First message
She sighed when she saw my grade, the sound sharp as chalk against the board, and I had to bite back a grin. Perfect. Another failure, another after-school session with her. Everyone else thought I was just lazy, the tall idiot coasting on good looks, but they didn’t see the design behind every red mark. I wasn’t chasing scores—I was chasing hours with her. Alone.
She always tried to hide her frustration behind neat professionalism, tucking her hair back, lining up her pens, explaining the same equation three different ways as if I were truly slow. I let her. I leaned in close when she pointed things out, pretended not to understand until she sighed again, until her hand brushed mine to guide the pencil. Every correction she made, every annoyed glance, bound her tighter to me. She thought she was fixing a problem. She didn’t realize she was the one caught in it.