David's POV
I wait for Joe at the entrance to the school, I'm going over to his house today to work on our oral. I managed to get Scott to cover my shift but he said I owed him one which I guess is fair. Joe comes out a few minutes later and looks around a little, squinting, before he spots me.
"Hey" he greets and I give him a small smile. "We have to wait for my slow ass sister"
"That's ok" I say and we fall into silence so I decide to try and make some small talk.
"So uh how was your day?" I ask him and he looks slightly surprised but he replies with a smile.
"Good, I mean it was school so you know not that good but good enough" He says "What about you?"
"Eh, it was alright" I say shrugging my shoulders and putting my hands in my pockets. I had a few tests today that I didn't do too well on but I don't want to tell him that. He wouldn't understand what it's like to struggle with school and grades.
"Hey loser" Rosa greets Joe from once she exits the school and Joe rolls his eyes. Rosa looks a lot like her brother as well. She has the same sandy brown hair but her eyes are brown unlike Joe who has sparkly blue eyes and thick eyelashes.
"David this is my sister" Joe says and she gives me a wave.
"Hey"I say and we begin our walk to their house. Rosa and Joe spend most of the walk insulting each other but I can tell it's all a big joke. They remind me of Esther and I.
....
When we arrive at Joe's house I'm not surprised that it's large and looks kind of fancy. It has two stories with a nice front garden. There's even some flowers in the front that make it look so alive, much better than my house. Joe puts his key in the door and unlocks it.
"We're home" Rosa yells into the house and I hear small footsteps padding across the floor.
"David!" Ollie cheers when he sees me and runs into me. I pick him up and tickle him while he squirms in my arms laughing.
"Hey Ollie" I greet the squirming little boy in my arms while his giggles ring out through out the house.
"Oh by the way I'm here too" Joe says a little bitterly beside me clearly upset he's not getting any attention, there's a cute pout on his lips.
"I see you all the time Joey" Oliie says once I put him down, throwing his little arms up in the air.
"Thank you so much" Joe says sarcastically but Ollie has already run off.
"He likes me more than you" I tease poking him lightly in the side and he rolls his eyes at me.
"He does not" Joe grumbles under his breath "Come on"
He leads me into the kitchen and plonked down onto the table so I took a seat next to him. I take a moment to examine his house. The kitchen is large and clean with white countertops and a large fridge. The dining room has a few plants spread around and photos up on the walls, I notice one of Joe when he was younger with his curly hair but it looked a lot more blonde when he was younger. His two front teeth are missing and he's scrunching up his nose. He looks so cute in the photo but I don't tell him that. Joe must follow my eye line because he groans "Don't look at that it's so embarrassing"
I open my mouth to reply but then a lady walks into the room with a bright smile and a plate of food. She places it down on the table and gives me a smile.
"Hi I'm Joey's mum" She greets and I smile back at her.
"Hello I'm David" I greet with the friendliest smile I can muster.
"Thanks for the snacks ma" Joe answers and she tries to go in for a hug but he pushes her away and she sighs before walking away.
"Ok we should start" Joe says pulling out his books and I mimic him and open mine.
"Well Mrs. Banci uploaded the task up online and there are options so you can choose what we do" He offers and I shrug and read through the list of options.
"Alright let's do the conversations on family" I reply and he nods, I chose that one because it looks like the easiest.
"Ok we should probably start with just writing out brief descriptions of each family member and then we can add details later. I'll start" he begins writing out his sentence while narrating for me.
"Ho una sorella e si chima Rosa. Ha quindicci anni." His tongue darts out of him mouth in concentration and my eyes are drawn to the pink muscle that's lightly wetting his lips. His eyes dart up to me and I turn my head and pretend I was looking out the window with my cheeks burning slightly.
————
"Ciao famiglia" a booming voice calls from the doorway. Joe's face shifts to one of discomfort before it shifts back quickly.
"Papà you're home early" He calls over his shoulder and glancing over to me skeptically before turning to his dad who walked into the room. His father looks like an older version of Joe. They have the same strong nose and jawline. His father has crinkles around his eyes and a short stubby beard. He looks like an intimidating person. With a suit and a firm gaze that makes me want to shrink back slightly.
"com'era scuola?" He asks Joe while he walks into the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.
"School was fine. This is David" Joe says gesturing towards me. His father looks up and must notice me for the first time.
"David?" He asks Joe and I notice there's a hint of an accent when he speaks.
"Yeah I'm tutoring him for Italian" Joe tells him.
"Hello" His father says to me barely giving me a glance before he turns back to his son and his gaze hardens.
"I heard you got the results for you math test back" His father says to Joe and by the tone of his voice I'm starting to think that Joe is in trouble. I see my flinch from the corner of my eye.
"Yeah I got the results" Joe says avoiding his fathers hard gaze and writing in his book.
"And what did you get?" He asks but he says it like he's already aware of Joe's mark. Joe's eyes move to me before he looks at his father.
"90%" Joe answers and I subtly roll my eyes at him. He's acting all dramatic but he aced his test like usual.
"That's all?" He says with a serious and deadly tone that makes my head snap up to his father. He's wearing a deep frown that's aimed at his son. Joe stars to squirm in his chair but I'm more focused on his father. "You know that's unacceptable, you need to be getting at minimum 95% if you wants to pursue a path in law like me. Have you been slaking in your studies?" He dad asks him and Joe shakes his head.
"Sorry papà I was very busy, I has a lot of homework to do" He sounds scared, his leg is bouncing up and down at an erratic pace, I don't like it.
"Well next time try harder" His father says before he stomps out of the kitchen and leaving me speechless. His father just came in here and told his son that he isn't doing good enough when Joe got probably the highest mark in the class. Maybe I really have been judging him wrong all this time. I move my eyes from the doorway and towards Joe. He looks hopeless.
"Come one let's just go upstairs" He says in a soft voice so I silently pack up my things and follow him up a set of stairs and we enter the his bedroom. I stop in the doorway and take in his room. He has a few soccer posters up as well as some photos of who I'm assuming are his friends from Sydney. He plonks down on the bed and I follow and sit not the edge of his bed.
"For what it's worth" I say breaking the silence "I think you did well on your test"
He glances at me his blue eyes searching my face thoroughly before he smiles. "Wow you're giving me a compliment, this is rare.��
"Shut up" But we're both grinning at each other. He looks back down at his book but I can't help studying him. I was wrong about him. He doesn't try to show off in front of others and help them out of spite. He takes an hour out of his week to help me when he could use that time to study or to have some fun. I scoot closer to him on the bed.
"I'm sorry" I say and he looks at me with a curious gaze his eyebrows furrowing.
"For what?" He asks genuinely confused and I give him a soft smile.
"For judging you when we first met" I say and he shrugs.
"You already apologised for that" He says looking back down at his Italian book.
"I apologised for treating you like a dick but I didn't apologise for actually judging you. You're not the person I thought you were. You are nice and generous and you didn't deserve to be treated the way I treated you. I'm sorry" I say and he grins at me.
"It's ok really. I know you're sorry and I forgive you. I'm sorry too" He says and now it's my turn to look at him strangely.
"What do you have to be sorry about?" I ask him.
"Well I thought you were an asshole, that's not news to anybody" He tells me and I roll my eyes but I can't help but feel slightly hurt even though I know I deserved it, I've been so irrational lately. "But I was wrong, once you warm up to somebody you're actually pretty nice."
"Thank you?" I reply but I comes out as more of a question.
"You're welcome" He says smiling at me before he throws the book away and rolls onto his back.
"I think we've done enough for today. You want to go down to the park and kick the ball around. We can bring Ollie since I know you like him so much." That earns a chuckle from me.
"Sure we can do that" I say smiling at Joe.