Page 7 of Until You're Breathless

“Like the artist?” The boy with the quirky smile asks.

“Yeah. My parents are huge seventies music fans, go figure.”

He smiles again. “Well, you’ll love this then.”

“What.” I grin at the boy that just walked into my tenth-grade math class.

“My name’s Jagger.”

“You’re full of it.”

“I swear.” He chuckles. “Some people call me Jag for short, but my legal name is Jagger.”

“Riiiiight.”

He laughs. “I’m serious. Here, go check the attendance sheet. I’ll bet you twenty bucks I’m telling the truth.”

I smirk. “I don’t have twenty bucks, and I hate Mr. Sproul, so I’ll take your word for it. But if I see you in the hall and you don’t answer when I call you Jagger, you’re meat.” I tease, pointing at him, feeling flirty. He’s really cute.

He winks at me and I’m not sure if he’s pulling my leg, or what. “So, do you mind if I sit here? That guy over there looks like he’ll eat me alive if I sit in the empty spot in front of him.” He points to this guy with a real miserable look on his face. He’s handsome, but he looks like the dog ate his homework or something.

“Sure. Nobody sits here.”

“Cool. So, this Sproul...is he a ballbuster?”

“Yeah. He marks really hard, and he doesn’t take any assignments unless they have a proper cover sheet.”

Jagger looks him up and down. “He looks like a dipshit.”

I like him. He doesn’t have a filter. “Where did you come from? Are you new here?”

“No, I’ve been around. I was taking another math class, but I need the academic level if I want to go to university. The guidance counsellor screwed me over in the summer with my schedule and they just fixed it this morning. So, what did I miss the last few days?”

“I can give you my notes to copy.” I frown, opening my binder.

“Thanks.” He takes them and starts copying them onto a loose sheaf of paper. He’s got a spare sheet of paper and he’s doing double time, taking notes as the teacher conducts the lesson, and copying my notes. It’s nice to meet someone that takes math seriously. I’m a math geek and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one. When he’s finished, he turns back to me. “Did he give out any assignments?”

I nod and show him what I wrote down in my day planner, as I listen to the lesson. The teacher leaves the room for a moment, and Jagger looks up the assignment that he missed. He starts working on it and I see him struggling. “You need help?”

“Yeah. I always get stuck on this stuff.”

“Here.” I say, gesturing for him to turn around. I explain the problem and help him figure it out.

“Hey, thanks.” He licks his lips. “Hey, do you want to work together? Like...study together and shit? I can help you and you can help me type thing? I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

I smile. My eyes go to his lips, and he smiles back. I realize that I have a crush on him. “Sure.”

“Cool. Do you want to work on this assignment after school?”

“Okay.”

“Cool. You want to go out by that pond after class? Since this is the last period?”

“Sounds good.”

He pays close attention during class, and he doesn’t nod off or doodle, or get distracted by anything, either. I’m half intrigued, but half disappointed that he’s not paying any attention to me. He follows me to my locker after class. “Do you need to put something in here for now?”

“Na, thanks.” He waves, and I notice that he isn’t ogling any of the pretty girls that are walking down the hallway. I start to wonder if maybe he’s gay, but I don’t think so, seeing as he keeps looking at my lips.

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