Tutoring the Bad Boy [REWRITTEN]

02. directions and brothers

WHAT ARCHER CALLED a house was more like a mansion. Compared to where he lived, my small little house was a crumb of dust. The lawn was the color green you'd only see on a golf course, even though it was the middle of winter. Though there were two stories, each story was really tall. When we walked into the house, my eyes widened and I felt even more poor than I already was.

There was a white chandelier that lit up the entire area and it made me want to twirl around in a dress and dance. Everything was so organized and each decoration had a purpose in making the area beautiful. The entrance felt like a small ball room, and I felt myself envy his family a little bit.

Along the walls, there were a few photos of his family. His father, mother, himself, a younger brother, and a younger sister. It looked like the picture was a few years old though considering his hairstyle was a lot worse than it was now.

"Good evening, Mr. Everton," a relatively old lady dressed in an apron greeted Archer without acknowledging the bruises on his face. A maid? They had a maid?

"Hello, Susan," the boy formally greeted her, "this is Irene Anderson. Anderson, this is Susan Brown. She works for my father."

I could tell he was trying not to use the term maid, and to be honest, it made me feel a little bit better about him. It was very funny for her name to be Susan though. Why were all of the ladies like her named Susan?

     The woman held her hand out, to which I shook and greeted her with a smile. She returned it before dismissing herself and somehow managed to look elegant doing so.

"Where's your room?" I asked as I looked at the staircase. The railing had intricate patterns that made the house look even more expensive.

"If you go up the staircase and go through the small lounge area, it's the third room on the right," he responded like it was the easiest thing to ever find, "I have to go do something."

I wasn't good with directions.

When Archer left, I walked up the stairs and looked at the decorations all around the house. There weren't many framed pictures of their family that looked recent, and the only recent one I could find was one without their father. I tried not to think of the possibilities of what that could mean, so I focused on other things.

The walls were painted a light beige color and through the lounge area, there was a bookshelf that looked like it was only there for the aesthetic, and a large TV was planted up on the wall. There were two light colored couches that surrounded the TV and there was a coffee table in the middle with a few unkempt board games on it.

I walked into another hallway with many doors and realized I forgot what the directions were. Right or left? Right, left, right, left. It was right! I'm hoping. I turned right and stared at the number of doors and felt my eyes widen.

The fourth door, right?

I walked and opened the fourth door to find maroon walls and an accented darker red wall. There was a queen size bed on the middle side of the accented wall and a light gray desk in the shape of an L on another side in the corner. There was a black seat with a small boy in it.

This wasn't Archer's room.

I turned to leave as fast as possible but a small voice called out, "Wait!"

I pivoted around to look at the boy— Archer's younger brother. He looked like a younger version to his brother; though Archer's hair was pitch black and the little boy's was a deep brown color, both of their hairstyles were formed into a mess, except the boy's was probably because of the headset he had on. Even his forest green eyes and nose looked similar to his older brother.