The Secret (Boston's Best 1)

Chapter Ten

Maddie

It is currently 4:46 pm. Which means I have to leave now so that I can make it across this huge campus just so that I can let Matthew try and convince me to tutor him.

Which won't work. I really don't have the time.

I grab my phone and close the door to our room. I use the word 'our' lightly though because I'm not sure if that's even true, cause I still haven't even met my roommate yet. Just her stuff.

As I inch closer to the fields I see a good few teams out here practising. The lacrosse, soccer, and football teams, at a minimum.

I sit in the bleachers for a few minutes until at 5:20, the coach blows his whistle and all the lads stop running and start to walk into the changing room.

I see Matt looking around for someone, so I stand up and start to make my way down. He spots me walking and holds up his hand as if to say Give Me 5 Minutes. Then runs into the locker room.

I lean against the metal fence that splits the field and bleachers and scroll on my phone for a few minutes until someone comes out of the hall. Thinking it's Matt I put my phone in my pocket and look up.

No not Matt, Alex walks out instead.

I move about 10 feet away from him very quickly and raise my hands, "I am out of your zone, no need to run into me again."

He looks up and laughs when he realises it's me. "Ha. Ha. You are just so fucking funny, such a comedian."

"Thank you for recognising my humour, most people overlook it cause they're jealous that I'm funnier than them."

He shakes his head, "So what are you doing here? Oh no, are you stalking me? Cause I like you Maddie but not like that."

I roll my eyes, "Yes I am just absolutely besotted with you. Can't get enough, I already have Maddie Walker written all over my notebooks."

"Oh dear, I fear you are too far gone, there's no saving you now. You'll just have to live with watching me from a distance like everyone else."

"Yes, very sad." I laugh, "But no I'm waiting for Matt. He's trying to get me to tutor him."

He pulls his eyebrows together. "Tutor? Matt's like really fucking smart though? I thought he had straight A's?"

I shrug, "I don't know, he told me his GPA. But he says he not doing too great in French and needs some help cause he's afraid of falling behind."

"Matt says needs help in French?" I nod. "Jesus, yeah no he'll definitely need you to tutor him. He is a perfectionist in anything he does, especially since his-" He catches himself before he says something, which I presume is about Matt's parents but I can't say I know that.

He shakes his head. "Matt gets really in his own head about these things so that stress will quickly become a F- because that's what he thinks it already must be. So he'll need you or someone to tutor him just to make him convince himself that he'll be fine and that he's in control."

I stare at him. "That's a very wise way of putting that. Wouldn't expect that to come out of a teenage boys' mouth."

He shrugs. "Like I said yesterday, I want to be a brain doctor. I like knowing how they work."

We stay talking and laughing for a few more minutes and watch as the rest of the team filters out of the locker rooms. Everyone but Matt.

"Where is he?" I mutter as I look at my watch, it reads 5:45. He's actually dead.

Speak of the devil.

The blue double doors push open and Matt runs out and sighs as he sees me still standing there.

He jogs over to us, "Maddie, I'm so sorry for making you wait this long. Coach needed to talk to me. I tried telling him I needed to go but he wouldn't listen."

I look into his hazel puppy dog eyes and they tell me he's telling the truth. "It's fine. But if this happens again I won't be waiting this long. You said you practice till 5 it is now quarter to 6. Like c'mon." I cross my arms and feel very much like a mam giving out to their child for not unloading the dishwasher. And based on how his head is hanging I bet he feels like I am too.

I can see Alex's head turn between the two of us many times like a cartoon character. Finally, he decides to leave, he pulls Matt into a bro hug and nods at me, "Well, this was fun. See y'all tomorrow."

I break the silence and say, "Right well you dragged me all the way out here. Make your case. Why should I tutor you?"

"My lovely smile?" He says as he flashes me a smile with his pearly whites which show off his dimples. Damn, he does have a lovely smile.

"Nope. Try again."

"Because you would hate to see me fail this close to the end?"

"I barely know you."

"You know a lot about me that even some of my friends who I've known for years don't know."

I don't know what to say to that, "Try again."

He thinks for a minute, trying to find his true answer. "Because I need to keep my grades. And I need to keep them high. And I need to not disappoint my parents."

Damn. I know how it feels to not want to disappoint your parents, especially when they're gone. At least I still have my mam, he has no one.

So for that reason I say, "Okay."

"Okay, what?"

"Okay I'll tutor you."