Chapter 17

"Aiden, it's either you stopping now or there will be bloodshed." I glare at him as last warning.

He remains unfazed, not even a slight change in his expression, "Questions 14 to 20 are still incomplete." He remarks.

I glare at the stupid worksheets he made for me, the entire hour he's drilled so much in my head that I was ready to throw hands.

"Why don't you just finish this worksheet and we'll call it a day." He says glancing at the time on his phone.

"I wasn't going to do anything else anyway." I look at him and he gestures for me to finish.

I continue solving the next integration problem trying to recall the steps he taught me. Aiden was a good tutor. I wasn't even going to try denying it, he broke the concept into simple bits, he taught shortcuts to remember the steps, he'd never rush me into understanding, and always seemed to know where I was stuck.

That's a lot of compliments.

I look at him reading a fat book about pscychology.

What is he? A nerd? A loner? Who even reads books that fat?

"You want to be a psychologist?" I ask him gesturing to his book.

"Are you done with the problems?" He says without looking up.

My face blanks as I continue the damn question.

Seven eternities later, I slap the worksheet on the table and put my head on my crossed arms and lay on the table, having a headache.

I hear him click his pen as he starts correcting the problems. I focus on relaxing my eyes.

"This wasn't so bad." I hear him say.

My head snaps up as he passes the worksheet to me and I see a 12/20 at the bottom of the page.

I sigh in relief and he nods once again. I all but groan when he pulls out two more worksheets from his backpack.

"These are for you to practice at home." He says packing his things.

"Sure, why not, why wouldn't I do it? Isn't calculus so fun to solve." I remark sarcasm dripping from every word.

He ignores me as I remember something.

"Oh wait a minute!" I say reaching into my bag.

He pauses and looks at me as I pull out two chocolate bars handing it to him.

He looks at them and back at me.

"Ah, this is for helping me out." I say, gesturing for him to take it.

"No thank-" he begins.

I roll my eyes and grab his wrist and slap the bars on his palm. He looks shocked and his eyes widen slightly. He opens his mouth again but I talk before he can.

"Yea no worries, don't worry about the worksheets, I'll attempt as best as I can." I say looking right into his eyes.

He turns his eyes away and they fall onto my hand that's still holding his wrist.

I let go immediately and pick up my bag.

"I'll catch you later then." I say holding my hand up for a high five.

He looks distracted for a second before he zeros on my palm.

He stands too and walks out of the library leaving my hand hanging. I stare at the back of his head as he walks out.

His shoulders slouch ever so slightly and his stride slows a little bit.

He looks... tired?

I couldn't quite  put my finger on it-

Whatever let's just go home.

I get in my car and take a deep breath. My phone rings and I jump. I answer without looking at the name and instantly smile when I hear Sally's voice ring through the car.

"Hey gorgeous, I take it your class is over?" She beams.

"Sally you called at such a perfect time." I breathe out.

"Tired aren't ya?" She says in her ever melodic voice.

"Too much, my head hurts." I start the engine and start driving home.

"I wish I was there, I would've cooked you something." She voices.

I'm instantly reminded of all the dishes she cooked for all of us when we were super tired.

"I'd swim back to L.A if it meant for me to eat some of your fried rice." I smile.

She lets out a small laugh trying to be quiet as possible.

"Why are you talking so quietly though?" I ask.

"Oh, Ricky's sleeping right now, it's been a long day for him so I don't want to disturb him." She whispers.

I wiggle my eyebrows then realise she can't see me. She cuts the call and facetimes me instead.

"Stop wiggling your brows, I know you're doing that right now." She says shaking her head.

I laugh loud at that and tell her she's spot on. "Ricky's over at yours?" I smirk.

"Yeah he's like a koala when he's tired, literally attaches himself to me." she chuckles, an adorable smile on her face.

I laugh again and say, "He's been clingy to you from the start."

I see her blushing at that and chuckle.

I hear groaning and see Ricky twisting in Sally's arms as she shushes him back to sleep. I stop at a red light and coo at the cute couple.

I look at the rear view mirror and see a few cars and look back to Sally as she talks about some new designs for her pants.

We talk for a bit before I look at the mirror again and see the same black car since I left the library.

Calm down, you're being paranoid on the street.

I clench the steering wheel and Sally stops and looks at me with furrowed eyebrows, "Something wrong?"

"Oh no, nothing just tired." I say shaking my head.

"Eve, you're clearly lying, lets talk later about it 'kay?" She sighs.

"Alright fine, by the way Luke called Mr Wilson again. " I say since we had promised each other not to keep anything after last time.

"Right thing to do honestly." She says, her eyebrows drawn together.

"Yeah, since the text he's been worried and so am I."

"We're worried too Eve, it doesn't help you're so far away." She frowns.

"Sally?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep talking please." My heart starts racing as I see the same black car behind me. I read the license number and read it loud

"What are you saying?" She asks looking at me like I had grown another head.

"Sally write this down now." I say quickly reciting the plate number to her and she looks increasingly worried.

"Eve, what's going on?" She asks grabbing a pen and jolting it down on her hand.

"We'll talk later about it." I sigh, massaging my temples.

We spent the next 5 minutes talking and I finally see the driveway for the house and breathe out.

I quickly park and hurry out of the car. I rush upstairs and slam the door of Luke's room dropping the phone and my bag. I hear Sally calling my name but I can't focus on anything.

Blood rushes to my ears as Luke opens his door and walks over to me.

"Eve, what's going on?" He frowns.

"Luke, something happened in the car, we've been on call."

Luke picks up the phone and looks at Sally who looks back at him with the same worried expression. I close my eyes and feel panic crawling from every vein within me.

Breathe remember?

I exhale deeply and sit against the bed pulling my knees closer to my chest with my head bent. I hear Luke shuffling but I can't seem to talk or reply. 

Blood rushes to my ears as flashbacks creep at the back of my head. Luke yanks me up and lays me on the bed. I close my eyes and tell myself its okay

After a while I open my eyes and look to the side to see Luke sitting there with an anxious look on his face.

"I think I'm being followed again." I whisper looking into his eyes.

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