He shifted uncomfortably and leaned over to the backpack he had slung over onto the floor beside himself. He pulled out a beer and opened it with crisp hiss, chugging down a large gulp of it before popping the back of Cheetos open.
“Help me figure that out," Zach shrugged. “That's why I'm here.”
“How am I supposed to help you if you don't want to make any effort for yourself?” Michelle demanded. “That's not how tutoring works.”
“Don't you want to land Levi?” Zach asked, his deep blue eyes gleaming in the lamp light. She thought she could make out flecks of silver and gold in them the longer she met his gaze.
“That doesn't matter – I can't tutor you if you don't actually let me help you out. What are you going to do for the rest of your life if you just depend on everyone else to do your work for you?”
“Lots of people do that, it's why I'm studying business!” Zach said pointedly. “I'll have something to fall back on when football is over.”
“Right, smart idea in theory, but if you're not actually learning anything in your business class, how successful do you think you're going to be?”
“Football will get me plenty of money to coast on,” Zach pointed out.
“That's only if you get scouted for a professional team. What if you get an injury and can't play football anymore? What are you going to do, rely on Alissa's professional cheerleading, aka, waitressing, salary to pay for your Cheetos?”
Zach fumed but he didn't fight her any more about it. He pulled the book glumly to himself and started to read where Michelle told him to, leaving half an hour later, claiming a headache. Michelle watched him leave, shaking her head in frustration. Some people couldn't be taught, she decided. And Zach was surely one of them.
***
The next night, Zach returned to her dorm room and they had a study session much like the first. The first step was to get him to actually read the essays, when he had only read one of them. If he was able to finish them, then he could pick a stance and start his paper. But she quickly got tired of him expecting her to do his thinking for him, and told him not to come back until he had finished reading the essays. Until then she had her own work to do.
With that, she showed him out and left to go to the food court, where she ran into Levi. His head was bent over a notepad and he was scribbling furiously, glancing from time to time at one of the stalls as a scowling woman handed out hot dogs.
“Hey Levi,” she said, approaching cautiously. She didn't want to interrupt his work flow, but she was also burning with curiosity. If he replied tersely, she would leave him alone. If he used more than one word, she would pursue conversation.
“Hi Michelle,” he said, glancing up briefly to smile at her. She took it as a good sign and sat down across from him.
“What are you writing about?” she asked. She could only imagine the scathing words jumping to life on the paper.
“That woman dropped a hotdog on the floor and served it. I called her out and she treated me like I didn't have eyes in my own head. So I'm reporting on it.”
“Oh, I see,” Michelle said, hiding a smile. Levi was so passionate.
“How are you?” Levi asked. “Tiffany told me you're tutoring Zach Morrison.”
“Yes I am,” she said with a heavy sigh.
Levi scoffed and glanced up at her.
“Tough break. How'd he talk you into it?”
Michelle suddenly found herself blushing. Levi had his nose back down into his notebook though, so he didn't seem to notice.
“He's annoyingly persuasive,” she said vaguely, shaking her head to herself. That boy was way too used to the world bowing down to him and worshipping the ground that he walked on. If she was able to resist his charms, maybe it would have brought him down a peg, at least enough to make him seem a bit less obnoxious.
“I know what you mean,” Levi said, suddenly closing his notebook and pushing his chair back. He stretched, buckling his lean chest out and leaning his head back against his hands. “That guy has everyone on the team jumping through hoops for him. They basically worship the ground he walks on. It's so demented. And girls follow him like they're brain-dead!”
“I have a feeling talking to Zach long enough would make anybody brain-dead,” Michelle said, feeling a twinge of guilt. He was actually trying really hard now that she had told him to read the essays. He had even caught her completely off guard with a surprisingly in-depth analysis of one of the author's main points. He was a lot smarter than he let on.
However, her unkind comment elicited a laugh from Levi.
“You can count on that,” he said. “Are you busy? Want to sit down?”
“No, I'm not busy,” Michelle lied. In truth, she had been on the way to the library to get a book she needed for her own term paper. But she was on top of things enough to take a small break, at least for Levi. She sat down across from him, lost in his dark eyes and charming smile.
“You know, I knew Zach for years,” Levi said. “We go way back.”
This was news to Michelle. She looked at Levi in surprise.
“Wow, really? I didn't know that. How did you two meet?”
Levi was quiet for a moment before answering.
“I played football. Not quarterback or anything, but I was on the team for a little while in high school.”
“That's crazy, I had no idea! You two went to the same high school? You're like night and day, how strange.”
Levi nodded.
“Anyway I just know how he is. He's a total jerk. He always plays women and expects people to fall all over him and praise him just for walking into the room.”
Levi sounded especially bitter, and Michelle was surprised. Levi usually seemed so calm. Maybe something bad had happened between the two of them.
“Yeah, he's not very considerate of other people,” Michelle agreed. She glanced at the clock and frowned. The library would be closing soon. Suddenly, her phone vibrated in her pocket and she nearly gasped out loud in surprise. She was relieved that she didn't, she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Levi. She took it out to see who it was and found a text from Zach.
“Sry. Finished reading. Come bk?”
She heaved a heavy sigh and slung her bag back over her shoulder.
“Oh, you're leaving already?” Levi asked, his face falling. Michelle was secretly heartened by his disappointment.
“Thanks for taking some time to hang out Levi,” she said, giving him her most dazzling smile. “But the meat head awaits.”
Levi snorted and shook his head.
“Good luck with that,” he said.
She left him at the table and he went back to scribbling furiously in his notebook.
Chapter 6
Michelle headed back to her dorm room, a nervous knot in her stomach. Things had ended kind of badly with Zach the last time she'd seen him but he was in a cheerful mood. Something had gotten him excited.
“I figured out what to write my paper on!” Zach exclaimed. Michelle couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. She had been trying for this long to get him to take his school work seriously that it was extremely rewarding to feel like he had finally taken her advice seriously. And she could tell he really had finished reading the essays and put some thought into them.
She leaned back on her bed, listening as he spoke excitedly about his train of thought as he had read the essays, and how he was able to relate them to his own experiences, not only as a football player but as an all around person, who he was as a son and a brother. He went far with his idea, and when he finished speaking, he looked suddenly vulnerable and fragile, as if Michelle would laugh at him for speaking out about anything but football.
He looked at her curiously, his face tense, but there was something written on her face that was hard for him to read. She looked beautiful, actually, sitting there casually, leaning back with her full breasts pushing against her simple blouse, taking her glasses off, tucking them up on top of her head to grin
up at him. She had a really, really nice smile, and he found himself staring unexpectedly at the beautiful glow her face took on as she digested what he was telling her.
“I think that's a really good idea, Zach,” she said, leaning forward and clasping her hands together. “I want you to go into your room, right now, or if it's too hard to focus in there, come in here with your laptop and write it all out. That's going to be your term paper. You know how to do the thesis and everything right?”
He nodded uncertainly and she smiled comfortingly. “Well anyway, just write and I'll help you organize it later, okay?”
Zach grinned and bounced out of her room and into his own, and closed the door.
Not long after that, she heard a knock on his door and Allie's voice ringing through the walls, telling him all about a party that night, or the two of them could stay in and... Michelle groaned, thinking that she would have to listen to grunts and moans for the rest of the night, but she was filled with pride and relief when she heard Zach's voice firmly telling Allie that he was busy and that he would see her around. Allie slammed his door behind her and stalked down the hallway, and Michelle high-fived the wall of Zach's room before getting a grip on herself. So what if he turned Allie down? They would be back at it next week once the term paper was handed in.
She sighed, unable to get her mind off Zach. When he was passionate, which he so often was, it was so hard to keep her eyes off of him. He exuded so much radiant energy that her whole little dorm room had seemed to light up with his excitement. She had never spent so much time with somebody so dynamic and magnetic before. Why was it so much harder to remember how annoying he was when he was being so...well...sweet?
Michelle leaned back in her bed, chalking it up to one of life's great mysteries. All she knew was that she was glad she could help him, and that deep down inside, even though her friends would probably think that she was crazy, she always cheered for him when he was out on the field and scored a goal.
Chapter 7
Michelle and Zach worked hard on perfecting his term paper, and waited anxiously for the results. Zach hadn't made any mention of upholding his end of the deal, after all, he thought pretty lowly of Levi and in some way or another, thought that Michelle was too good for him and could find a much better nerd to be with, but he knew that they would have to get around to his side of the bargain too.
One afternoon, Michelle was summoned to the door by loud, intense knocking. She opened the door, concerned, and slapped Zach on the shoulder when she realized it was just him, bouncing up and down like a happy child.
“God, I thought they were evacuating the building or something!”
Zach laughed. They had actually had to do this a couple of times already. Most of the time, the co-ed kids, particularly the sporty ones, would get a little bit too rambunctious and cause a lot of problems. There had been popcorn explosions, stink bombs, fires, and even a threat of poisonous gas just since they had moved in next door to each other. Zach himself had caused an evacuation when he called to complain about the mysterious smell in his room, only to discover it was Michelle's revenge bologna. He knew it had been her but he didn't narc on her to the school board, instead opting to take the brief reprimand about cleanliness.
He could hear Michelle laughing her heart out through the walls, and even though it was annoying, her laughter had been contagious and he had simply escorted the men out of his room once the situation was under control before he found himself bursting out laughing himself.
“No, something great happened though. Come on, grab your jacket. I'm taking you out!”
“Taking me out? Zach, where -”
“Come on!” he said excitedly, hopping from one foot to another eagerly. He was clenching some papers in his hand and she felt she had no choice. She grabbed her jacket and keys and followed him out of the building.
“Get in,” he said with a smile, motioning to his convertible. She had never been in a car that fancy before, especially not with a man so attractive, and felt like the whole campus was watching their every move with curiosity. Zach seemed oblivious so she got in before anybody could make a big deal of it to their faces, or his good mood wore off. For some reason she was excited to see what he had in mind.
“This is kind of weird,” Michelle said.
“No, just relax. I'm taking you out and you're just going to have to deal with it.”
She quirked a smile at him and he grinned back. The wind whipped back his golden hair and they drove outside of campus and to an area she had only visited once or twice since she moved into the dormitories. It was a fancy area of a suburban neighborhood, with a sunny strip mall. First he pulled into a restaurant and parked there, leading her inside. They enjoyed lunch together, and finally, after ordering his food and telling Michelle to get whatever she wanted, Zach told her the cause for celebration.
“My teacher loved the term paper,” he said, handing the crumpled paper over to her. She read the teacher's scrawled writing, urging Zach to submit the essay to the school paper. “I mean, I'd never submit it, that would be nerdy, but isn't that great? I feel so...I mean I can stay in football!”
Zach was beaming at her.
“It's not that nerdy, the teacher thinks you could inspire the student body to-”
“Screw that,” he said, interrupting her. The implication of having his essay published seemed to terrify him. What would his friends say? It was best to keep this a secret between the two of them. All everybody else would need to know was that he had passed his term paper and could play in the championships.
“All right Zach, whatever you say. But I read the essay too, I think it would really be inspirational if you shared it. You have a lot of great things to say, and maybe people would start to see more to you than just the football star.”
“Nobody needs to see more to me than that, it's all I want to be. And now I can play in the championship game! It's all thanks to you,” he said, surprising them both by taking her hand. “Thank you.”
“You could have done this on your own, Zach, if you wanted to. I just lit a fire under your ass so to speak,” she said, blushing. She pulled her hand out of his, feeling suddenly very shy and annoyed at herself for enjoying his attention so much.
She could tell that he was proud of his work, and being praised by a teacher was something new and rewarding to him, but he was too embarrassed to admit it to anyone. She knew the look though, she had it often enough herself. It always felt good to have your intelligence praised. Poor Zach wasn't used to it, though he could have been if he had cared as much about school as he did about football.
“Still, it's time for me to hold up my own end of the bargain.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, quirking her eyebrow at Zach.
“We're going to turn you into a hot chick,” he said, his eyes glimmering.
“What are you talking about?” Michelle asked, laughing. Zach grinned. With a smile like hers, it wouldn't be that hard.
“Come on, I'll show you.”
***
Zach dragged her to a designer clothing store in the mall.
“I want you to buy at least three outfits here,” he said. “This place is super popular right now, and I think it would be conservative enough to get you a date with that Levi guy.”
“Levi said you two went to high school together,” Michelle said as they walked through the aisles. “Oh my god Zach, I can't afford any of this!”
“No, no,” Zach laughed. “I can. I promise.”
“I don't want you to deplete from your beer fund,” Michelle said wryly.
Zach grinned.
“Don't worry, Nerd Love, you'll never touch my beer fund.”
She shook her head, biting back her smile before he could see it and think that he had charmed her, and they spent about an hour in the store together, laughing and picking out outfits for Michelle. She wanted to stick with sensible things, but Zach pushed her into trying on a dress and she secretly loved i
t, though she didn't let him see. It was too embarrassing and weird.
“Okay, next I want you to come with me into this department,” he said, leading her by the arm, “where this lady will help you figure out which colors of makeup suit you the best. I'm going to go get a slice of pizza and come pick you up here, all right? She'll show you a little bit of what to do and I can show you the rest back at the dorm.”
“How in the world do you know how to do makeup?” Michelle laughed.
“I was also in the drama club,” he said with a wink. The unspoken truth resonated between them as well – he'd had many, many women around long enough to pick up a trick or two. There was nothing to prevent him from gleaning some makeup knowledge over the years.
“Anyway, you have fun with Marcia over there and I'll be back soon and we can grab you some contacts, or glasses with a thinner frame for you.”
Zach gave her a little wave before disappearing around the corner, and her eyes lingered after him. Somehow she found herself missing his company as Marcia helped her to figure out that she was someone who worked well with a “fall” color scheme, and she learned a few tips and tricks from the kind older woman, who Zach seemed to know well. When he came back, he winked at Marcia and led Michelle out of the store, into another where they refitted her lenses into nicer frames and got a pair of contacts just in case.
“What do you know about flirting?” he asked when they were back in his convertible.
“Basically all I know is that I've never done it,” she said with a blush. Zach suddenly slammed on the breaks and zoomed into an exit. A car honked at him and he smiled and waved at them. It did nothing to appease the other drivers, but it made Michelle laugh.
“That was dangerous.”
“Yeah, but we didn't die or anything. No problem.”
They drove in pleasant silence for a few minutes and headed into a wooded area.
“What is this place?” she asked, looking around.
“It's a park, conservatory place. Protected from poaching and stuff like that. The forest is safe. There are trails and tables. We have to practice.”
Romance: Zach (A College Bad Boy Romance) Page 54
