More Than Friends (boyxboy)

Chapter 3: The tutor

"You're telling me you're putting study before food."

☆

"Where did you go? You left your bag in the canteen." Bay wonders as he sees Archie finally enter the classroom for lessons. He moves his bag from the seat next to Bay in order to sit down, making a thud on the chair in the process. 

"Library." He says looking down at the desk. 

"The library?" Bay frowns at his friend. "You were gonna talk to the girl and you chose to go to the library instead?"

"Of course I didn't choose." Archie says, irritated with having to reflect on his cowardice. He was going to tell Lena that she was pretty. Maybe they should go out some time for a burger, or the cinema. But the closer he had gotten, the fear of being rejected or humiliated had gotten the better of him, so instead he chose to head to his favourite section in the library. The science fiction section, where even the impossible seemed possible. He looks at Bay's face. His brown eyes were all big and wide, waiting for the answer. "I just lost my nerve. That's all."

Bay pats his friend on the shoulder. "Never mind." He says with a supportive smile. Perhaps on some level he was glad of Archie's stumble. Not that he would have been any better. Maybe it would be better if they both admired her from afar. 

***

As the lunchtime bell goes, Bay is the first to get up, seemingly in a hurry.

"Where are you going?" Archie questions, as he watches Bay hurriedly stuff his belongings in his bag. 

"To the library.. and I mean to go there." He replies with a grin, as he pulls the strap of his bag over his shoulder. 

Archie sits back in his chair with a confused expression plastered across his face. "You're telling me you're putting study before food? What's the matter with you? Let's just eat first, then we can go."

"I have tuition lessons in maths." Bay answers.

"Maths?" Archie frowns at Bay. "You don't need lessons in maths. You're a maths genius. I need lessons in maths."

"It's not for me, I'm the one tutoring." Bay says, as he tucks in his chair. 

Archie reaches out and holds Bay's arm. "Wait… who are you tutoring? And why haven't you offered to help me? I'm in foundation class for maths!"

"Archie, are you being serious? Whenever we studied together at our houses, you did anything but study." 

"It was the environment." Archie insists. Can I help it if there's an xbox in my bedroom? Anyways, that's like maths. You have to predict things right, be at the right place at the right time. That's like shape space and measure.'' 

Bay laughs at Archie's reasoning. "And if that shows up on an exam. You will ace it, but that's not on the syllabus."

"You're just showing off because you've taken the exam already." Archie mumbles as he lets go of Bay's arm. "So who is worse than me at maths who so desperately needs your help?"

"Mark Lester." 

Archie's eyes go wide at the mention of the name. "What, Mark Lester, the Mark Lester? The most popular boy in the year? I thought he was good at everything." 

"Well apparently not. Mr Thompson said he needs extra tuition because his exams are soon and he thought I could help as I'm also a student and will be on his level, in a peer to peer sense. Well, that's what he said anyways." Bay shrugs. 

"You, on the same peer level as Mark Lester?" Archie laughs. 

"I know right?" Bay laughs. "I'm quietly bricking it, but it's supposedly going to look good on my report if I do it so…" 

"Well, what time do you finish?" Archie says as he now begins to pack his own bag. 

"Who knows?" Bay shrugs. I guess before afternoon lessons. 

"Well, I'll bring you a snack." Archie says as he gets up from his seat. Bay nods and smiles as he heads out of the classroom towards the library to face Mark Lester. The popular kid with which he knew he would have nothing in common with. 

***

He enters the library towards the small cluster of tables. Apart from the usual library suspects, the guy who had no friends but a physics textbook, scribbling down some kind of formula, the girl, a year below him, sunken into a beanbag reading some fairy-tale romance or fanfiction, probably a boyslove novella snuck in from home. The boy whose life it was to serve the librarian as he was incapable of socialising with people his own age, as he helped her replenish the shelves of checked in books. Yes, the place was pretty empty as most probably, everyone else was eating lunch. 

Bay slips into a vacant chair and begins to pull out what he thinks he will need, neatly lining it up on the table as his mind is filled with scenarios he may encounter with a possibly reluctant pupil. In his experience, if maths didn't come easy to someone, they tended not to like the subject and as a consequence, were less inclined to want to learn. 

"Psst" 

Bay stops what he is doing when he hears the sound, but it again goes quiet, so he carries on with what he is doing. 

"Hey…psst…Aristotle…"

Bay turns and looks over his shoulder to hear the voice coming from a small crack of an opened door. 

"Yeah you….come here…."

Bay automatically puts his hand to his chest, "me?" He mouths above a whisper, looking in the direction of the noise. 

"Yes you….hurry." 

"Bay, feeling a little cautious, gets up from his seat and heads towards the darkened room. It felt like he was possibly meeting his end as he put one foot in front of the other….