Bittersweet Truths

Chapter 3

Brennan was walking mindlessly down the school hallways waiting for the tutoring session to begin. With her mind somewhere else it was no surprise she ended up stumbling into someone.

And of course that someone was Jack. “Are you incapable of looking where you’re going?” he was saying, his face tight and grey eyes bright with anger.

“You’re late.” She said softly before walking into the center and finding an empty work station.

With no other options Jack followed her and made a point of sighing and rolling his eyes. Everyone, Mr. Toms and the other two seats of students, knew he didn’t want to be there. He pulled out his math books and with another sigh he looked at his tutor. She was staring out the window with a faraway look to her blue eyes. “Hello?” she didn’t respond until he nudged her shoulder. “Do you space out a lot? Because then this is going to be a really long day.” She bit at her bottom lip and that was the first time he noticed her mouth. There was something familiar about the fullness, the natural outline and pout they held.

“Are you always so rude? I’m here to help you.”

“Not by choice.”

“So we have to argue every second?”

He was about to dish back a good one liner when he realized she wasn’t being sarcastic, her wide blue eyes were serious with curiosity. He remembered Todd saying something last night about her having some impairment. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me.” she said, a little testy. She hated when people treated her like she was damaged.

Jack was thoroughly confused. “I thought you didn’t like me so yeah I thought we’d be arguing and trying to kill each other.”

“That wastes time and you need help.” It was her job to help him and she took that seriously, no one should fail.

“Ok. Wait,” Jack was thrown for a loop; he hadn’t expected her to be so…weird. They hadn’t held a conversation before; he hadn’t even been sure what she sounded like until now. “Do you hate me or not?” he wanted to be sure because he didn’t need some girl sabotaging him and he wanted a straight answer.

“I don’t hate you but I don’t like you. Let’s get started.” She reached for his math book, she was a pro at numbers.

“Wait.” He pushed the book out of reach causing her blue eyes to flare. Yeah she was definitely a little out there to get angry about math. “Why don’t you like me?”

She opened her mouth then closed it, resorting to a sigh instead. “Can we get started?”

“Yeah fine.” He knew it would only be a matter of time before Mr. Toms noticed they weren’t working so he gave in but after the session he was going to get more answers. He was intrigued by her differences.

For the next forty minutes he listened to the help she offered, he hadn’t known she was so good with numbers. She didn’t treat him like an idiot for needing help or got short with him when he needed more help. Surprisingly she was pretty good at this. He noticed when he was working on different questions she’d stare out the window again but there was nothing out there holding her attention, it was as if she was in another world.

While she was in that world he took a moment to look at her again. Her mouth kept drawing his attention and he could not for the life of him figure out why.

Suddenly she was looking at him. “Are you done?”

“Done with what?” he challenged, nervous about what she was hinting at. He felt like an idiot for being caught checking out Brennan of all people. No he wasn’t checking her out, he was curious is all, not sexually curious, just curious, he tried to convince himself.

“With your homework.”

Jack swallowed hard at her expression; the resident weirdo was looking at him like he was the crazy one. “Yeah.” He forced his eyes up to her eyes and not her mouth. He started questioning his sanity. Maybe he was just horny, staying locked up in his bedroom was causing this.

“Can I see it?”

Jack slid the sheet of paper over and toyed with his pen while she looked it over. He glanced at the clock and noticed the session was going on longer then it needed to. The other kids were gone Mr. Toms must’ve stepped out because it was just him and Brennan. He brought his attention back to her just as she looked up from the paper. “How’d I do?”

“Much better. In a week or two you probably won’t have to come back anymore.” She explained while standing and gathering her things.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Where do you live?” He mentally cringed, why was he asking this crap? It was best to cover quickly before she got suspicious. “I mean you helped me and I know all the buses are gone. I could give you a ride.” That sounded better then coming off like some stalker that wanted to know where she lived. She thought about it, her mouth slipping into its natural pout and for some odd reason Jack was shifting from foot to foot, her mouth was making him hard and the more he stared the worse it got. “Listen you can say no. I have to get going too.” He founded the safest place to look was the window just behind her.

“I live in the apartment building just past the park. I normally just walk.”

“That’s about eight miles from here.” He didn’t like to walk anywhere but to the car or on the field.

“It’s good exercise.”

His body betrayed him as his eyes moved along her tight fitting t-shirt, her breast were high and perfectly round, her stomach wasn’t only flat it was toned with muscle he noted through the thin material. She was certainly in shape. “I’ll take you.” he said around a cough to cover the hoarseness of his voice.

“Ok, thank you.”

The car ride was quiet, she stared at the window and he kept his eyes firmly planted on the rode even at the red light not to risk getting caught up in her again.

-

AH88

AN: This chapter was to help the story along, it gets sexier in the next chapter and so on.