Love Encyclopedia For The Gays (boyxboy, girlxgirl)

4 - The Happening

The first thing Aileen said to me in the morning was "Wow. That is a dress code violation."

I grinned at her, my hand coming up to ghost over the exposed skin all the way from my collar bones to the top of my rib cage. "I know."

The sky was such a vivid blue that morning, even Aileen's old red Honda Civic glittered from the blinding white sun. It was my day, no doubt. I sashayed to the shotgun seat. 

Aileen's velvet choker, the final piece to this absolute stunner of an outfit, sat waiting for me in the cupholder. I tied around my neck with a delicate but tight bow.

"So you're going all out for Artie the Hottie huh?" Aileen chuckled. She reversed out of my driveway in one single, practiced motion, making us both swayed a little in our seats. 

I took her cat-eyes sunglasses out of the glove box and put them on. The world took on a vintage brown hue. Cranking down the window so I could rest my hand on the sill, I watched the neighborhood rapidly passed us by. Oh, I was in a whole 80s romantic car commercial mood. 

"Obviously."

<3<3<3

My outfit drew some eyes at school, but since they were all the wrong eyes, I ignored them.

As if arranged by fate, as soon as I sat down, my phone vibrated. It was an email from the Study Help office, letting me know I had one new student by the name of Arturo Orsini, who was having his first Math tutoring session with me this afternoon. 

My stone-cold, 80s supermodel expression immediately broke out into a smile so wide it hurt.

I showed the email to Aileen. She wolf-whistled loudly.

"What happened?" Harry, who just sat down, chimed in. I didn't notice him sidling next to me until our arms touched. 

He looked at my email and figured out the answer for himself. 

"Oh, you've got a new student." He sounded disappointed, like I owed making my life events more interesting for his entertainment or something.  

"Same here." He showed me his phone. He got the same email, but instead of Art's name, it was Jessica's.

I winced a little. "Eh, good luck with her." 

Harry's smile didn't dim. "There's no student I can't teach, Duong."

If only he knew what he was in for.

"Also, why are you dressing weird today?" 

Harry leaned back on his chair so he could get a full view of what I was wearing.

I turned to him and leaned back on my chair to help him. Feast your eyes on this, I thought, until I remembered Harry was a hoodie and jeans kind of guy and didn't know what good fashion looked like. He probably really meant it when he said I dressed weird.

Still, I could feel his eyes slowly surveying the stretch of my bare skin. He stopped just below my chest, where I started buttoning the shirt. His expression was unreadable. I looked down quickly, just to check I didn't get any pimples. There was none, thank god.

When I looked up, Harry was right in front of me. Time slowed down as one of his hand reached out to play with the ribbon of my choker. I froze at first, startled by how close we were.

"What is this?" He asked. He wasn't looking at me at all, but somewhere on my chest. I could see short but thick eyelashes fanning over his eyes and the amber streaks at the edge of his irises. All this time, I had thought Harry had dark brown eyes like me, but it turned out his eyes were lighter, probably a medium honey brown.