"I told Tom I had a thing for him," Ada informed Britt as she dropped herself into the chair across from her at the cafe. After hours of tests, Ada was not in the mood to be working. Lucky for her, few people seemed to be in the mood for coffee that night.

Britt poked at her Frappuccino with her straw and stared back at her as if Ada was a martian. "The fuck you do that for?"

"He asked a question that I couldn't answer without admitting to it."

"So you tell him to fuck off."

Ada tossed the circular tray on to the table and leaned back in her seat. "I did. He wasn't having it."

"Does he have a thing for you, if you know what I mean?" Britt asked with a wink.

Even thinking about that created a blush to take over Ada's face. "I didn't ask, but I can't imagine he would. He didn't cringe when I admitted my crush, so I'll just consider it a pathetic win."

"So you really have a crush on Mr. B, huh?"

Hearing her best friend call him that made Ada's stomach turn, even though it was a name she'd always called him until recently. "Apparently."

"Sweet, perfect, straight A Ada wants something she isn't supposed to have. I gotta say, I'm impressed."

"Oh yeah?" Ada asked with a smile.

"You're doing something exciting, even if it all bites you in the ass. I'm proud of you. Speaking of Mr. B," Britt continued, "Did you hear what that man of yours did today?" Britt's voice came out more like a song, confirming she knew something interesting.

Ada shook her head, her body stiffening. "What hell did he do?"

"Got Luke and Jake kicked out of graduation and pretty much everything else leading up to it. People came forward saying they saw you getting harassed by them."

Ada ran her now shaking fingers through her hair and looked up as if to plead to the heaven's to make this all go away.

She'd gotten an entire day off from everything with the power outage, and when school returned that day, everyone seemed so frantic as they were nearing the end of the tests that no one seemed to notice her.

The populars were going to rain hellfire on her ass over this one.

She somehow knew it was Tom who opened the door to the cafe when the small bell to chimed.

The only other people in the coffee shop were Creeper and some woman who was semi drunk and quite possibly passed out on the table.

"Did you get Luke and Jake kicked out of graduation?"

Tom stopped dead in his tracks. "Yeah, why? Was I not supposed to?"

Ada shook her head, trying to overlook she was seeing him in a fitted t-shirt two days in a row, again without his glasses. It wasn't easy to ignore, and she was failing miserably at it. Still, she had to at least appear strong. "Things were getting better."

Tom began walking toward them again and sat in a chair between Ada and Britt and tossed his ascot cap on the table. "Your alarm went off in your book bag yesterday morning," he spoke in a hushed tone, making sure drunker'd and Creeper couldn't overhear. "I went to turn it off, and I found the notes."

Ada's mouth went dry. She'd kept the notes from him for this very reason, knowing he'd react and make it his mission to bring everyone to justice, as if he was some sort of savior. Ada wanted to be angry with him, but knew in her heart that Tom didn't intentionally go through her things.

"Tom-"

"Were you going to tell me?" His tone had a bizarre evenness to it, causing shivers to crawl up Ada's spine.

"I don't know," she responded. "I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to."

Tom took a long breath as he leaned against the table. "While you were asleep, I went through some homework I had in the car. I've got the handwriting on three of the notes figured out.

"Luke and Jake were a warning. If they leave you alone, I'll keep quiet. But if they keep screwing with you, they're gonna figure out real quick that they don't win in this game."

Ada hoped to God that they got the warning and that Tom didn't need to keep pushing this. She knew him well enough at this point to know that he would have no problem pissing her off if it meant keeping her safe from public ridicule.

"Are you mad that I didn't tell you?"

His body relaxed a bit at the sound of her small voice. "I'm not mad at you, Ada. I was disappointed at first, but I get it. I know you wanted to handle things yourself and you're worried I'm gonna lose my shit and get fired by doing something stupid. The thing is, I'm not stupid."

Tom took a moment and rubbed at his temple before taking another heavy breath. "You gotta remember that I'm a guy. I see a problem, I need to solve it. If I don't, I feel inadequate and pretty well fucking useless in most every way. I know you can protect yourself; you might be little, but you've got a lot of badass in you. And If this was just your problem, I'd be doing my best to stay out of it if that's what you wanted. But I'm a part of this problem and I'm a part of your life and I'm gonna handle at least some of this shit because it's my fucking job, as chauvinistic as it may be."

"Are you sure the two of you aren't having sex?"

If it wasn't for the word 'sex' coming out of Britt's mouth, she wouldn't have heard any of that sentence. But that word caught her attention as if it grew hands and shook her body. "What?"

Britt shrugged. "Just saying, that was some primal shit right there."

"Stop talking," Ada said, shaking her head before turning toward Tom, who appeared to be the embarrassed one this time. "Please just try your best to keep your cool until graduation."

"I'll try," Tom relented; sort of. "Just not very hard."

Ada made eye contact with Tom, resolved to make her point very clear to him. "If you want to be number three, I recommend putting in at least a little of effort." She patted his leg, which seemed to only bring out other emotions in her rather than the one she was trying to get across in that moment.

"Number three on your sex list?" Britt asked. "Who's number two?"

Ada became acutely conscious that her hand was still on his leg and dangerously close to his thigh. With his eye contact remaining firmly on hers, he was plenty aware of it too. Finally, his gaze dropped to where her hand lay only for a moment before looking around the room. Ada's eyes followed his. Drunkard's head was still on the table, her face in the opposite direction of their table. Creeper was on the other side of the room, not in hearing distance or at an angle that allowed him to see the gesture.

His eyes returned to her and hers to him, and his hand left the table to lie over hers on his leg. Tom leaned closer to her, causing that shiver up her spine to return for round two. "You may not like it, Ada, but I'm still your teacher. And as your teacher, it's my job to keep you safe when you're in that building. I may not be great at my job these days, but that aspect of it I plan on taking seriously for the next two weeks." His tone became hushed with his next words, meant for only her, "Even if that means losing my spot as your number three. But you and I both know that you won't be turning me down when that time comes."

And she did. Ada was plenty aware, especially in that moment, that he was the only one who could fulfill what he called her 'pretty fucking high expectations'. It was waiting that week and a half that would be the problem if he kept talking to her like that.

Whether it was courage or madness, Ada wasn't sure. Most likely it was a mix of the two that allowed for Ada to lose her mind in that moment.

"You need to go pretty much anywhere else, Britt," Ada said.

"Why?"

Ada looked over at Britt and kept eye contact until she finally managed to catch on.

Britt paused for a few moments in mild disbelief before pushing her chair away from the table. "Apparently I need to go to the bathroom, not that I don't already know where this is going. And in case you weren't sure, it's going pretty much everywhere it's not supposed to."

"I'm aware," Ada admitted.

"And don't think I didn't notice him saying he slept over," Britt added in. "I heard that shit loud and clear and we're talking about that later."

Ada shook her head, her insides already trembling in anticipation. "Fine."

Britt gave both Ada and Tom one last long look before walking toward the rest rooms.

"Second question." Ada kept her voice as quiet as his so Britt wouldn't overhear, not that she could have spoken normally with him that close to her. It shocked her that more than a squeak escaped her lips. "Do you want to kiss me?"

It was something she found difficult to believe, yet with the way he was acting left a desire to question it. Ada wouldn't have an issue if he said 'no' since she assumed there was a snowballs chance in hell he ever would. But Britt was right; his behavior was primal.

Tom's hand left hers and his elbow leaned against the table, his fist propping up his head. "That's a pretty ballsy question."

"I'm aware of that too."

The bell above the front door chimed and Ada turned around to see a couple in their fifties or so making their way to the counter. She muttered out a curse word.

Tom took the opportunity and stood from the table, pushing his now vacant seat against it. "I should get going."

Ada looked up at him. "Not until you answer my question. Besides, you haven't even gotten your mocha."

Tom let out a sigh, grabbed his cap and took another step away from the table. With lips forming a wavering smile, he looked back at her with a pensive expression taking over his face before allowing the words to escape in a shaky, cracked voice. "You make an awesome mocha, Ada, but that isn't the only reason I come here." Tom slid his cap on and tugged it down to just above his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The words floated into her one by one, taking their time to the point where they barely formed a sentence anymore. She swore her body temperature went up at least twenty degrees by the time all of his words formed in her mind. He was already gone by the time they sank in.