anything they could find online.” She rolls her eyes. “What a bunch of fakes. I know who my real friends are.”
“Smart kid,” I say, ruffling her hair. “Screw people like that. You need to stay true to yourself and not try to impress other people.”
Mia beams again. “Yep.”
I notice that Colt’s eyes are downcast. But when he feels me watching him, he raises them and they grow a little big. He forces a smile. “Yeah, Mia is super smart. Did you teach her that?”
“It’s what my mom and dad keep telling us,” I tell him. “Especially my mom. In high school, she didn’t care that kids thought she was a nerd because she loved school so much. All that mattered was that she was happy with who she was.” I press my lips together before I say anything else. He’s trying to put on a cool and collected demeanor, but he’s obviously uncomfortable with this conversation. Maybe because he, for reasons I still don’t understand, is hiding his true self.
With another smile, he says, “I usually leave my students with the virtual tutor for a little while to see if they can have a successful session. I’ve never had a student as stubborn as you, Mia, so I’m curious if you’ll make her have a virtual meltdown,” he teases.
Mia scowls. “Haha. I’m not that bad.”
“Sure.” I scoff.
Colt and I leave to the living room and lower ourselves on the couch. It’s close enough to the dining room to hear if Mia gets fed up with the tutor and throws Colt’s laptop against the wall, but far enough that they can have their session without anyone bothering them.
“It’s really such a cool program,” I tell Colt with a smile. “And it’s great your motivation behind it is to help kids who may not be able to afford it, or ones who are too embarrassed to ask for help. I could see the program being offered in every school in America. Maybe even the world.”
His eyes widen at my words. “Oh. Wow. That’s high praise coming from you. Thanks. Means a lot.” Are his cheeks pink? He turns his face away from me so it’s hard to see, but I’m pretty sure they’re pink.
“Have you gotten any more downloads on the app? One of our videos went a little viral yesterday.”
“Really? Which one?”
He takes out his phone and shows me the video. It’s at the bowling alley, when we took a break from playing because we were hungry. We ordered fries and Cokes and sat at a table, just goofing off and having fun. Colt tried to throw a fry into his mouth, which he missed. One of them landed in my hair, and he was worried I’d chew his head off. But I just laughed.
It looks like we’re having lots of fun. We seem comfortable in each other’s presence and are just living in the moment without any worries or stress. I think it’s because we both know this isn’t real. We could goof off and have fun without a care.
“I didn’t know you filmed this,” I say.
“You didn’t? Sorry, I thought you knew. I could take it down if it makes you uncomfortable.”
“No, it’s fine.” I unlock my phone and show him the stats of my app. “Look how many downloads I got last night and this morning.”
His eyes bug out. “Wow. It’s really working.”
“What about Vanessa?” I ask. “Did she say anything to you?”
He shrugs. “I’m not really concerned with Vanessa right now. But holy crap, Willow, I’m so stoked more people are using your app. And is that your first feedback?”
“Huh? Oh, I didn’t see this.” I quickly tap on the comment.
