The door to my first period class opened and Mia and Sam walked in.
Crap.
They made a beeline towards me and Mia took a seat on my right and Sam on my left.
"Good morning." I greeted.
"Morning, best friend." Sam smiled, emphasizing on the best friend.
"How was your weekend?" Mia asked, her eyes narrowing.
They know.
"How'd you find out?" I asked with a sigh.
"Oh you mean how our best friend spent the night at Liam Powers' house?" Sam asked and I let out a long sigh before running my hands through my hair.
"Katelyn told us." Mia said and my turned towards her in surprise.
"Exactly our reaction when she told us. We thought she was messing with us."
"How did she even know?" I asked.
If I didn't tell Mia and Sam, I most definitely did not tell Katelyn.
"Apparently your dad called her mom bitching about you spending the night at some boy that you're tutoring house." Sam rolled her eyes and I raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Then Katelyn texted you and asked if you were tutoring Liam." Mia asked and I nodded to confirm. "Well she put two and two together."
That little rat.
"So?" Sam asked with an excited smile.
"Both of your minds need to do a u-turn. Because nothing happened."
Except you almost kissed him.
That doesn't matter.
Then you actually kissed him on the cheek.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me that." Mia said and I looked up at her.
She raised a perfect eyebrow at me and I let out a defeated sigh.
"Oh my god." Sam gasped.
"Stop it." I ordered before running my hands through my hair again.
"Explain please." Mia said with a wide grin.
"It wasn't what you're thinking." I shook my head.
"Well we can't think anything until you tell us something." Sam noted and I let out another long sigh and covered my face.
"I kissed him on the cheek." I muttered against my mouth.
"What?" Mia snapped and I let out a groan.
"There was a power outage and there was almost a kiss but then his mom walked in and it just made things awkward. So, I asked to go to bed and he offered to walk me up. Things got even more awkward when we said goodbye. But he came back with some clothes for me to sleep in and he apologized so sweetly about making thing awkward and scaring me. So, I told him that I wasn't scared off, then I kissed him on the cheek." I explained, letting my words run together in one long breath.
With another groan, I let my head fall on the desk.
"Oh, that's so cute." Sam gushed and I groaned.
"You have got it bad." Mia laughed and I let out a small cry.
I do.
"What do I do now?" I asked pathetically.
I've never so much as talked to a boy romantically, let alone declare to him that he didn't scare me. And then proceed to kiss him.
"Ask him out on a date." Sam offered and I groaned again.
"I can't do that."
"Why not?" Mia asked.
"I can't date remember?"
"You're eighteen now, surely your dad will change the rules."
He won't. Especially because Liam is one his clients.
"He won't do that." I shook my head.
"Then don't tell him." Sam shrugged. "What Mr. Thorne doesn't know won't hurt him."
Oh if only.
"That doesn't apply to me and you know it." I let out a sigh before lifting my head up.
"Mr. Thorne aside, if Liam were to ask you out, would you say yes?" Mia asked.
He won't do that.
"Probably not." I shook my head.
I just don't really see that happening.
"Hypothetically speaking." Mia added.
"Oh, then yes." I answered with a pathetic pout and Sam let out an aw.
The first bell rang and Sam and Mia stood up and gathered their things.
"Don't worry Rose, we've got this under control." Mia smiled before the two walked away.
I was too afraid to ask just what they had under control.
[0]
Trying to avoid Liam Powers while he's on the hunts for me is nearly impossible.
On my way to second period, I saw him walking down the halls with Jonathan and Noah and I made a quick turn around before he could spot me.
But when I walked back out of the class, he was waiting by the door for me.
I muttered a quick sentence about just how busy I was and I quickly walked away.
He tried to talk to me during gym but we were doing individual physical test and I was thankful every time Mr Sharon blew his whistle at him for trying to talk to me instead of doing his workout.
Biology would have been easy because he sits in the back and I sit in the from. But he started sending me paper notes.
Mia thought it was cute and funny but I just wanted to die of embarrassment.
When the final bell rang, I made a quick beeline through the sea of bodies for my locker.
Today I was suppose to tutor him but my father comes back to town and he have to have a 'talk'.
Also know as, boss Rose around.
As fast as I could, I switched my books and grabbed what I needed for my homework and made my way out of the building.
Letting out a sigh of relief at no more encountered, I made my way towards my car.
But my celebration was shortly lived when Liam was leaning against the driver's side of my car.
"Daisy." He smiled.
"Hi." I muttered and he folded his arms across his chest and my eyes shifted to his arms.
They're impressive, nice, toned and firm in all the right places.
Rose, stop it!
"Can I help you?" I asked him as I loaded my things in the backseat.
"I just have the feeling that you're ignoring me today." He said with a frown.
"I-I'm not." I stuttered before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
"That's what I'm thinking." He nodded. "I mean, what reason would you have to ignore me?" He asked before taking a step towards me and I gave him a shrug.
"Surely it wouldn't be because of our almost kiss." He raised and eyebrow at me and my eyes wined.
How dare he bring that up in casual conversation.
A smile appeared on his face and he took another step towards me.
"Because if I remember correctly." He tapped his chin. "You kissed me right here." He tapped his cheek.
I gasped and opened my mouth to say something but I closed it when nothing came out.
"It's not... I'm not... uhhh."
He tisked.
"I am very embarrassed right now." I confessed.
"I'll see you tomorrow Daisy." He chuckled.
A boyish grin appeared on his face and he took one last step towards me and leaned in and placed a kiss on my right cheek.
He looked back at me with a satisfied smile before walking away.
I think my heart stopped. Or my lungs? Or my brain?
Either way, one of my major organs stopped doing their job and all I could do was just stand there with the fact that I just allowed Liam Powers to kiss my face in front of many witnesses that could go off to my father and report what they just saw.
[0]
"I'm sorry what?" I asked my father with a shocked expression.
"You heard me loud and clear." He smiled at me before tapping the acceptance letter in front of me.
I got accepted into Dartmouth College.
"H-how?" I gasped.
That school is ridiculously hard to get into. With only a 10.5% acceptance rate, I would need more than my straight As to get in.
Which is why I never joined any form of extracurricular activities or any sports. I wanted them- needed them to overlook my application.
But I forgot who my father was and that he can probably convince Jesus Christ himself to sin.
"It took a lot of sweet talking and I had to keep pushing that you are a straight A student." He continued with a smile before grabbing a beer from the refrigerator.
"But in the end, I told them that we would make a few changes with your schedule and put you into some extra curricular activities, maybe even a job and they went with it. The letter was received this morning."
"Changes?" I asked quietly and he nodded.
"Honey, I know you love it but you're going to have to quit tutoring." He said and my heart stopped.
No.
"Dartmouth wants to see diversity in your life. You need to do something other than tutoring." He said and I looked down at my hand.
He doesn't understand that tutoring is what make me me.
When I see a student struggle with understand something that has been explain to them a million and it finally clicks when I explain it I feel important. Wanted. Needed.
"Rose."
I looked up at my father and he walked around the kitchen island and took a seat next to me.
"What if I got a job?" I asked quietly.
I was already planning on that to get away from him. But now it seems that's it's going to be to his advantage too.
"That's a good start." He nodded. "But they'd like it if you also if you joined a club, I know it's too late for a sport but a club might work."
"Tutoring is sort of a club." I offered and a stern look appeared on his face.
"But may something more interactive would be better. There's an open debate meeting tomorrow." I smiled at him.
"I'll go check it out." I nodded and his smile reappeared.
"That's my girl." He grinned before kissing the top of my head.
I wanted to cry.
"You really want me to go to Dartmouth?" I asked fighting back the lump in my throat.
"Of course, I can't wait for you to rock that Dartmouth green." He grinned with pride and I gave him a small nod.
He's so proud.
For once he's proud of me.
He wasn't even that proud when I won the states spelling bee in junior high. Or when I got the highest scores at my school for the state academic tests.
But he's proud now. When he managed to get me accepted into the school that runs down the Thorne family tree.
Maybe this won't be so bad.
Four years is not that long. I'll get a great education I'm sure I'll grow to like Dartmouth.
Plus, if I can make dad proud for four years, surely it'll become a habit and he'll be proud of me after Dartmouth too.
And hopefully he won't hate the sight of me anymore.
"I have a present for you." He smiled and I looked up at him.
"I'll be right back." He stood up and walked out of the room.
I took in a deep breath as I tried to process this new information.
My plans to move to California and attend UCLA have to be canceled.
Well, the UCLA part is canceled.
Once I'm done at Dartmouth, I'm saying goodbye to the the east coast for a very long time.
Dad's footsteps coming down the stairs in a hurry brought me out of my inner thoughts.
He stepped back into the kitchen and in his outstretched hands was a long sleeve Dartmouth t-shirt.
"Do you like it?" He asked.
I'm overwhelmed.
"Yeah." I nodded with a long sigh.
"I knew you would." He grinned before handing me the shirt.
I smiled at him and I waited for the hurtful comment behind the gift.
But he simply smiled at me and for that alone, I wanted to cry with happiness.
"I'm so proud of you , pumpkin." He smiled again before opening his beer.
"Thank you, daddy." I smiled.
He's finally proud of me.
And I'm going to make sure it stays that way.
[0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0][0]
Were you expecting that kind of news from Mr. Thorne? What about the changes that Rose is going to have to make to her schedule?
Comment
Vote
Share
Coming up: Rose has to say goodbye to tutoring Liam.