Falling for my tutor, p.1
Falling For My Tutor, page 1
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Falling For My Tutor
Gay Football Romance
By: Van Cole
Table of Contents
Come Stalk Me!
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
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Come Stalk Me!
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Will The Second Chance At Love Be Better For These Former Lovers?
Dan is a professional hockey player at the top of his game – but when his wife up and leaves him out of nowhere, it feels like game, set and match. How is he supposed to get through his upcoming games with an apartment empty of furniture and his wife off sleeping with some baseball player she's supposedly been seeing for a while now?
Turns out, however, that Dan's life isn't finished loading things onto him yet. When Dan's college flame Jeremy walks back onto the scene, after years of Dan convincing himself that he's not gay and that his father was right about everything? Well, it completely screws his head up.
Now, Dan has no idea whether he's coming or going. Is he supposed to try and make it work with his wife???
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Foreword
When I agreed to start tutoring this jock, the last thing I expected was to fall for him, get rejected by him, and then have him show up on my doorstep.
Robbie
Maybe I was prejudiced but I preferred to keep my distance from all jocks. High school had taught me they were all trouble and college was no different. The only reason I even agreed to tutor him in the first place is because my favorite teacher asked. What I didn’t expect was to fall for him.
James
I needed a certain GPA to keep my football scholarship, so I needed a tutor. He was hostile at first but despite our differences, we became friends. Then he kissed me. I rejected him because I’m not gay. Yet, for some reason, I can’t stop thinking of him and after a few days, I end up at his doorstep.
Falling For My Tutor
Chapter One
Robbie’s POV
The second, Ms. Cho told me the name of the student I was to be tutoring, my brain short-circuited. I blinked, unsure if I’d heard her correctly. Surely, she couldn’t have said the name I thought she’d said, right?
It was just my hearing starting to go or my mind playing tricks on me. No way she’d said the name James fucking Velez as the guy I was supposed to be helping pass biology.
“I’m sorry Ms. Cho, but did you just say the person I’m to be tutoring is James Velez?”
“Yes, he expressed the need for a tutor the other day and you were the first person who came to mind. If anyone can help him bring up his grade it’s you, Robbie,” Ms. Cho said, laying it on thick even though she was doing this unintentionally. “I do appreciate you taking the time to help him. I’ll make sure you get extra credit for this, as well.”
What I wanted to say was the only reason I even said yes in the first place is because I had no idea who I was going to be tutoring. If Ms. Cho had started with that important part of the information first, then I would have said no in every language I was capable of speaking.
“I’ll... do my best, Ms. Cho,” I replied weakly.
Why did I have to tutor a jock, of all people? I hated jocks, a sentiment that had remained with me since high school. They’d made my life a living hell and picked on me for anything. My glasses, height, weight, grades, and naturally my sexuality were all targets of their bullying.
College naturally allowed me to reinvent myself and be more than just a bullying victim. I had decided I wasn’t going to take any crap from people and the best way to keep my life calm was to avoid jocks at all costs.
Tutoring this guy would put me in the crosshairs of the football team which ran this college. Our college was a football college. Everything was about football. People ate, breathed, and slept football.
For me, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I couldn’t give a shit about football and only chose this college because it was the most affordable option. My parents lived in a town adjacent to the school, so for holidays I didn’t have to go far.
Ms. Cho kept looking at me like I was some sort of saviour or something, which made me even more annoyed. To add to the pressure, if I didn’t do a good enough job, the school might blame me!
I didn’t know James’ status or even what position he played on the team. All I knew was that the guy was on the football team and always seemed to be surrounded by people.
Shit, I could only imagine how tutoring him was going to go. He wouldn’t pay attention and would expect me to just give him the right answers. Those damn jocks didn’t know any other way to get a passing grade. They coasted through school thanks to their status as a member of the football team, enabling them with all sorts of privileges. People like me never got any of those privileges. We had to constantly fight, and this guy was just going to rub it in my face.
Ms. Cho gave me the guy’s number. I decided to text him right away because if I didn’t do it right away then I was going to chicken out and just not do it at all. This was something I very well couldn’t do because I had already given Ms. Cho my word.
She was my favorite teacher at the college by far. It helped that she was only about ten or so years older than the rest of us, so unlike some of the older teachers, she got it. This wasn’t to say anything was wrong with my older teachers, but there was a reason we referred to them as dinosaurs.
Once outside the classroom, I sent the guy a text message.
This is Robbie from Ms. Cho’s biology class. She said you needed a tutor so here I am volunteering. Are you free tonight to get started?
I wasn’t expecting him to respond right away but then my phone chirped, indicating I had a new text message.
Hey Robbie, this is James, but Ms. Cho has already told u that. :D Tonight, sounds great. I get off practice at 7 so I can swing by your dorm around then.
All I responded with was a thumbs up and the address to my dorm room. I had a class to get to and didn’t want to stand here texting with some jock who barely had to worry about his grades.
Ms. Cho mentioned this one was on a football scholarship and if he lost it then he wouldn’t be able to stay in school. I was in a similar boat because a good majority of my schooling was paid for by scholarships and student loans that I’d been forced to take out.
My parents weren’t loaded like some of the other students here so that was a definite no-go.
I tried to put my late-night tutoring session out of my mind, but it was hard because it was looming over me like a dark storm cloud. By the time 7 o’clock rolled around, I was expecting James to be an hour or so late. However, to my surprise, there was a knock on my door.
Surely, this couldn’t be James. Yet, when I opened the door, I found myself face to face with the jock from my class.
He looked tired and sweaty, but the guy had mentioned that he came right from football practice.
“Did you run here...?” I asked, moving out of the way so he could come inside.
He grinned. “Yeah, I didn’t want to be late. I mean, you’re taking time out of your day to help me so the least I can do is be on time.”
“It’s not completely out of the good out of my heart,” I admitted. “Ms. Cho did offer me extra credit for the tutoring session, which will go towards my overall grade.”
James blinked. “Don’t you already have an A?”
“... yes.”
Now that he said it out loud, I felt foolish. All I could do was nod.
He laughed suddenly, clapping me playfully on the shoulder. “Hey, if you’re smart you might as well flaunt it. Isn’t that how that saying goes?”
“... I’ve never heard of that saying before, I can’t give an honest answer.”
James shrugged. “Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come to me later and if it doesn’t then I’ll take advantage of a little thing called Google.”
This was not how I expected this tutoring session to start. James seemed so considerate, nice, and even funny. It could just be him trying to lure me into a false sense of security, so it was best for me to not get comfortable.
“Let’s just get started, all right?”
“Hey, whatever you say. You’re technically the teacher here and not me.”
I sat down at the desk with James grabbing a seat and setting it directly beside me. It was a little close for comfort, but I tried to just push it to the back of my mind and focus on the task at hand.
From the looks of his past tests, this guy was not good at biology. I figured I could work well enough with James and get him a passing grade. This, of course, depended on how willing James was to work with me.
He seemed to listen to my every word. Like, I assumed he would pretend and fake it but whenever I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, he did look like I had his full attention.
James even asked follow-up questions about the material we were going over! I was caught off guard the first time he did it and had to ask him to repeat himself. This is because I wasn’t sure if what I was hearing, was what I was hearing.
Once James confirmed his question, I went on to explain the concept he seemed confused about. We studied for a total of an hour and a half that night. It went by faster than I thought it would. The only reason I realized that much time had passed is because my phone beeped.
“Shit, it’s late,” James muttered. “I should get going but this is going to work out well. Same time next week? Unless you’d be willing to do it more often. God knows I need it.”
“Yeah, Friday is good.”
Those words came out before I could even stop myself.
Friday came and James showed up on time, the same as he did last time. He looked like he just came from football practice, but still seemed ready to learn.
We briefly went over the material from last time just to refresh his memory and covered some new material. James seemed more at ease with asking me questions. I was still a little on guard answering them, but that was on me.
The way James acted and how he treated me was constantly catching me off guard. I was fairly sure this wasn’t an act because I doubted anyone would be that dedicated to fucking me over. It was strange to think a nice jock existed, yet here James was, treating me like someone would a friend or at least someone they didn’t despise.
To add to my confusion, James had a pretty nice personality. It was like a golden retriever coming to live in the body of a college football player. Throw in a sense of humor and then you have James.
Around our third tutoring session, I started to let my guard down just a tad. We were establishing a routine, which helped make me feel at ease. Schedules and organization were what helped me function properly. Without them I’d be a hot mess... well a bigger hot mess than I currently was.
If James noticed my uneasiness, he still hadn’t said anything about it. I doubt he picked up on how guarded I was. Not because he was a jock who didn’t give a shit about anyone below their social standing but because of how ditzy he could be at times.
By the end of our third tutoring session, James was starting to get it.
“Dude, I can’t believe I am starting to understand this material,” he exclaimed. “I know it’s still early and I haven’t even taken a test yet, but I need to thank you.”
I nodded. “Ms. Cho has a test scheduled for the next class so that will help me see if you’re retaining the material or not.”
My words were blunt and straight to the point. I thought it might cause him to deflate a little bit, but James just shrugged and kept that easy-going grin plastered on his face.
“I think I can manage at least a D.”
I sighed. “You need to maintain a C average to keep your scholarship. A D isn’t going to cut it.”
“Yeah, but it’s a start, right?”
“I suppose...”
He laughed and clapped me on the back harder than he had intended. “See, that’s what I’m talking about! With your tutoring this semester, I’ll be pulling a C average in biology in no time.”
Damn, he was so positive and determined he’d be able to get his grade up. I supposed I couldn’t blame him for that mindset because, without that scholarship, he wouldn’t be able to afford school.
“Well, I’m certainly going to try my best,” I told him.
James chuckled. “Good thing your best is like five times my best.”
Despite myself, I laughed. The second what I considered to be a foreign sound escaped my lips, I felt the urge to clamp a hand over my mouth. No point in doing that now though because the damage was done.
“See, I knew you found me funny,” James teased.
I huffed. “It was a fluke.”
That so-called fluke happened again in that very same tutoring session.
At this point there was no denying it: James Velez was growing on me and there was nothing I could do to stop it other than canceling the tutoring sessions.
I wasn’t going to do that, so I was effectively stuck in a situation of my own making.
Chapter Two
James’s POV
School was never something I excelled at. I got so-so grades, and they were enough to keep my head above water through all of high school. When I got a full-ride scholarship, I was stoked. All I wanted to do since I was a kid was play professional football and playing on a college football team was an important stepping stone in reaching that goal.
The thing I didn’t count on is that college classes were super hard. Sounds naïve of me to assume this, but I was so focused on playing college ball it just never crossed my mind. I really should have been doubling down and spending extra time studying because to keep my scholarship, I had to keep a C average.
I didn’t have any issues until the first semester during my sophomore year of college. The class that was giving me the most trouble was biology. For some reason, I was just unable to wrap my mind around the subject. It also didn’t help that Ms. Cho could be quite a tough teacher. She was nice but didn’t pull any punches.
It all culminated in a meeting with my guidance counselor one afternoon before football practice.
“James, I’m sure you know why you’re here today.”
I squirmed in the chair, every nerve in my body on edge.
“Yeah, I know why we’re here Miss Collins,” I answered weakly. “I’m in danger of losing my scholarship, right?”
She nodded, a somber expression on her face. “You are in great danger of losing your scholarship.”
“... Is it Ms. Cho’s class?”
Again, Miss Collins nodded. “Yes, your average for that particular class is lowering your grade point average. If you were to at least raise it to a C- then you will no longer be in danger of losing your scholarship.”
“So... how can I do that?”
She smiled. “I’m glad you asked! I spoke with Ms. Cho already and she is willing to help you find a tutor for her class. She’s going to ask some of her top students to see if anyone will agree to tutor you for the semester.”
I wondered what would be in it for the student Ms. Cho got to help me, but figured she’d be giving them some kind of extra credit.
“Well, I hope she can find someone willing to put up with my crap,” I said weakly. “I and academics don’t get along.
“Look, James, I understand you came here to play football and, as such, that is your main focus. However, you can’t just ignore your other classes. College requires you to balance both parts of your life, especially when you are this early into your college career.”
“I’ll try.”
What else could I do but try? I knew, I had a one-track mind. Football was one of the most important things in my life and took precedence over everything else. This might have worked in high school, but it wasn’t going to work in college.
I felt like one of those dumb jocks you saw on television who lived, breathed, and dreamed of football. Okay, to be honest, I sort of was like that, but it wasn’t like I was trying to be. Football was amazing and something I excelled at! Was I supposed to just not embrace my better-than-average football skills and work to get them the best that they could be?
The answer was no. I had every right to do that, but my guidance counselor did make a good point. I needed to buckle down and start focusing on my classes. Otherwise, I was going to lose my scholarship, and the only way I had to pay for school.
My parents were both hard workers and made enough to live a semi-comfortable life. The bills were paid with a little left over but the amount left over was not enough to put me and my siblings through school. We had to find other ways to pay for schooling. My brother chose the military and my sister picked community college. Me? Well, it was all thanks to football.
