Tarin shook his head when Kevin asked if he needed to talk to his Mom because she thought he was too young to know things.

”Mostly it’s because I don’t know all of the answers.” Tarin said. ”I haven’t thought of all the questions to ask yet and haven’t gotten all of the info.”

Tarin thought for a second before he went on, ”Plus, she might like to talk to you about all of this stuff on her own. You’ve got a good starting point now, just ask.”

Kevin was quiet for a few moments after Tarin asked about the girl and Tarin wondered if he’d made a huge mistake by asking.

But then Kevin spoke and asked a question and Tarin nodded and smiled, ”Definitely a good thing in that case.” he said.

The girl had also apparently said she liked Kevin too.

”Nice.” Tarin said, ”I knew you’d do great.”

Kevin nodded when Tarin told him that he didn’t know all of the answers. And he thought that his mum might want to talk to him about this stuff happening.

”Ok,” he said simply.

Tarin went on to tell him that it was a good thing that she had blushed, and Kevin smiled. ”I was so nervous,” Kevin admitted. ”I didn’t know what she was going to say. I was really worried. We were getting ready to go for a ride.”

Tarin’s answers finally seemed to be acceptable and Kevin simply said okay after Tarin suggested that Lee might like to talk to him about this stuff.

Kevin kept talking about the girl though and Tarin shook his head and sighed in empathy, ”That’s always the hardest part.” he said ”Even when you’re pretty sure what the answer is gonna be…it just never gets easier.”

Kevin had pointed out that it had been right before they’d gone for a ride and Tarin had to wonder if that had something to do with why Kevin’s uncle had decided Kevin could ride on his own now without the interference of his cousins.

”Worth the worry though, huh?” Tarin added.

It never got easier? That was definitely not reassuring. Kevin almost asked Tarin if it had been that bad with his mum, but stopped himself before the words were out of his mouth. Kevin really didn’t want to know that much about his mum’s relationship. Even if Tarin was cool.

”It…yeah,” Kevin said after a couple moments of thought. ”We went for a lot of rides while I was there. But what if she didn’t like me? I was worried we wouldn’t be able to keep riding together as friends.”

Kevin finally glanced over at Tarin again quickly before his eyes went back to the TV. ”I wanted to stay longer, though.”

Tarin had a hunch that Kevin hadn’t really needed any advice at all considering the fact that he and his girl had gone on lots of rides over the course of the summer. Even with his limited experience with dating in his teens, Tarin knew that teenage girls didn’t devote their time anywhere they didn’t want it to be.

Still, it was absolutely stellar that things had worked out so well for Kevin, it was another hard thing to learn when feelings weren’t reciprocated.

”It can be tough when that happens, but that’s the hard part about the whole thing. Got to decide if it’s worth it to take the risk.”

Kevin said that he’d wanted to stay longer in Texas and Tarin nodded, he could understand why. Knowing it would be at least a year before he could go back…

”I’ll bet you did.” Tarin said, ”But you’ve all got cell phones and video calls now. It’s not like the dark ages when we were tied down to wired phones.” Tarin didn’t know what else to say.

Kevin nodded, though he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to know whether it would be worth the risk or not. If you could tell that, wouldn’t you just not be worried?

”I am pretty tired,” Kevin ended up saying after a minute. ”Good night, Tarin.”

Having said that, Kevin got up and made his way toward his bedroom. But before he left the room, he stopped and looked back at Tarin on the couch. ”Thanks.” Then he continued on, going to get ready for bed.