by David Horne
What Tony didn't see but Professor Kilian saw was the small smile half-hidden behind Sebastian's hand.
Chapter Two
Another D stared back at Tony, his shoulders slumped nearly to the table.
Sebastian was staring at him from the corner of his eye. He knew why Professor Kilian placed the blonde man next to him, Tony was known for being bubbly and very talkative. The man was clearly struggling and he did feel bad for him.
"Sebastian, Anthony please stay behind after class." Professor Kilian requested with a smile, to let them know that it wasn't bad. Sebastian knew what it was about, as the professor had talked to him already.
After class, Anthony was shuffling his feet and casting sideways glances to Sebastian who was standing slouched as he always did, eyes solely on their professor.
Anthony was wearing a large oversized white hoodie that had what Sebastian thought could either be real paint splatters or the man had found a paint spatter pattern hoodie somewhere. His money was on it being actual paint. He also wore light gray skinny jeans with black high tops. He looked as angelic as he always did when Sebastian saw him either on campus or in class. His blonde hair and big brown eyes always caught his attention.
Casting another glace at Anthony he sighed through his nose and looked back at their professor as he finally finished answering a student, he asked that the door be closed behind them. When they were alone it became clear that Anthony was still nervous.
And he was, he had also been giving Sebastian side glances as they waited. The man had dark faded black ripped skinny jeans, his customary combat boots, and a slightly baggy black shirt, it looked like it had been stretched with time, like a beloved shirt. It looked very comfy. Sebastian had his hair tied in a low tail at the base of his skull, it brought his sharp features out more and Anthony felt his fingers twitch again with the urge to draw or paint the man.
"Right, I asked you both to stay behind because I want to have a word with you two." Anthony frowned at that, Sebastian was at the top of their class, why was he here?
Professor Kilian looked at both of them. Sebastian was in his slouched stance, it screamed that he was a delinquent and had no respect for his teachers but Kilian knew Sebastian better than that. He knew he was one of the hardest working students he will ever have.
Anthony was trying his best. He could see it but he knew that the young man had a very busy schedule and didn't have enough time to come to grips with all he needed to learn. He was failing sadly and Kilian didn't want the young man to fail his entire year.
"I have noticed that you're struggling Anthony. So, I talked to Sebastian here and he agreed to help tutor you. I know you have a very busy schedule already but this is a must as you’re failing and we know you need this class to pass. I'm sure you and Sebastian can find a time slot to suit you both." Anthony blinked owlishly at his professor then looked up at Sebastian and blinked again.
Sebastian was hard-pressed to keep the smirk off his lips after seeing the downright adorable blinking face.
"You'd do that for me?" The pure joy in Anthony's voice made a lump form is Sebastian's throat. Not a lot of people used such a happy tone with him
He nodded and looked down at his feet.
Their professor dismissed them and they walked to the closest coffee shop but Sebastian kept walking, confused Tony followed after. They walked for a bit, leaving the campus entirely, they entered a small yet warm little coffee shop. They got a table almost immediately when a waitress spotted him.
They were handed menus once they were seated. Tony looked through the menu and was amazed at all of the tasty looking dishes and drinks.
"Do you come here often?" The question made Sebastian lift his head from where he was browsing the menu.
"Yeah, I come here often." Was the short reply. Tony hummed and looked at the menu again. "What would you recommend?" Tony hoped he could at least get on good terms with Sebastian, he was going to be his tutor after all
At first Tony thought he was going to be ignored but then a pale hand gripped the top of his menu and lowered it to the table, said hand's long finger tapped a few dishes, the deep voice of Sebastian explaining in a better detail of the food than the menu.
The waitress came back, smile on her face with a notepad and pen at the ready. "Same as always Sebastian?" Her voice was cheerful and friendly, how friends talked to one another. Tony took a closer look at her and saw that she could have easily been in the same social circle as Sebastian, they both hard black dyed hair, the girl wore very dark makeup and had two lip piercings on opposite sides of her lower lip.
Sebastian made a confirming grunt of noise but the girl didn't even blink at the reply her pale green eyes shifted to land on Tony and he had to admit the make-up made the young woman's eyes look very intimidating.
Tony stammered his order but the girl just smiled kindly at him and left to go place their order.
When the waitress and the menus were gone, Sebastian looked at Tony and sighed. "Do you have any open slots in your week you can maybe give up? I'd prefer something after classes, we should probably also meet up at the library" Tony nodded along with all that Sebastian said.
"I have two days that have open slots, we can go to the library then…" They discussed it in more detail, came to a decision just as the food came. As they ate, Tony continued to ask small questions but Sebastian either answered very vague or dodge the question.
The bill came and Sebastian swiped it before Tony could see the amount. Sebastian paid for them both and they stood outside for a few awkward moments before Sebastian shrugged his bag straps onto his shoulders more securely before he murmured a soft good-bye.
Tony watched him leave, a frown marring his face as he watched the slumped shoulders as Sebastian moved back to the campus parking lot while Tony would be walking to the other side of the campus to go to his apartment.
As he walked, he thought about the tutoring sessions that awaited him. He was still slightly scared of Sebastian but it wasn't because of the rumors. It was more that Tony found Sebastian intimidating because he's so attractive. Groaning at the realization that he would be spending an hour twice a week looking at said attractive face made his stomach flutter with butterflies.
When he got back to his room, Brandon in his room, busy with his own painting. Taking out his brushes and tubes of paint, Tony got stuck into painting, he lost himself into the hypnotic motions of his brush as he added more color to the blank canvas.
His alarm bleeping broke him from his trance, he blinked and looked down at his phone and saw that it was time for him to focus on his other subjects. He capped his paint tubes and cleaned his brushes before putting them away. He did his assignments and studied for two hours before another alarm rang, telling him to go shower and get ready for bed as he had a morning class the next day.
The blaring of his alarm woke Tony up, he groggily flapped his hand around for his phone. His hand finally found its mark and Tony lifted his face to see his screen. He swiped his phone's alarm off and slowly pulled himself into a seated position with a groan.
Tony was a bubbly person by nature but was somewhat slow riser in the mornings, before he fully woke-up, had breakfast and then a coffee.
Once he had eaten his bowl of cereal and downed his leftover milk, he went to get dressed and brush his teeth. He grabbed his keys and did a bag content check to ensure he hadn't forgotten anything.
One last stop at the coffee shop to get his morning coffee and Tony was off to his first class of the day. It was also the first day of his tutoring and he was oddly looking forward to seeing Sebastian again as well as hopefully finally understanding his English literature.
When all his lessons were finished, he walked to the library with two coffees, one was just black but he took milk and sugars for Sebastian as he didn't know how the man drank his coffee.
He entered the library and walked to the study section. Sebastian was already there, laptop, handbooks, and notebooks
spewed around him, he was flipping through notebooks and placing small color tags at the tops of the pages. Tony walked to the table and gently placed the cup holder on the table and the baggie holding the milk and sugar. Sebastian looked up at the two coffee cups with a confused look before he looked up at Tony and the confusion died and a small smirk of a smile came onto his face, it made Tony's stomach feel all funny.
"Hello, I didn't know how you drank your coffee so I brought some milk and sugar for you." Tony said as he sat down, took out his own books and laptop. Tony watched from the rim of his cup. Sebastian used all of the milk but none of the sugar, when Sebastian thanked Tony, making him feel all giddy again.
Once they both took some sips of their coffee, they got started with their study sessions.
They took it slow at first, Sebastian starting from the beginning. They went over all the basic terminology and going through examples, they finished in the hour time frame and they packed up their things and said good-bye to one another and went their separate ways.
It was when he was back in his room mindlessly doodling on a piece of paper that he realized that while Sebastian had barely spoken beyond explaining things to him, it was clear that Sebastian wasn't the bad guy everyone made him out to be. So, the question was, was Sebastian putting on an act or at the very least being civil to him but, when he was explaining something to Tony, he did it slowly and with more than one example.
They continued for a few days, their tutor lessons, no one had gotten wind of these lessons and the fact that Tony had yet to tell his friends. It became a problem soon as just as their sixth tutor session was halfway through when Amanda walked in with Jason and Lucy when the twins saw Tony with Sebastian their brains kicked into overprotective mode, without giving Tony a chance to explain what was going on, Amanda had him by the arm and they fled, without even seeing what was on the table.
Both Tony and Lucy were livid when they reached Tony's apartment and he didn't have anything on him, he had to practically scream at the twins when they started to call the police. Lucy was beyond mad with Jason. Tony had yelled at them, cussed them out.
"Did you even look at the situation? Did you even take a good look at me? Cause if you did then you'd have seen that I was perfectly fine ad that Sebastian was just tutoring me! You just grabbed me! I have all my things back in the library it's a good thing that I have English lit tomorrow morning." Tony slammed his hand on the door, Brandon opened up with a questioning look on his face. Tony said a flat hello and good night before going into his room, the door slamming closed.
Jason looked over at Lucy and winced when he saw the livid look on his girlfriend's face.
"You better apologize to him tomorrow." He said through gritted teeth and turned sharply on her heel and stomped off.
The twins looked at each other and realized how foolish they were and that they could only hope that Sebastian took Tony's things with him.
***
When Tony walked into the classroom the next day, still pissed because of his friends' actions. Tony looked at the desk and blinked in shock.
There on his desk was his bag and next to it was a cup of coffee with creamer and sugars, it was still steaming hot. A warm feeling nearly melted his heart as it settled in his chest.
He walked to his desk and sat down, his bag was properly packed, his things organized. Taking out his notebook and laptop out, he then looked at his coffee.
Sebastian was going through his notes not looking at him, Tony smiled, used to this side of Sebastian. Looking back at his coffee he poured in the creamer and sugar, stirred it with the plastic stirring stick. After a deep gulp and releasing a deep sigh, he turned back to Sebastian fully, it was the only sign he gave that he wanted to talk to Sebastian.
Said man looked his way with an arched brow.
"Thank you for this, my stuff and the coffee." His voice was sincere, his smile as bright and bubbly as always. Sebastian looked him in the eye and nodded. "You're welcome, I charged your phone as well." Tony smiled even brighter.
They didn't have time to say more as the professor started the lesson. While the lesson was going, Tony felt his phone vibrate here and there throughout the lesson. He knew it was his friends asking if he had gotten his things back but, Tony was still very much mad at Amanda and Jason, he couldn't blame Lucy as she was such timid girl that she wouldn't have been able to do much when the twins got too hyped up on something, none of them really stood a chance on their own.
When the lesson was over he took out his phone and unlocked it to see he had messages from all of his friends, he replied to Lucy, Brandon, and Daiki but left Amanda and Jason's messages unread, as a form of punishment.
The rest of the day went on as normal possible except for Tony working on his assignments and papers that he couldn't work on the night before. He was dead on his feet when he came back to his apartment and crashed onto his bed having just enough energy to place his bag on his desk chair.
When Brandon peeked into the room he snorted when he saw Tony flopped on his bed, out like a light.
The smile on his face disappeared when he took in Tony's face, how tired he looked. The tutor sessions took up time that Tony used to paint, time Tony now had to take out of his sleep but, there was nothing anyone could do as the tutor sessions seemed to be working as Tony didn't seem to complain anymore. He knew Tony was getting tutoring when he left the apartment the first time, Brandon had asked where he was going and all Tony said was a tutor session. Thinking back at their reactions to Sebastian when Tony asked when he had walked into him was telling of how Amanda and Jason felt. He understood why Tony held back that tidbit of information.
Brandon walked back to his room and grabbed his phone to order some take-out, once done he walked back to Tony's room and woke him up. Tony groggily lifted his head and looked up at Brandon who just smiled at him.
"Come on sleepyhead, if you sleep now you won't sleep later. Come on, up you get, I ordered some food and then we can talk about that art paper we have to write." Brandon helped Tony up and they both moved to the shared living room after Tony grabbed his bag.
"Are you still going to go to those tutor lessons?" Brendon asked after he swallowed his mouthful of pizza.
Tony nodded before he realized that he didn't ask Sebastian if they were still going to continue with the tutor session. Tony picked up his phone and typed a message.
Hey Sebastian, are we still good for tutoring sessions? I didn't get the chance to ask.
A few minutes later after eating pizza and his phone gave a buzz-buzz, Tony picked it up and saw that Sebastian had sent a text back.
Same time as always.
Brendon watched as a small smile crept onto Tony's mouth and had to bite his lip to stop himself from asking if it was Sebastian.
***
The next tutor session didn't go as well either, people had caught wind of their usual meeting and more than once people had come in to disrupt the session in such a way that it had to be cut short. It was costing Tony as he still needed help.
It took a matter of just three ruined sessions before Tony asked Sebastian if there was somewhere else they could do their tutor sessions because the library was clearly not a viable location anymore, his apartment wasn't a good idea as there were a lot of distractions as the same would be with a coffee shop.
"What about where you live?" Tony asked once but Sebastian quickly shot down the idea.
However, it soon came to the point that it was all they had when yet again their fourth session was interrupted merely a few minutes after it started. Sebastian knew that they would be moving onto the things that Tony was really struggling with and needed help with.
So he gave in and would take Tony to his house, then back when they were done.
Tony's heart fluttered as he realized that it would be more time spent with Sebastian and he would see where he lives and what car he drove. He was very excited to learn more about the enigma that was Sebastian Wright.
Chapter Three
Tony waited at the parking lot where Sebastian told him to wait, he had told Tony that he had to quickly pick something up before he would meet him at the parking lot.
Having faced the campus, Tony saw Sebastian coming, his long dark-clad figure standing out easily, people tended to make a wide berth around him, as if he was carrying some sort of disease. It made Tony both equal parts mad and sad that people would just believe rumors as quickly as they did and not even try to see if there was any truth in them.
Well, I'll just find the truth myself, Tony thought to himself. Sebastian was now just a few feet away from him, he was wearing the very comfortable looking shirt again with black cargo pants with a few chains here and there, the trademark combat boots present as well.
"Hello." Tony greeted with a wave, his floppy sleeve flopping about with his movement Tony swore he saw a twitch of Sebastian's lip as if he fought not to smile.
"Hey." Was Sebastian's usual greeting. They walked deeper into the parking lot, rather deep but not at the very end. There waiting for them was a rather fancy looking car, it wasn't an expensive car like more rich kids had but it was still a very nice looking car and of course, it was black as well or so Tony thought. When he got closer and the sun's rays hit the car, Tony noticed that the car had a red shine to it, he moved his body left and right, it looked like he was playing dodgeball with an imaginary opponent. It caused Sebastian to snort under his breath.
They got into the car and buckled up. Tony started when the car roared to life, they sat in silence as the car idled for a bit. Then they were on the move, and Tony was happy to note that Sebastian wasn't speeding or breaking any road rules. It could be because he had a passenger but Tony liked to think that Sebastian was a responsible adult.
Surprisingly to Tony at least, was how close to the campus Sebastian lived, what shocked him was the large all-white colonial home they pulled up to, the house had white panels, white window, and door frames but had a deep navy blue door and light blue shutters. There was a path to the side of the house that Tony assume was the driveway to the garages, he was proven right. Tony was confused then, when they didn't drive to the garages but to the side was another path verged off to the side. There was a lovely looking pool and a pool house with a small roofed off area made for a car.
