Although our conversation at school and during our tutoring sessions for the first few days was minimal, it was actually comfortable conversation and solely based on school related things. I was starting to think that we would be able to get along just fine and maybe we wouldn’t really become friends in the future but we could at least be decent acquaintances. I had just pulled the lasagna out of the over when the door bell rang on Wednesday; it had been a while since I actually made a decent home cooked meal and was really in the mood for some fresh Italian food tonight. Colt walked in on his own accord, like usual; it made me wonder why he even rang the doorbell.

“Mmm, what smells so good?” He asked walking into the kitchen and following his normal path straight to the fridge; he grabbed a coke before coming to stand next to the counter while I put some garlic bread in the oven.

“Lasagna, and no you can’t have any.” I said tossing the pot holders on the counter next to him; his face fell and his mouth dropped open.

“You would deprive a poor starving boy like me food?” He asked putting his hand on his heart like he was hurt.

“One I have seen your car so I know you’re not poor and two although you eat like you have been starved sometimes, I have a feeling it’s far from the truth.” I countered pushing him to the side so I could pull some utensils out of the drawer he was standing in front of.

“True and true, but lasagna is my favorite.” He said sticking his lower lip out in a pout. God why did he have to look so cute, wait, no, I did not just say that. What the hell is wrong with me?

“Want to make a deal?” I asked smirking as an idea came to mind.

“What kind of deal?” He asked back; I could tell by the look he was giving me he didn’t like the idea of whatever I had in mind.

“I will feed you dinner if you let me drive your car.” I said swinging around the spatula I had in my hand.

“What? Are you crazy? No body drives my baby!” He replied sounding like I was completely insane for suggesting it. I really couldn’t blame him; I wouldn’t let anyone near my baby either, but oh well, his loss.

“That’s too bad; I bet this is going to be so delicious.” I said cutting off a piece and setting it on a plate; I even went as far as twisting some of the melting cheese around me finger and licking it off, letting out a satisfied, ‘Mmm’. I could almost see the wheels spinning in his mind as he tried to force himself not to drool.

“Something else, anything else.” He countered sounding a little desperate; his eyes now glued on the steaming piece of goodness on the plate.

“I don’t know I have always wanted to drive one of those; I just can’t think of anything else that would be worth me giving up this delicious food for.” I said before grabbing the oven mitts and pulling the garlic bread out of the oven.

“How about another ride, just like last time?” He begged; I shrugged my shoulders in response telling him that wasn’t really enough for me. He rubbed his forehead as he tried to come up with anything else he could add to the deal.

“I’ll let you shift gears.” He finally spit out, trying anything he could think of short of letting me behind the wheel. I could lie and say that it wasn’t tempting but I could see that there was no way in hell he was going to let me drive so this was about as good as I would get.

“Fine, deal.” I said holding out my hand so we could shake on it; he quickly shook my hand before pushing me to the side and tossing two pieces of the garlic bread on the plate and taking it to the table.

“Holy fuck this is good, by far the best lasagna I have ever had.” He said between bites after I joined him at the table with my own plate.

“Thanks.” I replied taking a bite of the hot and gooey goodness; I’m not afraid to brag that my lasagna is the best, I found a recipe that my grandmother had made once and every time I made it for anyone they were always impressed.

“You know if you would have just let me have one bite and then tried to bargain with me you might have just got me to let you drive.” Colt shoved another bite into his mouth and my mouth dropped open in shock; what, are you kidding me? Damn, I got robbed on this deal!

“Well you still haven’t tried my Mexican casserole yet.” I said winking at him; another one of my signature dishes that no one else could beat.

“Mexican casserole?” He asked with his mouth full, his eyes going wide with wonder about the mention of another food.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, that’s just rude and disgusting!” He just shrugged his shoulders before digging back into his plate.

          Three plates of lasagna later and Colt was ready to actually start studying; ok well I was ready to study, he was ready to take a nap on my couch. After a few science questions we moved onto math and he told me to do one of the quizzes that were in the book and he would check the answers when I finished; I finished the work and looked back over at him to see him completely passed out next to me. I poked his leg with my pencil a few times and got no response, I shook his arm lightly a few times only to have him grunt and turn a little in his seat; seeing no other way to wake him up I got up and slapped him across his head and called out his name.

“Colt, wake up!” I yelled; his eyes blinked a few times and half way opened.

“Leave me alone.” He mumbled before using the free space on the couch where I had been sitting to move his feet.

“You’re sleeping on my couch jackass, get up and go home!” I said shaking him a few more times.

“Just five more minutes mom.” He mumbled again rolling over to bury his face in the couch.

          Seeing that my efforts were pointless I went to the closet and grabbed a pillow and blanket for him; I tossed the pillow on his head figuring he would wake up at some point and put it under him and draped the blanket across his body. I opened his note book to a blank page and wrote ‘You fell asleep and were impossible to wake up.’ on the page before heading off to my room; I figured if he woke up some time during the night he would find the note and figure out what happened. Waking up the next morning he was still passed out and snoring loudly on my couch; the pillow I had tossed on his head did somehow make it under him during the night. Ignoring the loud snoring figure in my living room I went into the kitchen to make some breakfast.

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.” I said moving the plate of food in front of his nose; the smell of food instantly bringing him out of his slumber. He sat up quickly grabbing the plate of food from my hands; god men and food; it was just sickening how easy they were to please.

“I don’t know why I’m still here but if I get breakfast brought to me every morning I might just not leave.” He said after shoveling a few fork fulls of eggs in his mouth; at least he took the time to chew and swallow before he spoke this time.

“If that were the case then I would just make sure to poison the food next time so it wouldn’t happen again.” I sat in the chair across from him eating my own breakfast.

“Where are your parents?” He asked after looking around the house a few times finding it empty of anyone but us.

“Who knows, I don’t keep track of them anymore.” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“Do they not come home a lot?”

“They usually are working late and come home after I’m already in bed and are gone before I get up or sometimes they go on business trips and are gone for weeks; I more or less just live alone most of the time.”

“Don’t you get bored or lonely?”

“It’s been this way since I was like thirteen, I’m just used to it I guess.”

“Well it’s kind of cool, I mean you don’t really have rules to follow or anything, right?”

“Yeah I guess, but even if they were here they don’t really enforce rules; they are the kind of parents that believe people should lead their own lives and learn for their own mistakes.” I shrugged my shoulders at the thought; it was kind of cool not to have them around hounding me all the time like normal parents but there are some things I would have liked to learn the easy way instead of the hard way. One of those things being pans in the oven are HOT and should be taken out with pot holders or oven mitts; they fail to mention that in cook books too and I learned the hard way when I was fourteen, I still had the small scars on my palms to prove it.

“Yeah my parents are kind of the same way with the rules and learning things on your own; only difference is that they are there to shove it in my face every time I fuck up.” He chuckled slightly like he was amused at the thought; my guess is that he had a good relationship with his parents and they liked to make fun of him for the stupid things that he gets himself into.

“Well I better start getting ready.” I said looking up at the clock.

“Yeah me too, where can I shower?” He asked; I raised my eyebrows at him. Was he planning on getting ready here?

“Umm, what?” I asked.

“A shower, you know the thing that sprays water out and gets you clean.” His signature smirk crossed his face.

“Yeah I know what a shower is, but why do you want to use mine?”

“Well because I don’t have enough time to drive all the way home and I would rather go to school showered than dirty.”

“What about clean clothes?”

“I always keep some in my car.”

“Ok, well follow me then.” I said getting up and taking our plates; I dropped them off in the kitchen before showing him to a bathroom. This was just weird having someone else shower at my house; if my parents could ever pick a time not to show up this would be it; I could only imagine the looks they would give me if they found a man showering in our house in the morning.

          I took my shower and got dressed before drying my hair and applying a little mascara; I stopped in the mirror by my door and applied my normal strawberry lip gloss before making my way back to the living room. I tossed the papers and books on the coffee table into my bag before straightening the remotes and magazines back into their correct order on the table. I walked in the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and almost screamed when I ran straight into Colt as I came around the corner; his bag was already gone from the living room so I had just assumed he already left while I was getting ready.

“Crap you scared me!” I said clutching my chest as I tried to lower my heart rate back to a normal speed; he chuckled light before rubbing his hand on my head messing up my hair.

“Want a ride?” He asked heading for the door.

“I can drive myself, but thanks.” I said rolling my eyes; what was wrong with him, why was he being so nice all of a sudden?

“You can shift gears….” He said wiggling his eyebrows at me. Well damn it, how the heck was I supposed to refuse that?

“Fine, but were taking the long way to school.” I wasn’t able to hide the smile on my face or my excitement as I skipped out to his car; I’m starting to think that I was too easy to please when it came to cars, kind of like men and food. What was this world coming to?