“Too much paint, one might say. We’ve paid our dues.” *** “But we’re dating. You should know me well enough.”
She kissed the back of his hand as they headed out to the car. “You driving?” *** “I know you well enough to know that you look down on me for cheating.”
"We're getting Swedish candy, my dear boy!" she said excitedly, kissing his cheek. * * * "Sorry, baby. It's impossible."
"Have you had Swedish candy? It's badass." * * * "I'm a teacher. It's very difficult to get me to shut up."
She kissed his cheek as the slid into the car. "Want to listen to some music?" * * * He pursed his lips, focusing on the screen. "When I was growing up," he said thoughtfully, "I really struggled in school. I got so easily distracted that my parents seriously thought I may have had ADHD. All my report cards used to be filled with frustration. I guess my teachers felt that I could understand things if I applied myself, but I just didn't really care."
"No Beyonce, though." * * * "Well... there was this kid in my class who had even more trouble than I did. He was a good guy, but he really struggled. Alex, I think his name was. Alex Menkin. I remember my teacher sat me next to him and we were in math class and I looked over in the middle of the class and the poor guy just had his hands over his eyes and I could see that he was crying. His worksheet was all crumpled from the eraser and his pencil lead had broken. You know how it goes. Just all that frustration built up, I guess."
"None. Not even Single Ladies." * * * He pursed his lips, shooting someone in the game. "I leaned over to him and started talking to him about the problem. He didn't move at first. I think he was pretty embarrassed that he was caught crying. But I explained something to him, something about the distributive property and he sat up like he had been struck by lightning. He kinda looked over at me and asked me to repeat myself. I did and... I don't know. It sounds really cliche, but something changed in his face. He leaned over the paper and began writing something, wiping his nose with the back of his hand and he slid it over to me, asking if he had gotten it. Sure enough, he had figured it out." Arlo shrugged, his gaze thoughtful. "I don't know. There's a sense of purpose that accompanies that, I think. At least it does for me. That feeling you get when you realize that you've made a connection for someone that wasn't there before... That's pretty cool."
