Teacher's Pet {b.a}

7.

victoria stayed looking downwards, hoping to lose the pink tint from her cheeks when she looked up.

maybe he didn't hear me.....who am i kidding of course he heard me, he's right there.

what if he thinks i'm weird now. what if he tells other teachers about this? what if he has a wife or something and she finds out? what if he stops these tutoring lessons! i cant lose this extra time to study!

her thousands of thoughts roaming around her head stopped when she heard him laugh lightly. she peaked up at him, brushing her hair behind her ear and trying to avoid eye contact.

"thank you. i guess it's nice to have a pick me up once in a while, usually i'm the one giving myself pep talks" he said smiling directly at victoria. she laughed along with a sigh of relief feeling happy that it wasn't as awkward as she was making it out to be. her tense muscles loosened up and her face finally went back to its normal shade.

Mr. Arreaga just looked at her. he took note of all the little features about her as he was a very observant person in the first place.

"you didn't exactly answer my question though sir" victoria said.

"well, back then i wasn't like how most of my friends or even most of the young men at this school were. i was only ever in a serious relationship with one girl who i thought i was going to marry. her and i dated for our last 2 years in high school and she meant a lot to me but when times got tough and we both went our separate ways for college, we just broke things off with each other. she was really someone special in my life because she knew everything there was to know about me and even more." he explained. victoria noticed how much emotion he seemed to put in just telling that tiny segment of his life to her.

"that sounds so sweet mr. arreaga, a classic love story at its finest" she said.

"yes it was but i have a good life now, i can make my own decisions and do what i want without having to worry about anything else, so in a sense it works out" he said, "also, you can call me brandon, hearing 'mr. arreaga' all hours of the day just makes me feel old" he joked.

"hmm. brandon" victoria teased, "brandon arreaga."

brandon found it interesting the way she rolled the "R's" in his name. the way her accent became prominent as she played with his name on her native tongue.

"brandon arreaga is your full name?" she asked.

"well...back in the day people called me brandon michael but my full name is brandon michael lee arreaga." he suddenly became embarrassed as it showed with his awkward laughs and eyes wandering everywhere but on her own. she snickered noticing how cute it was when he was embarrassed, trying not to make fun of him.

"hey, you can't make fun of me i know your entire name" he started laughing with her.

"how do you know my whole name?" she giggled.

"hel-lo, i am your teacher after all...... victoria garcia ramírez honoret" he mocked her.

"memorize my whole ass name won't you! jokes on you that's not even including my middle name" she said putting the bag of ice down, looking around for a paper towel.

"here, let me take a look" brandon said getting up to look closely at her bruise. he gave her a look asking to touch her and she allowed him. his left hand went on the left side of her head, almost cupping her face as his right pushed her head to the side a little bit. he looked carefully at her neck and noticed the bruise was almost fully gone.

during this short amount of time, victoria experienced a lot of things. she felt her nerves kicking in again because he was so close to her. she could smell his tropically freshwater cologne. she quickly glanced at his face and took in all of his features up close and personal, his stubble along his jaw and chin, his slightly long eyelashes that complimented his brown eyes, his light yet slightly tanned skin, and even his breathing. she wanted to grab onto his face and just kiss him but she wouldn't allow herself to do that.

victoria wasn't the only one who took this time to admire the other. brandon touched her neck to see if she would flinch at the bruise but doing so he noticed how soft her skin was. with his other hand he could feel how smooth her hair felt, he took in a whiff of a flowery smelling perfume, and noticed just how naturally warm her skin was.

"okay, good news and bad news" he said.

"good news first" she said quieter than expected. she felt that feeling of excitement and nervousness again and couldn't seem to bring herself to even look at her teacher directly in the eyes.

"good news is the bruise is almost gone bad news is you still suck at school and need to be tutored for the next hour" they both laughed.

i wish i was sucking at something else-

"shall we continue?" he asked. victoria nodded and they went back to their seats to start their lesson.