Senseless Attraction

by Lila Rose

  Dread filled me once more.

  The two hours of work went quickly, and I managed not to make any mistakes. My head was tightly screwed onto my body, and my brain batteries were fully charged. In the last ten minutes, Michelle, a co-worker, turned up. She was the same age as me, only she attended another school and was really good-looking, tall and slim, with blonde hair, and light green eyes. And no matter what she wore, she always pulled it off; she had a thing for vintage clothing. I didn’t know where she got them from, but they looked fantastic on her. I looked at her as she walked my way smiling, then I looked down at myself in pity. I was wearing my usual jeans and a t-shirt, which was the best thing for me to wear. Seemed like I couldn’t pull off anything else. I was too short for any type of skirt, and I didn’t fill out the front enough in dresses, so what did I have left? What I had on.

  “Hey.” Michelle winked. She came up really close and faced the opposite way from the front desk. “There’s a guy sitting at the table in the far corner, and he keeps staring at you.”

  I looked over and locked gazes with Tristan. I hadn’t even seen him come in, and usually I was attentive to when a person walked through the door. I liked to greet them on arriving. How long had he been there?

  “Oh, that’s just someone…ah, I—um…” I didn’t think Tristan would want me to tell Michelle that he was here for me to tutor him. “He’s a friend, ah, helping me with some school work.”

  She looked at me with a mischievous smile. “Oh, only a friend?”

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  “Great! I can’t go over there myself ‘cause I have to take the desk now, but can you give him my number?” She slipped a piece of paper in my jeans pocket.

  “Um, sure,” I said and pushed my glasses up my nose.

  “Thanks. You might as well go; it’s just about time.”

  “Okay, thanks. Have a good rest of the day.”

  “I will, and don’t forget.” She gestured with her eyes to my pocket. I nodded at her and grabbed my bags from under the desk.

  Tristan certainly received a lot of attention. He only had to walk past someone and they’d swoon his way. I wondered how many girlfriends he’d had. Or still did have.

  “Hi,” I said, placing my bags on the table with a thump.

  He moved slightly, so I guessed that was a greeting. I opened the bag with my soccer gear in it and retrieved his jacket, which I’d stuffed in that morning.

  “Thank you for that,” I said, putting it on the table in front of him. He nodded and sat it in the seat next to him.

  All right, we were full of words this morning. I sighed; this was going to be so much fun and comfortable. I was never really any good at sarcasm, and I felt bad once using it.

  “Today we’ll work on cosine ratio. Then next time we meet up, I thought we could revise on both ratios? Then if you feel comfortable with those, we’ll move onto rational expressions, then factorization techniques, and finally variations. How does that sound?”

  “You’re the boss.” He yawned.

  “No, I’m here to help you. I need you to be all right with what I have set out, and then I need you to be honest with me. If you feel I’m going too fast, or if you want to work on something else, tell me, please.”

  “Yeah, all right; it’s fine.”

  “Good.”

  I started explaining that cosine ratios were similar to tangent. He leaned forward in his seat once I started going through some examples. Then I wrote out some for him to work through. I could see him struggling with one, and I thought he was going to be too stubborn to ask me for help, but he wasn’t. That was when I knew this arrangement was going to work. Tristan really did want to improve his grade, and it could be easy enough to do, because I knew if I explained it the right way, he caught on quickly. As he sat there next to me, working on the Maths homework we both had to get done before Monday, I had the chance to attempt my own homework from other subjects. I’d already done my Maths last night.

  An hour-and-a-half later, I started packing up my things; if I didn’t leave soon, I would be late for soccer. Tristan had only two problems to solve, so I was sure he’d be all right on his own.

  “Sorry, Tristan, but I have to go.”

  He nodded his head while still going over the last problem. I took that as an okay and a goodbye included, so I got up from the table.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, looking up at me.

  “I just told you I have to go; I have to get to soccer down the road, and if I don’t leave soon I’m going to be late.”

  “All right.” He grabbed his own bag that held his homework, a pencil, and one notebook, and then stood up next to me. I looked at him curiously and started walking to the front door, waving at Michelle on the way, who tapped her front pocket.

  I stopped out the front and turned to Tristan, he watched me reach into my pocket and pull out the piece of paper, which I thrust at him.

  “Here.”

  He smirked at me. Did he really think it was from me?

  “It’s Michelle’s number; the girl I work with in there. She asked me to give it to you.”

  “Really,” he said, looking back through the library window. I glanced over as well to find Michelle there waving at him; he gave a chin lift back in greeting, which prompted Michelle to wink at him. He laughed. “Straight forward kinda girl.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said, looking away.

  “Like your other friend Sarah.” He smiled down at me. And I meant down because I only came up to his chest.

  “I’m shocked you remembered her name.” My hand flew to my mouth. “Sorry.” I blushed.

  He rolled his eyes. “I saw her last night.”

  “I know. Look, I really have to go, so I guess I’ll see you next Friday.” I started to walk off when he called out.

  “I’ll see you Monday at school.”

  I couldn’t stop the snort. “Maybe I should rephrase what I just said. I’ll see you at school, but I’ll talk to you next Friday.” With that, I walked off.

  I wanted to turn around and apologise for sounding rude, but I didn’t. Besides, he was the one who told me to stop apologising. Now all I had to do was stop feeling guilty about it.

  Thankfully, I wasn’t late. I had enough time to run into the locker rooms and change. I walked back out and onto feild one, and found Corbet sitting on the sidelines. I gave him a quick wave, surprised to see him, and went over to my team.

  “Hey, girl, thanks for filling in,” Heather greeted. She was the team captain and another friend of mine. Not that we did anything together on weekends or after school, but that was because we had different things in common. But ever since she confided in me about her troubles with her boyfriend last year, I found that we had connected on a different level.

  Soon enough, the buzzer rang and the game started. I stood in my position as goalie. The team consisted of Heather, Serena, Danni, Wendy, and usually Sunny as their goalie. Sunny had taken over this year when I had quit, but she was sick.

  We were in the second half when I heard a loud wolf whistle. I looked over to the side and found Sarah standing there smiling and waving. What I didn’t expect was to see Tristan standing next to her.

  Movement out the corner of my eye brought my attention back to the game as the other team drew closer, running with the ball. My team was fighting to get the ball back, but a burly player on the other team tripped Danni and bounded around her, still with the ball. She kicked it to the far left of the goal. I was standing to the far right. Before thinking, I flew sideways, arms outstretched to stop the ball as another team member of the other team ran right into me. Was it on purpose? I didn’t know; all I did know was that I landed hard, my head taking most of the impact. The buzzer sounded. I looked behind me and found the ball in the goal. The other team had won.

  Heather was at my side first, then Corbet, Tristan, and Sarah, with the rest of the team and the referees. They all told me not to move, everyone asking me at
the same time if I was okay.

  I closed my eyes at their foolish question, because really, if I felt I was okay, I would have been on my feet by now.

  All I could think about was the throbbing in my head.

  Still, I needed to get up. I felt like a fool laying there with everyone around me. Even more of a fool because Tristan witnessed it. I sat up slowly with the help of Heather and Corbet.

  “My glasses, are they broken?” I asked, holding my head at the same time.

  “Here, they’re fine,” Tristan said, handing them over. I placed them on and found it helped my head a little. Only, I knew I was going to be sore for a while.

  “You probably have a concussion,” Corbet said.

  Duh, was all I could think.

  “All right, guys, let’s clear the area,” Heather demanded. The team disappeared; all that was left was Heather, Corbet, Sarah, and Tristan. What was he doing here?

  “Corbet’s right, Alex. You could have a concussion. Maybe you should go to the hospital,” Heather said, concern showing on her face.

  “NO! No, I’ll be all right. No hospital.”

  “Well, someone’s going to have to watch you tonight; your dad going to be home?”

  “Yes, I’m sure he will be.”

  “Alex,” Sarah warned.

  “It’s fine. Thanks, Heather.” I smiled.

  I got up slowly, only to feel dizzy. There was no way I was going to move with Heather still standing there; she was the type who would ring my house to make sure I was being taken care of. She’d make sure my dad would be home and tell him why he needed to be there. Only I was sure my dad wouldn’t be home, and I would hate to disrupt his next case because of some silly bump on the head.

  “Okay. Take care. Drink lots of fluids. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  I smiled and nodded. Bad choice. I had to grab my head after doing it. It made me feel nauseated. Heather gave me another concerned glance, turned, and thankfully left. I took a step forward and nearly fell over again. That was until Tristan caught me and straightened me up.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I growled and then gasped, my hand flying to my mouth. “Sorry, I really didn’t mean that.”

  He laughed. “That’s all right.” He smiled. My stomach fluttered.

  “I saw Tristan on the way here and asked him if he wanted to come with me. As you can see, he said yes.” Sarah beamed.

  “I don’t think she needs to hear this right now,” Corbet said through clenched teeth. “We need to get her home.”

  Sarah looked stricken. “Yes, of course. Luckily, we’re staying at your house tonight, Alex. Someone needs to keep an eye on you.” I rolled my eyes. “Do you think you can walk, or should Tristan carry you?”

  “No! I’ll be fine,” I said quickly. “Only, I don’t think I can drive my car home.”

  “Definitely not,” Corbet agreed. “I’ll drive it for you.”

  “But, Corbet, you came in your own car, and I came in mine. Tristan do you have your license?”

  “Yeah, I can drive it,” he said. Sarah rattled off my address for him.

  “Great, you take Alex, and I’ll go and grab her stuff while Corbet picks up some pizzas on the way to Alex’s.”

  “Alex can come with me,” Corbet said, glaring at Tristan. I knew he didn’t trust Tristan, just like I hadn’t, but now that I knew him, it was different. Wasn’t it? Or was that just the head injury talking?

  “But then she’d have to wait in the car for you to get pizza, when she should be home resting.” Tristan smiled.

  “Fine, whatever,” Corbet said, and then left in a huff. Sarah gave Tristan a quick peck on the cheek, then left. Tristan placed his arm around my waist. I went to move away, but his grip tightened.

  “You can barely stand on your own two feet; just let me help you.”

  I didn’t meet his eyes. I was having a hard enough time trying not to blush from having his arm around me, while at the same time, trying not to throw up on him. So I nodded and leaned into him.

  Tristan had me wait out the front of the recreational centre as he ran off to collect my car. He sat me down on a bench near the road and wrapped his jacket around me. I told him not to bother, that I was fine, but that was when a shooting pain had me clutching at my head. He, of course, ignored me.

  It was late in the afternoon, and it had turned a little chilly. So instead of cursing Tristan under my breath, I pulled his jacket closer around me while trying to hold it together. My head was killing me; what I needed was a double dose of pain medication and some sleep. Just as my eyes were drifting closed, I heard a car screech, a door slam, and loud pounding footsteps coming my way.

  “Hey, Alex, this is no place to go to sleep, and you have to stay awake.”

  I opened my eyes as Tristan shook my shoulders.

  “Just a little nap,” I insisted.

  He laughed and shook his head, which made me glare at him and curse him silently.

  “Come on.” He helped me stand and walked over to my car. How did he know which car was mine? I never told him. He opened the door and I lowered myself into the seat, and thanked anyone who cared that the car was warm. Still, I turned on my side and pulled Tristan’s jacket tighter around me. He smelled wonderful.

  “Um. Thanks, I guess,” I muttered, half asleep.

  “Alex, wake up.” I felt something against my cheek. I opened my eyes to find that it was Tristan’s hand gently tucking my hair behind my ear. “You have to stay awake, just for a little longer. Then you’ll be home and can have some pain meds. Then you can sleep safely with someone watching you.”

  “Why are you being nice?” The question just popped out; I hadn’t meant it to.

  He scoffed. “I’m not that bad of a guy, am I?”

  “Honestly, I can’t comment; I don’t know you.” And I never really would once we were finished his tutoring. He fell quiet, so I took the opportunity to rest my eyes.

  “Alex,” he growled.

  “Just resting, not sleeping,” I said with my eyes closed.

  “Open your eyes anyway. Then I’ll know for sure.”

  I let out a sigh and opened them. “You’re bossy, you know that?” I complained.

  He laughed. “You only have to put up with it for a little longer.”

  I liked his laugh. It was deep, masculine, and it did things to me that I’d never felt before.

  It’s just the concussion talking.

  “So, you and Corbet, hey?” I knew he was trying to distract me, keep me awake.

  “So, you and Sarah, hey?” He looked over and smiled. I added, “Corbet and I are friends; not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Well, I could say the same for Sarah and me.”

  “Sorry, doesn’t work. It is my business because she’s my friend, and I’ll be the one picking up the pieces when you break her heart.” And then, once again for the millionth time, I’d have to listen to her moaning and groaning about how she lost the love of her life. How he was such a good kisser…he couldn’t be that good, could he? I looked to his nice manly lips and wondered what it would be like to have them on my own.

  Definitely the concussion.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  I couldn’t stop the blush and thanked, again, whoever would listen that he couldn’t read minds. “Nothing,” I replied.

  “Well, we’re here.”

  I turned my head slowly and looked out the front windscreen to see we were parked in my driveway and that my dad’s car was, in fact, parked in front of mine. What was he doing home?

  “My dad’s home.”

  “You weren’t expecting him?”

  “No, he’s usually working late.”

  “Even on weekends?”

  “Any chance he can get.” I turned back to Tristan. “Thank you for driving me home.”

  “Alex…will you be all right getting to the door?” It was obvious he was going to say something else, but changed his mind.


  “Yes. I feel better now.” He looked at me sceptically. “Really,” I added. He raised his eyebrows. “Okay, fine, help me to the door. Besides, Sarah shouldn’t be far away; you can stay for her. I’m sure she’ll want to drive you home.” He didn’t say anything, but got out of the car and was around my side before I even had the chance to do anything. He opened the door, placed his hand under my arm, and helped me out. I swayed a little, but was happy I stayed on my own two feet. With the help of Tristan, that was.

  “Alexandra?” Dad called from the front door. “What happened?” He came running over to grab my other arm.

  “Nothing, Dad. Relax, I only hit my head in soccer.”

  “Hit it pretty hard,” Tristan said.

  Dad felt at the back of my head until he touched the sore spot and I hissed in pain. “You should go to the doctor.”

  “She refused,” Tristan added.

  “Thanks, Tristan. Dad, Tristan. Tristan, my father, Mr Harmony.”

  “Hello, Sir,” Tristan said over my head because I was short enough for them to still see one another.

  “Thank you for driving her home. Can I give you a lift somewhere?”

  Wasn’t that nice of him to offer?

  “No, thanks anyway. I’m sure my lift will be here any minute,” he said, and then smirked down at me. I rolled my eyes.

  It wasn’t even a second later that Sarah pulled up in her car, jumped out, and bound her way over to us.

  “Hi, Mr H, didn’t expect you to be home. Corby and I were going to stay the night and wake Alex up every half-hour to check on her.”

  “I’m not going anywhere tonight, but feel free to stay anyway. I’m sure Alex would prefer you and Corbet to wake her instead of her old man.”

  Or Tristan could? No. What was I thinking?

  “You just don’t want to be abused by her. We all know how crabby she can be when woken through the night.”

  “Really?” Tristan smiled.

  “Okay, enough talking about me. All I want is to take something for this rotten headache and sleep; is that too much to ask? Or would you prefer to stand out here all night and talk about me like I’m not even here?” I grumbled.