WHO:Blossom & Derek WHEN: Early Nov WHERE: Derek & Tyler's place WHAT: Blossom lingers a little after a tutoring session and Derek can't figure out why. WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Complete
The hour of tutoring had gone by quicker than Derek expected. Although he should have known. There wasn’t much Derek enjoyed more than science, especially genetics. Maybe running, but it was a close tie. Blossom picked things up quickly too. Derek could tell she had the same passion for learning about how the world worked that he did.
“Any questions?” he asked wrapping up the session.
Blossom really enjoyed learning, and when someone was giving up their time to help her understand things better, well she was going to give it her all too. All of her attention was on what Derek was teaching and making sure she understood the concept, she didn’t let herself get distracted from anything.
“I don’t think so,” there was nothing she was struggling to understand right now, but then she was thinking she got it all. “I might need to get back to you on anything if I find out I didn’t actually get it?” At least if she tried something herself later.
“You’re a very good tutor.”
“Of course,” Derek replied an honest smile on his face. “If you have any questions you can always text or call. And we can meet again in a week?” Derek certainly wouldn’t mind helping her out again. Hell he was good with making this a weekly thing. He enjoyed passing on his knowledge with someone who actually appreciated it.
“That sounds perfect.” At the very least, Derek’s tutoring would maybe help Blossom keep on top of her genetics stuff, it wasn’t that she struggled to understand it at all, just that if she didn’t stay on top of everything she definitely ran the risk of falling behind on everything. And Blossom wouldn’t do that. And her dad had been supportive of the idea if Blossom felt it would help her.
Closing over her textbook, Blossom just grinned. “I’m really glad you offered tutoring.”
“Me too,” Derek replied honestly. “It’s always good to brush up on my skills and if I can help someone else out, even better.” Now that the tutoring was done he stood up from the table. “So I guess I’ll see you next week.”
“Yup.” Next week seemed totally fine, and Blossom cleared up some of her books around the place, stacking them up and leaving them where they were before checking her phone and giving a small nod, shooting a text back to Tyler quickly to let him know she’d hang out and wait for him. Of course it was the first time she’d hung out in his place without him already being there.
But it wasn’t like she didn’t know Derek so that was fine too, she was sure. A few minutes, it wouldn’t be that long, she hoped. Maybe she could clean up a little. It wasn’t like there was a big mess or anything, but she’d had a glass of water while she was going over things with Derek. She could clear that up and maybe when she was finished Tyler would be home and they could hang out for a while.
Derek wasn’t expecting her to hang around. He wasn’t the best at entertaining company. Especially company he wasn’t expecting. “Don’t worry about that,” Derek said when she went to clear her water. “I can clean up.”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Blossom was used to clearing up behind herself, regardless of where she was. “I mean, I live with two sisters, when we were younger we used to make a big deal about whose turn it was to clean things up, and we never thought it was fair that we should clean up more if one of the others made a bigger mess.” Kids were very good at what was fair. “So we just learned to clear up after ourselves.”
The whole time she was talking she was cleaning her glass before drying it and putting it away in the correct cupboard.
Derek knew what that was like, he was always cleaning up after his brother growing up. Both his literal messes and the metaphorical ones. However, she seemed to know exactly where everything went, which was weird. Derek’s brow knitted together in confusion. “Uh, well thanks for helping,” he said scratching the back of his head. “I’ll see you next week.” As polite as Blossom was and he did enjoy talking to her he wasn’t in the mood for awkward chit chat while she lingered for whatever reason.
Blossom had this strange tendency to forget that people didn’t really know why she was doing things, unless she specifically stated it. So it stood to reason that Derek didn’t know that Blossom was waiting for Tyler, but it didn’t actually strike her to mention that. “Okay,” she was still smiling brightly though, “I’ll wait in the sitting room, unless that’s not okay? I can wait in the kitchen.” Or Tyler’s room, but that might be too presumptive.
Wait, what? What was she waiting for? “Uh, I think a week is a long time to wait,” Derek states rather bluntly amidst his confusion. “You can go home.”
Blossom was frowning now too, because what? Why would she be waiting a week? Looking at her watch, Blossom just mirrored Derek’s confusion, “I … well, I’ll only be waiting like five minutes. I mean, I can wait in my car if you really want, but I just figured…” This was just strange.
“...I thought I’d just wait here for Tyler.”
“Oh.” Tyler. Now it all made sense. “You know Tyler. Sure you can wait here for him.” He wasn’t usually so trusting, but Blossom didn’t seem the type to mean any harm. Besides Tyler would be home soon enough, he could deal with it.
The confusion didn’t seem to last too long, and Blossom’s frown gave way to a massive grin. “Great! You won’t even know I’m here.” At least so long as Tyler wasn’t too much longer, otherwise Blossom might start cleaning things.