Prelude to Destruction

He was wearing his green shirt again, I noticed with delight. I smiled at him and waved him over. “Hello, Mr. Sanders,” I said tiredly when he sat next to me.

“Hey, Rosie,”Matt replied, smiling back at me. “How was the rest of your day?”

“Oh, it was miserable –you were’nt in it,” I joked.

He grinned and pretended to thump his head. “Duh. Obviously.”

This was our sixth study session together –individually. I decided to split him and Johnny up, helping them both separately, after the first and second tutoring sessions. They had trouble focussing around each other; they never shut up about their band!

“So,” he began, “now what?”

“Hmm, I think now we should get started. Are you still having trouble with logs?”

He nodded, grin fading quickly from his face. “Yeah, I hate those fucking things.”

I ignored his crude comment and pulled out the notes I had on logarithms; I’d asked him before to please not curse so much around me –and he has watched his mouth, but I know that sometimes he doesn’t even realize that he’s saying it.

“Okay, so first you change all the exponents,” I began for him.

He did as I instructed and then looked back up at me. “Now what?” he asked.

“Well, look at your notes!” I said. “Now you’re going to add A, B, and C together, right?” I watched him struggle for a few minutes until I finally leaned over closer to him (in order to see the problems better, of course!) and helped him out.

“Now what?” he asked again. I saw the smile play on his face; he was messing with me now, and we both knew it.

I laughed and shifted closer again. “You aren’t even trying now, Matthew!” I commented. “Tell me what step three says.”

“Identify and reduce any fractions in the equation,” Matt canaried verbatim.

“Right. See any fractions?”

“No. Now what?”

“Shut up!” I laughed, and shoved his shoulder with all my might. But my force had no effect on his brawny body.

He turned so that we were facing each other, and he simpered. “That wasn’t very nice.” His face so close to my own made me tense, but I didn’t move. I just waited for what he would do next.

After looking at my frozen, nervous face for a few moments, he finally said quietly, assertively, “I think I want to kiss you now.”

And Poof! His lips were on mine, moving against mine, before I could even register what he was doing to me. I sighed into the kiss and let my lips dance with his.

Matt pulled away after a few moments and smiled –genuinely. Not a simper or a smirk, but a happy smile. “Now what?”

I chuckled and pulled him back to me saying, “I think I know what.”