Page 5 of Tutoring the Bad Boy
Instead of waiting for any sort of reply, I stomp out of the library, even going so far as to slam the door. Unfortunately, it must have some kind of quiet-shut hinge, and all it does is whoosh soundlessly, which only ticks me off more. Now I look like an idiot and this girl feels sorry for me.
Nope, I’m done. I want to be an architectural engineer. My heart is totally set on it, but I’d rather be homeless than deal with this girl. Okay, maybe not, but this will make a great argument when I talk to Mrs. Yates.
Chapter Three
Ginny
“That’sthe millionth sigh in the last ten minutes. What’s up?” asks Ronnie. “And you never told me why you needed to hit the library in Groves earlier.”
“I told you. A book, but the online catalog must have been wrong because it wasn’t there.”
I’m a horrible liar. The fact that I ran that lie past my mom earlier today on the fly was a miracle—and my saving grace was that I caught her in the middle of dealing with a PTA member and her focus wasn’t solely on me. That’s the only reason she didn’t catch me in the first place.
“Liar.”
“No…I’m not.”
Ronnie’s eyes light up. “Oh, you so are. You either spill or I’m telling your mom.”
I don’t want to tell Ronnie, but she’ll never back off. A pitbull with a pound of steak is easier to deal with. “Please, Ronnie, please let this go.” As I turn, I catch her gaze and hold it. I’m hoping she sees the desperation I feel.
With the way her eyes are glinting, she sees it and couldn’t care less. “No. Way. Tell me now.”
“Mrs. Yates asked me to tutor someone. I didn’t even know who it was until after I’d agreed.”
Her eyes narrow. “Tutor who?”
I roll my lips in and slightly shake my head.
One lone desperately-needing-tweezed eyebrow shoots up. Then her lips spread into a Grand-Canyon-wide smile. “Kaleb Quinn.”
“If my mom finds out, it’ll be World War III. Please, Ronnie.”
She slides her fingers over her lips and flicks the invisible key away. “Will never leave my lips, but you have to tell me what he’s like.”
“Rude. Obnoxious. Scary.” Scared. Carrying a weight no one would understand. I’ve seen it in his eyes. People expect him to be a certain way, and once you’re pounded into that round hole, there’s no getting free. I’m more than a little familiar with that feeling. “But it doesn’t matter because he’s going to ask Mrs. Yates for a different tutor.”
Ronnie slides to the edge of my bed and braces her hands on it. “What? Why?”
“He called me a stuck-up princess and said he’d rather fail than have me tutor him. Mrs. Yates is going to hate me even more tomorrow when Kaleb gets done talking to her. From the way she talked about him, it seems she likes him, but he said she’d threatened to fail him if he didn’t get tutored.”
“Fail him? It’s only four weeks in. That’s completely not fair.”
“That’s what I said, and then he got mad.”
“Weird.” Ronnie smiles again. “He was just as cute in person, though, am I right?”
My cheeks instantly burn. There was no way not to see how cute he was when he was millimeters from my face, or how amazingly kissable his lips were. I’d nearly forgotten to be upset that he was late. “Yeah, he really was, but he obviously doesn’t like me. Which is fine, because that’s a fight with my mom I don’t want to have.”
A knock interrupts us. “Girls?” My mom opens the door just enough to peek. “Hey, it’s late.”
I check my phone. “It’s only eight.”
“And you have a recruiter coming this weekend. You need to get your rest.”
“It’s also Wednesday.”
“Ginny.” My mom’s tone holds a warning.
