Birthmarks

Birthmarks Part 4

One thing I never expected Michael's room to be was clean. Yet as I was standing in his room all I could think was how impressed my mum would be.

He raised his eyebrows as he looked at me. I think he could see my surprise.

"Expecting something else?" he questioned knowingly.

"Let's just get to the Maths," I stated. I wasn't in the mood to play his games. All I needed to do was get these damn sums right, and then I can go home and get into bed.

He shrugged and made his way over the only bed in the room.

What was he doing?

"Relax Natasha," he yawned. "I work better on my bed."

Poor choice of words.

He pointed over to the desk, "Take it."

I did as I was told. It was good to put some distance between us.

I unpacked my stuff, getting out my textbook, notebook and pens, making sure to not let Michael see my tampons and pads.

What? A girl is always prepared.

"Okay so how far back do you need to be tutored on?," he enquired.

I racked my brain. All the Maths lessons that I had ever had suddenly felt like one big blur to me and I could not for the life of me think of any meaningful answer that I could give him.

He sensed my silence. "Let's just start from the beginning of the term and see how we go."

And that's what we did. Surprisingly enough he was a good teacher, patient enough to let me work out answers for myself, yet stern enough to give me that push to do so. He let me come to my own conclusions and gave me that extra shove to be able to say the answer.

Going through all the things we had learned this year like those damned quadratic formulas and the sin, tan and cos signs, I felt the information that had slipped my mind before now slowly come back to me, and I could feel my confidence rising.

He shut the book with a thwack!

Were we done already?

"I think you've done enough for one day," he stated.

I looked at my phone, how was it half 8 already?

I stood up, now I could get into my bed! I felt almost giddy at the prospect.

But my mind was soon brought back down to Earth with the sound of a whale's mating call.

Or my stomach, they sounded exactly the same.

I put my hands over my belly to soften the rumbling, praying that Michael hadn't heard.

But I could hear his gentle chuckle and my cheeks started to blush. I just knew he would bring this up again at some point.

But why the fuck should I be embarrassed? It was only natural that I was hungry! All it meant was that I needed to get out of there fast to get some much needed food.

"Would you like anything to eat?" he asked nonchalantly.

I turned around. Was he making fun of me?

But no he was looking at me earnestly, and I have to admit the offer sounded pretty tempting.

I looked down, he wouldn't win that easily.

He sighed, "I'm making tea for me and Johnny so join us or don't, it's your call."

And he walked away.