Alexia's POV

"No," I repeated for the millionth time. "You have to substitute in P(x) for this, okay?" Aggravation was starting to show in my tone at this unsuccessful tutoring session, and I don't know if I was happy or not that we had as much time as we needed for him to understand this stuff.

He gave an uninterested shrug, pulling out his phone once more.

I'm going to strangle him.

"Colin," I called, exasperated. "Can you just put the phone away and pay attention?"

He looked at me for less than a second, before going back to typing something on his phone. "You're not my teacher," he stated simply.

His insulting behavior made my blood boil, and I felt myself getting angrier.

"I'm trying to help you! You're the one who wanted a tutor in the first place! I thought you actually wanted to improve!" My teeth were gnashing together, and I became even more infuriated with him when he didn't even glance up at me, just continued to play on his phone. "Okay, what is your problem? I'm sacrificing my precious time to help you out, and you're completely ignoring me to play on your stupid phone! You were so excited to learn on Tuesday!"

I waited for about twenty seconds, waiting for a reaction, waiting for the blink of an eye, a shift in his movement, anything. But the only thing he did was continue to tap on his phone.

"Okay, you know what? This clearly isn't working out. I'm leaving, and you can find a new tutor," I muttered, doubting that he even heard me. He was obviously trying to prove a point to me, nobody goes from being incredibly grateful to snubbing someone without a good reason.

I just didn't know what that reason was, and I wasn't exactly in the mood to play his childish games to figure it out.

Cramming my books into my bag, I was just halfway across the room when I heard his voice.

"Why didn't you answer my text?"

Swiveling around, I turned to face him, confused and still mad. "What? I did answer your text, I told you to feel free to text me any questions you had about this. Did you not receive it or something?" Wait, he did respond... he said he would.

He shook his head, confirming my thoughts that he had received it and responded. "No, not that text. The one I sent you later that night." Bright blue eyes met mine, boring into them, trying to tell me something.

"I don't remember getting that text?" I ended the sentence with a question mark because now that he mentioned it, something about later that night was tickling my brain. Then it clicked. "Oh! That text?" I took a moment to pull out my phone. "The text where you..." I trailed off as I read the entire thing, everything coming back to me. I face-palmed. "Oops, sorry."

"That's it? That's all you're going to say? Sorry?" Colin looked livid at this point, and frankly I didn't understand why.

"What else am I supposed to say? I forgot to reply!" I defended, crossing my arms.

"Well, considering I had already bought the tickets, I'd want a bit more than just an 'oops, sorry'," he mocked.

My jaw dropped. Was he seriously doing this right now?! "Okay, first, why in the world would you already have the tickets? Unless your girlfriend cancelled on you or something-"

"I don't have a girlfriend," he interjected.

I rolled my eyes at his interruption. "And second, maybe I didn't want to go out with you, maybe I already had plans!"

"Really? Those 'plans'," he made air quotes, and I scowled, "were more important than going on a date with me?"

And just like that, I lost all will to continue this stupid argument. It was just too.. stupid.

"Egotistical much?" I scoffed. "Whatever, I'm sorry I didn't respond right away but you don't have to be such a conceited jerk about it. Find a new tutor, I can't do this anymore." I turned around, walking out of the library, and down the hall. Not to my surprise, he didn't follow me out or say anything else.

It wasn't until I was about to climb into my car, when someone leaned heavily against the side, scaring me.

"Look.." Colin panted, clearly out of breath. I could only assume he ran here looking for me. "I'm sorry, okay? I was being a butt-hurt little bitch because, well, it was very rare for a girl to turn down a date like you did." Colin's cheeks were now stained with a bit of red, and looking him over, it wasn't hard to see why not many girls would turn him down. He seemed nice enough, and had a very well-built stature, standing at almost 6 ft, and of course he had those baby blues I could see people falling for. "I really do need you as my tutor and-"

"I never turned down your date," I deadpanned.

"What?" He sounded surprised at my interruption.

"I never turned down your date," I reiterated, slower this time.

"You.. didn't?"

"I told you; I forgot to respond. I was half asleep when I read it," I explained.

"So, what does that mean exactly?" Colin's eyes had grown bigger as he came to the conclusion I was hinting at.

"I never gave you an answer."

"And..? What would your answer be?" Colin looked as if he was filled with hope, eyes just a shade lighter, aura containing his excited energy.

"Answer me this first," I said quickly, and Colin nodded. "Why would you even ask me out in the first place?" It might have just been me and my non-existent love life aside from Lee, but I was oddly suspicious of why Colin would ask me out. We had just met two days ago for pete's sake, and this wasn't middle school, you don't go and ask out the first person you meet. You get to know them, taking your time to decide if you want to go into a relationship. And Colin barely knew me; he didn't know me.

"Like I said, it was so that I could thank you for helping me do so well."

I frowned at his answer. It was insufficient. "Oh, well in that case, no, sorry." I felt a sort of glumness sink into me, as if I was actually sad that I turned him down. It was certainly peculiar; I had never felt this before. Especially considering I was big into getting to know someone before going out with them. Of course, Lee was the exception to all of this.

Lee. His name crept into my mind, a pang of guilt racking through me. What am I doing? I can't go around wishing that I could go on this date with Colin. I'm engaged, going on a date would be cheating. I can't do that to Lee.

"What? Why not?" A defensive look had overtaken Colin's features, making him look angry.

I opened my mouth, preparing to tell him that I was engaged, when I stopped. I don't want people knowing about that, not yet at least. I'm isolated enough by my parents; if people knew that I was already engaged I'd be ostracized even more, except this time by my peers.

I shook my head. "I don't need to go on a date to be thanked, just saying it is good enough," I blabbed, making that up on the spot.

"Oh. Then thank you," he responded instantly. I smiled, opening my mouth to tell him that it was my pleasure, when he spoke again. "But don't think that this will hamper my attempts to go on a date with you." He smirked, leaving me thoroughly confused.

"What? Why do you still want to go on a date with me? I thought you said that you wanted to take me out just to thank me." I frowned as I pointed this out.

He shrugged. "Well, if you think about it logically, why wouldn't I want to take you on a date? You're obviously incredibly smart, not to mention beautiful."

A rush of heat filled my cheeks, and I hoped that my skin tone hid the blush well. Nobody had ever called me beautiful, apart from my parents and of course, Lee. Then again, he was almost obligated to say that, even though I could tell he really meant it. I just never really believed it until Colin had said it.

"If this is your attempt at flirting, it's working," I mumbled, averting my gaze for a minute to stare at the black pavement.

"This is just the beginning babe," Colin said, and my eyes flickered back to his face. He had on a wide grin, blue eyes calling me to its depths.

Aw, crap.

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yes, colin can be a bit of a douche [and don't forget cocky and slightly self-centered] at times .-. i was just kind of in the mood for stereo-typical player, and frankly i don't really care if it's cliche. i think it adds pizazz XD but hey, now we have a bit of competition between Lee and Colin, one that only Alexia knows about :D that'll be fun, won't it? cx

i'm evil, i know. my brother is a demon [that's literally my nickname for him but i still love him to death] so that makes me a demon too >:)

i'm really tired, excuse my weirdness.

dedicated to @Red0_0 for being an awesome reader between this story and M&M! <3