Treacherous (Andy Barber)

Chapter 16

Aurora's POV

"Hey is my dad okay? He seemed off this morning when he left for work." Jake asked as we sat in the kitchen the afternoon a little after lunchtime. "Yea. Just couldn't sleep. Stressed about a case." I gave him a small smile and he nodded, going back to his schoolwork that got sent home with him. I went back to trying to cook us up some lunch.

"I'm no good at this!" Jake groaned and laid his forehead against the counter. "What are you trying to do?" I asked, walking over to him and looking over his shoulder. "Just these stupid algebra equations. Who puts letters in math??" I laughed slightly and pulled the worksheet towards me. "Solve for x." I read out loud. "Hmm, this looks like a quadratic equation... x squared minus x minus twelve."

I looked at it and motioned for Jake to give me his pencil. "So to solve for x, you need to isolate the values right?" I asked him. "Yea, I guess so."

"Okay and to do that, we have to factor out the formula. So the best way to do that is write it out over here...ax squared minus bx plus c. This is basically your base formula. A, b, and c are the values indicated." I explained, writing down the base formula. "So in this case the a value equals one..."

"How do you know that?" Jake said, interrupting me.

"Because your a value is the number in front of x squared." I replied. "But there is no number?" "Exactly, always assume if there is no number in front of x that it is 1."

Jake nodded and I looked back at the paper.

"Okay back to the problem. Now the b value would equal negative one since your subtracting and again we assume it's 1 because there's no number in front of x, and then the c value equals negative 12." Jake nodded and I continued, writing it out as I went. "So now we need to factor this out. And to do that we need to multiply a and c, which in this case is still negative 12. Now we need 2 numbers that multiply into negative 12 and add or subtract to negative 1, the b value."

Jake nodded again. "Any guesses?" I look over at him and wait.

"Uh, 3 and negative 4 would multiply to make negative 12. Then three minus 4 would equal negative one." I smiled and wrote those to the sides. "Right!" I wrote out '(x + 3) + (x - 4)' on the paper. "How do we know that's right?" Jake asked. "Easy, solve it out to see if you start with the same formula." I solved it out on the paper off to the side, showing him how to do that. "Okay, and x?"

"Even easier. Solve x plus 3 and x minus 4...then you have your two x values for the parabola."

He looked at me like a deer in headlights. "It's what the graph is called." I clarified and passed him his pencil back, "try the next one." He took the pencil from my hands and started working on the next problem. I watched him try to solve it on his own and smiled when I saw him getting the right x values.

"Is it right?" Jake asked, looking over at me. "It is! Good job."

"How are you so good at this?" He asked. "Math was my best subject in high school. Well algebra and calculus. I wasn't so good at geometry."

"You're way better than my dad! He typically just looks as confused as me!" Jake laughs.

"Well, if you ever need more math help, I'd be happy to help." I smiled at him and went back to what I was doing, which was preparing some lunch...or rather...cremating lunch.

I frowned as I looked at the pan. I looked back up at Jake. "Are you hungry?"

"I could eat." He shrugged. "Great. Grab your coat. We're gonna go to the bar and get some free, non cremated food." I joked. Jake smiled and ran upstairs to grab his coat. He came back down and I forced him to bring the schoolwork with the promise that I'd continue helping him.

We pulled up to the bar and I smiled at Mel and Jim. "Rory! It's your day off, what are you doing here!" Jim smiled as we slid into a booth. "Aurora cremated our lunch." Jake joked. I rolled my eyes and Jim pat my shoulder. "What do you want? On the house."

"Uh, can I just get a regular burger with fries?" Jake asked. Jim nodded and looked at me. "Chicken fingers with fries. Then a water and something fruity, surprise me!" Jim nodded and walked away to place our food and drink orders.

Soon, our food was out and I was sipping on a cocktail made specially by Jim. He assured me I would love it and he was right. It was delicious. "So, you and my dad? How's that going?" Jacob asked. "Good." I smiled, "I really like your dad Jake. He's a great guy."

"I know he is. He really likes you too. I'm sorry I initially gave you both a hard time." I waved my hand at him, "It's okay. I understand. You know, my parents got divorced too." He raised his eyebrows. "Really?" "Yea. And believe it or not, I was upset too when my dad started dating a college student while I was in high school...so I do know how you felt Jake. Except she was 20 and my dad was 53. Way bigger age difference. She was only 5 years older than me..." I made a face and looked down at my food. "God she was a bitch too." I huffed and looked up at him.

"How so?"

"She was jealous of me. Of his own daughter, for taking up more of his time. All she wanted was his money." I said. "You don't want my dad's money do you?" Jake joked. I laughed and shook my head. "No, I don't."

"What happened to her?" He asked.

"Well, she made him choose. And he chose her. But it was okay because I still had my mom and stepdad but then...I left with Nate and she told me never to contact her again." Jake picked at his burger and looked up at me. "I'm sorry." "Don't be. I'm okay."

"I guess we were all a little unlucky when it came to parents in some way." Jake said. "My dad's dad is a criminal. My mom tried to kill me. And your parents sound like assholes."

"Your dad turned out pretty good." I said with a small smile. "Yea. I'm lucky to have him. He's a good dad even though he thinks he isn't at times. I haven't exactly made it easy." Jake gave me a small smile and continued eating his burger. "I wasn't easy either. The minute I got a boyfriend I snuck out, I spoke back...but in reality I think all of that was influenced Nate."

"He sounds like a douche." Jake said. "Oh he was." I laughed. "What about you? Any girls?" I asked, popping a fry in my mouth. He blushed and shook his head, "no." "I don't believe you..." I raised my eyebrows and he blushed again. "Okay, there's this one girl...but I don't think she likes me. Her name is Iris."

"That's a pretty name." Jake nodded and smiled. "She's so smart too. And pretty."

"So are you gonna ask her out?" I asked. Jake sighed and shrugged. "I don't think she'd want to go out with me." He mumbled. "You never know unless you try." I said, trying to encourage him. "But what if she says no?" He asks. "Then she says no. It's not gonna be the end of the world and she'll realize that she missed out on a good one." Jake gave me a small smile and went back to his homework. I continued sipping on some drinks, to the point Andy might need to come pick us up, and helping him out as he needed it. He really started to get the hang of it.

"You know, you're pretty great Aurora. I'm glad my dad has you."

I smiled. In reality, it was me who should be glad Andy walked into the bar that day. If it weren't for him noticing the signs and pressing me to leave Nate, I don't think I would have ever left him. I would have been stuck in the abusive and manipulative relationship that probably would have killed me inside.

"I'm glad I have him. Without him, I don't know where I'd be."

A/N: Some nice bonding time between Aurora & Jake 😊