Evol

chapter eight

Saturday 1st June, 2019

After Julian said my name, he seemed to do a double take.

I gathered myself. "Julian."

"Be nice, Julian," Mr Jones warned. "Miss Miller got mugged recently. You're lucky she's here at all, in her condition."

Julian turned to glare blackly at his father. It was so powerful, so dark, I could only stare.

"Why have I got a tutor?" He gritted out.

"Your grades have been more than disappointing as of late, son. Especially in English."

"I can pick them up."

"With Miss Miller, yes."

"Please," I interrupted. "Call me Brooke."

"Brooke." Mr Jones smiled warmly. Not like his son, then. "I'll leave Julian to do the house tour, if that's alright?"

I looked to Julian, but he was still glaring at his father. When the atmosphere got weird, I spoke, "that's fine!"

Then, feeling brave, I started up the stairs, pushing Julian back up. Surprisingly, he let me. When his father was out of sight, those dark eyes fastened on me.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was cold.

"I'm tutoring," I told him. "You, apparently."

"You didn't know you were tutoring me?"

"No! God forbid, no!"

His eyebrows raised. "Forceful."

"As if I would have taken the job if I knew! I'm not that desperate, you know."

He frowned. In the dim light of the hallway, half of his face was shrouded in shadow.

"Why wouldn't you have taken the job?"

Was he stupid? I stared at him, saw him trying not to look at the dark patches on my face. They were ugly, I knew, but something told me it wasn't about how unattractive they were. "I certainly wouldn't have come here today." At that, his mouth opened, but I was too quick. "Are you going to give me a tour or not?"

"There isn't much to see."

"You have a big house."

"Everything looks the same." He said bluntly. I looked around; pale cream walls, dark wooden floors, the same wood as the doors on either side.

I sighed, losing interest. "Fine, if you're going to be difficult, let's get on with it. I need cash. Where do we work?"

"We don't work anywhere." His dark eyes were testing me.

"Julian," I was exasperated, "I've been hired to tutor you, so that's what I'm going to do. An hour, tops, and then I'll get the hell out of your hair."

He blinked. "Again with your potty mouth."

"You annoy me."

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Certainly not," I spat, and regretted it.

He seemed pleased to have got a reaction. "Difficult parents?"

"Maybe." I looked up at him with hard eyes. "I'm here to tutor, Julian. I need you writing essays like a pro."

"Excellent," he said, but turned and started stalking down the hall. I followed, and soon he opened a large wooden door into a wide room. There was a floor-to-ceiling window taking up the whole of a wall, looking out onto a tree-filled garden, behind a large desk. It was the same dark wood as the door.