Page 11 of Break Me

I’m here to tutor.

I’m here to tutor, excel, go to med school, and be a dermatologist.

I can sweep drunken nights under the rug, too, Rayn Trist.

Just you see.

“Yes, I’m great,” I say with a smile. “Let’s start with Chemistry.”

He hands me his textbook.

And I prepare to get to work.

Chapter Seven

RAYN

Within a couple of short weeks of working with Lennon, my grades are already improving. I’m no A student, but I have gotten a couple of Bs here in there and I am on my way out of failing which is more than I could ask for.

We stay strictly professional.

We barely even make eye contact.

I know she was expecting me to address our kiss at the bar all those weeks ago, but I thought it was better to just pretend it never happened.

She went along with it.

So far, it’s working.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t think about throwing her onto the table and fucking the lights out of her every time I’m with her.

Because I do.

And I want to know her, too.

I want to know more than what she can teach me about Shakespeare and Political Science. I want to know what her major is. I want to know if she has a roommate. I want to know what kind of toppings she likes on her pizza.

But it’s those exact wants that I keep shutting down, day after day.

I keep stepping right up to the fire.

And I managed to only get singed once.

On a particularly quiet, rainy Friday morning in the tutoring center, Lennon and I meet an hour earlier. She didn’t explain why, just something came up in her schedule.

It’s amazing what 8:00 on a Friday morning can look like on a college campus.

Absolute ghost town.

The tutoring center followed suit.

The second floor wasn’t open yet, so instead Lennon and I set up in a small closet-sized conference room with dark wood paneling for walls. I noticed that she kept the door open, but of course, I didn’t say anything about it.

“So, what are you up to this weekend?” I hear myself asking her before I even have the chance to stop myself.

I’m usually better about this.

I stop the curiosity before it starts.

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