Fan Fiction ❯ Looking in a Mirror ❯ Chapter four ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter four-

 

The next day after school Eric found Peter waiting outside his forensics' class room. "Um, hi Peter...you know, I can't really talk today, I'm meeting someone...to ...uh, help them with Pre-Cal..." he said, avoiding looking up at Peter.

 

"Oh," Peter said a little shocked; Eric never had anyone else to do something with, even help out with homework, "Then at least tell me it's a good looking girl you're ditching me for."

 

Eric blushed, but Peter didn't notice because Eric wasn't looking at him. "N...no, it's a guy," Eric told him attempting to slip past him.

 

"Ok, so we can still say you're socially incapable of getting a girl even to let you help her with her homework but at least you're getting a bit better socially in general. So, is it some guy I might know?"

 

"Uh, I don't think so...he's a senior..." Eric said hesitantly.

 

Peter raised his eye brows, "You're helping a senior with his homework?"

 

"Yeah," Eric sighed, "And I've really got to go. Oh, and his name is Devan Wahet," Eric told Peter over his shoulder as he turned a corner.

 

Peter stood there for a moment placing the name... "Wahet...the lead in the play...that guy," he mumbled to himself. He had been amazing in the musical.

 

*~*~*

 

Eric looked around the front for Devan. After ten minutes he spotted him with a group of people higher on the school chain then him...but then again who wasn't, Eric wondered. He stood back waiting for the group to disperse before talking to Devan.

 

As a few of his friends, if they could be called that, left Devan noticed Eric standing off to the side waiting for him. "Um, guys, I gotta go," Devan said to those who remained and walked off heading towards Eric. "You coulda come over and got me instead of standing over here waiting for me to notice you," Devan told Eric with a smirk.

 

"I...was ah...more comfortable with the, eh, second option," Eric said, blushing slightly...why did he always seem to blush around Devan or when he came up in a conversation?

 

"All right then," Devan said, "so, are you going to follow me to my place?"

 

"Uh, yeah I guess that's the best idea...my car's over there," he said, pointing to the, nondescript, green car.

 

"Alright, mine's there," Devan said, pointing to a silver porch.

 

Eric stared at the car for a moment before nodding, "Ok," then he went and got into his car and attempted to get behind Devan. That was no easy task in a school parking lot, but he somehow managed it without getting into an accident.

 

Once out of the parking lot, he followed Devan to the ritzier side of town. And pulled into a bigger than average three story house, unless it had a basement, but he wasn't sure on that one.

 

Devan walked up to his car door as he opened it, "I know..." he said seeing Eric's face, "It's kinda big, but you might get used to it. Anyway, come on in," he said as he led Eric up to the door.

 

When they got inside, Devan threw his car keys onto a table by the door and walked to the kitchen. Sticking his head in as he said with a smile, "Hey mom!"

 

"Oh, Devan," the woman in her mid thirties said, brushing her long red hair out over her face, you're home. Great, you're sister said she might stop by later. Oh, and you're father's going to be late and..." she trailed off spotting Eric, "Oh, you brought a friend home." Her face was in a cheery smile as she spoke, "Well hello, I'm Mrs. Wahet, Devan's mom."

 

"Uh, nice to meet you, I'm Eric Palep," he said politely.

 

"He's here to help me with Pre-Calc," Devan put in.

 

"I didn't know you were having problems in school," she said sounding worried.

 

"It's not bad," Devan told her, "I just need a little help."

 

“Well, if you need more than just a little I want to know so I can figure out some way to help you, do you understand?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at her son.

 

“Yes, I understand,” told her, then quickly exited the kitchen, hoping Eric would follow him. When he got to the stairs he stopped and turned around to face Eric. “My mom likes to think she's one of those concerned parents when she really isn't,” he explained, “Ok, so my rooms up here,” he motioned up the stairs before climbing them.

 

Eric followed him carefully, kind of unnerved at begging in such an expensive house, hoping he wouldn't accidentally break anything. They passed several doors until they came to one that was a wood stained a slightly darker brow then the rest. It seemed a bit out of place amongst the bright yellow walls and cream colored carpet.

 

Devan opened the door and inside was dark. When Devan turned the lights on Eric was a bit surprised by the contents. The room didn't seem to fit Devan at all; the walls, carpet, drapery and even bedding were pure black. The darkly stained furniture was placed around with room with black candles scattered on top of it, though at least they were unlit. The only real source of color was the poster placed on the wall of men without their shirts on.

 

Devan must have been able to read what Eric was thinking by the look on his face because he explained, “The room was my sister's until she moved out about a month ago, I decided to take her room because it's bigger than mine, but I haven't had the time to redecorate yet.”

 

Eric was a bit relived to find out that Devan wasn't some sort of cult manic who only pretended to be this perfect guy at school, then he smiled a little, “Well that's a relief, it not only explains the gothic look, but the posters as well.”

 

Devan made a sound that was something between choking and laughing. That would explain it to him wouldn't it, Devan thought, though not quite correct, it'll work for now. “Uh, yeah…” he said out loud with a laugh.

 

Eric smiled and said, “Um, do you have your calculus book, because I wouldn't have the right one.”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Devan said as he picked up his backpack out of the corner he had thrown it into and pulled out the Pre-Calculus book.

 

“So, what do you need help with?” Eric asked, looked at the book Devan held in his hands.

 

“Um, just applying a few of the formulas to things,” Devan answered, opening the book to page 129.

 

Eric looked over the formulas quickly then pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down the formulas and a few numbers before handing it to Devan and explaining what was going on.

 

Devan listened to what Eric was explaining and thought, he can do this stuff and break it down into much simpler ways to explain it so someone on a slightly lower math level can understand it.

 

Eric stopped talking and looked up, “So, do you get it now or do need me to keep going?”

 

“No, that right there was more than enough help. You know, you can explain things better than any teacher I've had, maybe you should teach,” Devan said, adding the last part in a slightly teasing way.

 

Eric looked down at the book and didn't say anything, what was it about Devan that made him…he wasn't even sure what it was that being around Devan made him do…act different maybe, make him want to impress him, Eric wasn't sure and definitely didn't know what to do about it so he looked at the book a little longer, before looking up. “I don't know if I would make a good teacher, I'm not very good at being around people,” Eric said smiling.

 

“Then why are you in Forensics?” Devan asked, really confused. This was a guy he could tell was really uncomfortable around one person he didn't know let alone around a bunch of people he didn't know and yet he was willingly getting up in front of a bunch of them to perform.

 

Eric sighed smiling, “That's what two out going siblings can do to you. Molly and Zack talked me into it,” he added.

 

“Oh, yeah siblings have that effect, don't they,” Devan said, smiling, “My sister's talked me into doing more than one thing I wouldn't have done on my own.”

 

Eric tried to imagine Devan doing something stupid due to his sister but couldn't come up with much that he thought would be likely, so he asked, “Like what?”

 

“Oh, well this one time when I was four of five my sister, who was about seven at the time, convinced me to dress up in this one really frilly Christmas dress she had and show mom and dad. Needless to say, they still laugh about it now.”

Eric laughed trying to see a five-year-old Devan in a dress, “I can see why…actually my sister tried that one on our brother once, but seeing as they're the same age, it didn't go over quite the same.”

 

Devan grinned, “Well, lucky for your brother, it's quite embarrassing when your mom pulls out the photos of you wearing your sister's dress whenever you have a date.”

 

“Yeah, I'd imagine so. Lucky for me I'm the oldest so they never talked me into things like that, though they do talk me into quite a few things, even though less embarrassing,” Eric told him.

 

Devan nodded, “Being the younger has its advantages as well as disadvantages. You can't talk the older sibling into doing embarrassing things as easily, but you can talk them into other things that work out for your advantage.”

 

“No need to tell me that, I already know that, Molly and Zack talk me into more things than I care to admit,” Eric said smiling thinking over the many things he'd been manipulated into.

 

At that moment someone stuck their head into the room. She was wearing a black shirt and dark jeans along with a large amount of black eyeliner. “I see, I've been gone a month and you already stole my room, though you haven't had enough time to change it at least,” she said looking around the room, “Well, not much…”

 

“Abby,” Devan said, “You're here earlier than I thought you would be when mom said you were coming by. I was thinking more like…nine, nine-thirty, not four…” he glanced down at his watch, “forty-seven.”

 

“Well, I got off work early and decided to just come here instead of going home first…” then she spotted Eric, “Hi I'm Abigail, Devan's older sister.”

 

“Uh…I'm Eric…” Eric didn't know what to add at the end of that sentence so he trailed off.

 

“He's helping me with Pre-Calculus Abby,” Devan put in to save him from any awkward question Abigail might throw his way.

 

“Hm, he looks younger than you…you're asking for help from an underclassmen?” she said skeptically.

 

“He's a junior, but I figured since he's doing Collage Calculus on his own, it didn't matter,” Devan shot back.

 

“He's a junior in high school doing Collage Calculus on his own,” she almost laughed, the things her brother came up to cover with.

 

Eric looked at her confused for a moment. “Um, I do other collage courses on my own too, not just calculus,” he said quietly.

 

Abby looked over at him, “You're serious?”

 

Eric nodded, “Yeah, I have a collage biology book and chemistry book along with a few others.” He was looking at the carpet now, not sure what to do.

 

Abby didn't know what to do either, this kid was smarter than her and that bugged her. She stood there for a moment figuring out what to do when Devan said, “Is there something you want Abby?”

 

She shook her head, “Nothing in particular besides to see how my little brother was doing.”

 

“Well, unless you're blind, you can see I'm doing just fine, so if there's nothing else…” he nodded to the door.

 

“Fine, behave little bro,” she said as she walked out of the room and down the hall way.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Devan yelled after her.

 

Eric was a little confused by the whole exchange but preferred not to think about it because he had a feeling it was about something he would prefer not to know at the moment.

 

“So, what were we talking about before Abby interrupted?” Devan asked turning back to Eric after making sure his sister was gone.

 

“Uh, siblings?” he said, more as a question than a statement.

 

Devan thought for a minute, “Right, and how they can `convince' us to do things.”

 

Eric nodded, though he didn't say anything, he just sat there and watched Devan as he thought about something, probably about his sister. This was definitely something that was way over his head, whatever it was that was going on with him, but he didn't know who to talk to that could help him figure it out. He sighed and Devan looked over at him.

 

“Something wrong?” He asked Eric.

 

Eric shook his head, and smiled a little, “No, just thinking about nothing,”

 

“That's usually an interesting thing to think about,” Devan said, closing the Calculus book and sticking it back in his bag.

 

Eric nodded, “So, was there anything else you wanted help with?”

 

Devan shook his head, “No, that was it. And you know you did explain it faster and more efficiently than my teacher did.”

 

Eric looked down to hide the slight blush he felt creeping up his cheeks. “Uh, glad I could help,” he said, and put his pencil away for something to do.

 

Devan looked over at Eric and asked, quite out of the blue, “What do you like to eat?”

 

Eric, not really expecting the question, sat in silence for a moment, trying to come up with an appropriate answer. When a food finally came to his mind he said, “Carrots, Potatoes, and Bananas…” then realizing this sounded a little lame and restricted to one basic food group he add, “along with other foods too.”

 

Devan laughed a little, “Well, they all sound good to me too, but the best is squash.”

 

“Why?' Eric asked he himself wasn't too fond of Squash.

 

Devan shrugged, “Because it has the letter q in its name, how man vegetables can say that?” And Devan smiled a little bit bigger at the look on Eric's face before they both started to laugh.

 

Once they had both stopped laughing, that sat there and stared at each other for a minute before Eric became a bit uncomfortable with the silence and said, “So, um…you said you did HI what's it on?”

 

Devan smiled, “It's about a guy who goes on a hunting trip with his buddy, but nothing goes as planned. The animals fight back…well, it's something like that.”

Eric nodded, thinking of a squirrel with hunting rifle. He smiled, “I'll have to come see it sometime.”

 

“Yeah, if I ever break with it, it's not as good as my DI or OID…or even my Poetry. That would make it the worst of my events. Well, something's got to be,” he said, shrugging.

 

Eric nodded, “That's just the way things go.” He looked at the clock that was on the bed side table. “It's kind of late,” he said, “but if you need anymore help with anything let me know. And…ah…if you would like some help with painting the room…I…”

 

“I wouldn't mind a little help on repainting the room, if you wouldn't mind,” Devan once again saved Eric from saying something embarrassing.

 

“No, I wouldn't mind,” Eric said, “just let me know when.”

 

“How about, Friday, after school,” Devan said, standing up so he could walk Eric to the door.

 

“That…ah…I mean…yeah, that sounds ok,” Eric said, getting embarrassed again.

 

“Alright, see you at school,” Devan said, opening the door for him.

 

“Yeah,” Eric said, stepping out into the cool night air. As he got into his car Devan closed the front door. Eric sat there for a minute thinking about how stupid he had just acted. For being such a smart guy, he though, I really am stupid when it comes to other people. With that thought he started up his car and drove home.