A cheerleader who couldn’t do Math. What a cliché you thought as you ran a hand through your hair and frowned down at the textbook in front of you. Cliché or not though when it came to you it was true. Biology you were good at, Geography you had no trouble with at all, History you loved, but Math… Math was not your friend.

You’d had a tutor for two weeks now and you still weren’t getting it. It was ridiculous. You should at least know where to start with this by now. You’d spent more time with your tutor lately than you had with your family and he was a good teacher. Not only was he one of the smartest kids in your class but he was kind and patient too. He never got mad at you, no matter how long it took you to grasp what he was saying. And you’d been trying your best, you honestly had. But no matter how hard you tried your brain obviously just wasn’t made to deal with numbers. “I’m sorry.” You said looking up from your textbook, your eyes settling on Mark who was sitting across the table from you. “I know you explained this to me on Friday but…” you trailed off with a sigh. Friday had been three days ago. Why your brain hadn’t been able to retain a single thing he’d told you, you didn’t know. It was the worst.

“Stop apologising.” Mark told you, shaking his head slightly and pushing his glasses further up his nose.

He suited glasses you decided as you tilted your head to the side to get a better look at him. You’d never really noticed Mark before he’d offered to tutor you, something else that was totally ridiculous now you thought about it. He might not hang around with the same people you did or be a member of the same clubs you were but he was in at least half of your classes, including your ever-dreaded Math class. And you were regretting not noticing or approaching him before because you genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. It was easy, he wasn’t like some of the other boys you’d spent time with, he made you feel comfortable. And if you liked spending time with him when you were doing something you hated, then you’d probably enjoy spending time with him doing something you both enjoyed ten times more. Maybe you should ask him to do something once this whole Math thing was over and done with. You could go get something eat together or see movie, it could be a thank you for him putting up with you being such a terrible student. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

You heard Mark pushing his chair back, the legs scraping across the floor and you blinked, startled. You’d been so caught up in what you were thinking that you’d completely zoned out. Again. Maybe that was part of the problem here. You had no attention span.

“I don’t mind going over it with you again.” Mark was saying now as he made his way around the table.

“I’ll pay attention this time, I promise.” You told him as he pulled out the chair beside you and sat down, pulling your textbook towards him so he could see it better.

~~~~~~

It was hard to pay attention with Mark sitting so close. You were both hunched over the open textbook, Mark’s shoulder pressed to yours as he pointed to one of the problems on the page. You were wearing short sleeves and the fabric of his sweater was rubbing against your arm every time he moved. It was a really soft sweater your brain pointed out, you might have to ask him where he’d gotten it and get one for yourself. But no, that would be silly you thought, backtracking. That would almost be the same as you having couple clothes and you weren’t a couple. You weren’t even friends, not really. He was your tutor and you were his… tutoree? Was that even a word? You didn’t think so. Oh God, what was wrong with you? Why couldn’t you just focus?

“Did you get that?” Mark asked and you almost jumped out of your skin.

And no, you hadn’t gotten that, whatever that was, you’d been too busy thinking about his sweater of all things. You’d picked up on a couple of words, something about something being congruent… or not congruent? Okay. You had no idea what he’d just been talking about. “Um… can you go over it one more time?” You asked, embarrassed. “I’m a little tired that’s all, things take longer to sink in when I’m tired.” It had been a long day t