Aaron Hendrix
"I have missed coming to the club" Tony smirks, his eyes trailing a pair of girls who walk by our table.
I can't fucking stand Tony.
From working with him to having him around the house, he's only still here because he's Owen's. The other day at my house when he eye-fucked Adelina made me too close to putting a bullet through is eyes. The worst part was, she fucking smiled and waved at him, oblivious to his gaze.
I shouldn't care if one of my men looks at her.
I take a sip of my whiskey, eager to get out of this damn club. "Come on boss, have some fun." Carlos nudges me. "You haven't looked at a girl since we've got here" Tony urges.
I almost scoff at this, I never get with girls at the club.
I don't find it appealing to touch hookers at the club, to let hookers touch me. Dirty ass women.
I hate being touched.
"He can't, he's a married man now" Owen teases. I glare at him.
"What have I missed?" Carlos asks, shocked.
"Aaron here has been running around with some blonde chick" Tony chimes in. "When you're done with her send her my way, she's hot as fuck"
I tense at Tony's mention of her in such a way. "Fuck off Tony" I say, but he just laughs.
"That whole innocent act doesn't fool me for a second." Tony chuckles.
"I don't know man, I don't think it's an act." Mike chimes in. Mike, who Adelina smiled at and complimented and said fucking thank you to.
Why do I fucking care? I met the girl not even a month ago.
———
Adelina Celine Torres
Today is the day our rough draft essays are due for Mr. Edward's class. I worked on it all last night, and hope that it's decent enough for me to build my actual essay off of.
I've texted Aaron a few times since we last hung out and watched that horrifying movie, but he hasn't responded.
It's only been four days, so I know I'm just being dramatic, so I shake it off.
"Not going to lie, my draft was insane. I got my brother to help me edit it, and I think Mr. Edwards will love it." Alyssa brags as she sits down next to me. I glance to the front of the room where Mr. Edwards is and lock eyes with him. I quickly look back to Alyssa.
"Are you blushing right now?" She says, looking at me suspiciously. "What?"
"Mr. Edwards is totally making you all hot and bothered" she says, giddy.
I blink a few times, completely lost. "He's my professor" I say, disgusted with the idea of being with him in that way.
Alyssa shrugs, "Plenty of people get with their professors"
"And he is totally eye-fucking you right now" Alyssa whispers. I look over my shoulder to see Mr. Edwards looking at me still.
"He probably just heard us say his name. You're being crazy" I say. "Whatever you say, but he's hot so I don't blame you."
Class drones on and I try my best to ignore Alyssa's words. Professor Edwards is a nice man, he wouldn't get with a student. Especially me.
As everyone packs up to leave, Mr. Edwards calls for me to stay. Alyssa nudges me, then wiggles her eyebrows. I shove her lightly, then turn to walk to Mr. Edwards desk at the front of the room.
"Yes?" I ask, noticing how the class is now emptied out.
"I took the time to read your draft this morning" He tells me.
"Did you like it?" I ask, relieved that Mr. Edwards called me back simply to comment on my essay, not for anything inappropriate. Alyssa is getting into my head too much.
"It was okay, but I saw several big mistakes throughout it."
I frown at this, having felt super proud of my draft.
"Don't be sad, darling. I'm telling you this so that you can fix it before the final essay is due" he says, leaning back on his desk.
"May I recommend coming to my office hours for...private help?"
"That would be amazing! I really need to do well on this" I smile to Mr. Edwards, feeling awful I ever even considered any ill intentions.
"My next open session is next Wednesday evening" he tells me.
It's only Monday, so I don't like not getting help for a whole week, but I don't say anything since he's already being kind enough to help me with it.
"That sounds great, thank you so much!" I tell him. He just smiles at me and bids me goodbye.
When I exit the classroom, I'm startled when Alyssa jumps out at me. "What happened?!" She squeals.
"Nothing happened! He just offered me help on my essay" I explain. Her eyes widen, "he wants you"
I scoff, "No he doesn't. He's my teacher and he's wanting to teach me"
"Yeah, teach you sex"
"Stop it!" I say, feeling dirty even thinking of anyone like that, let alone my professor.
Alyssa just laughs, "You're too innocent"
"I'm not innocent" I say.
"Oh so you read the book I recommended?" She says.
"Yep"
"And you didn't skip past the sex scenes?"
I hesitate, "Um..."
"Girl, people buy these books for those parts, and you skip them."
I shrug, then my phone dings so I take it out to look at who texted me.
Ronny :)
Hi
A smile creeps onto my face at his text, since he hadn't texted me in a few days.
"And who is that?" Alyssa peeks at my phone. "You creep, have you heard of privacy?" I tease. She shakes her head, "Not when my innocent bestie is texting a boy"
Awwww she called me her bestie.
"Aaron is just my friend" I explain to her. She gives me a look, "Does he know that? Because you're so oblivious to Mr. Edwards hitting on you, I won't be surprised if you miss this guys hints too"
"I'm not that oblivious. And trust me, Aaron barely even considers us friends, let alone more than friends."
As Alyssa and I walk to the parking lot, I freeze when I see my car is not where I parked it.
Alyssa looks at me, "Shit, it says no parking here" Alyssa says, looking to a sign I obviously missed when I parked.
I got freaking towed.
I immediately feel awful, since I told Alyssa I could give her a ride home today because her car is in the shop.
"I just texted my brother, but he's busy." Alyssa says.
I pause, debating if I should text Aaron to come and help us out.
Hey ronny....my car got towed, any chance you can come get me and my friend?
I send the text, then nervously twist the hair tie around my wrist until my phone vibrates.
Where
I quickly tell him a restaurant down the street since Alyssa and I are standing in the middle of a parking lot and I can't exactly tell him that.
Alyssa and I walk down the street, luckily it isn't super hot out.
"Is it Ronny?" She asks. "Aaron" I correct her, unsure why I feel protective over the nickname. She smirks at me, "Just friends but you get sassy when I call him by a nickname?"
"I'm not—
"I'm messing with you. It's cute" she giggles.
We wait for just ten minutes until Aaron's sleek black car pulls up in front of us.
"Holy shit you didn't tell me he drives a half million dollar car" Alyssa whispers to me as we walk towards the car.
I get in the front seat, Alyssa in the back. "Hi Ronny" I smile to him. I take in his outfit, which is lululemon shorts and a tight fitted long sleeve shirt.
I've never seen him in shorts before.
His hair is messy and his dark eyes stare into my soul when I sit down. I just smile in response.
"This is my friend Alyssa" I introduce her. Aaron glances to the back seat in the mirror, but that's all he does to acknowledge her.
I look back to Alyssa, who is making an "Oh em gee" face at me.
Aaron drives to the address I gave him of Alyssa's house, and we drop her off.
"Thanks again for coming to help" I tell Aaron. He just nods slightly.
Aaron drives back to my house, and I feel sad that I don't get to spend more time with him. When he stops in my driveway, I peek into the small window in my garage to see it's empty.
"Would you like to come in? I have something super cool to show you" I ask, hoping he says yes.
He puts the car in park, "Ok"
Yay!
We walk inside and I mentally freak out, trying to remember if I cleaned my room this morning. I'm super excited as I lead him up the stairs. I got a pet fish about 4 months ago, and I think he will love it just as much as I do.
It's just like him, dark eyes, and never talks to me.
When we get to my room, I'm instantly embarrassed due to the papers, notes, and books strewn out across my room. I completely forgot about how I had a study-breakdown last night where I got out everything I need to memorize, then cried instead of actually memorizing it. Very productive of me.
"Sorry just ignore this" I say, desperately trying to stack some papers together, although it's no use. There's papers on the floor, on the desk, and some on my bed. As I pick up papers, I notice Aaron pick one up and look at it.
"You go to Stanford?" he asks. I take the paper from his hand and see the red Stanford Medical at the top right corner.
"Occasionally" I say.
Aaron eyes me, having caught my fib about going to some small school. "People get judgy" I say in my defense.
"For you being smart?" he questions
I shrug, "I don't want to come off as a braggy nerd or anything. Plus people assume my parents are the reason I got in" I sigh.
"Anyways, this is what I wanted to show you." I take Aarons hand and lead him to the corner of my room where my fish, Wally, is peacefully swimming around in his tank that sits on my dresser. I take extreme pride in Wally's tank decor, with pink pebbles, green seaweed, a SpongeBob house, and a cutesy little cave for him to swim into.
"This is Wally" I show Aaron, who looks unimpressed.
Wally is downright gorgeous. He is a blue and pink swirled beta fish, and he is my best friend. "A fish" Aaron says flatly.
"Yep" I say, putting my face close to the glass to get a better look at Wally. "Hi Wally" I say, lightly putting my finger up to the glass near him. He quickly darts away and hides in his cave. I turn to Aaron, "You're scaring him"
Aaron rolls his eyes, "Me, not you tapping the glass?" He says sarcastically.
He's feisty today.
I clear the papers off my bed, thanking God I made it this morning. I don't know why I took the papers off, made the bed, then put the papers back on, but I did. Me in the morning is a whole different kind of crazy.
I flop on my bed, "So what work do you do?" I ask. Aaron sits down at my desk chair, doing the thing where he leans back and slightly spreads his legs.
Oh my.
"Remember our first conversation?" he questions.
"You telling me to F off?" I ask. He shakes his head. Then I realize he's talking about on the balcony the night of my parents dinner. I asked what he does, and he said I don't want to know.
"Oh" I say, remembering what he's talking about.
I stare at the ceiling, closing my eyes and trying to forget about all of the stressful things in my life. Then I tilt my head to the side to look to Aaron at my desk. At least I have a friend to get through my stresses with. I also have Alyssa, which I'm extremely grateful for.
"What are you looking at?" I question when I see his focus is on something on my desk.
I sit up in not even half a second when I see its the book Alyssa recommended to me open on my desk, Aaron wide eyed as his eyes scan through it.
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