Page 5 of Footlights and Forever

A sharp laugh escaped my lips before I could hold it back, putting my hand over my mouth. “Fair.” I nodded. “So, what do you want?”

“Right to the point huh?” Austin reached under the desk behind him and grabbed his backpack. Opening the zip, he pulled out a familiar giant green textbook and slammed in down on the table in front of him. “I need your help.”

Now it made more sense; he needed my help. “You’re taking AP English?” I asked, unable to mask the surprise in my voice.

“Yeah, some of us dumb jocks read and write too,” he smiled.

“Okay, so what do you need my help with?” I asked quickly, so as to not insult him for a third time.

“It’s a prerequisite for a course I want to take at college.” He clicked his finger against the cover of the book absentmindedly, his stare was trained on me. “I need to do good in this class, and I’m told that you’re the person to ask for help.”

“Man, I can’t do you essays for you.” He tried to interrupt but I didn’t let him. “I have worked too hard on myself to risk it all for some jock.” Okay, so that’s the third insult. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

“Sure you did.” A slow easy smile spread across his face, an almost appreciative twinkle in his stare as it raked across mybody. He chewed on his bottom lip as his stare comes back up to meet mine. “I don’t want you to do my essays for me, Dylan. I want you to tutor me.”

“Tutor you?” I barked out a laugh “Seriously?”

“Yes seriously, Dylan.” His tapping on the cover of the textbook resumed. “This is really important to me.”

So here was my quandary: I could say no and kick myself for turning down maybe the only opportunity I would ever be granted to spend one-on-one voluntary time with one of the popular jocks in school without that ending in a massive wedgie for me, or I could say yes and get to spend time with someone who, for some time now, had become the main lead role in the majority of my wet dreams. I lived for studying, and the idea of two of my most favorite things in the world, studying and staring at Austin Ridge, could be merged into one boner-inducing activity was definitely appealing.

“Austin, I take my studies seriously,” he started, but stopped when I raise a hand to halt him. “I will tutor you, but I expect you to take it seriously as well. I really don’t want to be wasting my time.”

He pressed his hand over his heart while he held the other up in salute. “Scout’s honor.”

“You were a Scout?” I asked with a shit-eating grin firmly etched on my face.

“Only when I was little.” He smirked. “I didn’t like it as I grew up. I like the Beavers though.”

I bit my bottom lip till I tasted the first sweet drops of blood to stop the bark of laughter from escaping my throat, my eyes filling with tears as I clutched the flesh on my thigh. His face filled with horror at his dirty proclamation and at the obvious laughter building within me. I managed to compose myself as the people immediately around me started to watch the curious wheezing coming from the nerd to their right.

“Well,” I started, “that’s great for you. Can’t ever say they have interested me, but horses for courses.”

“You know what I mean.” He rolled his eyes.

“Okay Austin, I will tutor you.” His face immediately filled with a happiness akin to that of a kid on Christmas morning, which warmed my heart in ways I didn’t want to analyze too deeply in the middle of an algebra class. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fancy looking fountain pen, popping the lid off between his teeth. He reached forward to grab my wrist, the heat from his skin almost searing against my own. He pulled my arm towards him, cradling it against his firm chest. I was way too close to him now; his warm breath blowing freely against my own exhalations. He pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and began to write on the soft flesh of my forearm.

All too suddenly he let my arm go and winked at me. “There, that’s my home number. Give me a ring later, about 7pm? We can set something up.”

My breath caught in my own throat and for a moment I panicked that I’d forgotten how to breathe. He watched me with amused curiosity as I barely nodded my head. He smiled at me once more and stood. “Thank you so much, Dylan.” He leaned across the table, bringing his face back close to my own. “This is going to be fun.” And with that he moved towards the front of the class. Only then did I realize that so were the rest of the people in the room. The bell must have gone off while I was lost in his proximity, and I’d simply not heard.

“What’d I miss?” Hailey rubbed her palm against the soft curls on the top of my head.

So much, Hailey. So much.

Chapter 3

“Marge, try to understand. There are two kinds of college students: jocks and nerds. As a jock, it is my duty to give nerds a hard time.” – Homer Simpson

Dylan

“What do you mean it’s not a big deal!” Hailey screamed at me down the phone. I’d decided not to tell her anything in school as I knew she would not let it drop and I would spend the rest of the day caught up in a whirlwind of questions and the ‘what if/imagine if’s that she seemed to love so much. “You mean he is going to be in your house, in your room, today?”

After I’d called Austin the moment I’d gotten home, yes maybe that was a little sad, we had arranged for him to come over to my house to plan our study sessions and which bits he needed the most help with. I had of course then run around the house like a raving lunatic screaming at my father and sister to clean up the mess in the house.

I had looked despairingly at the stack of magazines and newspapers on the side table next to my father’s chair, the coffee cup rings on the wooden table, and the smudges of makeup on the mirror in the hallway left there by my sister as she trowelled on whatever five-dollar drug store foundation her circle of witches, I mean friends, had instructed her to buy that week. Our mother would be spinning in her grave if she saw the fine layer of filth that seemed to cover each of the surfaces of her one pristine house, that is, if we hadn’t cremated her.

I’d loaded my arms with cleaning materials and done as much as I could before I’d looked at the clock and saw I only had thirty minutes before Austin was due to arrive. “I mean he is going to be in my room, but we are going to be studying. It will be like school, only this time I’ll be the teacher.”

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