Play Pretend

12: Tutor Lesson

12: Tutor Lesson

Connor Rogers

I sucked in a breath as Professor advanced on my seat, the stack of marked paper tucked in his arms. I couldn’t decipher the expression on his face; only at times like this would teachers mask their true emotions, and I hated it.

“Mr Rogers,” Winton called, his eyes looking beadily through his spectacles at me. I sat up a little, swallowing the lump on my throat.

“Yes sir,” I tried not to stutter.

He reached for my paper from the stack and handed it to me, his expression still unreadable. I gulped; oh God, this must be bad…

“Good job.”

My eyes stopped trying to study his expressions and I looked down, my heart skipping a beat when I saw the score on my paper.

83%. Twice the score I had last time.

“Good job, Mr Rogers,” I looked back up, and the Professor broke into an unusual smile, “please keep it up.”

“Yes sir, thank you,” I nodded, my heart still thudding heavily at my ribcage.

The moment he walked off, my phone started buzzing, and I found a message from Eleanor.

YOUR ELEANOR XX: You did it! XDXDXDXDXDXDXD

I smiled at her excessive amount of happy faces and typed a response.

ME: It was thx 2 u :)

Her next message never came, and I looked up at her across the classroom, only to find her putting her phone away.

But I didn’t fail to catch the faint blush that was blooming on her cheeks.

Two days ago.

I had never been so frantic about what to wear before.

Today was Monday, and it was the first ever tutor lesson I was going to have with Eleanor.

The thing was, it wasn’t even a date; I wasn’t even leaving the safety of my own house, but I was still acting like it was my first date with her or something.

Lately, I had realized I had developed a liking into Eleanor. I didn’t know when it had started, but when I finally noticed it, I was crushing on the one and only girl that I couldn’t crush on.

The doorbell resonated through the house, signaling Eleanor’s arrival. I cursed under my breath – I was still walking around in my boxers – and decided to just throw on a white tank top and beige khaki shorts before hurtling down the stairs to get the door.

To my dismay, Carrie was already there, chatting up a storm with Eleanor.

“Oh, there you are,” my sister turned when I came panting to her side. I held back a groan when I saw the knowing smile on her lips; she had finally realized what had been occupying my mind lately.

“Yeah, sorry,” I tried to usher Carrie in to allow Eleanor through the threshold. My sister made some whiny noises, protesting and saying something about she wanted to have some more girl time with Eleanor.

“Sorry, my sister’s kind of like a gossip girl when it comes to having other girls in the house,” I told Eleanor apologetically, while my eyes slipped subtly down her body. Her hair was up in a high ponytail today, and she was in a white sundress that was obviously too much for a study session.

Guess I wasn’t the only one excited about this.

“So you don’t bring a lot of girls home?” Eleanor asked, eyebrow cocking up with a smirk.