“I’m going to keep these here. Just in case you need them” Sarah whispered back.
“He’s here girls. Shaun is here” Jack yelled out to them from the living room. Heather knew then and there that no high-powered spectacle in the world would be able to save her from embarrassing herself in front of the hottest boy in town.
*****
Shaun walked in to the kitchen and Sarah got up from her seat immediately.
“We’ll leave you to it. Happy studying guys” Sarah said excitedly and dragged Jack out of the room. Heather was grateful for that since she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of other people. She remained sitting and averted Shaun’s gaze as he greeted her cheerily.
“I want to thank you again for doing this Heather” he said, sitting down on the chair where Sarah had been sitting. Only a few inches from Heather. She finally met his gaze and smiled at him weakly.
“I’ve brought my books but you are of course free to begin however you like” he continued and turned around in his seat to reach into the backpack he had placed on the back of the chair. Heather couldn’t speak still. She could smell the cotton freshness of him. She didn’t think boys smelt this nice. His skin was smooth and seemed to be glowing, while he kept flicking his messy hair out of his eyes. She could see a silver chain around his neck which disappeared under the thin material of his black t-shirt. He was all muscles and bones, not an ounce of extra flesh on his body. She had a sudden urge to run her fingers across his chest, just to feel his beating heart.
While Shaun fumbled around in his bag for his books, Heather shook her head to snap herself out of her day dreaming.
“Thanks Shaun. We can begin by discussing what you already know about the human cell” she found herself robotically saying. She had no idea where she had suddenly derived this new found strength in her voice from, but it sounded convincing enough. Shaun immediately turned around to look at her and smiled.
“So no shortcuts eh?” he asked and laughed. That smile again. Heather melted. She could feel a growing knot in the pit of her stomach as he continued to smile. She knew she should say something soon so that he didn’t think she was some sort of weirdo.
“No shortcuts” she said sternly, more sternly than she had intended to. He saluted and said “Yes Ma’am” with another laugh. Heather felt like she couldn’t go on. The very guy she had sniggered at, for being a dumb boxer, the school heartthrob she had avoided all her life, was leaving her dumbfounded.
She eyed the spectacle case beside her and quickly grabbed it, taking the glasses out of the box. She didn’t look back at him till she had put them on. Sarah was right, she couldn’t see a thing, let alone Shaun. She had an idea of the general direction he was sitting in and she tilted her head in that direction. The powerful lenses disoriented her and made her blind and in a strange way, distracted her from feeling nervous around him.
“I didn’t know you wear glasses” she heard him say. She didn’t want to think about what she looked like with those gigantic old-man glasses on her face.
“I only wear them at home, when I’m studying” she was surprised by how easily she said the words. It was suddenly like talking to an old friend.
“Cool” she heard him say. “They’re pretty retro”.
They both laughed at that. She didn’t feel like he was making fun of her.
She began their lesson by asking him a few questions on his basic knowledge on the subject of the biology assignment, which she soon realized was not in-depth at all. She didn’t need to look at a book to correct him on the points he made. She supplied him with more information and added details to the answers he was giving.
Shaun Hollister turned out to be a better student than she expected him to be. He asked her questions when he was confused and seemed to grasp the concept when she explained it to him. She could even hear him scribbling on his notepad and taking notes. She suddenly felt very important. Not to mention, she still couldn’t see and her eyes were beginning to hurt even though she kept them shut from time to time.
“You sure you don’t want to take them off?” he suddenly interrupted her in the middle of one of her lengthy lectures. He had caught her off-guard and she fell silent.
“I’m only asking since you’re not really looking at a book” he said and she could hear the smile in his voice. He did make a very fair point and she didn’t know how to react to that.
“I mean you don’t have to. You keep closing your eyes tightly and I keep thinking that those lenses are painful” he said, and this time he wasn’t making a joke.
Heather cleared her throat in response. She had no idea what she could say in terms of an explanation. If she did take her glasses off and saw his face again, she didn’t know how that would affect her senses again.
“Heather?” she heard his voice and bit down on her lip. “You okay?”
“Yeah I’m alright” she said quietly. The silence in the room was troubling. She could hear him breathe and her heart stopped when she heard the legs of his chair scrape against the floor. He was moving closer to her.
“Hey” she heard him say softly and was shocked when she sensed his hands reaching for her face. He was gently pulling the glasses off. Heather closed her eyes in fright, she had frozen again. Shaun pulled the glasses away and she finally opened her eyes to look at him. His face was close to hers, he had leaned in towards her. She couldn’t help but focus her fresh-seeing eyes on the curve of his pink delicious lips.
*****
They didn’t say a word for several seconds, while their faces remained only inches away from each other. She could feel his eyes on her, those large doe eyes that looked so innocent while they stared at her. Her attention remained on his lips, she knew she wanted to kiss them but she wasn’t going to make the first move, she didn’t even know what he wanted. Without any warning, Shaun tilted his face closer to her and she had no idea what was happening. When he placed his lips on hers Heather thought her heart was going to explode out of her chest. He didn’t do anything, just let his lips graze against hers till she closed her eyes and pressed back.
They were kissing. Their lips were squashed against each others and she could feel his hands rise up to grab her jaw. The knots in the pit of her stomach grew tighter as his hands travelled down, tracing her throat and then clenched the back of her neck.
“You guys want something to eat?” Jack’s voice interrupted them and they quickly parted.
“Hey, we’re ordering some pizza…do you…” Jack had entered the kitchen but immediately sensed that something was up. He looked at Shaun’s flushed face and then at Heather, who had hung her head low in embarrassment.
“What’s going on?” Sarah joined Jack at the kitchen door and she clearly got the same feeling as him.
“Heather?” she asked her friend.
“Yeah I could eat” Shaun saved the moment. That smile was back on his face and it was hard to tell that he had just been passionately kissing somebody.
“I’ll be heading home soon” Heather squeaked and they all turned to look at her.
“I have to babysit my sister” she tried to make up an excuse, although it was very clear to everybody in the room that she was grappling for a way out.
“Okay” Jack said quietly and turned on his heels back to the living room.
“Why don’t you just bring Kirsten over here?” Sarah asked but Heather shook her head.
“She needs to be in bed by eight” Heather said getting up from her chair. Shaun remained seated, he was looking at Heather, but there was worry in his eyes.
“You’re leaving now?” he asked her and she only nodded her head.
“It’s only six Heather” Sarah said as Heather pushed past her into the living room.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow” Heather said and walked to the room as Sarah followed her.
“What happened in there? Why didn’t you wear the glasses?” she hissed at her friend as Heather opened the front door to leave.<
br />
“I said I’ll talk to you tomorrow” she didn’t want to look at Sarah. She didn’t have to look in the mirror to know that her cheeks were red and burning up.
Heather opened the door and stepped out, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up again. Sarah stood at the door, leaning against the frame, too shocked by Heather’s behavior to put it in words.
“Hey wait! Heather” she froze in her spot when she heard Shaun’s voice. She slowly turned around to find him standing at the door as well, in front of Sarah.
“Thank you for your help Heather. I hope we can continue some other day?” his voice sounded apologetic and hopeful.
“Sure. I’ll let Jack know when I’m free” she said. She tried to not look at him directly, though she could sense that his eyes were boring into her.
“Today was very helpful. But I’m guessing I need a few more of your teaching sessions before my project looks worthy enough to be submitted” he added a nervous laugh in the end and Heather smiled weakly, though not at him directly.
“Yeah sure” she said and turned around and started walking away.
She dug her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt as she trudged along back to her house. She wanted to kick herself for being that stupid, to allow herself to be that vulnerable. Now she looked like a fool. She knew exactly what Shaun Hollister was like, which is why she stayed away. He was never without a girl hanging from his arm or drooling over him. Clearly, the only way he knew how to say thank you, to be grateful to a girl was by seducing her. He didn’t know how to be friends with a girl. All these thoughts were jumbled up in Heather’s brain as she continued homeward. She knew what the reality was. That Shaun had kissed her because he thought she wanted him to. And she totally fell for it. She had never before felt this much like an idiot.
“Hey honey, you’re back early” she heard her mother call out to her as she banged the front door shut.
“I thought you were staying at Sarah’s for dinner?” her mother asked as she hurried up the stairs to her room.
The last thing she needed was more questions. She shut the door behind her and jumped on her bed, pulling the covers over her head. Her phone buzzed near her face where it had landed and she touched the screen to bring it to life. Sarah has texted her, three times.
“What happened? Talk to me”
“Will you please tell me what’s wrong? I know you don’t need to babysit Kirsten tonight”
“He’s not staying for pizza. You should come over Heather”
She stared at her screen for a full five minutes before she started typing a response to Sarah.
“Ok. I’ll come over in half an hour. No questions please” she sent the text and sat up in bed. If nothing else, the company of Sarah might make her feel better, even though she didn’t want to discuss Shaun with her. The next step was for her to figure out how she could avoid running into Shaun Hollister again, in fact how to avoid giving him any more lessons.
*****
“So that’s all?” Sarah had managed to get the details out of Heather as they sat on her bed, with a box of pizza lying between them.
“That is a lot!” Heather threw her friend a nasty look in the middle of chewing her slice of pizza.
“Well, I would be on cloud nine right now if I were you” Sarah giggled, but immediately stopped when she realized that Heather was not sharing the joke.
“I would if I knew his intentions were innocent” Heather grimaced. The pizza helped. It calmed her down and she finally felt like a normal human being again.
“How can you be sure that his motives were questionable? You don’t know him that well Heather” Sarah said and leaned back on an upright pillow against the wall.
“Really? Really Sarah? You think Shaun Hollister was just dying to kiss me and he grabbed the opportunity then?” Heather rolled her eyes. Even as she said the words she felt sick and silly again.
“Why are you letting it affect you this much? Who cares why he kissed you? You at least have Shaun Hollister in your romantic history now” Sarah couldn’t help but giggle again.
“I’m humiliated Sarah! To think that he assumed he could repay my tutoring services with a kiss! I didn’t ask for it” Heather sat up straight on the bed, she was fuming.
“Okay calm down will you? You kissed him back though” obviously Sarah had not thought it through before she said it because it sent Heather in a tizzy.
“Are you serious right now? What was I supposed to do? I was living a fairytale. I’ve been dreaming about him since that party” Heather got up from the bed and started pacing the floor. Sarah remained silent, she was very close to giving up on calming her friend down.
“Anyway, why did he leave so suddenly? I thought he was going to stay over for pizza” Heather asked, disinterestedly.
“Dunno. He just said he has to go and left, about fifteen minutes after you” Sarah crunched on the last remaining bits of the pizza crust in her hand.
“See what I mean. His sole purpose was to come here, drain my brain and then leave” Heather stormed at her again.
“Or maybe he lost interest in staying here after you left?” Sarah asked, trying to drive in a glimmer of sense and hope into the conversation.
“Don’t be silly Sarah. As if” just as Heather said it, they heard a knock on Sarah’s bedroom door and Jack’s voice boomed through.
“We have a guest at our door girls. Someone’s been looking for you Heather” he said and they heard his footsteps descending the stairs.
“Who do you think it is?” Heather threw Sarah a nervous look even though they both had a sneaking suspicion who it could possibly be.
*****
Heather was still surprised to find Shaun standing at the front door when she came down the stairs with Sarah behind her. She had a feeling it would be him, with no hard evidence to back it. However, the surprise still hit her like a slap across her face. Only this time, she didn’t have Sarah’s grandfather’s glasses to save the moment. She had to look at him. He had a nervous look on his face. His backpack hung loosely behind him, while she noticed the bulge of his boxer’s arms. She wanted to feel them cradle her.
“Hi” he said to her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “I was wondering if we could talk”.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked him, genuinely surprised.
“I went over to your house, and your sister - whom you’re not babysitting, told me you’re here” he said with a wicked grin and Heather couldn’t help but blush.
“Yeah my mom decided to stay in after all, so I was free for the evening again” she managed to say, even though they both knew it was far from the truth.
“Sure. So can we talk for a bit?” he asked again and stretched his arm out, away from the door. Heather didn’t respond but brushed past him, out of the house, their bodies gently grazing against each other as she did that. It sent an electrical surge through her veins which she couldn’t ignore. She heard him say something to Jack who then shut the front door behind them.
Heather wanted to pull her hood up again, to hide her face, do anything to not have to look at Shaun directly. He looked serious, the smile was missing from his face.
“Hi” he said again and she relaxed a little.
“Hi” she replied, but averted his gaze still.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier. Especially if you didn’t want it to happen” he said and the words surprised Heather. An apology is not what she was expecting from Shaun Hollister.
“I wouldn’t say that I didn’t want it to happen. I just didn’t want you to do me a favor” she said, finally raising her head up to meet his eyes.
“A favor? You were the one doing me a favor by helping me with the project” Shaun said and he sounded sullen.
“But I didn’t need a thanks. Not in this way” she couldn’t keep the fury out of her voice and she could see that Shaun noticed it as well.
“What are you talking about Heather? I wanted to kiss
you. I’ve had a crush on you since we were kids. I just didn’t think you were interested in me” he said and Heather’s jaw dropped in shock.
“Since we were kids! And it took you this long?”
“You were always the brainy one and I knew you thought I was stupid. I could see it in your eyes, don’t try and deny it” Shaun said as Heather shook her head at first, but then gave up.
“I didn’t think you were stupid. I just didn’t see a whole lot of common ground between us” Heather said softly. She didn’t know if she was more happy than surprised, but she definitely was both.
“Well there you go…I knew you were’t interested. So when Jack said that he could convince you to help me with my project, you have no idea how excited I was” he continued and took a few steps towards her. Heather could feel her body shaking as he inched closer to her.
“So your kiss wasn’t some weird show of gratitude?” she asked him again, just to clarify. He laughed then and for the first time she could fully and openly appreciate his gorgeous smile.
“No, Heather. I wanted to kiss you. I want to kiss you” he was even closer now and she could feel his breath fall on her cheeks.
“Me too” she said and stood up on her toes. She didn’t have to try hard to reach his lips because he had bent his face down towards her. This time they kissed for longer, entangled their arms around each other’s bodies and Heather didn’t blush, as much.
*****
Heather was on the lower bunk bed trying to concentrate on one of the several books they had been assigned for the Biology classes in college. She knew she should be getting a head-start on the books if she wanted to keep pace and stay ahead of the rest of the near-genuinses who were her classmates. But she couldn’t concentrate, Shaun Hollister filled her mind. His lips, that smile, his dirty blonde hair and the inevitable boxing success he was going to become in the next few months. There was no stopping him. He had already reached State levels and very soon, especially with the backing of his new college…only the sky was the limit for him.
Sucker for the Boss Page 23
