Demolition Lovers

"Face it, man, I'm never gonna make it," I groaned loudly.
"Be quiet, be positive about it. You're almost there," Mr. Way smiled weakly, he knew I wasn't getting it. His weak smile spoke a thousand words right now.
"No I'm not," I replied.

I had spent the last two hours with Mr. Way talking through algebra and me getting more and more frustrated by it. I was no where near to understanding it than what I had been walking through into the office two hours ago. The letters and the numbers were forming together into a jumbled mess on the page, almost as if they were against me getting my grade. Gerard, I mean Mr. Way, was very persistent with me though, which I liked. Usually tutors gave up on me in the first hour because of how unfocused I was on math. I rarely gave math any attention because I knew I wasn't good at it, I was hopeless.

"I could do with a coffee right now," I sighed. It wouldn't be long till school was over and I could head over to my usual after school hangout; Starbucks.
"You can go to the canteen if you want one?" He suggested kindly.
"Nah, have you tasted it? It tastes like piss," I said too quickly before realizing I was talking to a teacher, "Damn, sorry," I added foolishly.
"It's fine, and you're right. It does taste like piss. Nothing beats a Starbucks coffee, am I right?" He replied with a smile. I just nodded, not sure if he meant back to our encounter last night or if he was making a general statement.
"Maybe we could go there now?" I suggested, knowing full well we wouldn't be able to.
"Tempting thought," he started, "However, if we get caught I could be in so much trouble."

I groaned in frustration. We'd made it two hours and we still had about another half an hour to go. I wasn't going to understand it any time soon and I think Mr. Way had kind of grasped onto that. They say never to go higher than an hour at a time with one topic and I think that rule or suggestion was out of the window at this moment in time.

"Come on, no one'll know if we just walk out," I tried to reason with him, trying my very best to persuade him.
"Ah, but if the cameras spot us then I could lose you as a student and I'll probably won't be trusted with any others," he reasoned back.
"Then don't let them see us," I replied as if it was the obvious answer. Mr. Way just laughed and shrugged the conversation off.

I didn't see him agreeing with my little run away to Starbucks so I looked back at my work and not having much more luck than what I did ten minutes ago. I felt like I was bothering Mr. Way now and yes, I was aware that he's my tutor and that I'm supposed to annoy him to achieve my grade but I hated knowing I was getting on peoples nerves which is why I rarely went home; because I knew home much I annoyed my own mom.

"I still don't get it," I mumbled, shyly looking up at him, "Can't we just call it quits for today?"
"I understand that it's hard and it probably will take a while for you to grasp, but okay. We have to stay here till the end of school though, that's the condition." I simply shrugged, glad that I wasn't being forced to do any more of satans subject.

I sighed back in my chair a little, feeling slightly awkward because it was just too quiet for my liking. Gerard, I mean Mr. Way, finally piped up though, asking about my future and what I wanted to do with my life.

"Honestly," I started, "I don't really have much of an idea. I'd love to do something with music, like, maybe become a member in a band or become a music teacher."
"Then why do you want to succeed in math? I mean, if you want to follow in a music career why do you feel the need to pass math? Obviously I'm not saying you shouldn't because math is awesome" Mr. Way grinned.
"Ah, yes, such an epic subject," I ginned back. "But I don't know, it'll look good on my college form if my grades are good in math. I'm pretty much failing almost all my subjects besides Music and English. They're the only two which I understand," I replied, which was true. I'd never been good at science. Especially physics, let's not go there. History was a bunch of dates which you had to know to be able to pass your exam and geography you'd expect to be about countries, but they managed to throw in a bunch of random stuff like lakes. English I felt like I was pretty good at. I loved reading and writing with Stephen King being my favorite author. I knew how to write well to give the image and impression I wanted to get across and this was also reflected in the lyrics that I wrote.

"What about you? Have you always wanted to be a math tutor?" I questioned, raising a brow at the ridiculous thought of dreaming about becoming a math tutor.
"No. Like you, I love music and always saw myself doing something creative like singing in a band. That happened for a while but eventually we split up and it made me realize that music isn't forever. It's a sad thought but it's true. It's forever for the listeners but what happens when your band breaks up? I later went on to study comic books and I've got a degree in that but I wanted to help kids like you become something better," He said with a smile.
"But why? Why not doing something awesome with art with your comic degree or whatever?"
"Because I wanted to give others the grades that I never got because it turns out they impact a ton of stuff when you reach my age," Mr. Way chuckled.
"You make yourself sound like you were born in the stone ages," I smiled.
"I feel like I was."
"You can't be that old, I mean look at you. You haven't got an aging line on you." He had laugh lines, which makes me think that he must have had a happy life. They suited him.
"You're clearly not looking hard enough," Mr Way smiled, still no aging lines showing.
"I reckon you're no way older than 25," I spoke, looking at his eyes. They didn't look aged enough, like they hadn't seen enough to show the aging most older people had. They gave no wear and his skin was flawless if that is even the right word to use.
"So close," he mused, "24, but I feel way older with all the studying for this job I've had to do."
He was only 24, not much older than me yet he managed to look younger than me. His porcelain skin made him look like a young teenager who had never been touched besides by angels, crappy comparison, I know.

I felt completely comfortable around Mr. Way which was a first for me. We had been able to talk to one another and find a little bit more about each other and making me understand that math, although I hate it, is really important which made me feel bad for finishing early. Turns out, it's very helpful when applying for jobs or colleges. However, I'm pretty set on the whole musician thing and I really don't want to have to turn into one of them with the day in day out jobs. I want a job which will mean something to me and help other people through something creative.

The bell, signalling the end of the day, went which I was glad for as it meant I could go get my life source; coffee. I got up from my seat and threw my hoodie into my backpack which I forgot to put away when I left the field. Mr Way, however, made no motion of getting up and I know it sounds silly, but he said he did say he wanted to get coffee, right? Or did I imagine that?

"So, are you, um, going to get coffee, with uh, me?" I stuttered. I was mentally kicking myself for being so foolish. I did seem weird; a student asking a teacher to coffee wasn't deemed acceptable, not now, not ever.
"You were being serious?" He questioned, cocking a brow.
"Well, yeah, I mean, if you want to. We never really went over the schedule of when to meet or what we're planning on doing," I haltered, " I mean topic wise." Nice save, Frank, I thought.
"Okay then," Mr Way nodded, pushing himself away from his desk and stood up, straightening out his shirt and tie as he did so. He took his coat off the hook at the back of the door, and in my best description I'd say it was a trench style coat, you know the one with the collar and the buttons at the front with a belt? Yeah, a black one of those. He pulled it over himself, not caring to fasten it up and motioned for me to go through out of the door.

There weren't many students on the hallways, just the odd few rushing out of the doors after most likely being kept behind by their teacher for behavior in class, or maybe they were off to after school classes, who knows? More like, who cares?

When I reached the main doors and walked out into the cool air, I realised Mr. Way was still by my side, I half expected him to be still in his office hiding from my offer of coffee. The air was warm with a slight breeze, not much different from earlier. However, the sky looked warm. The sun wasn't hiding behind any clouds so the sky appeared to be bright blue with the occasional cloud; too warm for my liking but i clutched at the sleeves of my shirt anyway.

"So, uh, Mr. Way..."
"Call me Gerard, being out of school and all," he gestured with his hands.
"Right, Gerard, which coffee shop? Usually I just go to the local Starbucks on my corner or there's this great coffee shop in the town and there's also this one slightly out of town and it's small and the coffee is amazing," I stopped to take a breath before I realised Gerard was laughing at me.
"What?"
"Nothing, it's just, don't you ever breathe when speaking?"
"Shut up," I mumbled.
"Starbucks sounds great," he smiled at me.
With that we were walking off down the street in the way of the local Starbucks and the only thought really going through my mind was 'I hope my table is available'.