I realized I was in deep shit when I woke up the next morning and saw my face in the mirror. Usually, my mother’s sanity was intact enough for her to spare my face to not attract attention, but it was about time for it to shatter.

Two big bruises overlapped each other on my right cheek, the purple protruding out, begging for attention. Even with the make up, there was a slim chance of me being able to cover all of it, unless I wanted to dress like a clown and apply purple blush, which wasn’t happening anytime soon.

Twenty make-up products later, I was looking better, but if someone were to pay the slightest of attention, the purple was bound to catch their eye, but I didn’t have many options.

I let my curtain bangs fall to my face, hoping they’d be enough to cover the bruise, or, actually, I could very well let them see it and throw my parents to jail but with their money it was rather unlikely.

My mother had left in the middle of the night for some country in Africa whose name I would’ve remembered if I had ever bothered to study geography.

I made toast and waited for my dearest father to get dressed while I prepared some breakfast which we ate in silence like the strangers we were.

Seven years and my father had never felt guilty, he wasn’t about to start anytime soon, and nor was I. Pride over life, remember?

So, what felt like an hour of silence, we silently moved to his car in the parking lot. Rhys was already waiting for us at the door with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

“I hate water,” I announced, gritting my teeth the second he saw me.

“Let me guess, you were too lost in your sleep dreaming about Mister Grey that your father had to pour a bucket of water on your head to wake you up?” he asked, grinning.

“No,” I replied, sliding myself into the passenger seat. “I spilled the water in front of the staircase, and was like, ‘hold on, let me clean this up,’ so, I decided to go bring up a mop from the kitchen only to slip on the frigging water and have a nice tumble down the staircase,”

“You fell down the stairs?” he asked, his eyes wide with concern.

“Yes,” I answered, pouting. I pulled my hair aside to show him the faint bruise. “Even the make-up couldn’t hide it,”

“The same make-up that managed to hide your ugliness? Damn, the bruise must’ve been bad,”

“Fuck you,”

“Language, January,” my father reprimanded me, but I ignored him.

The first lecture was of Caspian Grey and I had to stare at his shirtless photos multiple times before the class to learn how to not blush while looking at him.

Needless to say, it didn’t work. Womp, womp.

I was certain my face went red enough to cover the remaining tint of the bruise the second I stepped into the classroom and smelled those paperbacks. Uh, curse books.

There he was, sitting on his desk writing something, and it was like those romance movies where everything slows and the winds and rustling and your eyes meet and-

you remember the fact that he knows that you stalked him, and decided to stalk you back and get your number-

I was red yet again, for a whole different reason.

I sped up to the first desk and slid inside, my gaze on the floor, unable to look at him in the eye.

“So, today, we’ll continue with Lamarck’s hypothesis…” Oh, that sweet, sexy, accent, Lord, kill me already. I let my eyes close for a moment to take in that voice before I heard my named. “Perhaps Miss Decembers can explain it once she’s gotten over her infatuation with a lizard,”

“W-What?” I stuttered, cursing at myself for zoning out. “Lizard?”

“Now, now, don’t act like a stranger, you seemed rather enamoured by it when you were staring at it with a red hue covering your cheeks,” the class burst into laughter as I blushed even more. “Lamarck believed that giraffes had a long neck so they could consume the leaves on the tall trees. Why was he wrong?”

“Because giraffes eat grass,” I answered simply.

“And why is that so?”

“Their necks are too long, so, they need a really high blood pressure to pump the blood to the brain which can damage their other organs. So, while feeding, they bend down and the gravity facilitates the blood flow,”

“Correct. Now, as hard as may be, please divert your attention from the lizard and focus, Ms Decembers,” he spoke, his eyes boring into mine.

I nodded, shame tinting my cheeks redder. His gaze dropped and found the bruise and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from giving any reaction. He looked away, but the hardness in his eyes was unmissable but it wasn’t until the end of the lecture that he confronted me.

“Please submit your assignments,” he had spoken, which had led me straight towards him. “What happened?” he asked when I appeared before with my homework in my hand.

“I fell down the stairs,” I answered almost immediately. Too quick.

“Where?” A single word left his mouth with unnerving brutality.

“At my house,” I replied, flexing my fingers as I felt weird tingles across my knuckles.

“Who called the doctor?” he asked, shifting his gaze from my face to the homework in my hands and he pried it gently out of my hands before inspecting it.

“My dad,”

“So, your parents were home?” On mark. He had tried to confuse me and had baited me into giving me information that confirmed the fact that my parents were in fact, at home.

“I…um…yes…” I mumbled, looking at him to see whether the knowledge gave way for some reaction. Nothing but a slight twitch in his jaw and a hum.

“I’ll be expecting you in the classroom at three,” he spoke with a hint of dismissal and disapproval in his tone, making me scurry off and away to the next class.

I avoided people throughout the day so no one would notice the purple bruise on my skin that screamed for attention after the gym.

I hadn’t thought that far, of course, and after the shower, I had just a foundation to cover up the bruise, and it hadn’t done a good job at it.

Luckily, there was only one lecture after gym, so, I managed to hide it, leaving space for only one problem…

Mr Grey.

When I entered the classroom, he was sitting at his desk surveying a bundle of paper. I let my moment halt for a moment to take him in before walking inside the class. He didn’t register my presence, but it was evident that he had sensed me enter the class.

He had taken off his blazer, which caused his muscles to flex and strain against his shirt every time he as much as flipped a page. I felt drool pool in my mouth as I gawked at the man in front of me.

“I must say, Ms Decembers, you get creepier by every encounter,” he remarked, his eyes still on the papers. I shut my eyes as I realized that I had been openly checking him out, and I offered him a weak smile as he turned to look at me. “Sit down,”

Yet again, I sat on the first bench, right in front of him, and waited for him to put away his papers. “Sorry,” I muttered, biting my lip nervously.

“No need, I am used to it,” my jaw fell open at his sudden display or arrogance and he casted a smug grin in my direction before all the amusement melted off his face. For a horrible moment, I thought it was because of the bruise, but luckily, he chose to focus on something else that was exposed now that the make up was gone. “How much did you sleep last night, Ms Decembers?”

I bit my lip again and his eyes focused on it for a moment before they slammed back inside mine, demanding an answer. I showed him two fingers while bearing the most innocent face I could’ve managed, and he let out a slow curse.

A curse that sounded like the most beautiful thing in his accent.

Fuck.

“Go home, January, get some rest,”

“I can’t!” I blurted out too fast, and his gaze sharpened. “My parents…” I let the words hang there. He had pieced the injuries together, so, there was no point in hiding it. If he were to tutor me for the next few months, then he had to know about the situation, right?

He looked at me for a moment before shaking his head and opening a door that led straight to his office. He tilted his head in that direction, a silent command that I couldn’t disobey.

I drew myself to my feet and followed him as we disappeared inside his office, a place with no cameras or mics, the stupidest place I could’ve gone to…

He closed the door after I entered, but didn’t lock it-for his reputation or my comfort, I knew not.

His office was one of the most aesthetic places I had ever been to, and even though the furniture was the same as before he had come, it looked completely different.

There was a single fake plant by the window with jute curtains fluttering over it. For someone with a double masters covering portions of both botony and Zoology, he seemed rather averted to having any form of life inside the office. No real plant, no pet, not even a goldfish tank.

The office was reduced to a minimal. No extra decorations or anything unnecessary apart from that one fake plant was there, but the bookshelf was filled books that were wider than my waist.

“Lie down, Ms Decembers,” he ordered softly, catching my attention, motioning towards the small couch on his right. “I’ll wake you up in half an hour.” The caffeine wore off at the tenderness in his voice, and the full realization of how sleepy I actually felt crashed upon me, making me obey without hesitation.

I pulled my feet out of my tennis shoes and put a sofa cushion down before letting myself fall back on the couch. I felt lucky to be wearing a pair of pants and not a dress, or it would’ve been really awkward for the both of us, and before I could stress about the sexiest way to sleep in front of your crush, I passed out.

Perhaps it was the comfort of the couch, my exhaustion or the scent of paperbacks, but it gave me a dreamless and intoxicatingly peaceful sleep. When I came back around for good, I almost didn’t want to stand up and fall back asleep, but the absence of light pouring from the windows alarmed me.

Caspian sat on his desk, reading something using only the light of a small tablelamp, letting darkness swallow the rest of the room. In the dim light, his hair looked almost golden his face glowed as if he was an angel. He still wasn’t wearing his blazer, and this time, it was resting on my chest, covering it entirely.

“What time is it?” I asked jerking myself up, only to regret it.

“Slow down, Ms Decembers,” he reprimanded, his eyes not leaving his work. “And it’s half past seven,”

A curse made its way past my lips but I thoroughly supressed it by reminding myself that I was in front of a teacher. “I thought you were going to wake me up in half an hour…” I muttered, hoping I didn’t sound as accusatory as I felt.

“I tried but I am certain it would’ve been easier to wake up a hibernating bear,” I opened my mouth to give a retort but closed it, reminding myself yet again that he was my fucking teacher. When I didn’t say anything back, he spoke again, “Come on, I’ll drop you off to your house,”