Friday came sooner than Hunter expected. Before he knew it, he was outside of the local library at six in the evening. He had his backpack with his laptop, notebook and pencils. Glancing down at his phone, he re-read Tristian's last message to him, sent about ten minutes ago.
Tristian: I arrived a little early. I'm on the second floor near the back where it's quiet.
There was no reason why Hunter needed to feel nervous, so he steeled himself and headed into the cool building. He made his way up to the second floor, quietly making his way past reading and studying students to find Tristian.
Tristan was dressed nicely, in a white Armani sweatshirt that seemed to cling to a muscular frame, his leather jacket, black jeans and thick-rimmed black glasses. Hunter felt his heart skip a beat, and he nearly tripped over his own feet.
How could someone possibly be this attractive? Hunter wasn't ashamed to admit that Tristian was handsome - possibly more attractive than Shawn. Hoping that Tristian hadn't caught his stumble, Hunter slid into the seat next to Tristian.
"You're a lot clumsier than you look." Tristian commented quietly, and Hunter flushed. Tristian looked up, blinking at him. He had an owlish look to his face with the big glasses framing his face, and a slight smirk lifted the corner of the older male's lips.
When Hunter didn't respond, still staring at the glasses, Tristian lifted a hand to his face. He seemed surprised when he realized Hunter was staring at his glasses.
"Oh. I have trouble reading, so these glasses are supposed to help." Tristan set his book down, and titled his head at Hunter. "How was your day?"
"Everyone's still talking about Jared and his friends' arrest." Hunter replied, shrugging. "It's a little annoying. Oh, and uh..." Hunter trailed off awkwardly, remembering the conversation he'd had at lunch.
Jared and his friends' arrest was still the number one talk of the campus. There wasn't a class where it had been brought up, and Hunter was getting sick of it. By the time lunch came around, Hunter was ready to put his head through a wall.
"Will everyone shut up about their arrest? They had it coming." Hunter grumbled, and Rosa shrugged before taking a bite of her wrap. Shawn was tapping away at his phone, and Ellie had joined them at the lunch table that day.
"I guess everyone's just desperate to show they're up to date with the latest news." Ellie shrugged a delicate shoulder. "Oh, have you set up a date to study with my brother?" Ellie asked Hunter. At that, Shawn looked up, brow furrowing. He set his phone down and turned to Hunter.
"If you needed help with math, I could've helped you know." Hunter stared at Shawn blankly.
"I've mentioned this several times when you're literally right next to me, mentioned that I might need a tutor, and you never said anything." Shawn grinned sheepishly, and Ellie shot him a rather dry look.
"Shawn, you might be good with numbers, but the only thing filling your head is hockey." Rosa snorted.
"My brother was a business and accounting major." Ellie spoke up. "He also managed cybersecurity as a minor and took up computer science practically from elementary school. Tristan's smart, and I can guarantee that he'll be able to tutor Hunter with ease." Hunter flushed at that, weakly protesting against the amount of faith Ellie put into him.
Shawn on the other hand, did not look very pleased.
"It was eventful." Hunter finished, awkwardly. Tristan didn't seem to believe him, but shrugged and scooted forward in his chair, sliding a folder over to Hunter. Hunter opened it to find a few worksheets inside.
"Complete the first part of this page," Tristan said, pointing at the paper on top. "With showing your work, and I'll see where your weak points are." Hunter nodded, before he rummaged through his backpack to get his pencil case. He'd barely even started finding the derivative when Tristan stopped him. "Ah. You're not doing this correctly. It's probably why everything else is hard."
Hunter blinked, and leaned back, letting Tristan walk him through the right steps. Hunter found himself half distracted with the way Tristan's brows furrowed, green eyes focused on the paper.
Hunter immediately broke his staring to glance back at the paper when Tristan glanced up to see if Hunter was paying attention. Tristan was a good teacher, Ellie was right. He was thorough and patient, explaining anything that Hunter didn't understand.
"You're smart." Hunter blurted at one point. Tristan looked startled at that, before he folded the sweater he'd just taken off neatly and placed it in his backpack. Beneath the white Armani, Tristian wore a loose-fitting black t-shirt that clung to his broad shoulders. His leather jacket was slung on the back of his chair.
"Oh... thank you, I guess. I'm just really interested in things like this." Tristan looked a little awkward, so Hunter decided to change the topic.
"How would you like me to pay you..?" Hunter asked, trailing off awkwardly. When Tristian met his eyes, there was an amused quirk to his lips again. Hunter knew that Tristian and Ellie's family must be wealthy - given the car that Tristian drove, and what they both wore on a daily basis.
"It's fine." Tristian finally said, waving Hunter off. Hunter opened his mouth to protest, but Tristian continued. "I just ask that you include my sister in your friend group."
"A-are you sure?" Hunter asked incredulously.
"Very. Ellie's a bit... quirky. She has some tics that she's pretty good at covering up. But she does get a hard time about them." Tristan explained. "She fights back, and she's a damn good fighter. We've both been taking kickboxing lessons since we could walk." Tristan shrugged.
"I'll definitely do my best." Hunter said quickly. "Though... I don't think my best friend's brother likes her very much." He frowned, remembering the hostility that Shawn showed Ellie earlier that day.
"The boy I met the day after I met you and Rosa?" Tristan asked, tilting his head. Hunter nodded, and Tristian frowned. "I got the feeling he didn't like either my sister or me." He shrugged. "But I don't care what he thinks of me."
Hunter glanced back down at the worksheet that he'd completed (with extensive help from Tristan), then at the clock. They were just about out of time.
"How old are you?" Hunter asked, genuinely curious. "Your relationship with Ellie seems really close."
"I'm twenty." Tristan replied.
"You're not in college?" Hunter blurted, before he slapped a hand over his mouth. "That was rude of me, I'm sorry." Tristan shook his head with a wry smile.
"No, I dropped out." Tristan shrugged. "My father's sick, and my mother recently passed so I took dropped out to help take care of my family, and to help Ellie with her education."
"You're a good person." Hunter mused. Tristan smiled weakly at that, and his phone suddenly buzzed. Tristan glanced down at it, and his eyes widened slightly, before he scrambled to move. Hunter was startled, frozen in his seat.
"Ah... I'm really sorry. I just got an urgent message and I must go back." Tristan said in a rush, and Hunter nodded. He kept the folder, and watched as Tristan quickly swiped everything into his backpack, slinging it over one shoulder. "I'll text you later to set up another meeting?"
"Yeah," Hunter was still a little bewildered at Tristian's sudden departure. "Hope everything's alright."
"Thanks." Tristian offered a slight smile, before he lifted his phone to his ear. "Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" Hunter blinked, before he realized this must be where Ellie and Tristan's accent came from. "Je suis à une séance de tutorat." A pause, and Tristian's expression scrunched up in distaste. "Non, pas pour moi, idiot. Je rentre à la maison." He mouthed an apology to Hunter, who waved him off.
Tristan hurried out of the library, and Hunter realized that he'd forgotten his leather jacket. Hunter quickly shoved everything into his backpack, snagged the jacket and hurried out of the library, hoping to be able to catch the older boy before he disappeared. But it seemed that Tristian moved fast, because he was nowhere in sight.
Instead, Hunter let out a soft huff, and took out his phone to text Tristian, letting him know before walking home. He hesitated briefly, before adding a "hope everything is alright" text, shoving his phone in his pocket before he could feel embarrassed. About three hours later, Hunter got a response.
Tristian: Oh, thank you for letting me know.
Hunter: would you like me to bring it to school to give to you on Monday?
Tristian: I won't be around until Thursday of next week, so you can just give it to Ellie.
Hunter: oh
Hunter: okay
Hunter didn't know why he felt disappointed, and he set his phone on his chest as he stared at his ceiling. His phone buzzed, and Hunter waited a few moments before he glanced back at his phone. When he did, a startled yelp left his lips and he dropped his phone on his face.
"Ow!" Hunter gasped, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He stared at the screen, blinking rapidly several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
Tristian: That's cute. Don't miss me too much. If you need a memento, keep the jacket. I have plenty of others ;)
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I forgot." It had been three weeks since Hunter's first tutoring session with Tristian, and he completely forgot about today's session. They'd had a total of about five sessions thus far, three at the local library and two at Hunter's house. Hunter was slowly improving, but he still needed a lot of help and support.
Just the other day, Shawn had asked Hunter to go on a date, and Hunter had immediately blurted out a "yes." Shawn had scheduled the date for Friday - usually the days reserved for Tristan and Hunter's tutoring sessions. The man in question was stood at his and Rosa's apartment, one eyebrow arched over green eyes.
"I forgot, I'm really sorry." Hunter blabbered. Tristan shrugged a shoulder, a brief expression of irritation crossing the older man's features.
"We can meet another time." Tristan said, about to turn around.
"No! It-it's fine. I still don't have to go for another two hours." Tristan was quiet, before he shrugged. Hunter awkwardly led the way to the living room where Rosa was sitting, and she looked up.
"Oh, hey Tristian. What're you doing here?" Rosa looked surprised.
"We have a tutoring session." Tristian replied. There was a slight irritated edge to his voice, but it dispersed with the next comment. "I suggested rescheduling since Hunter seemed busy, but he didn't want to." Rosa shot Hunter a deadly glare, before turning back to Tristian.
"Do you want something to drink?" Tristan shook his head. "Alright, well... I'll leave you two to it." Rosa stood and drifted into her bedroom.
The tutoring session lasted about an hour and a half, but Hunter was much too antsy to pay attention. Not only was he nervous for the date with Shawn, but he found that in the past few sessions, he felt nervous being around Tristian. It wasn't the bad kind of nerves, more of the giddy and anxious ones.
Tristian arched an eyebrow at Hunter, who realized that he'd been staring. Immediately, Hunter averted his gaze awkwardly, fingers tugging at the button down he wore. His phone buzzed, a message from Shawn saying that he'd arrive in about fifteen minutes.
"How do I look?" Hunter blurted. Tristian paused his cleaning up of his papers and pens, green eyes nearly expressionless. They did a slow and deliberate sweep of Hunter's body, who flushed beneath the scrutiny. Something about Tristian's green eyes pulled Hunter in, and he didn't know why. He felt that if Tristian asked him to do anything, Hunter would do it in a heartbeat.
"You look fine." Tristian said shortly, before he finished packing up. A little offended at the rather plain term, Hunter bit his lower lip, fingers fiddling with the hem of his shirt
"I'm really sorry about forgetting..." Hunter started, but Tristian seemed to ignore him, swiping up his things and shoving them roughly in the backpack he brought. "Is everything okay?" Hunter found himself asking stupidly. Stop talking, stop talking. "You seem mad. Are you mad at me forgetting, or-"
"I'm fine." Tristian snapped, cutting Hunter off almost viciously. Hunter reeled, breath hitching at the concealed anger in Tristian's eyes. "I just had a rough time last night and I'm tired. Now stop asking." Hunter knew that it wasn't the whole story, staring down at his feet as Tristian made his way to the door. "And Hunter? Try to remember what commitments you have before you make others on the same day." The front door slammed shut, and Hunter flinched.
"What did you do, or say?" Rosa asked, poking her head out from her bedroom with a worried crease to her forehead.
"I think I made him mad." Hunter said, stating the obvious. "I mean that... well Shawn asked me out, and I said yes. He scheduled the date for tonight, and I had tutoring but I forgot..." Rosa screwed her mouth to the side in thought, and shrugged.
"It's obvious to me, Hunter."
"What's obvious?"
"You're going to have to figure that out yourself."
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