The next two hours were spent on YouTube listening to each other's playlists. Kid had a collection of songs from Metallica and Judas Priest to Falling in Reverse and Citizen Soldier. She had a few on a secret playlist that only she could see, things ranging from Aerosmith and Meatloaf to Metallica and Falling in Reverse.
Then there was the public playlist that her grandfather approved of containing Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen and similar artists. Kid wondered to himself how little her grandfather actually knew her considering he didn't even know her real taste in music.
When they noticed the time they went to a nearby grocery store picking up an 18 pack of eggs and pancake mix like Killer had told them to with the money he'd told Kid about. Kid had worried she'd ask for something else, especially when she stopped to point out a few of the snacks she liked having. She always put it back before he could say anything, which put him at ease. He realized she was just making conversation while they got what they came for. Nia seemed to understand how low income his household was and as a result she wouldn't ask for anything that would strain the budget more.
"Hey, when we get back we should play twenty questions," she suggested.
His brow furrowed while he asked, "Why? If you wanna know something just ask. No guarantee I'll answer if it's really personal but-"
He then caught a glimpse of her facial expression and gave a heavy sigh as he conceded, "Alright, I guess. But we're keeping it PG."
"No joke. Sorry but I'm not interested in knowing about you in that sense," she replied.
"None needed, the feeling's mutual," he answered as they left the store and headed back to his apartment. He noticed she seemed distracted as they walked and asked if she was alright. She nodded her head, but he wasn't certain he believed her.
She bit her lip a little and a thought came to Kid, "Hey umm I know your grandpa kinda monitors what you listen to—does he use parental controls on your computers at home?"
"Yes—and the TV. He basically lets me watch kid stuff, and go on kid websites. Thing is I'm not quite a kid anymore."
At this another thought hit him as they approached his apartment, but he'd wait until they were inside before he asked. They ascended up the three sets of stairs to apartment C 6. Kid unlocked the door and held it open for her while she came in. He closed and locked the door behind her, only then asking, "you're thirteen, so your body's probably going through some changes umm—it's fine if you don't wanna talk with me but do you have someone you can talk to?"
She shook her head 'no', "I did have one teacher in junior high but—when Grandpa found out she was telling me things he didn't want me learning he complained to the school board about her. He wouldn't even look at the forum for me to take sex ed, I had to spend that time in the library."
"I get the picture," Kid assured her. he rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before pulling out his iphone 8, and offering it to her while explaining, "Killer doesn't use parental controls on our stuff. If you wanna google anything you've been wondering about, go nuts. Just umm stay out of my emails, texts and pictures, okay?"
She hesitated before accepting the iphone from him and nodded her head. She looked at it, taking in the dents and cracks in the back glass of the phone and the edges of the casing. He briefly wondered what she was thinking about while he watched her open the safari app and then he remembered to caution her, "Oh just umm there's a few phrases that might get some graphic results… just a heads up so you're not totally shocked—well actually it's kinda shocking the first time you see it."
"I get the feeling you know what those phrases are," she hinted.
This caused a tinge of pink to spread across his cheeks, causing him to be grateful that his back was currently turned to her while he was busy putting away the eggs and pancake mix while he retorted, "I'm a fifteen-year-old with raging hormones. What do you think?"
"I didn't mean anything bad by it," she assured him. She shrugged and admitted, "I sometimes-"
Kid knew she was trying to keep him from feeling alone or embarrassed but it wasn't quite helping causing him to interrupt, "could we talk about anything else?"
"I'm sorry," Nia apologized, looking like she was about to cry.
'The hell? Why is she so sensitive? Ugh I am not used to this,' Kid thought to himself before he apologized as well, "I'm sorry I snapped at you."
He sighed a little as he to the steaks out of the freezer to defrost them in the sink under warm water. Steak, baked potatoes and steamed green beans. An idea came to him as glanced into the living room, "Hey, you want kool-aid? I'm pretty sure we've got orange, cherry or blue raspberry."
"Sure—I'm not picky about the flavour. Whichever one you want," she replied as she scrolled on his phone. He briefly wondered what she was searching. He looked in the cupboard and took down a packet of blue raspberry.
"I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable," she uttered, the apology was barely audible.
"That's why you snapped, isn't it?"
He shook his head a little and honestly replied, "no. It's… to keep it simple it's a guy thing. Okay? I shouldn't have snapped. I was nervous about something embarrassing. You didn't do anything wrong but if we could not talk about that stuff I'd appreciate it."
"Okay," she agreed simply as he mixed the kool-aid and poured two glasses, bringing them out to the living room and handing her one.
"You know you say 'sorry' an awful lot," he commented.
"Uhh—I feel like I should say 'sorry' but that's kinda the issue being brought up so-"
He chuckled a little as he shook his head and picked up the laptop and began typing on the keyboard. After a few seconds he announced, "okay—whenever you're ready we can pick out a movie and after the movie we'll get dinner going."
"Can I tell you something kind of personal—it's kind of an issue but I'm not sure what to do about it," she asked.
"What's up?"
"Well I haven't had my umm—my uhh-" she stammered, her face becoming tinged with pink.
Seeing her uncertainty he suggested, "your monthly visitor?"
"Yeah—umm I don't think—no, I, I'm pretty sure Grandpa doesn't have anything like that at home—and my allowance is at home so I-" she was slightly rambling but he was getting the picture.
"Alright. Change of plan, we're gonna have our kool-aid, head back out, grab you a few supplies and you can just pay me back the next time we chill," Kid offered as he sipped some of the blue beverage.
"For real?"
"Yeah for real, in fact.. if you and Killer are okay with it I'm thinking we keep a smaller supply here just in case," Kid proposed.
"You mean you really do wanna hang out with a thirteen-year-old girl during the summer? Wouldn't guys at school make fun of you if they found out?"
Kid raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm a 6'4 human statue of a guy who wears red lipstick. What makes you think they don't already talk about me? Let 'em run their mouths."