Chapter 3

I was sitting down on my bed, with books scattered all over. I’d just gotten my books out to work on my homework.

It had been about five minutes of me attempting to study, when my thoughts drifted to Aaron. I began wondering what he was doing. If the waitress from last night knowing his order said anything, I was betting he was at the diner.

The next fifteen minutes were spent with me debating on making a trip to the diner. I had another worksheet of Calculus problems, and I knew Aaron would be able to help me. He was like a genius.

I made my resolve when I found myself not being able to solve the first problem. It was partly due to how little notes I had on the section, and partly due to my attention being in a little diner a few blocks from my apartment.

“What can I get for you hun?” Rose asked, as she held her pen ready to take my order.

“Uhh… An order of pancakes and coffee,” I replied.

“That sounds great, I’ll bring your order in a few,” she replied, giving me a warm smile.

The diner, as it had been the night before, was fairly empty.

Aaron had mentioned that it was usually packed during the day, but at night, everything slowed down.

It was already 9:00. I’d been in the diner for almost an hour, and there was still no sign of Aaron.

I had my things out, trying to work on my homework. It was mainly to pretend I was doing something, because my papers were blank.

Another half-hour passed, and I was getting ready to leave, when I noticed someone standing next to the booth.

When I looked up, I found Aaron grinning down at me.

“You took my booth again. I’m starting to think you might have something against me,” he said. Even as he said that, there was a grin on his face.

“I was just leaving,” I told him. It was true, but now that he was here, I didn’t really want to leave.

“Already?” He asked. “It isn’t even 10 yet,” he told me, as he took out his iPhone to check the time.

“I have a lot of homework. I just came to eat,” I lied. 

“Stay,” he said. I noticed that with the shirt he was wearing, his eyes looked greener than they did hazel.

“I’ll help you with your homework.”

I pretended to think about it. It was mainly to make him think I’d really gone there to eat pancakes, because I felt embarrassed to say I had been waiting for him to show up.

“It’s harder than last time,” I told him.

It was true, the homework was harder. But, I also didn’t understand why I was finding so many negatives about staying. It almost felt like I wanted him to persuade me to stay.

“I’ve taken Calculus before, remember? I doubt there’s anything you do, that I haven’t seen before,” he reminded me.

I smiled, which made something in his eyes shine brighter.

“Well, alright,” I told him, as I settled back in the booth.

“Cool! So, what have you done so far?” He asked, trying to take my notebook away.

My eyes widened at his question, and suddenly I brought the notebook closer to my chest.

“It’s really bad. I didn’t understand the lesson, at all,” I told him. Truth was, both my worksheet and my notes were blank.

I had been too busy waiting for Aaron to show up at the diner, I hadn’t bothered to try and work any of the problems.

“C’mon, let me have a look,” he said, outstretching his hand.

He was trying to take it away, but I was keeping it out of reach- or more exactly, I was keeping it attached to my chest.

“I promise I won’t laugh- too much,” he told me.

“What the?” Aaron asked, pointing at something behind me.

When I turned to look where he was pointing at, he snatched the notebook from me.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” he said, giving me his trademark grin.

I rolled my eyes, but immediately felt my face warm up when he got a look at my worksheet.

“Where’s your work?” He asked, sounding confused.

“Uh…” I muttered, not really having an answer. There was no work. In the two hours I’d been there, no work at all had gotten finished.

“Uh…” He mocked me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, which only made him laugh.

“Relax, I know this stuff. It’s okay to ask for help, you know. You could’ve just told me you really had no idea what Calculus is, and I would’ve understood,” he told me, shrugging.

“I know what Calculus is. I just hadn’t gotten to start my homework yet,” I told him, as I snatched my notebook back from his hands.

“Oh really? Let’s see you do the first problem then,” he told me, as he handed me a mechanical pencil from his pocket.

“I can do it,” I told him, as I grabbed a lined paper, and started scribbling down numbers.

I had no idea what I was doing.

Ten minutes later, the page filled up with nonsense numbers, I looked up at Aaron.

He was grinning. I wondered if he ever got tired of smiling so much.

“You are so lost,” he told me, while chuckling.

I rested my forehead on the table, with more force than necessary.

“You don’t have to hurt yourself because you’re not great in math. It happens to all of us,” Aaron said. He looked serious, but his friendly expression made me feel slightly better.

“It happens to everyone except you. Seriously, you’re like a math whiz,” I told him.

He chuckled, as he shook his head, making his hair settle differently.

“If I don’t know numbers, then I have no business near computers,” he told me.

Two hours later, and we were finally finished with my homework. I was free to go to my apartment. Aaron had actually encouraged me to go and sleep, since I’d worked hard. He’d been the one to mainly do all the homework, but with how frustrated I acted, I was sure he thought I was annoyed.

I wasn’t. There were some problems that I knew how to do.

Staring at him talk, while he explained something- it was almost hypnotizing.

He got really into the problem, that whenever he talked, it was like I got lost staring at his mouth move. It was distracting.

“If you want to leave, that’s fine with me,” he told me, after I’d put my homework away.

“Well, I don’t really have to leave. I’ll probably get bored at my apartment,” I told him.

He smiled at me, as he took out his sketchpad. As he had done the night before, he’d already eaten a stack of pancakes, scrambled eggs, ice cream, and he was on his third cup of coffee.

How he maintained that diet, while looking lean and defined? I had no idea.

“Cool, then you can stay for longer. I actually wanted to show you something,” he told me, as he got two charcoal sticks out from a little box.

“What is it?” I asked, as I tried looking at a drawing that he was working on.

He took out a separate sheet of paper, different from the ones in his sketchpad.

“Do you like drawing?” He asked me.

I squinted my eyes, as I cocked my head.

“Well… I appreciate it, but I’m not good at it,” I told him.

When it came to art, I was clueless. I was probably better in Calculus, than I was in anything creative- and I was terrible with anything Calculus related.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to give you a basic 101 Art class,” he said, as he handed me the paper.

He took out one from himself, popping his fingers as he stared at the blank sheet.

“Oh-kay,” I said.

“Now, you draw,” he told me. I took the charcoal in my hand, feeling lost with what to do.

He got the charcoal, and began drawing lines that made no sense to me. I looked at him, and then down at my blank paper.

After ten minutes, his drawing was finished.

He had drawn a portrait of me.

My paper was almost blank. There were only some lame lines, but they created absolutely nothing. I’d been staring at him draw. I loved how his hands moved, making the picture slowly fall into place. I had wasted all my time doing that.  

“You could’ve at least tried,” he told me, letting out a light laugh.

“I tried, you’re just too good,” I told him, more for my sake than his.

“That, I am,” he cockily replied.

“Oh, shush. You only got lucky because I’m not art oriented,” I told him.

“You definitely are not,” he said, as he stared at my crappy attempt at drawing.

“You really are not good at drawing- at all. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone as bad as you are. It’s honestly horrible. You really do not know one thing about art-” he continued saying.

“Okay, I get it,” I told him, trying to get him to stop his rant on how bad I was.

He chuckled, as he took my paper in his hands.

“I’m kidding. It doesn’t look too bad,” he told me, scanning the mostly white paper.

“I still tried,” I told him, which was half true.

I did try to concentrate on it.

I looked at Aaron as he “fixed” up my drawing. He wasn’t exactly fixing anything. He was making a drawing of his own, and oh was it good.

Not five minutes later, he had another portrait of me. It was simple, but had enough detail to outline my features.

It was awesome.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Aaron said, as he began walking away.

I was going to tell him that I couldn’t. I’d be having an exam on Friday afternoon, so I had to study tomorrow for sure. It was only Tuesday, but I’d been slacking off lately.

Just as I was about to call him out and tell him I wouldn’t be at the diner, something held me back.

Even without thinking it, I already felt excited about seeing him tomorrow. There was a weird feeling in my stomach, in anticipation of what we’d be doing the following night.

Comment and vote if you'd like:D Thanks loads for reading. This is probably one of my favorite stories to write. It's so peaceful. Lol!