Seated in a library solving rational inequalities with a greek god hovering over my shoulder was not the place I wanted to be in.

But currently, I was.

It was around 5pm and daylight savings had already hit so the sun was pretty much set. The school library was still open for private tutoring sessions which I had signed up for at the beginning of the school year.

Why would I agree to get tutored by the one guy I wanted to avoid? No idea. Except, it wasn't my idea -- it was his.

Ever since the closet incident, he had become way more attentive. No more ignoring me, none of that. Instead, he went as far as offering to tutor me. At first I was going to say no, but when I got my most recent quiz grade back, I realized I had to make an exception. Plus, he was the smartest person I knew--the smartest person in the entire school, even.

In all honestly, I expected him to ignore me even more, especially after seeing him with his cum all over another girl's face.

I could barely look him in the eye, and I couldn't tell if he noticed or not.

Either way, if there were any words that needed to be exchanged after what happened at the party, we made sure to avoid the topic entirely. These tutoring sessions pretty much went like: study, cry, then study more.

It was almost exhausting pretending like nothing happened. A part of me felt like it was all in my head, but either way, I'd have no way of truly knowing unless I asked him.

Which I was not going to do.

"This isn't even the worst part, is it?" I grumbled, spreading the papers in front of me across the table. I was currently looking at a rational function and I needed to set the shit to zero or something? God, math was going to be what really ended it all.

"Rational inequalities are just the beginning, Ash," he chuckled lightly.

Scribbling some random numbers and letters onto the practice problems, I set my pencil down, ready to give up.

"Here let me double check your work," he offered. I shoved the papers back over to Colton, who gladly set his focus to them.

He was the one who insisted he construct the problems himself in order to cater to a curriculum personally fit for my understanding. My math teacher didn't make any sense, so he wanted to make sure he could help in the best way possible.

I couldn't help but admire him as he zoned out into focus-mode. He chewed his lip in deep thought and his eyebrow furrowed with concern. He readjusted the glasses sitting on his face as he reexamined and marked the errors on my page.

"No, this is incorrect," he observed. His eyes were glued to my paper as his attention was immersed into the math. "The issue here is that you keep substituting x for the value of b and forget to check for extraneous solutions. See come look at this."

With one arm, he grabbed the leg of my chair and pulled my entire body weight closer to him with no struggle.

My thigh grazed his and I felt my breath hitch in my throat. My breathing became irregular as I tried to focus on the words coming out of his mouth, but I think I was currently just trying to focus on not having a panic attack.

Friends. Friends. Friends. We were just friends. He has a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend. He has a-

"Asha? Are you paying attention?" his voice snapped me out of my thoughts. All the sounds drowned back in as he stared at me confused.

"Yeah-yeah! Um so you said that I need to stop confusing x and b?"

"That, and make sure you watch for x intercepts. You're not awful you just forget sometimes," he clarified.

"Thanks so much. You're an absolute life saver," I smiled, collecting the corrected exam papers and stuffing them into my bag.

A low grumble rumbled out of my stomach and into the quiet library.

Damn I was hungry.

"You hungry?" Colton asked, already digging through his throw-on.

"Nah not really I'm fine-"I began to lie when I stopped in my tracks as he pulled out a lengthy sub. The glorious smell filled my nostrils and my stomach betrayed me by growling again.

With no words exchanged, Colton split the sandwich into two and gave me half.

"Thanks," I murmured, accepting the food.

I took a rough bite into the one of the gourmet sandwiches he had packed for our study session and moaned. Jesus Christ if having a personal chef that makes food this good was what it was like to be rich, I needed to get Jeff Bezos on the phone quick.

"Mmm please tell me you got this at Safeway so my cheap ass can actually buy it," I groaned, my tongue overwhelmed by the delicious flavors.

As he chewed his own politely, he shook his head with a closed-lip grin then swallowed. "Nope. This is all Arturo."

Arturo was Colton's family's childhood personal chef. Colton had known him ever since he was a kid, and would always bring the leftovers he made for dinner to school whenever I didn't have lunch.

"Is Arturo single?" I asked. Half serious, half not. I didn't want this flavorful experience to end. Oh the things I would do to taste another one of these sandwiches Arturo cooked up...

"Yeah, he actually is," he answered seriously.

I clapped loudly, jumping out of my seat then, went on one knee, and began to pray. "Thank you good God for Arturo and his blessed chef hands-- amen," I did the sign of the cross and clasped my hands together, retuning to my seat.

"Fucking a 50 year old for a sandwich doesn't sound too heavenly to me," Colton commented. I looked over at him and saw a badly concealed smile on his lips.

I hit his shoulder again. "You're going to hell. He's 50?"

"I'll see you there Satan."

I couldn't help but laugh as he joined me, his body buckling in a silent laugh.

As our laughing fit slowed, his eyes shifted to look at something near my mouth.

"What? What is it?" I asked, a smile still on my lips from the previous laughing fit.

"You got a little something-"

"Oh!" I began wiped around my lips to get whatever he was talking about, but I seemed to keep on missing as he shook his head whenever I wiped the wrong place.

"Here. I got it," he leaned in and we were inches apart. Caressing my chin, he reached forward with his thumb.

Against my will, memories of the closet incident came flooding back to me as his firm fingers caressed my jaw.

Brooke, with her face covered in his cum.

His fingers trailed towards my lips, grazing them ever so slightly.

The smirk dancing on his lips as he apologized, knowing he wasn't sorry. Knowing that in that moment- he used me to get off.

Finally, with his thumb, he wiped off the white glob sitting near my lips.

His fingers lingered for some seconds too long, as he seemed to be in a mere trance.

Fuck.

His powerful gaze, even though unwanted, seemed to do insane things to my body as I already felt myself heating up from just the look in his eyes. Tension was burning through me and I knew he could feel it too.

And that's when I saw in his eyes that he realized.

He realized his fingers were lingering too long.

He realized his eyes weren't in the right place; because they were staring at my lips.

And he realized we were close. Too close.

He quickly snatched his hand away and an awkward silence ensued. "Got it."

I looked down to my shirt and saw thick white mayo dripping down my chest. "Shit."

He cleared his throat. "I'll go get us some napkins." He got up and jogged to the nearby paper towel dispenser on the library wall.

The dispenser was a few feet away, on the other side of the library and his back was facing me.

"No no don't worry about it I got this," without thinking, I used my finger to scoop up the spilled condiment and licked it up with no issue. "Shit. That was gross, right?

"Not even close," he muttered to himself, still facing away from me.

He thought I couldn't hear him, but I did. What did he mean by that?

With paper towels in hand, he returned back to his seat and I noted the readjustment of his sitting position. He handed me the towels and I smiled thankfully.

"Thanks."

"Course." There was a quiet lull. "So did you hear about the game tomorrow?"

"Uhhh," I scrolled through my phone, checking the volleyball groupchat where they shared everything sports related. "Oh! The lacrosse one?"

"Yeah, you coming? I'm subbing in for Noah while he's in Rhode Island visiting his grandparents," he explained.

"You started up lacrosse again?"

He shrugged. "Passes the time."

"Jeez, I feel bad for the other team already," I sighed out. Colton was a beast at pretty much any sport he picked up.

A modest chuckle left his mouth as he shook his head. "Eh. We'll see."

"Ugh stop being so humble," i grumbled and he laughed.

"Well you can see how it turns out yourself if you come?" he suggested.

I nodded my head, thinking about it.