Lessons In Butterflies ｡ ｡ ｡ (StudentxTeacher Romance)

Chapter 35: Me? Adorable?

Shella's POV:
-Later- 

All I could think about was him saying, "And you're adorable."

It was on a loop in my brain, repeating every time I blinked, every time I tried to focus on anything else. Adorable. Me? Adorable? I mean, I'd been called a lot of things in my life, but that wasn't one of them.

By the time his economics class rolled around, I was already a mess. My notes were a disaster from the previous period because my brain had decided it would rather analyse every word, every intonation, every microexpression he'd made this morning instead of, you know, paying attention.

I shuffled into his classroom, clutching my binder to my chest like a shield. He was already there, of course, standing at the board and writing something about supply and demand. The sight of him—sleeves rolled up, hair slightly tousled—didn't help. 

If anything, it made the blush I'd been fighting all day flare up again.

He didn't even glance at me when I walked in.

Good.

No, wait. Not good.

Ugh.

I sank into my seat, pulling out my binder and trying to look as though I hadn't spent the entire day overthinking every interaction we'd ever had. 

Dani sat down beside me, chatting about something, but her voice sounded like background noise compared to the you're adorable mantra in my head.

Class started, and for the first ten minutes, I actually managed to focus. I wrote down notes, underlined key terms, and pretended I didn't notice how good his forearms looked when he pointed at something on the board.

Then he turned around.

"Shella," he said, his voice cutting through the haze of concentration I'd managed to muster.

"Yes?" My voice came out way higher than I intended, and I cleared my throat, trying to sound normal.

"Could you answer the question?"

Question? What question?

I stared at him blankly, my mind scrambling for some semblance of context. Dani snickered softly next to me, muttering, "You're on your own."

"I—uh—" I stammered, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks.

He raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "Do you need me to repeat it?"

"Yes, please," I mumbled, sinking lower into my chair.

He smirked. Smirked. And then he repeated the question, enunciating each word like he knew I wasn't paying attention. Which, of course, made my face burn even hotter.

Somehow, I managed to cobble together an answer, though I wasn't entirely sure it made sense. He nodded, looking almost impressed, and turned back to the board.

And that's when I saw it.

The tiniest curve at the corner of his mouth.

He was messing with me.

I spent the rest of the class alternating between wanting to disappear and wanting to march up to him and demand to know why he'd called me adorable in the first place. 

By the time the bell rang, I was practically vibrating with pent-up energy.

"Shella," he called as I packed up my things.

I froze. Dani gave me a good luck with that look and darted out of the classroom before I could beg her to stay.

"Yes?" I said, turning to face him.