Thursday was not exactly his favorite day, it should be, a day before Friday, he couldn't speak for all obviously but to him, Thursday was a rest day, lots of free periods and joking around.

Thursday was also the day he found his ex-girlfriend making out, deeply to be precise, with a guy that was not him. Ever since that day, he dreaded the arrival of every Thursday, some would say 'it's been months get over it already.' Few would say 'He should heal slowly.' In this case, he should say the latter was working but it was not, every Thursday is like ripping off bandages and adding injection to the injury, making it painful for seconds, minutes perhaps but he couldn't say his heartbreak hurts for just 24hours, the pain was always there, Thursday was just exceptionally worse.

Today was a bit different, today, he was going to tutor Jade. He had important thoughts in his head, he had to figure out a way to tutor her without looking dumb. He had read through most of the night. He was nervous, sort of a mess, his sister saw him and thought he was nervous about a test, little did she know.

He walked through the school halls, he saw Rachel coughing and smiling at her 'boyfriend', he could almost laugh cause he knew her fake smile and that was what the 'boyfriend' was getting. If only he knew, Alexandre said to himself.

A little part of him hoped she was ok but the bigger part of him was hoping not to mess up the tutorial.

Thursday mornings always start up with maths. Mathematics was not his favorite subject but not his worst either. He headed to the class a little bit nauseous due to lack of sleep last night and no breakfast.

~•~

"Woah, dude! You look a bit pale." Carter stated.

"A bit?" Tori asked looking at him curiously.

"Good morning to you guys too," he said offering them a fake smile.

"It's a good morning for us, is it for you though?" Tori asked with a raised brow.

Dre gritted his teeth and looked at the board whilst Tori and Carter shook their heads.

The class was ok. Nothing more not interesting but a little bit boring.

The rest of the day was free till after break that is. The trio used to hang out at the school stadium to catch up or just make jest of people and teachers but today was different, Jade was joining them. It was her, surprisingly, first time there but doubtfully last. The trio was waiting for Jade in the hallway with their phone in their hands of course.

"Boo!" Jade attempted to scare them from behind. Instead, their eyes were still locked on their screens while muttering "Hi", "yo", "wassup" respectively before inserting their phones in their back pockets and started walking at the same time.

"Do you guys do that a- Woah! Alex, what happened to your face?" Jade asked looking at his face weirdly then turning to Carter and Tori for, hopefully, an answer. The duo looked suddenly interested in the silence of the hallway and walked away from them. Dre still looked still, the pale color on his face started changing to red.

Jade stepped back a bit confused about what was happening. She turned to look at Carter and Tori but their faces looked a bit pale all of a sudden too. Carter then walked back towards them and dragged Dre away from Jade.

"Don't call him Alex," Tori said swinging her hands on Jade's shoulder causing her to look away from the backs of Carter and Dre.

"Why? It's in his name. Alexandre right?" She said staring at their backs again whilst Tori swung a hand on her back.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Nope. I mean yeah it's part of his name but that part of his name is a bit how do I put it. Sacred? " Tori said without further explanation.

"Do you think I should apologize?" Jade asked after a few minutes.

"For? Don't worry" Tori said offering a smile "he won't hold a grudge."

"Then why are we walking in opposite directions?"

"To clear the awkward air," Tori said ending the conversation

"Welcome to the official school stadium." Tori finally said.

Jade smiled a bit still feeling guilty for ruining everyone's mood.

"Those stingy punks," Tori said walking faster towards Carter and Dre.

The duo noticed Tori and started sticking more food into their mouths, probably trying to finish the whole thing before she got there. Tori started walking faster adding mini runs in between her fast walks.

With their eyes wild, mouths full, Jade doubted they could even chew anything. Tori finally got to where the duo were spotted and slapped their heads making them spit out some of the foods in their mouth and choke at the same time. Tori looked at the rest of the food, so did Carter and Dre. The trio fought for the food. Tori decided to use the alternative move and spat on the foods causing the boys to move back and a devilish grin on her face.

Jade could see the boy's mouth moving as she walked towards them. Carter then shrugged and ate the food anyway leaving Tori and Dre with an irritated face. He ignored the looks and continued eating, scooting to Tori's side.

Dre sat opposite the two and eyed them mockingly.

"Hey," Jade said when she got to the trio.

Dre moved a bit to create enough space for her to sit. Well, enough space for awkwardness to crawl in. The two sat down not muttering a word and looking straight ahead whilst Tori and Carter were lost in their own world talking about movies.

"Uhmmm.." Jade tried to find the rights words to clear the air.

Dre turned his head to look at her trying to hold his smile in.

"I'm sorry for calling you that name, I tend to overstep my boundaries sometimes." She said looking at her fingers

He smiled looking at her with a raised brow.

"You know this is the first time I've heard you apologize." He said wiggling his brows.

"So you're not mad?" She asked to which he replied

"Never was."

"Are you sure? Cause you looked really mad." She said squinting her eyes.

"Yep."

"So I can call you Alex?"

"Nope."

"Cool, cool.. hmm Why?"

"It's a bit personal."

"They know." She said nodding her head towards Tori and Carter.

"You know you ask a lot of questions about what is not your business." He said with a thin smile.

"Wow ok. I was just curious but never mind." She said with a scowl.

"It's ok, I don't mind." He said with a smile and shrug. To which she offered an obvious fake smile.

"So are you ready for the tutorial?" He asked changing the topic.

"Oh, that." She said dragging the words.

Was she kidding? He studied his butt off for this and all she could reply with was oh that?

"Yeah, that." He replied with a raised brow hoping she was not planning on canceling.

She said smacked her lips together and said "I guess I am."

"Cool cool."

The awkward air was definitely back, Dre thought.

Let's be honest, It never really left though but we'll leave it at that.

•~•

   After the lunch break, they went to their classes.  As time passed, Alex kept getting nervous about the after school tutorial. Jade was also nervous but not because of the tutorial or anything, she hates feeling less than people and she was worried he was going to think she was dumb or something.

     School ended faster than they thought, the duo was nervous for different reasons of course.

  They got to the school park, both got in their respective cars with Dre telling her to follow his car. On a normal day, Dre was supposed to pick his sister from middle school but he had asked his mom to help today.

   When they finally got to Dre's house, with their cars parked and taking the necessary things they needed, they approached the house without saying a word. Things were not awkward per se but it was not exactly comfortable at the same time.

"DRE! Finally, did you drink all the orange juice? I am so thirsty!" She said in her loud overdramatic voice. "I think I'm going to die!" She said calmly and slowly this time.

"There's still cold water," Dre said rolling his eyes. His sister glared at him and noticed Jade who was looking at them with an amused smile.

   With a confused face, she approached them, shoved Dre to the wall whilst telling him to move. She scanned an uncomfortable Jade as if she could tell everything about her by staring.

"Uhmmm.. Hi?" Jade finally said breaking the stare down on her body.

    Ignoring her, she turned to her brother who was stuffing his face in her food. With a deep breath, she approached him, dragged her plate from him, glared at him.

"Who's the chick?" She asked him in her horrible attempt of whispering.

"My name is Jade, nice to meet you.." Jade said smiling at her.

  Sophie scoffed at her then turned to Dre  "The deal was that you won't bring them here again!" She said glaring at him.

 "She's not one of them, I'm tutoring her," Dre said with a shrug.

"What he said." She said walking away with her food.

"I'm sorry about her, she's not really a fan of people?" More like girls that aren't Rachel. He said in an apologetic tone.

"Oh ok. Maybe this was a bad idea." She said biting her lips.

"Nah... it's cool, just avoid her."  He said scanning the fridge probably for something to eat.

   He finally found what he was looking for, the orange juice he hid in the fridge.

"It never gets old." He said proudly smiling to himself then downing the drink directly from the bottle.
  
"Wow," Jade said with a raised brow and stretched smile.

"Yeah. Want some?"

"No thanks, I'm good."

 "Your loss, I'm going to drop my bag and get the books." He said leaving her standing in the room right after finishing the last drop in the orange juice bottle.

 "Ok. So are you ready?"He said 3 minutes later making her look up from her phone.

 "Yeah sure."

 "Oh sit, where are my manners? Make yourself comfortable." He said tapping the seat next to him.

 "Thanks." She said with a small smile.

"So where should we start from?"

"I don't know, the parts I missed?" She said with a raised brow.

"Which are?" He said mocking her by raising his brows.

"The beginning aspect. Stop at the fifth week I guess."

"Ok then. Let's get on with it." Dre said

~•~

"Wow, you guys test must be really tiring,"  Sophie said walking in the room for about an hour and some minutes later before taking some of their study chips.

"Test?" Jade asked confused.

"Yeah... Dre stayed up all ni-"

"Watching a video online." He said chuckling nervously whilst stuffing more chips in Sophie's mouth.

"Alrighty?" Jade said.

"Let's call it a day?" Dre said looking at Jade.
 
"Sure, I'm exhausted," Jade said smiling.

"It's no big deal. I'll see you out."

   Jade packed her back and they headed out.

"Thanks a lot for this. It was not as bad as I thought." She said smiling

"Yeah... Honestly, same." He said chuckling.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow." She said waving then hopping into her car.

      Dre waved then headed inside. Sophie greeted him back with her arms folded and an angry look.

"Where's mom?" He asked ignoring her attitude.

"She went back to work. Seriously? " She said looking at him with her face scrunched up and her eyes looking like glass.

"Can you not? I thought she was free today." He said walking past her and towards the cupboards.

"Emergency and can I not what? It's not even up to a year, Dre and you've been with more girls than a five-year-old can count." She said to his back.

"We broke up Soph! Let it go. Sometimes I wonder who your sibling is cause you're always on her side." He said trying his best not to yell.

"Wow... I'm not picking sides, Alexandre. I just think you're going about this the wrong way. I mean have you talked to her since the break-up?" Sophie toned down this time.

"Let me guess, you know the right way?" He scoffed then chuckled a bit. "Drop it." He said opening the spaghetti he took from one the cupboards.

"I think you should talk to her and don't add too much salt in the spaghetti this time." She said leaving the room.,

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