Friends With Benefits

06. Learning with Fun

06. Learning with Fun:

ALYX CHECKED her text messages to see that the number on the plain white front door was the same as the one Mikhaiel had told her to come to. She walked up the driveway once she was sure it was the right place.

She stood in front of the door, reached over, rang the doorbell then stood for a moment like a mature seventeen-year-old before losing patience and peeping into the eye hole like a child.

She knew very well she wouldn't get anything out of it, but it was a childhood habit, a curiosity she's never been able to quench. No matter what it was, she had an unending desire to peek over, into, under or through.

If she heard a noise she would be the first to run to investigate. In a horror movie, she'd be the one to die first.

She rang the doorbell again. Where is he? She thought. Has he gone out?

But then the door opened and there stood Mikhaiel in a towel. Alyx, for the first time in her life, caught her breath on seeing a boy. He wasn't especially fit but he wasn't chubby or anything. He was lean with broad shoulders and perfect dips at the handles of his hips.

He opened the door wider to let her in, his ears pink in embarrassment. Hair dripping wet and curling slightly. "I didn't expect you to be early. I'll just get some clothes on." He led her to his room, his cream coloured towel held tight at his hips and disappeared into the closet to dress himself.

She looked around his room and spotted something on the big white board on the wall.

"You cannot be serious right now." she told Mikhaiel as he rentered wearing a comfy grey jumper and brown trousers.

He left the room chuckling and returned with a tray of refreshments and snacks, placing it down on his desk.

He glanced back at the white board that said 'Fun Learning' in big graffiti style letters.

Alyx was still having a coronary over it. "Fun learning? That's not even possible, Mikhaiel!"

"Come on, give it a chance!" he told her.

They both sat at his desk and got straight into Math. Alyx understood most of the stuff, sometimes she'd have to ask Mikhaiel to slow down and he would comply. They worked on it until Alyx was sure she'd be talking in a binary code for the rest of the day. When they took a break she doubled over and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Mikhaiel got up from his desk chair, worry etched across his face.

"It's a serious disease, it causes dullness, severe depression and all sorts of other painful symptoms, and it's caused from the lack of fun!"

Mikhaiel got up and moved over to the couch and sighed. "Alright, alright. Let's switch subjects for a while. Let's do some Physics."

Alyx could not for the life of her concentrate on physics. Mikhaiel's house; was an apartment in the more populated area of town. The building itself was situated on a sort of road delta. It sat on the last stretch where two parallel sub roads met a main road. They could constantly hear the traffic and festivities around coming in from all sides. She was about to insist they go to a dance club or a construction site - places that would be less noisy.

But then she heard him sneeze. It was probably the third most adorable thing she'd ever seen. The first, her brother Jamie learning to walk for the first time and tumbling over - all the while giggling. The second being puppies playing some form of baby animal tag. When he sneezed the second time she giggled, thoroughly amused.

"That is one of the cutest things I've ever seen." she commented, hands pressed to her cheek, unable to countain the feelings.

"You seem to have come to a misunderstanding." Mikhaiel stated. "My sneezes are fierce. The sound leaders and great men of the world make when their nasal passages have been compromised." he told her this with such confidence that she laughed again.