Dark & Light

~Chapter Four~

Chris's POV

~~~

All I need is a little love in the dark
A little but I'm hoping it might kickstart
Me and my broken heart...

I pulled out my earbuds from my ears and paused Me and My Broken Heart by Rixton playing on my smartphone music app, as I saw Paige sit down and open her math textbook and settle into another tutoring session next to me at the library study table. She caught me looking at her and smiled slightly.
"Hey," I said looking at her. She was wearing much less makeup than last week, and I could see her brown eyes more clearly now, highlighted only with a creamy shade of eye shadow and some mascara. Her small arms were covered in a fuzzy pink sweater that reached below her waist, and was worn with dark grey leggings and hot pink studded flats. Her hair was worn in a side braid, that framed her lovely face staring at mine with a smile. The word captivating popped into my head for some reason just then.
"Hello," she said, looking at me as if she knew something I didn't.
"How have you been?" She asked curiously.
"Uh, okay? Maybe. I mean good, I guess." I was taken a bit aback by her question. 
"You're keeping something from me," she insisted smiling a little.
Yes, I am, and you're never gonna know what that is. No one ever will. "Why do you say that?" I asked instead of voicing my actual thoughts.
"Because I can see. Chris," she said putting emphasis on my name. She does know something about me! I needed to change the topic fast, and I began to grow frantic inside. She couldn't have discovered my well-guarded secrets, could she have?!
"So, uh, what are we reviewing today?" I wanted to avoid that powerful gaze of hers, that though accompanied with a small smile, spoke millions. Not sure if the millions spoken was about me, or her, though.
"Negatives, exponents," she answered cheerfully, sounding confident.
Oh no. She has no idea what a dumb head I am at exponents.
"Okay," I replied out loud, trying not to make my voice crack.
I seen she wasn't noticing me just then though; she was looking across the room. I moved around to see what had caught her attention.
A male, probably my age or a little older, was standing by a shelf flipping through a textbook. He was wearing a maroon leather jacket, slim blue jeans, and had plenty of bleach blond hair that was swept back with lots of hair gel.
Then he looked up, seeing her, and grinned.
"Paige," he said not  noticing me as he walked towards our table. "What are you doing here?"
I glanced at Paige: she was visibly uncomfortable and fumbled her fingers nervously. "Jack, hi. I'm tutoring here."
"I didn't know you were doing that. Who are you are tutoring?" He asked looking around the room. Did he happen to even notice I exist, sitting right here? I didn't mean to sound so annoyed, but he, though I didn't know him, came across as arrogant and too familiar. How did Paige know him?
"Chris, here. He and I are working together on algebra." She motioned to me by turning her head.
He and I. Wow she almost makes it sound like a good thing.
"Jack" stared at me, probably thinking that the idea that I was being tutored was ridiculous. This was apparent from his surprised, mocking look he gave while glancing at me.
"Huh. Him?"
"Uh yes," was Paige's short reply.
"Well, to be honest, I could use some help with my calculus. If you wanted to help me too." He looked at her, winking as if that's all he was interested in.
Oh the freak. What a flirt.
"Well I might be too busy for that, and I don't know if I could do that without formally signing up at our school for the after school program."
They go to the same school. Well that explains a disappointing lot.
"You don't need to sign up for anything. You could come to my place and we could study sometime together." He grinned and chuckled.
"Well, yeah, maybe," Paige responded, sounding uncertain.
"I gotta go, but I'll text you bout that," he looked at her, grinning ear to ear.
"Have fun studying." he said making some hand gesture towards [I assumed] me.
I watched as he walked out of the library, then turned back to Paige. She was taking in a slow, deep breath. What on earth...
"Um, you okay Paige?" I asked her quickly.
"Not really." Her eyes bumbled after saying that as she realized what she had just "let out." But she quickly recovered herself. " I mean, yes, of course," she said hurriedly.
She suddenly seemed to find it necessary to start scribbling on a scrap of paper and find a page in our book like her life depended on it.
I could feel my eyebrows knit in a frown. Why was she acting like this?

~~~

Somehow, Paige explained exponents for a straight hour so well I actually was beginning to grasp the concept. Just starting to, at least.
At one point, I was working on practice problems and then asked if I was correct on the second one.
She leaned close to me over my shoulder, her small head peeking near mine down at the messy pages. Our faces had to be only a couple inches apart. I looked up at her profile, looking down, and she was concentrating on the math or trying to so hard so she wouldn't notice I was looking at her.
"No, you see, that's a negative exponent. It needs to be expanded into..." Suddenly she stopped talking, and slowly looked up at me staring at her. Her eyes reflected surprise, and nervousness. I could see she was just as shocked as myself at what I,  or we, were doing. But I didn't turn away. I felt mesmerized as her deep eyes peered into mine, and her lips were shut, twitching just a little bit.
"Paige, could you help me here?" The librarian's voice rang out cutting short the crazy moment of ours.
She looked at me, then quickly moved away and walked to the teen fiction area where the librarian was.
I quickly looked down at the page, my heart beating so fast and my vision seemed clouded so I almost couldn't see right in front of me.

What had just happened?
Why couldn't I just bottle up my emotions right now, and end them because this is getting weird...
Why am I so attracted to her?
Chris Walker. End it now, before you disappoint her or she does you.

And then suddenly it was as if I was speaking out to Paige, or wanting to, with my own heart to hers, shutting down all other possible thoughts.

Will you break down that wall I've kept erected so long? Will you reach the deep impenetrable chambers of my heart, Paige?

Or have you already?

~~~

Woah! Just saying here, I think things are becoming really crazy complicated and might I say "weird" (as did our very adorkable Chris) between Chris and Paige! Clearly their relationship just might be more intricate than a tutor helping a bad math student, right?? ;)
Why do you think Chris is so nervous to befriend Paige and become close to her? What could he be hiding? What is your opinion of the newest character, Jack?
Comment below with your thoughts, don't forget to like if you enjoyed this chapter, and thanks tons for reading! The support for this book by reads, votes, and especially comments, have really encouraged me to make this work the very best I can make it! :))

Xx,
Veronica