Stalker

Prologue

“It’s not stalking if you like it.”

I wonder how he likes his coffee in the morning, or if he’s a coffee person at all. What if he prefers tea? Being a typical British man in Glasgow requires being either a tea or a coffee person, or at least loving any type of hot beverage; but with him I still wonder which one he would prefer. I wonder why’s he always barefooted, doesn’t he get cold? I’d definitely knit him some woolen socks if I could. I don’t personally like wearing slippers, but I never take off my socks unless I’m taking a bath and believe me when I say I wish I could take a bath with my socks on; I wouldn’t mind one bit.

But he’s never wearing socks nor boots, and I’ve never seen him show any signs of feeling cold. I should really knit him socks in the future if I ever had the chance to know what foot size is his. Yet again, I wonder how bigger his foot is from mine.

“Paz you’re going to be late!” My mum’s voice echoed through the empty house.

“I’ll be down in a minute!” I replied back.

I took one last glance at him and flung my art bag over my shoulder before heading downstairs. “You know mother, I’d never be late if you got me a car.” I mumbled and she strolled right pass me heading to her car. She rolled her eyes and started the engine. “I’m seriously in need of a car!” I pushed further but she made no effort to reply back.

“Muuuum” I whined but she still didn’t bother.

“I’m dropping you wherever you want to go; I don’t see anything wrong with that.” She quipped.

“Yes, but I need a car of my own. I’m willing to pay half the price!”

“We’ll talk about that later.”

“That’s what you said the last time.”

She shrugged and took a turn to her right, “I’ve already lost enough people because of car accidents; don’t think I need to add you to the list.”

The car went silent and no one uttered another word leaving me with teary eyes at the vivid memory. It’s been ten months since the incident, ten months since I had lost my father and brother, and it still feels like yesterday.

“We’re here.”

I mumbled a small ‘thank you’ and left the car. Entering the academy, the smell of fresh paint filled my lungs. I skipped over to my boss’s office, Raymond, for he called me yesterday and informed me that we’d be having a new student today in the special teaching section. See, I work as an art tutor and it gets me about thirty to forty pounds per day and I get to do the most thing that I enjoy in life; drawing. Therefore, it’s a win-win situation.

“Morning Raymond.” I smiled shutting the door behind me.

“Hey there Paz, ready for the new student?” He asked putting his mug aside. I hummed in response and got a mug myself.

“But this time, he’s not your typical twelve year old whom has these wild ambitions of becoming the next Leonardo Da Vinci. He’s twenty and didn’t seem too ecstatic to start his lessons.” Raymond laughed.

“Well boo him. When’s he going to be here?” I huffed which leaded Raymond to burst into fits of laughter. I scowled in his direction and stuck my tongue out.

“In half an hour.” He smiled.

“Great.”

“Hey, he could be nice for all you know.”

“Yeah, of course.”

-

It has been a good forty minutes and the ‘new student’ hasn’t shown up yet. Perfect, just what I needed the most right now; a careless teen wasting my time.

“Sorry I’m late.” A deep voice broke me from my from my thoughts. I looked to see him, him as in my neighbor, him as in out of all the people in the world, he was the one to come for lessons. “Are you going to be my teacher or did I get the room number wrong?” He spoke slowly stretching each word unintentionally.

His eyes searched my face awaiting an answer, which he wasn’t granted. Here he was, in front of me, clad in a pair of tight blue jeans and a grey sweater with a bandana wrapped tightly around his head. And God those ugly brown boots that he’s been wearing for a little over a year now.

I nodded and coughed awkwardly trying not to show any signs of checking him out, but the smirk playing on his lips and the burning red on my cheeks was enough proof for him to know I was.

“Let’s start then.”