In Too Deep [BXB]

VI

Hudson

The librarian was asleep again, she had tried to hide it - hiding behind a small fort of books. However, being the only other two in the library meant that the sounds of her soft snores could be heard from across the room. I was grateful, in a way. There was no one else there to see or accuse me of being weirdo as I watched Dan scribbling away at the paper.

Dark brown coils of hair that looked soft to touch sat on the top of his head. Ever so often, he'd stop writing, ruffling the curls with his hand as he stared at the sheet of questions. That, and him chewing anxiously at his pen lid, were often cues for me to help.

I maybe wasn't fulfilling my role as the tutor - I was looking at him rather than what he was writing. But you couldn't blame me, not really.

He looked up from the paper.

"Am I doing this right?"

"Erm..." I turned the paper towards me.

Reading Dan's handwriting was a skill that I'd managed to develop over our sessions together. I was reminded the state of it however, as my eyes scanned through the array of numbers sprawled across the page.

"For this bit," I pointed at the sheet. "It's easier to use inverse sine."

Dan's eyes squinted at the question. "...Oh." He itched the back of his neck. "Erm..."

"Let me just-" It would be easier for me to just show him. I searched my half of the desk for a pen. Not finding one, I reached forward, my eyes still on the question, for the pen in his hand.

I wasn't focused on my movement - I hadn't meant for our hands to touch.

They touched for about half a second, before I quickly drew my hand away.

I hadn't meant to. Maybe a subconscious part of my brain wanted our hands to touch - but it was an accident.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

It was an honest mistake, it could've definitely been a innocent mistake.

I hadn't expected that his face would've turned the shade of red that it did or that he'd look nearly as stunned or embarrassed as he did.

He bit away at his bottom lip, hand balled into fist as he clung onto the pen.

"I meant to grab the-" I gestured towards it. "The pen."

"Oh," He loosened his grip around it. He shook his head. "Sorry." He said, placing it in front of me.

I smiled to myself.

Our hands had merely brushed. I don't think a straight guy would've gotten flustered like that.

"No bother."

Liam wouldn't have batted an eye. Then again I vividly remember from hockey practise last year and before that. The boys on the team would randomly and frequently slap each other's butts. I thought it was very strange - they all seemed to think it was normal.
By now, Liam is probably used to the feeling of another man's touch.

I drew a line through the work. It was a shame none of Dan's brain seemed to comprehend the idea of a double angle. But we'd come a long way from two plus two is three, so I could really complain.

The sound of his voice broke through my trance.

"Do you do that to your all tutees?"

The confidence had returned to his expression and his face to its normal shade. His bronze brown tone compared to my pale complexion, made it obvious that he'd spent many more hours in the sun, last summer than I had.