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If Kristy hadn't brought up the payment idea, he would have still offered to drive her to Bradford Court for free. It wasn't even that long of a drive, not compared to the distances he longed to cover and wasn't yet allowed to, and sometimes he liked checking in on the old neighborhood again. He missed it, even if they hadn't been gone that long.
And of course, there was her.
Every day, Kristy practically flew out of her seat and into the Kishi house, and he would sit back in the driver's seat and wait. Once the meeting started, she would come out the front door and he'd open the passenger's side for her.
Sometimes they just sat and talked. About school, plans for what they were going to do after graduation, the pains of being an older sibling, weird dreams they'd had, how Mimi was recovering from her stroke, how he was adjusting to life in a mansion. Other times they'd go for a short little drive around the neighborhood, coming back just in time for him to pick up his sister.
He always asked her out for a date on Friday, and she always said no. School projects, her family needed her, things like that. At first he thought she was playing games with him, but it didn't take him long to realize that underneath all her academic bluster, she was actually quite shy. She would blink, stammer a little, her hands toying with the buttons of her sweater or the hem of her skirt. Her cheeks would go pink, and he actually thought she looked cuter than ever that way.
He didn't press her, of course. And never once did she tell him to stop. Perhaps you should attempt again next week, she would say, and he always did. And sometimes she came a little closer to saying yes.
Some girls didn't like persistence, especially shy ones. But he understood that it helped her, in a way, to know he wouldn't give up on her no matter how long she took to be comfortable with the idea. He never pushed her, she never backed away, they took things at the most comfortable pace they could.
Sometimes he'd be smiling so widely when Kristy came out to greet him, not bothering to hide it. She never asked (a rarity for someone as nosy as her) but he had a feeling she might already know. And Claudia? She lived for gossip, there was no way she didn't suspect anything.
Ah, well. What's the worst they can do, tease us about it?