The Truce

Chapter 28

School resumed, and it was, amazingly, fine. There were still stupid comments and a few surprises left in my locker, but on the whole, people seemed to be getting over it. Probably the fact that we were heading toward finals had something to do with it.

Whatever the reason, I was grateful that things were starting to feel normal and that I was able to focus a good amount of attention on my classes. For the first time in my life, I was genuinely worried about what my grades might look like at the end of the semester, I'd been so distracted over the last several weeks. It wouldn't be enough to make me actually fail anything, but I could not afford to lower my GPA at this point with a few bad tests.

In the interest of avoiding that, I'd spent every free hour, studying. Something Sebastian didn't love. He was spending more time studying too, but he thought I was being obsessive for no reason. He didn't understand that everything didn't come easy for me. My report cards might look better than his, but he was actually smarter than me. All he had to do to get good grades was try a little, while I'd had to work really hard for my grades.

History was the worst. All those dates! I remembered events, but the details always tripped me up. I was frowning at my notes, trying to come up with a mnemonic device to remember the French monarchs in order, and getting increasingly frustrated that a piece of hair that kept slipping and tickling my ear.

"Ugh." I shoved the irritating hair behind my ear again and contemplated getting a scissor. I glanced up in time to see Sebastian's movement as he pulled his hand away. Huffing, I scowled at him as he fought a smile.

"Not funny."

"Depends on your perspective." He stopped fighting and gave me an impish and annoyingly adorable grin.

"I need to study, Bastian," I said, exhausted both from the amount of studying I'd done and from having to explain this so often.

"There's such a thing as studying too much, Mikey. You need a break." He flipped the cover of my notebook closed.

I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we just take a break?" In the hour that I'd been at his house, I'd been looking at school related things for maybe twenty minutes. The rest of the time, I'd been very focused on Sebastian's mouth. And while that was a lot of fun, it wasn't going to help my grades.

He smirked. "I meant a real break. A night off when you don't look at school stuff."

"I can't afford that right now," I said. "Finals are in a week."

"And you could probably ace them with your eyes closed," he said. "You're doing too much. You're going to burn out."

I pursed my lips. He had a point. I was already dreaming about my notes every time I went to sleep. Knowing I was wavering, he took my notebook and tossed it to the floor, making me frown.

"How about this," he said, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer on the couch. "We'll watch a movie and relax tonight, and study tomorrow."

"But-"

"Friday, take another night off and come to the game." He didn't let me object. "And then Saturday night, you can go nuts."

I giggled at the thought of 'going nuts' over studying. But what he was saying was too much. Tonight was basically shot, but I could get a lot done on Friday. "Bastian..." I sighed.

"Come on, don't you want to see my game?" He gave me big puppy dog eyes, and he looked really cute.

"No fair," I complained, knowing I'd never be able to say no with him looking at me like that.

He chuckled. "Besides, I know you like the outfit."

My face warmed and I groaned. I was never going to live down that first game when Ford caught me staring at his butt.