I was finally able to escape the grasp of my history teacher, who was persistent on me telling everybody about my conditions. I had began wondering if I was going to be able to meet Jordan and Eliza on time, or if my free period was going to be taken up by the woman in front of me. I had agreed on telling one person, and slowly telling a few more people, wondering if she actually wanted to be a history teacher or a therapist. Of course I wasn't going to actually tell anybody, and if she were to ask I would say Jordan, considering she didn't know he knew.

To my surprise, once I had exited the room, there was no sight or Jordan nor Eliza; in their place however, stood Levi, looking nervously at me. He stood there, both hands clasped into the other, his blue eyes-which oddly looked darker than usual-poured into mine, guilt shining within his blue orbs. Nervously fidgeting his hands, he gave me a lazy grin, almost as if he were apologising to me through his smile.

"Hi" He said almost breathlessly when he noticed me waking out of the room. I think he noticed how quiet he sounded in comparison to how he usually greeted me, as he added "took you long enough" as an after thought

"I didn't know you were waiting for me" I shrugged, too exhausted to even sarcastically retaliate, as I tried to walk past him; I was stubborn in not allowing him to question me about what had happened not too long ago. But no matter how hard I tried in order to slip past him, he somehow managed to catch up to me, and by somehow I mean he just walked considering three of my steps were equivalent to one of his long strides.

"Hey, where are you going?" He questioned, quickening his pace, as I did so mine.

To the nurses office. "Nowhere" I muttered, refusing to tell him the full truth, as I realised he was staring at me, probably in hopes of getting a clearer answer. "The library" I muttered as soon as i noticed the look of disbelief he had sent me due to my last answer. In hindsight, I should have realised my bluff would have been called out, due to the fact that I was indeed heading towards the opposite direction of the library. However, either Levi hadn't realised that little fact, or he decided to disregard it completely.

"Then" he began, extending the last letter of the word as if he was wondering what to do next. "I'll join you" he concluded, beginning to quicken his pace in attempt to keep up with mine.

I decided not to reply to his offer, instead I began to walk even faster than I had already been doing so, beginning to feel breathless as my legs began to tire slightly. Clutching my books tightly to my chest, I looked down at my feet, avoiding his stare as I began wondering if I were to ever make it to the nurses office-or would there be distractions such as this all day?

"Juliette, slow down" Levi all but demanded as he finally began to struggle to keep up with my pace, considering I was basically sprinting in order to avoid him. I thought I was doing pretty well in avoiding him until a felt a cold and soft palm come into contact with my palm, roughly pulling me. Levi had grabbed my arm, and pulled me towards him in such a force that I had basically spun and crashed into his chest. I attempted to step back, trying to create some space between the pair of us, but the distance was no more than a few inches. My heart beat began accelerating, and my hands began to shake. I felt as if the wind as knocked out of my lungs, and for the second time in the past hour, I began to felt a panic attack consume me.

Out of pure shock, the books that I so tightly held against my chest, slipped out of my grasp and came crashing against the concrete under my feet, causing the loud bang sound to reverberate around the empty hallway. The loud sound caused Levi to jump away from me out of surprise, letting go of my wrist, as I retracted it, feeling my heart beat slow down, and finding myself being able to breathe normally once again.

"I'm sorry" Levi muttered, bending down and gathering my history textbook, before picking it up and handing it back to me. I still felt dizzy as I silently took the books from him, finding myself not being able to reply to him, instead slowly nodding, adamant on not letting my tears fall from my eyes. He stepped towards me once again, causing me to step instinctively.

"Juliette, I'm sorry" He apologised again, taking my ignorance as obliviousness, staring intently into my eyes as I refused to hold eye contact with him, staring down at the books I was holding instead.

"You should be" I muttered, attempting to lighten the mood, and distract him from what had happened moments ago. "That hurt like a bitch" I chuckled nervously, rubbing my arm slightly

"No not about that" he muttered, shaking his head before I watched his eyes widen "wait shit, I hurt you? Fuck" he nervously continued. It was quite clear he had never been in a situation like this before and I felt guilty that I had put him in a position like so, but in my defence he was oh so stubborn in following me to the point of me actually attempting to avoid him.

I mean who does that?

"I wanted to apologise for what happened in the classroom today" he continued, slowly and nervously as if the wrong thing said could send me running the opposite direction. As if I were a ticking time bomb.

I honestly began to loathe the current situation I was forced to endure. Throughout the past few years of my life I was used to the handful of people who were aware of my conditions to treat me as if I was the most fragile thing on earth. I hated that people felt that it was essential in being extra careful around me, as if it were the most important thing in the world that I was made happy and that I was left in the dark about every problematic matter. I had realised yesterday that I enjoyed being able to talk to someone, annoying as they may be, freely. Levi had treated me somewhat as a real human, instead of fine china. He made me comfortable, and despite the fact that I began to get extremely frustrated at his relentless flirting, deep down I knew I preferred that to everything else that was currently happening in my life. "I shouldn't have made you uncomfortable enough for you to literally run out of the room to avoid me" he chuckled, although the humour failed to reach his eyes as it had moments ago.

"You know that wasn't the reason" I muttered bitterly, I was aware of the fact that he knew I wasn't just trying to avoid him. I knew that he was doing what everybody else in my life had been doing for what felt like forever. He was walking around me instead of towards me.

And that honestly made me furious.

"Hey, I hate this more than you do" he smiled defensively, and for the first time within this conversation, it actually looked real. "I mean, how many guys can say that a girl was so repulsed by them that he made them run out of the classroom in order to avoid sitting besides him" he chuckled. I finally allowed myself to lift up my head and meet his dark blue eyes. Within those eyes I saw in him something I had never seen in anybody; understanding. I wasn't able to pinpoint what he understood about me, but he wasn't speaking to me as if I was broken, despite my previous assumption. He was speaking to me as if I were human. As if I were normal.

And I was immensely grateful.

"I-" I began, taking a deep breath before continuing "I need to go" I continued, forcing a smile on my face, turning around heading towards the nurses office. I was 100% sure he realised I wasn't heading towards the library right now, but I felt a huge sense of relief knowing that he wasn't going to call me out on it.

"Wait!" He called behind me as I began walking away, sighing as I came to a halt.

I paused, waiting for him to continue talking, but not turning around, not making any eye contact with him.

"You're good at history and English right?" He questioned, causing me to turn around and raise an eyebrow.

"Is this gonna be another pickup line?" I asked, smiling half-heartedly

"Depends, will speaking nerdy to you turn you on?" He smirked, his previous posture returning to him

I rolled my eyes, feeling myself smile slightly, and this time it felt like a genuine smile, one that hadn't even crossed my face throughout the entire day. "Depends how nerdy you get" I replied.

"How about this? Tutor me?" He questioned, lifting his arm to scratch the back of his neck, and I couldn't help but watch how his muscles tensed and notice how effortlessly good looking he was. "Was that too nerdy? Are you too hot and bothered to speak?" He asked once he realised that I hadn't responded to his previous question.

I smiled "What would I get in return?" I asked, rolling my eyes playfully. I couldn't get passed how a mere few moments ago, I was avoiding this boy as if he had the plague, I couldn't get over how not five minutes ago I felt like locking myself in my room and not coming out to face the rest of the world, and now I was smiling, flirting, having fun.

Maybe I'm bipolar?

Yes. That's it. Levi has nothing to do with it.

"I'm afraid that if I continue you'll get so horny you'll want to jump me here and now" he smiled, playfully sending me a suggestive wink along with the statement

"Believe me, that's not gonna happen anytime soon" I scoffed

"How about you tutor me for a month, and for every successful study session we have, I take you to the bookstore to buy a new book" he smirked. A huge grin overtook my face as I began thinking about his offer. I was always looking to expand my bookshelf, and I defiantly had a list of books that I wanted to read, but was I ready for the commitment of tutoring the flirt?

"You know cliché doesn't turn me on right?" I teased, lifting up my left eyebrow slightly as I smiled almost innocently at him. "But books on the other hand..." I continued, calculating the amount of books that I would have if we had regular study sessions.

"Please refrain from jumping my bones" He commented sending a soft smirk towards my way. "This is probably too nerdy for you to handle"

"How did you know that the books would work for me?" I asked, looking up at him, which was actually a lot harder than it sounded like considering he was almost an entire foot taller than me.

"Considering the first place I met you was a library, it didn't take a genius to figure out that you had a thing for books. Also, I call you book girl for a reason." He shrugged. "So do we have a deal or not?" He asked tentatively, visibly preparing to wince at what he believed my reply would be.

"Free books? Of course I will" I smiled up at him. "But I need to know when slash where slash how often" I listed thinking about how much free time I would have to clear up for him. Oh wait, I have nothing but free time.

"Neat freak" he commented as I rolled my eyes "Anyway, I was hoping twice a week an hour each for about a month, at your house? If that's okay, I mean it's perfectly okay if you want to come to mine but my parents are a little bit crazy, your family won't mind you having a boy over right because if the-"

"Levi!" I interrupted causing him to snap his neck towards me "My house is fine" I stressed despite my insides warning me not to. I knew that once inviting Levi, everything would change. I know Eliza, for one, would never get over her belief of Levi's feelings for me. Bullshit. My aunt would be beyond surprised due to bringing a friend over, considering that as far as she knew Eliza was literally my only friend, which wasn't particularly wrong or anything but that was besides the point. Due to my aunts overall shock she would probably say something embarrassing which would obviously make me never want to face Levi again. But something about the way he had automatically suggested meeting at my house, made me think he didn't really want me to go to his house. And yes, whilst I was curious, I for one understood the power of secrets and the lengths people would go to protect them. Besides, hypocrisy was my least favourite trait.

"That's great" He perked up, his excitement clear in his eyes which made me send a small smile in response

Maybe he wasn't such an asshole.

I began thinking about how I should probably tease him, tell him that studying wasn't the most exciting thing in the world and that I had no idea why he seemed so excited about studying with me."Eight" I blurted in the end, mentally slapping myself for blurting the most stupid thing.

Levi seemed to have been taken aback himself, as his response was "What?"

"Eight books. Eight study sessions and eight extra hours I am forced to spend with you" I smiled, playfully looking repulsed at the idea, deciding that randomly saying a number and leaving him in the dark about why would be a bit mean.

"Don't act as if you're a saint Little Miss I-Want-Free-Books" he snorted, a smirk being added onto his expression after

"That insult though" I commented "Besides they're not technically free if I'm tutoring you in exchange for them"

"You're unbearable you know that?"

"I've been told" I shrugged

Written: 30/07/15
Posted: 25/10/15