Beyond the Lesson (TXS) (GXG)

(Ex)planation

Friday

I turn my body and my arm wraps around a warm small body and I take in the scent of mint in her hair. "Good morning." Her voice sounds off softly and I open my eyes slightly to see her looking at me.

I sigh in content. "Good morning. Did I wake you?" She shakes her head. "So you just like watching people sleep?" I ask teasingly and she chuckles.

"No you're just beautiful and just so happened to be asleep when I acknowledged it." I hum.

"Well you are incredibly beautiful all the time even after just waking up." I say and she hides her face in my chest. "Are you blushing?"

"Stoooop." She hits my chest slightly and I laugh. "Where's your bathroom?"

"Just through that door." I say and she nods and gets up going through the bathroom door. I lay back flat and stare at the ceiling. She comes back and I turn my head slightly to look at her and she's playing with the hem of her shirt. "Do you want breakfast?"

She looks at me and nods. "Are you going to cook it?" I nod and she smiles slightly. "Yes I'd love breakfast."

"Good because I'm starving." I say and get out of the bed and reach for her hand that she takes and take her to the kitchen.

"Do you need help with anything?" She asks and I smirk at her.

"Verena please just sit there and look beautiful. I got it." She holds her hands up and smiles. I get pancake mix, eggs, and bacon out. I start cooking and I can feel her eyes watching me and it makes me nervous but I try to concentrate making this the best breakfast she's ever had. If I fuck up she won't trust me to cook for her tonight. That's if we're still doing that that is. "Uh Verena?" I call not turning.

"Yes Talia?" I love the way my name rolls off her tongue.

"Um is tonight still happening?" I ask hesitantly.

"I would like for it to." I release a silent breath not wanting her to know I was worried. "But can it be here instead?"

That makes me turn to her and see her playing with her fingers. She's nervous. But why. I turn down the dial and walk to her around the island. "Verena," I smirk and she raises a brow. "Is your house a mess and you don't want me to see it?" I joke how she did last night and she laughs. Her hand caress my forearm and I take notice of the now faded mark on her wrist.

"Yes it is actually. I still haven't finished unpacking and I don't want our first date being surrounded by boxes." She says and I hum look down into her eyes.

"Here is perfect. Did you think about the other offer?"

She smirks. "Oh the part where you want me to spend the night?" I nod. "Yes and the fact I already have makes it less awkward, right?" I nod repeatedly.

I look down at her lips and sigh backing away to plate the food. "Are you an orange juice or kool aid kinda woman?" I ask looking in the fridge for her drink choice.

"For breakfast, orange juice." I nod and grab it to pour our drinks. I slide the plate and juice to her and then plate my own. "This smells really good."

I smile at the initial praise and then sit down next to her with my food and juice. I look at her and she hasn't touched it yet. "Is everything ok?"

She nods and I tilt my head towards the food. "Oh." She chuckles. "Um I wanted to wait so we could eat together." I smile and nod. I use my fork to grab some eggs and she does the same and we try it together and her eyes roll back. My face grew hot immediately and I turned away from her. "Oh my god this is delicious. You really can cook." She says in surprise.

I look at her with a slight smile of offensive. "I told you I could. You didn't trust me?"

"I believed you, yes. But to this extent no this is next level."

I chuckle. "It's just eggs."

"And bacon and pancakes. Don't sell yourself short. Especially since you plan on cooking me a whole dinner of-shrimp?" I laugh at her attempt of trying to get the surprise meal out of me.

"No Verena. Let it be a surprise." I say and she huffs but goes back to eating and does a slight dance with it making me smile. We finish food and she gets up. "What's wrong?"

She shakes her head and grabs the plates and I watch her confused until she turned on the sink. I get up immediately and turn it off taking the plates away. "Please I want to help."

I shake my head. "No are you crazy? You're my guest I'm not having you touch a single dish." She crosses her arms.

"Are you telling me what to do?" She asks and I scoff.

"No I'm telling you what you can't do." I say with a smirk and she rolls her eyes playfully and tries to walk away but I grab her by the waist to bring her back to me but closer. "You are so cute when you're upset." I say and she blushes.

"And you're so annoying." I fake gasp and she smiles. Her eyes go to my lips and back to my eyes just as quickly. "I'm sorry for yesterday."

I shake my head. "Don't be. I should've told you about the matching thing and then the morning just looked off."

She shakes hers. "I was taking my anger and frustration out on you Talia. It was wrong you didn't do anything wrong."

I sigh and nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?" She swallows and nods. I grab her hand and we go to the living room to sit down.

"Um remember when I said I was involved with someone who was an alcoholic?" I nod. "The person was my ex." Oh.

"That had to be hard." She nods.

"She drank as an outlet when her job got hard. And it changed her. Whenever she had alcohol in her system it's like I was a stranger in our own house. She would hit me or even choke me for simply being out of the house for too long even when she knew I was just shopping." She starts sniffling and I go to wipe her tear but I hesitate but she doesn't flinch so I wipe it and she hums.

"We don't have to talk about it Verena."

She shakes her head. "No we do because I don't want you to think I'm just crazy or self sabotaging this." I nod and she continues. "I moved from California to Washington because of the abuse. But she found me so I moved here the last place she would even think to look for me." She chuckles crying. "Atleast that's what I thought."

My brows furrow. "She did that?" I grab her hand to tilt her wrist. She nods and starts sobbing. I pull her in and hug her. "I'm right here I won't let her hurt you again."

"You can't promise that and I won't let you. I thought it was Victoria so I opened the door not thinking anything of it and then she attacked me telling me she wants me back. But I fought her off not wanting to appear weak anymore and she left."

"That's why you wanted me to come over last night? Because you thought she'd come back?" She nods and I sigh. "You can stay here for the rest of the weekend but then i don't know." I say wishing I could do more but we're not exactly in a good position to be living together without raising suspicion immediately.

She shakes her head. "No, I can't. Even last night and right now is a lot. I mean we're both definitely missing school right now." Shit. I look at the time on the oven.

"Damn I forgot." She chuckles.

"It's fine. It's the day before homecoming no one is teaching I know I wasn't going to be." She says and I scoff with a smile. "I like you Talia. I don't have trust issues as in I feel like you'll cheat on me or something if we get to that place. I have issues on if you'll simply just hurt me if I do something wrong or you're simply having a bad day. I don't need that in my life again."

I look at her and sigh. I grab her hands. "I like you too Verena and I promise I will not hurt you. That's physically and emotionally. I want this and I want you to want this."

She smiles. "I do want this."