Beware The Water

Late

"I didn't expect you to call me." Lux smiled, being so proud of her student.

"Yeah well what the hell else am I supposed to do?" Sing flipped the pages of his notebook aggressively, hoping she could hear how annoyed he was.

"Well I'm glad you decided to put in the effort to-"

"Cut the crap, I know why you're doing this." he scoffed, "All you care about is your lousy letters of recommendations, so don't kid yourself and pretend you're tutoring me to be nice."

"Sing..." she sighed, holding her head . "Yes that's why I agreed to do this, but when I have a goal I have to see it through until the end. And right now my goal is to get you to pass, so please let's just start the lesson. What's your worst subject?"

"Math." he simply answered and sent a picture of his homework. It was all crinkled up and covered in markings from opened pens and highlighters that were thrown around in his backpack. Lux made a mental note to herself to get Sing in the habit of using folders and binders to keep his school work organized.

"I'm great at math. So to solve this problem you-" the rest of the lesson Lux and Sing kept the talking to a minimal unless he had a question for her regarding his work. Other than that, the two didn't speak or get to know each other in the slightest.

"Alright. I'm finished." Sing groaned. He couldn't believe she actually forced him to do all his late assignments in one night. "It's already midnight. I'm going to bed."

"Hey Sing," Lux got his attention before he hung up, "I'm really proud of you."

There were a few seconds of awkward silence, "Uhhhh thanks. Um, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

To her, it came off as if Sing was acting out because he wasn't getting enough attention at home. So, Lux thought it would be nice to acknowledge his hard work. Growing up, Lux was always expected to get good grades, and the few times she was praised it felt really nice.

The next day she met up with Sing again in the library. To her surprise he was already working on his assignments. She was getting her own stuff done too until it was time to check Sing's work for any errors.

"You're doing really good. I knew you could do it." She smiled while handing him back his work.

"Not doing it for you." Sing stuffed his supplies back into his bag, "The Boss said not to give you a hard time."

"What? That guy from yesterday?" Lux didn't understand why he would care.

"Yeah, he thinks you're cute or something. I don't know." He shrugged, then pulled out his phone. "Speaking of Shorter." Sing answered his ringing phone, "Yeah? ... No I'm not doing anything tonight ... Seriously!? ... Trust me, I got this. Later, Shorter." Sing hung up and looked ecstatic.

"You forgot to tell him you have homework." Lux reminded following it up with an eye roll.

"I'll get it done." She crossed her arms not believing him, "I swear."

"Fine. Make sure to let me know when you finish so I can go over your work."

Sing nodded and hurried out the library. Whatever Shorter must have told him, it really made Sing happy.

Later that night Lux's phone started buzzing at 3am. She groggily rolled over and grabbed her phone from the charger. Without even fully opening her tired eyes she answered the call after seeing that it was Sing through her blurry vision, "Hello?"

"Is this, Lux?" An unrecognizable male voice asked.

"Yeah?" She yawned, closing her eyes again. "Who's this?"