The Good Jock

Chapter Twenty

"Dexter." 

"Yes." Dexter replies around a mouthful of peas, turning and paying full attention to his brother, Bryan.

"She said she wasn't your girlfriend" Bryan says, turning his focus on me.

I'm grateful I have no food or drink in my mouth, otherwise, I think I would have choked.

"She said that, did she?" Dexter asks casually, still eating his food. Mine is momentarily forgotten. I need to know where this is going.

"I guess she's right." He eventually says washing down his food with a glass of water.

I don't need to be a genius to know the rest of the family's attention has peeked.

Casey and Frank, Dexter's parents occasionally glance at our side of the table. Emily ignores us, continuing to eat her food, though I didn't miss the slight twitch in her ear.

"Are you still gonna ask her out? Do you even still want her as your girlfriend?"

This time, it's Bryce that asks. With time, I realized he was smarter of the two, although both of them are so forward with their questions, and blunt with their opinions. It would take me a while to get used to them.

However, I fear they are too blunt sometimes. And now is a major example to prove my point.

"Well?" Bryce urges his elder brother when he takes long to answer.

I don't want to show it, but a little part of me is slightly looking forward to what Dexter has to say. Not that I have any ideas or hopes that we would be anything. I'm only curious.

Besides, the twins are only asking these questions because they both think their brother liked me that way, which wasn't true. I wasn't a girl that would ever catch Dexter's attention that way.

I wait peeking at him from the corner of my eye.

" Hmmm." Is all he says. It is neither an affirmation nor a refutation.

The twins try to raise something out of him, but all his answers aren't want they want.

Eventually, all is forgotten and dinner goes on smoothly. I'm not put on any spotlight all evening, and eventually, Dexter drives me home.

After he leaves, I find myself thinking about his monotone reply, more than I want to.

All night, I keep wondering if it meant anything, until I drift off to sleep.

****

"Ms. Hunter?"

Mr. Matthew's voice startles me out of my thoughts. I look up, finding the room almost empty.

I hadn't realized I had zoned out, my mind momentarily going back to that dinner from last week. Especially, that 'hmmm'. I was thinking about it more than I anticipated, something that bugged me. Not helpful in the least.

"The time's up. I need your answer sheet." He clarifies, standing beside my desk.

No one else lingers in the room, and not wanting to waste any more time, I proof read through everything before handing it to him.

I sigh in relief as I was able to finish answering before my thoughts wondered off to the dinner I had with Dexter's family, most especially that 'Hmmm'.

I grab my bag, then walk out the room. Immediately, I sight him. Dexter. He leans against the wall, eyes glued to his phone screen as he scrolls through it.

His posture is relaxed, and a golden lock loosely falls in his face. I watch him for a while, and as if he senses my presence, he looks up from his phone screen, and flashes me a dazzling smile.

"Hey." I greet as I reach him. We hadn't said much after he had drove back home, and he had come over on the weekend, helping me go through my test. I was all kinds of ready by the time I got here.

"Hi." He says back, reaching for my bag slang on my shoulders. I say my gratitude and he mutters something along the lines of 'no problem.' Even after the time we've spent together, it slips my mind that he is a gentleman.

"How did it go?" He asks, referring to the test. It was the second trial Mr. Matthews had promised, and the reason I had him as a tutor in the first place.

"It was fair. I thought I would be the only one redoing it, but I found myself walking into a roomful of people." I tell him, then further continue to explain to him what had gone down between Mr. Matthews and I.

He chuckles, forcing a frown on my face. "What's so funny?"

"You did not just fall for that Lia? Surely, you know how it is impossible for only a single person to fail a test?"

My frown deepens. "What do you mean?"

He explains how Mr. Matthews is a much more attentive teacher, and how he often lures people into redoing tests by telling them something they can't resist. In short, I had been played. I was sore but Dexter was finding the whole situation funny.

" Everyone knows this, that's why most people don't always fail his class. Coach can be so manipulative." He continued, still laughing at me.

"Stop laughing at me." I demand. I don't know what to feel. Furious or foolish. Perhaps a combination of both.

"Don't pout, Lia." Dexter says, smothering the frown lines on my face. "I'm actually glad you fell for it."

"You did? Why?" My voice comes out a lot harsher than I intended.

"Because if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have met you in the first place."

"Oh." I say, finding truth in the words. Honestly, I'm glad I met him too. We might have had a rocky start but I was grateful. So I tell him.

"I'm glad I met you." I say as sincerely as I can.

Wrapping his arms around me, he says, "Same here, Lia. Same."

Author's note

Little reminder. Dexter addresses Mr. Matthews as coach, because he is indeed his coach. More like and assistant to the main coach.

When I read books, coaches are always dealing with world history or biology, and I thought, hey, why not make him a math teacher?

Besides, since Amelia, doesn't take part in gym class or anything physical (we'll later get down to reasons for this), I thought it was best if she addressed him as 'Mr. Matthews' instead of 'Coach Matthews.'

This chapter is much shorter than I planned, but I found it necessary to end here, and I'm satisfied.

Needless to say, I've got exams, and I'm taking a month long hiatus. I'll probably be sneaky and drop in a couple chapters,but I can't promise anything. *Sorry*

Meanwhile, I can't explain how happy I'm. Omg, 2k+ reads😭😭. Thank you so much 😚🤗.

Honourable mentions
Mani_billey, Baddest129, and YL_Haru, thank you for voting to the last chapter.

And to anyone that could have added my book to their reading list, thank you too.

Love,

Lilah Morgan🧡