Chapter 15 – Nate; Please?

My feet is fidgeting. My fingers were curled on top of my knees. I was sitting in front of the piano staring for a long time. Almost glaring at it as though that musical instrument had just said something offensive to me. It stood still. Unmoving. Static as it waited for my fingers to make a move on its black and white keys. The “Pathetique” sheet before me longed for my eyes to read through.

But I can’t seem to play anything today.

The way I usually do while waiting for Shea.

Because...

Something was bothering me, and I need to have it settled. And I really need to have Shea’s approval, let alone his... uh... cooperation. If I wanted to get it done. The problem was that he may take it as a disturbance in the lessons. The huge risk I should consider was his patience. What if I pissed him off? He was so scary when he was furious. But I thought I did deserve that, it was going my fault anyway.

I only need to convince him, if I could. If he could fall for it. If only I knew his weakness I would use that as an advantage!

The doorbell rang, and I dashed to the door before the maid could. Shea would wait in front of the smaller gate at the size of the normal door when he arrived.

“Hey, Shea,” I greeted him casually, opening the grill for him. One of his eyebrows raised, curious at what I was doing today, “Yea, I know, it’s weird today. But I need to ask you something”.

“Oh...” he said, but didn’t look satisfied. He entered the grounds and followed me back into the house, “You could wait until the lesson starts”.

I chuckled.

“The thing is... it has nothing to do with... tutoring or the sort...”

We passed the maid when we were on the way to the stairs, she blinked at us but understood the situation anyway.

“Then?” he inquired. We climbed up the staircase and walked towards my room.

“But please don’t be angry if I say it...” I requested, looking at him pleadingly. His expression did not change, but I noticed his ears turned somewhat pinkish.

“Why would I be angry?” he asked with a puzzled look. I opened the door of my room and allowed him to step in first.

“Because you always do?”

“No, I don’t... I’m just being strict.”

We sat on our respective chairs by the study table.

“Well, you can be a bit emo,” I teased.

“Emo??” he snapped. He blinked once, then regained his cool when he realized that he was almost losing it. I couldn’t help but let out a giggle. He huffed. “Alright.... back to topic. What is it that you wanted to ask?”

The atmosphere became tensed again, just like the unanimated moment with the piano minutes ago. Twisting my fingers together, I ransacked my brain for the best sentences that I constructed earlier. I knew I had no guts to put on a confident face, but I put on an expression which would make people go ‘aww, you poor thing!’ instead. Well, it was my only weapon! I had an hour of practice in front of the mirror for this!

I took a deep breath and...

“Last week, my class was given a task to do a presentation for biology class. It’s something like ‘show and tell’. Any topic. But related to the subject, of course. We were given a week to prepare, and the presentation day is tomorrow so...”

I knew I spoke to fast, but Shea respectfully waited for me to continue.

“I need to... make preparations for tomorrow...” I slowed down. Shea’s eyebrows connected, I assumed that he was squinting his eyes at me behind those lens.

“Then you should’ve called me earlier to cancel tonight’s session,” he said coolly.

He was right. I could do it alone but I was afraid that he would not accept that request to cancel. And dismissing him now would cruel of me. But then again, could I actually do this alone in one night?

“I know... but the thing is...” I started to sound like I was whining, “I still haven’t done a thing about it...”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I totally forgot about it until two hours ago! My friend texted me about it but I panicked because I totally forgot! I really have no idea what to talk about tomorrow!”

“You can’t think straight if you’re panicked. Calm down...”

“I can’t think straight even if I’m calmed,” I moaned, looking down at my fingers. I resisted from bursting into tears. I looked back up, locking my eyes to his expectantly, hoping for sympathy, “Can you help me?”

Shea’s lips twitched. Maybe his veins popped too. This is bad...

“Weekends were too short for you, wasn’t it?” he asked sarcastically. I pouted, but I mustn’t give up yet.

“Please?”

He gazed at me for some time, his face flushed all of a sudden (was he angry?) before he finally agreed, “Geez, alright then.”

I almost squealed in delight!

“Have you decided on a topic?” he asked. I scowled and shook my head. He sighed.

“I’ll turn on the PC. Maybe we can look up for something in the internet,” I suggested. I went to the corner of the room and turned on the computer.

“You need to have an objective in order to find something.”

“I know but...”

“What’s the topic again?”

“Anything related to biology stuff... you know. Plants, bacteria and all.”

Shea lifted up the chair he was sitting on and brought it next to the computer chair. I sat cross-legged on mine in front of the PC.

“Do you have any suggestions?” I asked him innocently.

He had settled on the chair, one hand cupping his chin, and thought for a while.

Then he bit the bottom of his lip and said, “Apples.”

“Apples?”

“It’s what I’m doing at school. I think I know most of the facts on apples because I’ve done a lot of research on it. If it makes it easier for you, I’ll show you the sites where you can get all the info...”

“But is it okay? To take your topic...”

“We attend different school, Nate,” he reminded me cynically. But oh my... every time he said my name, my stomach was sucked into some sort of inner vortex – which actually felt good!

“I know. But still...”

“We don’t have all day, you know? And here you are wasting an opportunity while I was trying to save your skin.”

Save me, huh? Heehee!

“Okay, okay. Apples then...” I shifted my chair to allow him to type the addresses for the information. He opened a few tabs on the browser to use the search engine.

From this angle I could actually see his profile, his small yet attractive eyes that were usually hidden behind his thick lens (amazing how the light kept concealing them). Since I was curious, I had to ask... “Why did you pick apples?”

His lips twitched, but answered “it’s a long story” anyway. He concentrated on surfing the internet.

“Tell me, please!” I begged, batting my eyelashes hoping that he’d notice it from the corners of his eyes. He ignored me and kept clicking away with the mouse. Annoyed at his ignorance I poked his shoulder.

“Do you want me to help you or not?” he snapped after my tenth poke. I withdrew my hand, coiled my fingers and placed it under my chin. I bit my lip and put on a guilty look.

“Sorry...” I muttered. He flushed again.

“Erm...” the quiver in his voice returned. He cleared his throat to regain his cool tone, “I’ve found all the stuff here. Just need to print these.”

“That’s a lot!” I yelped when I looked at the screen. “I can’t explain all of this in 10 minutes!”

“Just print them all. Then we can pick the important points only. Discard the unnecessary stuff if you can’t remember all of them.”

“Ah, okay. Got it!”

I reached for the mouse, my hand brushed against his as he lifted it up from the device. I’d be lying if I say I didn’t fancy the friction against his rough skin.

I clicked the print button and waited for the printing to finish. Shea helped arrange the papers in one pile. Once finished he took them back to the study table along with the chair. I moved with the mobile chair next to him – almost colliding onto the table.

“Lazy feet,” he muttered sarcastically as he scanned one page. I snorted and broke into a giggle. I knew it was an insult but I found it very funny. He handed me half the pile and demanded, “You take these and extract all the important points. And I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

“Mmkay,” I retrieved it from him, still giggling.

I was smiling to myself throughout the process. Shea eyed me suspiciously, or at least that was what my conscience said to me. I wasn’t good at this job, in the end Shea did most of it. I could that he really liked doing this research thing, even if he didn’t show it in his face. He was a thorough and experienced researcher for his age. He even rationalizes which points are necessary and those which are not to be told in just a small presentation.

And I really like how passionate he was about this.

And the fact that he’s actually giving me a hand...

Towards the end, we were now extracting keywords. He gave a little extra time for me after time was up. But I wouldn’t want him to stay too late to see me practicing my public speaking.

“It’s 10.15, way past the curfew,” I reminded him. “You should go home now.”

“Right,” he looked at his watch. His eyebrows raised, apparently shocked at his willingness to help me this late (although it was only several minutes). He got up from his chair and gathered his things, “The rest is up to you then. I’ve done what I can.”

“Thank you so much!” I cried. And with that declaration my body acted on its own; my arms flung around him holding him in a tight embrace.

His body stiffened with a loud gasp. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what I was doing – My eyes widened, I looked up at him. I released him and took one step backwards.

His glasses had slid down the bridge of his nose and I could see the obvious shock in his bulging eyes. His face was a red as a tomato. Flaring his nostrils, he shifted his glasses back to its place with his index finger. His Adam’s apple bobbed up, then back down, before he mumbled hoarsely, “I-it’s nothing...”

He spun his heels and made a quick dash to the door. Opened, exited, and closed it with a slam. I’d have sent him to the gate if I wasn’t too shocked myself. Embarrassed, more like.

Through the window I watched him walk in a fast pace, out through the gate. One hand clasping his mouth.

I mean, it’s not weird for me to naturally hug people. I should know better that it’s weird to normal people (considering that I’m not too normal). But it’s even weirder to see Shea react in such an extreme fashion.

From today on, I get the feeling that things would not be good...

A/N: sorry, i was a lil late today. Again, thanks for the reading and reviewing (in advance).