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Falling For Autumn
Falling For Autumn 1
Autumn
Witheachminutethat ticked by, Autumn’s annoyance grew. She looked down at the paper on the table in front of her. At first, she’d wanted to turn down this tutoring gig. There was nothing worse than having to try to help an entitled jock who thought she should do all the work because he was too busy working on his biceps to care about the most important muscle, his brain.
As much as she wanted to hesitate taking the job when it popped up in the app, she knew if she waited too long, it would be taken. Tutor jobs didn’t last long before someone snatched them. It was best to take them as soon as they appeared. Autumn hoped her first assessment about him was wrong, that he really wanted to try. Given that he was already ten minutes late, however, showed her that he didn’t take this seriously. She had too much to do to waste ten minutes waiting on him.
Autumn almost had enough money for the trip this summer. The one she would take before college. She was currently dual enrolled in high school and college classes at the same time. Smart enough to tutor college students. She had been doing this since she was fourteen and learned early on not to disclose her age, as they didn’t take her seriously if they knew.
When she heard the door swing open, Autumn turned her head that direction. She was sure that had to be him. Tall and broad shouldered with a perfectly symmetrical face. His sandy-blond hair was damp as if he just showered. He looked around like he was lost. He probably hadn’t even stepped foot in the library since his freshman orientation. Autumn lifted her hand and waved.
He looked down at his paper before he saw her. Autumn groaned silently before leaving the comfort of her seat to steer him in the correct direction. As she grew closer, his musky-leather scent hit her. He must have doused himself in body spray. That was what her brother always did before leaving the house.
“Are you Kolson?” She asked when she was close enough to speak without being too loud for a library. He was quite a bit taller than she’d expected.
He looked from his paper with a furrowed brow. “Autumn?” His voice was loud and it carried. Did he not realize this was a library?
“That’s me. I already grabbed us a spot. All the study rooms were taken.” She motioned to the table.
“Great, nice to meet you, Autumn.” He adjusted his backpack then held out his hand like he wanted her to shake it, but she didn’t like touching people. Especially if she didn’t know the last time he washed his hands or the last thing he touched. However, she wanted to be polite. She put her palm against his. His was hand so large, it felt like it was swallowing hers. He wasn’t bad to look at, but Autumn wasn’t here to check out boys.
After she let go of his hand, she discreetly wiped her palm over her jeans. They made their way to the table where her open laptop sat. When Kolson pulled out a chair it screeched across the floor. Autumn looked behind her to see if the librarian would say something. After he flopped down in the chair, he unzipped his backpack just as noisily. He seemed to be concentrating hard on whatever he was fishing for. He pulled out a book, one single sheet of loose paper that was crumpled from being thrown in his backpack without a folder. He then proceeded to pull a pencil from it and went in again, this time coming out with a granola bar.
Was this guy serious? He began to unwrap that granola bar. The foil package crinkled louder than she’d ever heard foil crinkle before. Again, Autumn glanced at the librarian, who was shuffling through a stack of books at the front desk. She didn’t seem to hear any of it. Autumn was surprised.
“What are you working on?” She cleared her throat. It was always awkward with them at first. It wasn’t because Kolson was attractive. It was always weird to think of how much older they were than her. Not that she wasn’t a college student herself. She had enough credits to be a sophomore in college. She just didn’t have her high school diploma, yet.
“I guess I have to write a paper.” Kolson brought her out of her thoughts. He crunched on his granola bar. It seemed to echo inside his hollow head.
“You guess?” That wasn’t promising if he didn’t even know what he was supposed to do. When Autumn pulled his textbook toward her, it was stuffed with loose papers that were crinkled around the edges. How did he find anything he needed? “What kind of paper?”
“I dunno,” he said after swallowing a large bite. “Argumentative?” He said it like a question as if she were supposed to know.
How was she supposed to help him if he didn’t even have a clue? “Do you own a folder?”
He shoved the last bite of granola bar in his mouth and shrugged. Then he held up a finger, wiped his hands on his legs, and pulled the book toward him.
Autumn curled her lip in disgust. He shuffled through the mess of papers in the book and pulled out one that was not quite as crumpled.
“Here.” He smiled as if he was a little kid who’d accomplished a big task.
She took the paper from him with the tip of her thumb and finger, then sat it on the table before her. She wanted to smooth it, but also didn’t want to touch it anymore than she needed. As she began to read the assignment rubric, there was a loud crackling noise. She looked up to see Kolson’s head completely tipped back while gulping down water from a plastic bottle. His Adam’s apple bobbed and the bottle crinkled down to nothing. What was with this guy and all the noise?
When he brought the water down, he leaned back in his chair, popping the two front legs off the ground. He scratched his chest, then seemed to notice her watching. “What?”
She shook her head and looked at the paper again. His chair landed with a thud when he sat upright. He crumbled his trash in his large fist, stood, and walked to the trashcan. She wanted to snap at him to be quiet, like she would her brother, but then she’d only be adding to the noise herself.
As Autumn turned her attention back toward the rubric, he flopped down in his chair. When he scooted forward, she cringed at the screeching sound the legs of the chair made against the tile floor.
“What do you think?” He leaned forward. His elbows rested on the table. Did this guy know nothing about personal space?
When Autumn looked at him, she slid her chair back to create space between them. “What do you mean?” She had no idea why he was asking her what she thought of his assignment. It was a regular argumentative essay.
“Can you do that?” He nodded toward the paper. It took her a second to realize what he was saying. She shouldn’t have been surprised. He wasn’t the first jock who had assumed the word ‘tutor’ meant ‘cheat.’
“I don’t …”
