"Nice room" Levi smirked as he entered my bedroom. He surveyed my ivory walls and then my lilac bed covers. "I imagined your bedroom to be black and goth like you".

"I am not goth!" I replied defensively.

His eyes roamed my body, as I blushed before looking down at my all black outfit. "Right" he smirked.

"Why were you imagining my bedroom anyway?" I asked him smugly.

"A gentleman does not repeat such things" He claimed in a terrible British accent, another smirk following his sentence as my face and neck heated up out of embarrassment.

My cheeks burned once he had said it, almost as if someone had lit a match and held it besides my cheeks "Are you serious?" I questioned, attempting to remain calm and collected.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" He exclaimed, as I felt my chest deflate as I breathed out "maybe" he added in the end

"Levi, shut up!" I demanded, knowing fully will that my cheeks resembled a tomato.

"You're cute when you blush, you know that right?" He questioned smugly.

"You're obnoxious when you talk, you know that right?" I retaliated "anyway, what do you need help with?" I asked in attempt to change the subject.

"Well, I've read the book...now what?" He asked, pulling out his books from his backpack.

"What the key thing examiners look for is your ability to explain quotations. And usually, you have to explain their relevance to the question or topic" I explained, grabbing my laptop from the table. I looked at my bed, where Levi was seated, he pretty much took up most of my bed, despite it being king size. His books and bags were spread around, leaving me barely any space to sit.

"Are you going to take a seat?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head in reply.

"I don't bite" he continued.

I grabbed a wheelie chair from my desk and set in next to my bed, taking a seat, as I opened up my laptop and googled 'Pride and Prejudice exam questions'. "Okay" I began "How does Austin use the character of Darcy to represent the stereotypes of the upper class?"

Levi sat in silence for a while, thinking. I noticed that while he thought, he scrunched his eyebrows, almost in a childlike motion.

"Okay" I sighed, realising he wasn't getting it. "How do you think rich people behave?" I asked.

"Um, I don't know? They're all stuck up, and snobs" He answered.

I smiled "that's great. I mean, not the stereotype itself, but the fact that you understood it" I said. "Okay, now tell me. How was Darcy as a character when he was first introduced?".

"An asshole" Levi responded almost immediately.

"Okay, what makes you think that?" I questioned, grinning at the fact that he had understood so quickly.

"He refused to dance with Elizabeth" He muttered, almost as if he were unsure of himself.

"Now what you would do, is look for a quote that relates to that" I suggested.

Levi got his copy of pride and prejudice out before he began searching for a quote. Once he had found one, I instructed him to note down the page number and underline it in pencil. "Now what you would do, is link this to another topic or another character" I continued.

"I'm bad at linking" He answered looking down at his papers.

"I'm sure you're not. Let's link him to a character. When you want to link him to a character, you would choose someone who's either exactly like him, or completely different. Usually someone completely different is easier" I stated.

"Elizabeth. She's his opposite." Levi answered, still looking at his papers, this time however, he was searching through them. "Elizabeth is poor. Therefore she is seen as nice and polite. Jane Austin does this to show the stereotypes?" And although he was somewhat unsure of his answers, I found myself smiling again.

"Exactly. Now that you've done the differences. Can you find any similarities?" I asked.

"They both love each other in the end. They change for love" He answered.

"And what was the authors purpose?".

"The author has done this to show that despite social class and upbringing, people have the ability to change" he finished.

"Full marks" I whispered.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Levi asked, sending me a boyish grin as he placed his hand on top of mine, which was resting on the bed in front of him. As soon as his hands touched mine, I retracted it, not wanting to have a panic attack from a simple touch. "Sorry" he muttered, once I removed my hand.

"It's fine" I answered, laughing slightly in order to lighten the mood.

"How are you better at teaching English than our actual English teacher?" He questioned, changing the subject.

"Teachers don't understand us as much as we understand each other I guess" I shrugged

"Have you ever thought about being a teacher?" He asked after a few moments of silence

"Being around so many people our age? No thank you. I do not want to get verbally violated" I answered

Levi chuckled "What if you're the teacher everyone loves?" He asked

"It's unlikely" I answered

"It's really not" He muttered

Just as Levi had said that Eliza had basically barged into my bedroom "Juliette! Did you take my straightener?" She asked, before she realised that Levi was in the room. "Oh" She said smiling "Hi Levi"

"Hey Eliza" He nodded in acknowledgement

"What's going on here?" She a questioned, smiling widely

"Studying. Yes, I took your straightener, it's in the bottom left draw of my desk" I answered quickly, hoping she would take her straightener and leave before she begins to embarrass me.

She winked at me, sending me a suggestive look as I rolled my eyes before she said "Kay thanks!" In her perky voice.

"Kay bye" I mimicked before she stuck her tongue out to me.

Once she had left Levi turned towards me. "You live with Eliza Harte?" He asked

"Yeah. She's my cousin" I shrugged

"I thought you guys were just best friends" He replied

"We are. We just happen to live together. I thought the whole Aunt Jen thing would give it away" I replied teasingly

"I didn't even realise" He smiled

After that we had continued working on more essay and exam questions, which surprisingly Levi caught on to really quickly. What teachers don't understand about students is that just because one student is understanding the context, it doesn't mean that the entire class understands. Levi understood the context, but he was a little slower than most people, of course whilst there was nothing wrong with that, he was forced to believe that there was. Everyone has their own time to take things in and learn, that makes us different, but it doesn't make one person smarter than another. For all we know, Levi could be the smartest kid in school, but because teachers don't understand his learning pace, we would never know if he was.

I believed he was.

We had finished the study session around 2:35pm, finishing later than expected; of course because I missed breakfast, I was starving and I couldn't wait until he left so I could finally eat something. Levi was busy packing his stuff up, so I turned off the laptop and put it on my desk.

I walked him downstairs hoping not to get interrupted before aunt Jen decided to come out of nowhere. "Leaving so soon Levi?" She questioned as I cursed under my breath.

"Um, yeah, we're finished studying. Your niece is incredibly smart" He complimented

"So I've been told" She smiled "why don't you stay for lunch?" She asked politely

"Sorry Ms Harte, Juliette and I are going out" He answered

"You are?" She asked with a grin on her face whilst I said "We are?" At the same time.

"I owe you payment, don't I, book girl?" He asked, smirking slightly.

"Now?" I questioned

"When else?"

"I was planning on grabbing something to eat" I informed him.

"We'll grab something on the way there" He smiled.

"Um, okay, I guess I'll be going now?" I questioned, looking at aunt Jen, slightly asking for her permission

"Have fun" She smiled

I returned the smile slipping a pair of my converses on, before grabbing my purse from the living room and walking behind Levi. I followed him until I got to his car, it was a nice shiny navy blue car. I had no idea what type it was because I knew nothing about cars.

"Nice car" I commented

"Thanks, It's a-" He began explaining what type of car it was, but I cut him off before he could go any further.

"I'm really not trying to be rude or anything" I started, not wanting to offend him, "But I know nothing about cars, so explaining the model and everything would be pointless" I said, giving him a wide innocent smile along with my statement.

He chuckled. "I'll save the explanation for somebody who does know about cars. All I'm going to tell you is to pretend to be impressed, other people would"

I gasped dramatically "Wow, Levi. This car, it's just...amazing. It's making me fall in love with you. Marry me" I said, with the most dramatic gestures and facial expression. "Was that good enough?" I asked as an afterthought.

"It was brilliant thank you" He chuckled. "Oh and thank you for that declaration of your love, I always knew you had a thing for me" He smirked

I rolled my eyes despite finding myself to be smiling. "Whatever"

I stepped into his car buckling myself in, as he did the same on the driver's side.

"Where are we off to?" I asked, grabbing my phone and quickly texting Eliza that I was heading out with Levi, I was sure she wanted to watch a movie with me or something.

"First we are off to the little breakfast diner downtown, and then to the nearest Barnes and Noble" He said, adjusting his rear view mirror and starting the car.

It was strange that I didn't really have a fear for cars, or that my claustrophobia even allowed me to get in a car, my life was weird like that. Sometimes it frustrated me to no end, knowing that I couldn't even touch people for too long, without my chest closing up and struggling to breathe. But I was able to get into a car, even with four other people. Usually I find myself wanting to trade them, to not have the ability to go in cars, but be able to touch people. Others would understand my fear of cars, but nobody would understand my fear of people.

"Juliette" I was snapped out of my thoughts when I realised Levi was calling my name. I looked around to see us parked near the little breakfast place and turned to see Levi staring at me out of amusement. "You were daydreaming" he chuckled

I found myself blushing "Sorry" I also laughed, trying to ease the mood.

"It's fine, come on" He smiled, getting out of the car. I unbuckled my seatbelt and bent down to grab my purse, when I was back up I realised that the car door was open, and it was being held by Levi.

I grinned "Look at you being all gentleman-ly"

"I live to serve" He smirked

"Just so you know" I said, "I have the capability to open my own door"

"Except" he corrected "It's my door, therefore I can open it for you." I shrugged, still disagreeing with it but smiled at the thought anyway. "Other girls would have loved it."

I shrugged again

"Isn't this the part where you say 'I'm not like most girls'?" He continued

"Do you know who else said I'm not like most girls?" I questioned him as he turned to me and shrugged. "The girl from Orphan" I answered "but she was actually thirty three years old, so I'd like to say I'm pretty normal"

He laughed loudly "do you always have comebacks like this?"

"Pretty much" I shrugged. "But no seriously, all girls are different"

"I really don't see it" He said, as he began walking into the little shop, me walking beside him.

"Maybe you shouldn't hang around with the same type of girls" I suggested

"And that, Juliette, is exactly what you are here for"

I gasped dramatically. "I feel so used!" I exclaimed jokingly

"Ha ha" He chided before we got to the counter of the diner.

"How may I help you?" The person at the counter asked. He was an older man, he looked as if he were in his early twenties, and had an extremely subtle Italian accent.

"What would you like?" Levi asked, turning to me.

I looked up at the menu and thought for a moment before looking back at the man at the counter. "A sugar waffle and a latte please?" I asked, adding an innocent smile at the end.

"Of course, and for the gentleman?" He asked

I snorted at the word gentleman

He rolled his eyes at me before looking back up "a stack of pancakes and a black coffee"

The cashier clicked his little buttons on the cash machine before coming to a conclusion of "$8.78"

Levi and I both held out ten dollar bills to the cashier who looked confused.

"You do realise, I'm not letting you pay, right?" He asked

"You do realise, I don't care, right?" I retaliated

The cashier looked between us, seeming pretty amused, before grabbing the bill out of Levi's hand. Levi turned to me and smirked, I frowned, groaning before putting my money back in my purse.

"On dates, the gentleman always pays" The cashier chided

"We're not on a date" Levi denied whilst I said "That's kinda sexist" at the same time.

Levi thanked the cashier before finding us a seat towards the back of the diner. I felt my thigh vibrate repeatedly and I knew for a fact it was Eliza blowing up my phone.

"That's sexist?" Levi asked, smirking. "That's the first thing that comes to your mind when he assumes we're on a date?"

I smiled, shrugging. "I have my priorities"

"That" Levi began "or you would secretly love to be out on a date with me"

I scoffed "You wish. The only reason we're doing this is because you made me miss breakfast"

"Exactly" he said "which is why I should pay for your food"

"You're wrong" I smirked

"Do you have this thing about always being right?" He asked

"Yes" I agreed "but that's besides the point. The food goes in my mouth, therefore I should pay for it"

"I'm taking you out, therefore I should pay for it"

"There is no logic behind that!"

"Of course there is!" He defended "You just it free food, go with it" he added

I huffed "fine"

"Great" He grinned

"You're still wrong" I whispered

"What?"

"Nothing."

Written: 18/08/15
Published: 15/11/15