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“Aubrey, you’re more than qualified. Trust me. Most of the team takes classes you could probably teach better than the actual professors. And, honestly, no one is expecting you to turn any of the guys into straight-A students. The guys you’ll be tutoring just need to pass their classes to remain eligible to play. I already talked to Coach and told him about you. He said the job is yours if you want it.”
Aubrey hugs the laptop to her chest and gets a far off look in her eyes. When she goes to squeeze at her fingers in that way she does, I try to get her attention by pulling her eyes to mine by gently tilting her chin.
“Hey, you don’t need to make any decisions this second. But I wanted you to have options. You have the whole world in front of you, Aubrey. You deserve to live exactly the life you want to. Plus, I got cleared to play football again, so if you tutor the team, we’d get to hang out more. Hell, I could probably use some tutoring myself.”
Aubrey lets out a shy laugh. I run my thumb lightly across her jaw and Aubrey closes her eyes and lets her head melt into my palm a little.
When I told Mom and Dad about Aubrey’s situation, they were a little concerned, but just like I knew they would, they were more than willing to help. The tutoring job was actually Dad’s idea and Mom came up with the idea to charge her such a small amount of rent. The part I didn’t share with Aubrey is that Mom’s plan is to take the rent payments and safely invest them, then give the money back to Aubrey when she’s ready to move into her own place.
“Thank you, Emmett, but I don’t think I can accept these as gifts. Let me pay you for them, please. You’ve already given me so much,” she says, opening her eyes and looking into mine.
“Aubrey, please, let me do this for you.”
Aubrey sighs in defeat and I smile, knowing I’ve won this battle.
“Thank you, so much Emmett. Truly, you’re a really good friend.”
I try to hide the disappointment on my face, but that one little word, friend. It’s like a hot knife to my heart. Dammit, I don’t want to be just Aubrey’s friend. I want so much more than that. But I guess, right now, what she really needs most is a friend.
So, I guess, for now at least, I’ll be the best damn friend she’s ever had.
Chapter twenty-two
Aubrey
Emmettwasn’tjoking.Someof the guys on the football team desperately needed a tutor. Let’s be honest though, most of them are smart enough. Sometimes I feel more like a glorified babysitter whose only responsibility is keeping the guys on task and making sure their work actually gets done.
“Guys, shut the hell up and work on whatever Aubrey told you to work on,” Emmett says before burying his nose back in his textbook.
Emmett’s been coming to all the tutoring sessions, even though I don’t think he needs any help. It’s been four weeks since I left my parents’ house. My old phone is still sitting in a drawer with a dead battery, so I really don’t know if they’re worried, angry, or even looking for me. I try not to think about it, which has been pretty easy since I’ve been so busy. Between starting classes at Pinehurst, working for Bea still and tutoring the guys on the team, I’ve hardly had time to think about my parents, let alone dwell on it. But every once in a while something will remind me of them, of that life that I lived only a month ago but somehow feels like decades ago.
“Awe, the tutor's pet is getting grumpy,” says Josh, a sophomore on the defensive line that is barely passing his American history class.
I get up from the table I’m at where I was helping a few guys with their calculus and beeline for Josh’s table, intercepting Emmett, whose fists are balled at his side.
“Josh, why don’t you show me your paper and we can see where you can improve on it,” I say as I sit down next to Josh and shake my head at Emmett.
Emmett takes the hint and goes back to his seat with a sour look on his face. I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing. The team isn’t afraid to tease Emmett about our friendship and he’s grown increasingly more irritated with it these past few weeks. I’ve gotten used to ignoring it because if I don’t, it just leaves me with too many questions.
I thought there was some type of connection between us, but he hasn’t even tried to kiss me. We’re practically living together now. The plan was for him to go stay at his parents’ house while I lived in the loft at the barn, but every night one of us makes up a lame excuse about why it would just be easier for him to crash at the barn. We stopped making excuses a week ago and choose to not even talk about it anymore instead. We spend every night in the same bed, but with an invisible barrier between us. We fall asleep with plenty of room in the middle, but there’s been more than one morning of waking up in a mess of tangled limbs. Only to untangle ourselves awkwardly and not even acknowledge the closeness.
My phone, which I’m still learning how to use, chimes rhythmically on the table next to me.
“Eleven O’clock guys. I’ll see everyone tomorrow morning at nine,” I say as I shove my phone into my pocket.
The pocket of jeans that fit me properly, that I’ve paired with a black bodysuit today. I was worried when I tried on this outfit while shopping with Taylor and Madison that the bodysuit was way too tight, but they both talked me into buying it. Or, rather, letting Emmett buy it for me. The slack jawed look and mumbling I got from Emmett this morning when I came downstairs made me both confident and more self conscious. I’m still getting used to the fact that I have a body and that it’s okay to show it off.
Emmett walks up next to me and casually loops his arm around my shoulders.
“Come on. I’ll walk you out,” he says.
We walk like this out to the parking lot where the scooter from Bea’s is waiting for me. When I came back to work after leaving my parents, I spilled my guts to her for a few hours. She was sympathetic where I needed it and appropriately pissed off at my parents and the church. Then went into action thinking of anything she could to help me with my transition. The first thing she did was offer to let me use the scooter full time until I can save up for a car. She also gave me a raise that I tried to deny. But, once Bea’s made up her mind on something there’s little anyone can do to change it. She also told me it was justified and I would have gotten it soon regardless of my situation so that made me feel a little better.
Emmett pulls on the shoulder straps of the backpack he’s wearing that carries both of our books while I put on my helmet.
“So, I’ll see you tonight then?” I ask as I climb onto the moped seat.
Emmett rubs the back of his neck. I’ve learned over the past few weeks he only does this when he’s nervous. This can’t be good.
