No more Happy Endings

#1

There was once a girl with pale blue eyes and ice blonde hair who was too quiet to be noticed by anyone, and who got straight As that was only ever in her own world.

And there was once a boy with dark blue eyes and dark brown hair who everyone noticed because he was just that person; loud and a joker, and everyone loved him because he was perfect.

She daydreamed and stared out of the window during classes, and wrote notes from textbooks and lectures in a furious manner, not daring to let up and miss a single thing that could help her escape into her own world.

And the boy that everyone noticed and loved was failing the classes that they shared and even that they didn't and needed help because he wanted to go to university but didn't have the grades, and so the teacher gave a solution that neither of them liked very much but it was good money and experience for her to work with other people and it was good for his grades and his exams. And so they agreed to meet at the coffee shop down the road from his house at one pm on Saturday.

It was a usual thing for her to enjoy an iced coffee and sit and read in the window, not of this particular coffee shop, but still, and so she took a window table at 12:30 to wait for him. He was ten minutes late, running in with his books and almost-black hair dripping onto his hoodie. She observed him, carefully watching him as he double-checked he had all his textbooks before sitting down and ordering a black Americano and "another of what she's having" because he was just like that. And she knew that, but couldn't figure out why the boy who didn't even know her name would order and buy her a coffee.

But then it was quite simple to tell him he was being quite ridiculous and they just needed to get on with the work because he was failing and she had things to do and he had a party so it wasn't that impossible to convince him to actually open a textbook and make some notes and flashcards and mind maps and then he told her what was going through his mind because that was important for her to know according to him. But she didn't mind as long as he actually did some of the work she set him because that's what he was paying her to do; to help him with his grades and she would be damned if she let him fail after she taught him and so she kept giving him work until they'd had enough coffee to be buzzing and not to be able to sleep for the next few years, but that's ok because she was a coffee addict anyway and he'd already told her he basically lived for black Americanos. And so that was the first time they spoke ever, and they both left wondering how they'd never spoken before. And only she knew the answer.

And then they had a class on Monday and it was the same as usual except when he looked at her, he saw her rather than the impression she gave everyone. And she saw someone who was actually interested in something, but was expected to not care, and she wasn't sure she knew exactly why he ever first gave the impression he never cared about anything. In her opinion, he wasn't overly smart with himself in particular, rather with society, and knew how to make people laugh. Yet he didn't want to be a comedian but out of the limelight as a music producer. And she wasn't sure what to make of that if she was honest.

They met twice a week. That was what he wanted, anyway. After school on a Thursday and on Saturday afternoons, because he was busy quite a lot with training, and he was even doing his own music, which took up quite a bit of time. She'd never tell him, but she was quite impressed and, dare she say, curious about him. He didn't seem like someone who was as he was, which means she was expecting someone unwilling to learn and would try to get out of doing as much work as he could. But he seemed quite invested in getting his grades, even with what she was teaching him because now she was tutoring him on three subjects, and they did whichever he felt he needed more help with at the time she gave him work.

She didn't believe in homework, so she never gave him any, and said if he ever wanted work to do by himself he could do that himself, but she wasn't expecting him to give her any extra because why should she.

And he always bought her at least two cups of whatever coffee she was drinking that day, though every time she told him it was unnecessary he insisted it was nothing compared to what she was doing for him and so it carried on.
And she still thought he didn't even know her name, or anything about her beyond she knew what she was doing in regards to work and exams, even though secretly he did, and she still daydreamed instead of paying attention to him like everyone else.

And every Saturday they met up at that coffee shop, and he started getting better and started getting Cs and Bs in exams, but insisted she get him to an A at least in the class before ending the tuition, and even then he said they should revise together because otherwise how would he ever get any work done?

So eventually the girl with ice blue eyes relented and agreed, but he wasn't quite at an A yet, so he would still buy her coffee during the hour they would work together, becoming regulars so they didn't even have to order any more. And she smiled softly every time he got excited over getting something right or a good test score, and she even laughed along at his jokes - but only ever in the coffee shop.

And suddenly one day she didn't show up to school.
A day turned into a week, and he wondered if she'd turn up for tutoring, even though she hadn't said otherwise, and she always said otherwise, so he decided to turn up at the coffee shop anyway just to see, and if she didn't show then he would just work there by himself for once.

And so he turned up and only ordered his own coffee because their usual table was empty, but then again he was earlier than usual, so he sat down with his coffee and stared out of the window, jumping every time the door opened until finally, the girl with pale blue eyes and ice blonde hair walked through, wearing an oversized hoodie and sunglasses, with her hood pulled up and clutching textbooks with bruised and bloody hands. She noticed him staring and kept her head down, moving slowly over to the table where he ordered her usual and tried not to appear too concerned because that was against everything he had ever been taught; never show interest, never show concern or emotion.
But he couldn't help it and so he asked, causing her only to shrink back into herself and stop talking halfway through a sentence explain something or other about some topic that he couldn't pay attention to because she looked awful and there was definitely something wrong no matter how many times she said she was fine or ok. 

So, the boy with dark blue eyes and brown hair reached out slowly and when she didn't protest he pulled down her hood and took off her sunglasses and anger coursed through his veins until he could hardly contain himself, shaking in his chair, turning his knuckles white holding the edge of his seat too tight as if he was trying to keep himself there and not go after whoever had given the sweetest, kindest girl he'd ever met two black eyes and a gash through her hairline. 

But the quiet girl who daydreamed said that it was fine and joked about how he should see the other guy, to which he darkly responded that he would love to, and even refused to let her go home afterward because he had decided that it must have happened at home for her to be hiding from everyone else and it was too dangerous.
And so he took her over to his house and declared to the seemingly empty house that she would be staying there for a few nights because she was helping him study and it was easier there at home because they weren't limited on time or coffee. No answer, so he led her upstairs to a spare room and told her she could have one of his shirts and hoodies and socks and something to sleep in but he was a fair bit taller than her so his jeans wouldn't fit so he would wash them once she got ready for bed into something comfy, to which she again repeated that it was all unnecessary but she was grateful nonetheless to get out of that house for a few nights, even if it did mean spending them with a boy who barely knew her name.

Of course, she would never say this out loud to him, for fear of how he would react, for even if he did work hard for her and was lighthearted and joking all the time in class he was still unpredictable and she didn't know him well enough to judge his reactions. She didn't know him at all really.