Teaching Mr. Graham

Chapter Twenty

    Aubrey grinned. "Oh, is that what this is?"

    Tatiana shrugged and looked down at the ground.

    "I'll let you in on a little secret," he said, raising a hand to the side of his mouth. "It's not really stalking if you've been invited."

    Her brows rose in feigned surprise. "Really? Oh, darn...I guess I need to brush up on the standard operating procedures for stalkers. The whole concept is new to me, so..."

    "Just...practice until you get it right," he advised her, keeping his tone serious.

    "Definitely," she said. "And I mean...I'm learning from you. I'm honored to say that, actually. You're one of the best stalkers in the game. So..."

    He laughed and ducked his head down.

    "So...I'm learning from one of the best stalkers, at least," she finished, laughing along with him.

    He looked up at her.

    The expression on her face turned serious. "I'm sorry that I didn't show up sooner."

    "It was a circus in there, anyway," he told her, glancing over his shoulder. "All everyone did in there was stare at me for the entire night."

    "You weren't the only one who didn't get any work done, then," she pointed out.

    "Oddly comforting," he said with a chuckle. "But...yeah. You were smart enough to know it wasn't a good idea for us to meet here. It wasn't...a good idea for us to meet here. It was silly of me to even suggest it."

    "I mean...you are you," she said, leaning back against the tree. "People staring at you isn't something that will change any time soon. Especially considering that the people in question are in my age group. They go crazy for you."

    "You're one of the only people who doesn't."

    A corner of her mouth lifted. "I guess in order to get starstruck, you have to be exposed to said celebrity often enough to know what a big deal they are."

    "Ouch," he said under his breath.

    She laughed. "That's not saying anything bad about you. The only time I really got to hear your music was when Kenya was playing it. My internet surfing, all of that was limited. We had a family computer in the living room. For the longest time, that was all I had. In my senior year I was given a laptop for my birthday, but...by that time, my internet surfing habits had already been formed, I think. It didn't even occur to me to look up anything music-related."

    "That sounds..." His brows knitted together as he tried to think of a nice way to phrase what he wanted to say.

    "Depressing?" she supplied.

    He scratched his temple. "Pretty damned depressing, yeah."

    "I missed out on quite a lot," she said, tilting her head back and looking up at the sky through the tree branches. "Kids would talk about this new rapper or that new singer, and I wouldn't know who they were talking about. It took me longer to catch up on new artists, or new fashion trends - not that my parents really let me keep up with the latest fashion trends." She paused and looked down at her outfit. "None of that really helped my social status."

    "I can imagine," he said softly.

    She pushed herself from against the tree. "The other kids were pretty nice to me, up to about... junior high school. But all throughout high school, a lot of the popular kids avoided me like the plague. As if...it would kill them to seen with me."