I took a long drive as I tried to let the purr of the engine calm my nerves; if there was one thing that made me see red it was someone messing with my baby. Once my knuckles returned to the normal color as my grip loosened on the steering wheel I made my way back to my house. Pulling in the drive and putting the car in park I ran my hands across the steering wheel a few times; was it weird that I was petting my car? Pushing the thoughts aside I made my way into the house and headed to the kitchen to get something for my throbbing hand.

          I found some frozen peas in the freezer and using a dish towel I wrapped them around my hand and tied it at the top to hold it in place before making myself comfortable on the couch; the stress from the day faded away as my eyes drifted shut and I fell asleep. The ringing off the doorbell broke me out of my nap and I got up straightening my clothes and hair the best I could while I wiped the sleep out of my eyes on the way to the door; I opened it up only to find Colt standing on the other side with a smirk on his face.

“What are you doing here?” I asked tiredly

“Well seeing how you’re into fighting now, I came to knock some sense into you.” He replied raising his eyebrows slightly.

          I rolled my eyes and without saying another word turned around and slammed the door in his face; well that was the plan at least. Instead of the normal click I was expecting to hear a sound that was more like a thud met my ears; followed by his now annoyed sounding voice following me into the house. Sure, come right in! I guess that me slamming the door in your face was meant as an invitation.

“That was really rude!” He said closing the door behind him once he was inside.

“I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you can leave now.” I said turning back around to face him.

“So you want me to tell Mr. Fields that you refused the tutoring session?” His signature smirk appearing on his face once again.

Oh you have got to be kidding me! This is my tutor, he is my tutor? I closed my eyes and tilted my head back to look up at the ceiling while silently asking god what I did wrong to deserve this.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Asking god why he feels it’s necessary to punish me with your presence.” I replied truthfully.

“Maybe he sent me as a gift, you should be thankful, your prayers have been answered.” He kicked off his shoes and started walking around the house like he owned the place.

“No I’m pretty sure that he sent you as punishment for my sins.” I mumbled under my breath as I followed him into the kitchen.

“You got anything good in here?” He asked opening up the fridge. My eyes went wide and I raised my brows, what the hell? Does he always just walk into strangers homes and do this?

“Sure just make yourself at home.” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm; he either didn’t pick up on it, or didn’t care as he continued to rummage through my fridge before pulling out a coke and some leftover pizza.

“Cool, so where you want to do this?” He asked taking a bite out of the pizza in his hand; yuck, he didn’t even warm it up, I can’t stand cold pizza.

“Living room.” I said pointing in the general direction with an un-amused look on my face.

          We made our way to the living room and he plopped down on the couch and finished what was left of his pizza before wiping his hands on his jeans; he opened the coke and took a drink before setting it on the coffee table in front of us. I rolled my eyes before getting up and grabbing a coaster and placing it under his drink; god the guy had no manners what so ever. I grabbed my notepad and books off the side table and placed them on the coffee table before collecting the remotes off the coffee table and arranging them on the side table next to me to give us more room. Colt looked over with an amused look before grabbing some things out of his bag and setting them on the table too.

“You’re weird.” He said before opening one of his books.

“And why is that?” I asked before following his lead and doing the same thing.

“The way that you have to have everything in order and perfectly straight; you know that’s borderline OCD right?” Yes, I knew that, and no I wasn’t about to admit it!

“I like organization; can we just get this over with?” I said motioning to the books.

“How’s your hand?” He asked looking down at the make shift towel wrapped frozen pea ice pack.

“Just fine.”

“Is it broken?” He said grabbing my hand and working to get the towel off; I pulled it back from him and turned my attention back to my books.

“No, I know how to throw a punch.”

“Then let me see it.” He said reaching for my hand once again; seeing that he didn’t seem to want to give up on the subject I let him unwrap it.

“See, not broken!” I said as he turned my hand in his a few time. “Ouch, what the hell?” I cried out pulling my hand back from his as a pain shot through it.

“You’re right, it’s not broken.” He smirked.

“No shit Sherlock!” I said rubbing my hand; asshole!

          We started on math and I was surprised to find that Colt was actually really smart; I guess I just figured with his football, I’m the god of everything attitude at school that he wouldn’t really care much about the actual school work. It’s not like I actually needed the tutor and I’m sure that I could have caught up on my own but it was nice to have someone there to help me with the things I missed when I was in my… what should I call it… daze. We were only a few problems in though when he had to change the subject and start talking about something else; I might have OCD but this kid had ADHD.

“So you and Sam huh?” He said leaning back on the couch.

“What about me and Sam?” I asked not turning my attention away from the math problem on my paper.

“You’re like a couple now?”

“No, what would give you that idea?” He had my attention now; what would make him think that I was dating Sam?

“I have seen you two together a lot lately, and you returned his tie the other day. There’s only one reason I can think of that would have a guy taking off his tie and leaving it at your house.” He wiggled his eyebrows at the last part; was he really suggesting that I was sleeping with Sam? This guy had totally lost his mind, and how did he even know I gave Sam the tie?

“What are you stalking me now?” I asked tossing my pencil down on the table; clearly we weren’t going to get any studying down anytime soon.

“You have a locker right next to me, I notice things.” He moved lacing his hands behind his head like he planned on staying there for a while.

“If you must know I bought Sam the tie because we are going to homecoming together but I don’t see how it’s any of your business. Can we get back to working now?” I asked moving to pick up my pencil again.

“Yeah most couples do go to homecoming together, that’s pretty much a given.” Agh! He just wasn’t going to give up on this subject, was he? Why would he even care anyways; was he just trying to get under every last nerve I had?

“Sam and I aren’t together, never have been and never will be. Now can we just get this over with so that you can leave?” I jotted the next problem down on my paper, doing my best not to break my pencil in the process.

          Instead of continuing the studying like I hoped he would he got up from the couch and started walking around the living room; he would randomly pick things up and look at them before setting them back down. I tried to just concentrate on what I was doing but it was driving me crazy that he was messing with my things; out of instinct I got up and started straightening the things that he set down back into their rightful places. He let out a small laugh as he watched me fix the things that he moved before he picked up a picture of Mandy and I that was sitting on the fireplace mantle; I held back a growl as his fingers slid across the smooth frame.

“She was your friend?” He asked looking up at me; I walked over and pulled the picture out of his hand and set it back in place.

“Don’t go there with me Colt!” I said pointing a finger back at the couch indicating for him to sit.

“It’s just a question.” He said innocently holding up his hands.

“I will let you cross a lot of lines with me, but that…” I said pointing back at the picture. “Is not one of them!” I didn’t even let my parents talk about Mandy, just thinking about her was too still too hard; there was no way that I was going to sit here and let Colt Stevenson bring up her memory in my house!

          The next hour went by almost in complete silence other than a few words about what we were working on; when our studying was done Colt got up and left, waving bye as he went out the door. I guess that it could have been a lot more painful of an experience than it was; at least we got through the two hours without completely killing each other. The rest of the week went about the same; Colt made himself at home invading my fridge as soon as he got there and then we moved onto studying. He had a game on Wednesday so we got to skip that day and Friday was homecoming so there wouldn’t be any tutoring that night either.