Gem in the Rough

Chapter 26

The morning comes too soon. I'm exhausted from all the tears shed last night and I don't want to face Kieran. This is a whole new kind of "morning after".

"You're already thinking so much this early in the morning?" Kieran's gruff voice is in my ear, making me shiver.

"Of course. It's me we're talking about."

We're in the same position as we were when we fell asleep, me the little spoon. We take turns. The blankets are covering my body, except for one foot. I've always loved having one foot out of my blanket to feel a little bit of the coldness. Kieran's hand traces down my arm, and I shiver.

"What are you thinking about?"

I sigh and turn around reluctantly, putting a hand over my mouth to mask my morning breath. I avoid his eye contact. "How happy I am in this moment and how I don't want to leave the bed. But also, how I don't want you to be victim to my morning breath."

I finally meet his stare and he's trying not to laugh.

"Don't laugh at me," I whine, my hand still over my mouth. I move to get off the bed and he pulls me closer, finally letting out his chuckle.

"I'm not laughing at you, but I don't care about morning breath. Give me a kiss." He starts trying to get near my face and I push his chest. This better not be a fight every morning that we wake up together.

"No way! You may not care but I do. I also don't want your morning breath!" I laugh and successfully push him away, scrambling from the bed. I notice then that my shirt has risen so my stomach is showing. I pull it down quickly and walk across the room to my bag. After grabbing my toiletries, I go to the bathroom to complete my morning routine.

When I come back to the room with a fresh mouth and clean face, I see that Kieran is sitting up in bed and he has my phone in his hands. Why does he have my phone?

"Uh, what are you doing?" I set my bag down and walk to him, hesitantly.

"Sorry, I thought it was mine. Did you know we have the same phone?" He says this in a blank tone and it's beginning to worry me.

"No, I didn't." I laugh awkwardly and then sit next to him. I notice he's tense. "What's wrong?"

"Who is Zack James?"

Fuck. I didn't get to telling him about that last night.

"He's a guy I'm tutoring. Apparently, he's this big basketball star at school but I don't pay attention. I meant to talk to you about him..." I trail off, waiting for him to expand on why he asked me that.

Kieran hands me my phone and I see there's a text from Zack.

Zack: Still not sure who else I'm going to charm with my good looks today, but I'm surviving for now. Don't worry, they won't replace you. ;)

I groan in frustration and see another one pop up onto my screen.

Zack: I'm hoping this "kind-of boyfriend" fucks things up, but if not, please ignore my messages. Lol.

I look up at Kieran, my face reddening.

"I wanted to tell you about this, please don't overthink this until I explain." I feel like I'm pleading because I see Kieran trying to stay calm. He looks like he's doing a breathing exercise, kind of like the ones I do where it's slowly in through the nose and out through the mouth.

He finally looks at me and I see hurt in his eyes. I move to him and put my palms on his cheeks.

"He's someone I'm tutoring and that's it. I've noticed that he's been trying to flirt with me, and I've shot him down. At first it wasn't like this; he just made a weird comment once and I ignored it. Then he started texting me after I told him our session was canceled for today because I was coming here with you.