Purple Nail Polish

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“The best,” Nicole chirped, beaming up at her brother. “Can we go home now? I want to watch a movie with you.” She grabbed his hand and started to pull him towards the car but Ryan stalled.

“I was thinking maybe I should stop in and talk to your teacher,” Ryan tried, but Nicole tugged on his arm harder.

“Movie!” she insisted. Ryan sighed and glanced over towards the window where Brendon was leaning over some of the desks, straightening up loose papers.

“Alright,” he agreed. “Let’s go.” Brendon turned around as Nicole dragged Ryan off, waving and quirking his eyebrows up as Ryan stumbled across the parking lot.

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“You didn’t come to see me after you picked your sister up,” Brendon said as soon as Ryan picked up the phone, and Ryan could practically see Brendon’s pout. “I miss you, Ryan Ross. Am I going to have to make up some disciplinary problem so that you will have to come in for a parent/teacher conference?”

Ryan snorted into the phone. “I think that if you do that my father might actually leave the office and come down to the school. And I really doubt you want to have a man to man with my father.”

“You’re right,” Brendon agreed. “I much rather have one with you.” Ryan knew that if Brendon was there in front of him, he would be able to see his wiggling eyebrows, and he laughed again.

“What are you doing later tonight?” Ryan asked, already getting up off the couch to plug in his straight iron.

“You tell me.”

---

One negative thing about dating a kindergarten teacher, other than that whole keeping it a secret thing because of potential parental freak outs, was that Ryan was constantly finding himself volunteering for different classroom activities. It wasn’t like Ryan really wanted to help his sister’s class, but Brendon sure knew how to be convincing.

“And I want everyone to welcome Ryan to class today since he’s going to be helping us out with the frog pond!” Brendon announced to the class, his face lightening up as he extended an arm over Ryan’s shoulder.

Ryan was always a little bit uncomfortable with attention, but when a chorus of “Hello, Ryan!” hit him full force, he couldn’t help but smile and wave back. “Hey, everyone,” he replied back.

Zoning out a little as Brendon explained to the class what the plan was for that day, Ryan couldn’t help but check out the teacher a little bit. Thank goodness the children were too young to understand Ryan’s cocked hip, tilted head, and sweeping tongue, but still, when he caught himself, Ryan coughed and straightened himself up, moving to sit behind Brendon’s desk as Brendon grinned and continued telling his children about the right way to pick up a crayfish.

When he was finished, the one little girl, who was so interested in Ryan’s personal life, came up to bring him out from behind the desk. “Come on, Ryan,” Kristine whined as she tugged on Ryan’s arm. “I want you to catch a crayfish for me.”

Ryan wrinkled up his nose. “Don’t they have claws?”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Brendon interrupted, laughing as Ryan cringed up a little bit. “You can handle it.”

“I don’t actually have to pick one up, do I?” Ryan asked a little shakily as Kristine skipped off towards the little plastic pool at the one side of the room, obviously bored already with Ryan’s lack of excitement for the little pinching animals. “Isn’t that a little bit dangerous? I don’t think the kids should touch them.”

“They’re harmless,” Brendon assured, and Ryan could tell that he was suppressing more laughter. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

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