Page 34 of Choosing Her
“Crossy,” I said in a dangerous voice, “tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”
His guilty expression said it all: Caleb Cross, who was failing his math class, had skipped it to come see me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and counted to ten in my head. “Why would you do that that? Now, we won’t only be reviewing it, I’ll have toteachit to you.”
The words came out a little ruder than I intended, but I stood by the general sentiment. My job as his tutor wasn’t to be the one teaching him all the content the first time he saw it. I was helping him review what he needed help with and my job would be ten times harder if he’d never seen any of the content before. Adding on the fact that I wasn’t even remotely trained as a tutor and frankly sucked at it, and he could basically kiss goodbye to understanding today’s lesson.
“Well, I had to make sure my tutor was up to the job, otherwise there was no point in me going to class at all,” Crossy said with a cheeky smile. “Don’t you know I can’t pass without you?”
I huffed and shook my head. “That is a terrible excuse for skipping and you know it.”
“Would saying that I didn’t want to let your coffee get too watered down be a better excuse?”
I took another sip of the coffee, still not tasting the caramel in it at all. Maybe they forgot to do the flavoring. Or maybe it really was just that watered down after an hour, because it didn’t even taste that much like coffee at all.
“No,” I said. I chewed a little on the plastic straw as I looked at him. “But I guess I appreciate you bringing it anyway.”
He smirked. “You guess?”
I rolled my eyes. “If you’re trying to get me to say something nicer, you’re gonna be waiting a while.”
He looked me over carefully and I only realized then that I was still dressed in my pajamas. Sure, I had my comforter wrapped around me, but it didn’t cover the partially ripped bright pink MY FAMILY WENT TO VEGAS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID T-SHIRT top—a gift from Poppy, because my parents definitely would never buy me something like this—that I was wearing as pajamas. I pulled the comforter tighter around me, even though I knew it was too late to stop him from noticing it.
“Are you okay?” Crossy asked. For a second, I thought he was asking about my emotional wellbeing from being seen in this shirt, but then he added, “Why weren’t you in class?”
“Oh, I just overslept,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over my eye. “Guess I overdid it on the weekend, huh? What a cliché, sleeping through a Monday morning class.”
He frowned again. I wanted to tell him that I preferred it when he looked happier, that I hated the way he was frowning like that, but I wasn’t sure how he would take that and I was worried about offending him.
“Are you sick?” He asked, his frown deepening.
“No,” I said immediately. “Of course not. I just overslept.”
He hummed but looked over me carefully. “I don't know. You don't look too good.”
I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks.”
"You know what I mean," he said. He pushed me back towards my bed. "Lie down."
"I'm fine," I muttered, but sitting down did actually sound really nice. So I sat and continued sipping on the iced coffee he brought me. "And more importantly, you should be in class right now."
"Haven't we already been over this?" he asked with a small smirk.
I just stared back at him. "Okay, I promise I'll go to class soon," he said. "I just wanted to make sure that you were alive."
"Barely," I muttered. I pulled my feet up so that I could pull the covers over me. Then Crossy did the strangest thing he had done all morning. He pulled the covers up for me, tucking me in. I raised my eyebrows at him and he just shrugged and said, "I didn't want you to be cold."
"You are a weird, weird boy, Caleb Cross," I muttered.
I put the coffee down on my nightstand and leaned back, tucking my hands behind my head, and looked him over. "You were worried about me.”
He stared at me a little inquisitively. "I thought we already established that.”
"We did.” I continued staring at him though. Then, I let out a long sigh. "You were worried about me. You, Caleb Cross, were worried aboutme."
He stared at me impassively, and then said, "Yeah, I was."
I wasn't sure why it meant so much to me. Maybe because all this time I kept replaying those moments that we had, that moment we had, New Year's Eve, and then the pain that I felt following it when he never called me. When he never showed up. And then when he finally did show up but he was with her. It just felt like such a 180 from what he had been then that it was hard for me to understand.
