Making Her Rules

👓10👓

Keon's POV:

I had already made up my mind that I would no longer tutor Stephanie Young.

I waited all morning for her to show up for our session and had to be informed by Aaron that she had arrived late and would be unable to make it.

Fine, I had told myself.

After all early morning punctuality wasn't her strongest suit.

What I hadn't expected was that she would also be a no-show for her literature session. With no explanation. I didn't even look for her – if she wanted to fail then that was her own concern.

The bell rang interrupting my train of thought and signaling the end of the school day. I had already previously dedicated this time to tutoring Stephanie for her after school session, but since she is less likely to show up than a pig is to fly, I decide to use this for an extra study session – after all one can never study too much.

Aaron pops his head into the library just as I flip open my AP physics book and run my finger down the page.

"Is Steph here?", he asks and I shrug.

"Where Stephanie is is none of my concern"

Aaron's brows furrow as he looks at me. "No one has seen her all day. Kayla thought she might be here with you... studying"

I close my book with exasperation. "Stephanie has not shown up to meet me for tutoring sessions all day. Personally, I don't think she realizes how serious these lessons need to be taken, and you know how much I detest unseriousness"

Aaron nods, his expression faintly amused. "You knew it wasn't going to be an easy task", he begins lightly, but then stops when he sees me raise a brow sarcastically. Yes he is right, I knew it wouldn't be easy but I didn't know she was this unserious.

"What are you going to do?", he questions.

"I'm done tutoring her, obviously. She's shown her lack of interest in anything academics, her utter disdain for rules and frankly it irritates me. Maybe she'll steal the test scripts and change the answers or something, but I'm done"

"If it was as easy as that", a slurring voice comes from behind Aaron, "then I would have done it already"

Leaning against the doorframe Stephanie offers us a small smirk and my cheeks heat up. How much of our conversation did she overhear.

"Eavesdropping is rude", I tell her.

"So is gossiping", she quips back, though her voice is still slurred.

"So is turning up late to a lesson. Or rather multiple lessons"

She has no answer to that so she raises her hands in surrender as she slowly shuffles towards me. I notice Aaron's eyes watching her carefully, but it is not until she is right in front of me, not until I smell the alcohol on her breath that I realize.

"You're drunk", I say it as a fact with no tone of judgement or disgust, though I am very much judging her in my head.

"And high too", she smirks.

"High?", I question, stretching the word slowly, trying to make sure I heard correctly.

"Yeah high", she says, lifting her hand above her head. "You know, hopped up to my eyebrows and shit"

I stiffen as I see her settle down in the chair opposite mine and start to bring out her books.

"Looks like your student is ready to learn", Aaron leans down and whispers to me, before loudly announcing his departure and sauntering out of the room.

"I'm not tutoring you anymore Stephanie", I declare.

Her face twists a bit as she pauses. "I hate that name", she mutters before turning to face me. "I thought you were a tutor", she says.

"I am a tutor. But not your tutor. Not anymore, not after you abused that privilege"

"So what? I miss a few sessions for something important and now you're not going to teach me anymore", her voice is lazy dripping with sarcasm

I feel an angry ringing in my ears and try as I might to hold it off, I can't seem to control the words that spill out of my mouth.

"Something important? Is that what you call skipping school to drink and get high? Is that why you're missing important lessons?"

She shrinks at my tone, but I'm not done yet, swept up in self-righteous rage.

"You play pranks, you break rules, you treat school as one big joke", I scold. "You treated our lessons like a joke, just like you treat your teacher's lessons as jokes, a time to fool around as you please." I look at her with hatred, remembering how treating her life as a joke almost cost my sister hers "I'm surprised that haven't expelled you yet." I end coldly.

As soon as I finish, the red haze of anger clears and I cannot help but feel ashamed. I don't loose my temper, not publicly anyway, and my words though true were harsh.

But I don't expect Stephanie to laugh, a mournful heartbreaking sound lacking mirth. "I guess you're right", she says, and I look at her. She still looks slightly out of it, a dreamy expression on her face as if she isn't really here. "I do play the fool a lot. Guess that's why I won't be graduating"

Did I hear her correctly? Not graduating?

She sees the expression on my face and gives a sad smile. "I played the fool too many times didn't I? You're my last chance if I want to make it."

Her last chance. Funny. Ironic even. I didn't tutor her for her sake, yet here I am – her last chance.

Her face is devoid of tears yet the impact of her sadness is overwhelming. Even the coldest heart would break a bit at her mournful expression.

"Open your book", I hear myself saying.

"What?", she asks in surprise. I don't blame her; my words surprise even myself.

"We've already wasted thirty minutes so we need to commence this session. Unless you have any objections?"

She shakes her head and pulls out her novel and a notebook which she hands to me. "The assignment you gave me yesterday", she says and I nod as I collect it from her, careful to make sure we don't touch.

I open the book and tut my way through the work which she had obviously done hurriedly – untidy handwriting and wrong answers everywhere.

I sigh.

"We're going to have to take this from the beginning. Your foundation is poor so we're going to start from there and build it up. Understood?"

She nods and tries to look bored and annoyed, but her eyes shine with an unspoken gratefulness as she takes her book back. Her warm hand brushes against mine, and I hold her gaze for a second longer than I should before letting go of the book.

I press my lips together to prevent myself from saying something I shouldn't.

A/N: I'm very sorry for not posting last week. I'm going through a really difficult time right now and I'm just facing a lot of confusion because I have some big and life-determining decisions to make. I'm really sorry for the absence loves and I will try to do better, but things are really hard right now for me.

See you in the next chapter 💋