Of Literature & Kisses (Forbidden Romance)

Chapter 16 - Groceries

I didn't want to feel this way, but I couldn't negate the fact that my mind was racing. In those moments throughout the school day when I was free from lectures or schoolwork my mind automatically shifted to high alert. I didn't want to see Dean.

And I wanted to have stayed home last night and spoken to my brother so that I wouldn't have to orchestrate tonight's welcome on my own. Our car wasn't really ours. It was my twin brother's. It would be difficult for me to go grocery shopping after tutoring without the car, and I was tight on time to begin with. I just wanted to prepare his favorite meal with a couple of congratulatory balloons. Nothing complicated.

I would try my best.

Riley walked Phoenix and I to our classrooms after lunch. I murmured a goodbye when they were talking and slipped quietly inside Mr. Gallagher's classroom. The class I loved the most went by the fastest, with further discussion into the next three chapters of our novel. Once the dismissal bell rang I joined the outpouring masses and used a minute in the restroom. I returned to find him standing perched against his desk, skimming through the stack of paper that sat in his hands.

"These are the paragraphs they drafted last week. I thought we'd go over them today. But more importantly, what's troubling you?"

"Me? Nothing." I was taken aback.

"I can see it in your eyes. Something's wrong. You can talk to me, you know that?"

I nodded, my heart rushing uncomfortably in my chest.

"So tell me." He stepped away from the desk and a few steps in my direction. He was still so far.

"M-My brother gets home tonight," I started.

"And that's a bad thing?"

"No. Contrary. It's wonderful. I just wanted to put some things together to welcome him back and to congratulate him on his promotion, but when I was going to tell my twin brother he wasn't there." That wasn't necessarily untrue, but I didn't want to bring up Dean anymore than I had to.

"So you have to put everything together alone. Tonight, after hours of tutoring."

"When you put it that way it sounds bad," I rushed. "I'm happy to be here. I'm just a bit pressed on time."

"Do you want to leave early? Do you even have the car?"

I was growing nervous under his scrutiny. He must have noticed, because he cursed softly under his breath and apologized. "I sound upset. I'm not. I'll help you get what you need."

I quickly declined his offer, causing him to cock his head to the side in question.

"I can't intrude anymore. You've done more to help me than you have to," I explained. "I'll figure it out on my own, but thank you, Mr. Gallagher."

"Cece. I'm not so selfless and kind as you make me out to be. I never do anything without benefitting from it myself, and helping you... it helps me."

I didn't know what to say or what he meant, so I nodded quietly and moved to the board behind him. For a distraction, I took the eraser and started to wipe away at the words he'd written yesterday, and today, and never removed.

We still had thirty minutes left in the tutoring session when he interrupted the class and asked that students arrange for tutoring to be cut twenty minutes short. Those who took rides from others made their arrangements quickly and continued working for ten minutes. Heat was rising over my cheeks as I helped a student revise the final paragraph he'd written.

"You didn't have to do that," I spoke well after the students had left.

"But I did. Come on, get your things. Where are we going?"