AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"People who don't have money," I explain and exhale loudly as if I was carrying a vast heavy backpack and have finally dropped it.
For a couple of moments, he simply stares at me without even blinking or saying anything. And this time, I try to hold his gaze.
"First of all, I do not treat you differently because I'm paying you," he begins, clearing his throat. "I speak to you like that because studying literature is boring, and trying to piss you off is fun."
He gives me a satisfied smile, and I widen my eyes involuntarily at how brazenly he confesses that he likes to piss me off.
I open my mouth to say something, but he continues. "And before you start yelling at me again, I have to remind you that making studying interesting and not boring is your responsibility."
"What?" I grab a notebook from the table and hit Dominic's shoulder with it. "My lessons are not boring!"
He laughs, but when I try to hit him a second time, he grabs my hand in the air to make me stop, his fingers wrapped around my wrist. I want to escape, but he only squeezes harder, pulling me toward him, and now we're inches apart.
Our eyes lock. I feel his warm breath on my skin. He probably ate citrus earlier because he smells like mandarin and mint gum. I swallow, afraid of what he may do.
"I'm glad you know how to smile, teacher," he whispers, and only then do I realize that I was smiling while hitting him. Luckily, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm too shocked to express any emotion but fear, to be honest. "I almost believed you're a robot."
And then he finally lets my hand free and, instead of feeling the relief I expected, I feel emptiness and incompleteness, for some reason.
I pull away and take a look at my notes about Jane Austen and other books I wanted to discuss with him, and then realize that retelling all the books he should've read must be dull for real. But what can I do?
"You have to motivate me somehow, Serena," Dominic says right away as if reading my thoughts once again. "This is how my boxing coach does it: He lets me drink water only after I do a set of exercises."
"What?" I widen my eyes. "But that's torture! And I'm almost sure that's illegal."
"Maybe so, but it's effective." He smiles again. "And if you want me to work, I need some motivation from you as well."
As I look into his sly blue eyes, I realize that I have two options: to tell him to fuck off and continue studying the way I prepared it or to agree on his terms and maybe become a better tutor.
"Okay," I agree, setting the notebook to the side. "If you readGreat Expectationsby Charles Dickens and make a deep analysis of this book—your own analysis, and not the one you find on the Internet—I'll help you with an essay for Mr. Spaulding."
A satisfied smile appears on his face immediately, even though he's obviously surprised.
"Thank you for not treating me like an asshole anymore," he finally says, and now it's my turn to be surprised.
"I wasn't..." I start.
"You were," he interrupts. "Stop denying it. I was trying to piss you off, and you were treating me as if I'm the dumbest guy on Earth. Admit it, and let's move on."
I don't respond to that, and it doesn’t seem to be necessary because, after that conversation, Dom starts listening to what I say more attentively, and he’s more involved in the lesson, asking questions and making notes. The studying goes so fast I don’t even notice how the time is flying. And only when my alarm rings do I realize that it’s time to go to my other job.
Chapter Six
Dominic
Why am I here?I ask myself a thousand times. And still, I'm not leaving, sitting inside my car right in front of the house Serena lives in, on the other side of the street, overlooking her front door perfectly in case she comes back early.
She told me she couldn't meet me today, even though we agreed to have lessons every day until the exam. It's only been a week since we started studying, but it already feels like I've known her for a year.
I should be thrilled that I have a day off from those boring English literature classes, but I'm upset for some unexplained reason. More precisely, I feel empty inside. The emptiness I’ve been trying to get rid of for the last year has come back again. The one I never feel when Serena is near.
I can't explain it, but since the day we started studying, I’ve begun to sincerely smile again—not for the public eye, but for real, from the bottom of my heart.
Serena makes me laugh. She makes every day beautiful, even if it’s been a really shitty one. She simply lights up everything around her when she smiles, especially when she smiles in shyness and her cheeks go red, and she starts biting her lips. And I want to bite them too.
By the way, she smiles more often now, since we decided not to piss off each other anymore. Sometimes I pretend I don't understand something for her to repeat it. And then I retell her everything, and she smiles, happy that I got it. I know it's a little unfair because she could tell me more if she didn't have to repeat everything three times, but what can I do? The moments when she smiles are the best.
Somehow, Serena makes mewantto study. It's like I want to become a better student simply to make her happy and feel like a good tutor because I see how proud she is of herself when I get it right. And, for some reason, I want her to feel that way more often.
