Fumbling Perfect (Raymere Grove Series Book 1) Read online

  “You think I’m charming,” a soft and deep voice from behind casually asked.

  Lilah huffed. Completely ignoring the question, although realizing the embarrassment that crept along her skin, “Are you following me now?”

  “You really need to relax. No, I’m not following you. I have criminal justice next.”

  Lilah shot him a strange look as he now walked beside her.

  “I needed a few lighter electives for senior year. We basically watch documentaries on serial killers,” he admitted.

  “You do realize that we can continue to our respective classes in silence,” Lilah coldly responded.

  Kyler rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. He had hoped to at least get some sort of confirmation on Lilah’s part, but it looked like he’d be spending Monday afternoon on his own, starting Hamlet from the beginning.

  “Mr. West and Miss McCallister,” a voice called from behind, causing both to stop and turn.

  Principal Willis stood a few yards before them in the now empty hallway. He glanced up at the nearest clock and shook his head. He began reaching in his pocket, no doubt for detention slips for being caught in the hallway minutes after the tardy bell.

  Lilah was beyond infuriated with Kyler for keeping her for so long, but utterly shocked when he spoke up.

  “I’m sorry, Principal Willis. Lilah was helping me catch up with all those assignments and by the time the bell rang we had a lot of packing up to do,” Kyler smoothly began.

  Principal Willis looked slightly surprised. “Then the tutoring is going well,” he asked, directing his question to Lilah.

  Lilah momentarily glanced at the concocting presence beside her, a satisfactory smirk plastered across his face that some might easily mistake for a sincere smile.

  “Yes, sir. It’s taking him a while to grasp the concepts, but no doubt he can improve with my help.” She couldn’t help it, she had to take a dig at Kyler where she could.

  Though Principal Willis appeared skeptical, he let it go and reached into a different pocket. He quickly scribbled his initials on two green passes, tardy passes, that would get them into their next classes without grief from the teacher. He handed one to each of the students before him.

  “Try not to make it a habit. Work on your time management in the future.” He then turned and went back down the hall in the opposite direction.

  Kyler and Lilah set back off in silence. Lilah’s business class was first, Kyler’s criminal justice class being slightly farther down and across the hall. There was an awkwardness once Lilah reached the room but didn’t immediately go in. Kyler, on the other hand, slowed his steps and lingered a little longer than he should have.

  Lilah let out a deep breath and sank into the wall behind her. “Thanks for that, with Willis,” she clarified.

  Kyler slightly nodded but didn’t say anything, only watched as the girl before him seemed to battle an internal mess somewhere deep within.

  “Fine,” she sighed.

  Kyler raised a brow for her to continue. It appeared that talking to him was the most difficult thing in the world for her at the moment.

  Without giving any explanation, “I can do the public library at five. Don’t be late, and don’t waste my time.”

  Before the words had a chance to sink in for Kyler, Lilah quickly turned and slipped into the classroom behind her, leaving him alone in the empty hall.

  A sincere smile spread across his face as he turned and made his way the short distance to his room.

  Chapter 4

  Lilah was shocked when she walked around one of the bookshelves to her preferred area to find Kyler already there and unpacking a few things from his bag.

  He glanced up to meet her eyes, somehow sensing her presence immediately. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he laughed, already aware as to what she must be thinking.

  He had to be on his best behavior, at least for the next few days, after that he was uncertain. Surely, he didn’t actually need a tutor the entire season.

  Lilah noticed things. The Kyler before her seemed different than what she was used to. Given, they had spoken more today than they ever had, but something about him seemed off, and she wasn’t going to be taken for a fool.

  She tossed her bag on one chair and sat in another directly across from Kyler.

  When he looked up again, he was knocked off his feet, except for the fact that he was sitting down. She was glaring at him. She had her arms crossed and she was actually glaring at him. He couldn’t imagine what he could have done in one statement to offend her so badly.

  Before Kyler opened his mouth, “Cut the act.”

  His jaw dropped, not believing what was happening. Was he really that transparent?

  “You’re here early. You’re forcing yourself to be nice. You’re freshly showered,” Lilah began.

  “First of all, eighth period is athletics. I showered to spare you,” he insisted. Then, just in hopes of rubbing her the wrong way, “And I may or may not have a date after this. So, shall we get started?”

  There was that cocky grin again. Lilah had never wanted to slap it off his face more. He acted like he needed so badly to focus on his studies, yet here he was, desperately trying to finish up so he could go on a date. Unbelievable, and yet, exactly as she expected.

  “Not until you tell me what’s your deal,” Lilah insisted.

  If he were to be honest, he never did think that Lilah was like most of the girls he was used to. Looks and money aside, she was smart, absolutely brilliant. Of course, he’d never tell her that.

  “Honestly?”

  Her pursed lips were all the confirmation he needed.

  “Apparently Coach Turner went out of his way trying to get me help, and he was livid that I turned you away.” Lilah didn’t seem to care at all as to what he was telling her, and why should she? “I have until Friday morning to make some sort of progress to show that I’ll have a passing grade for the first report card in three weeks.”

  “I thought you could do all that on your own,” Lilah spat. “Why do you need my help all of a sudden?”

  Kyler hated how smart she was. Any other girl would be thankful to be spending time around him. He thought of all the lies he could tell, but quickly realized when it came to Lilah, the only way was going to be to shoot it straight.

  “Coach is going to talk to you Friday morning about how I’m progressing. He’ll probably talk to Hughes as well, but I doubt that he’ll have all my assignments graded by–”

  “I knew it,” Lilah interrupted, more loudly than intended. She briefly sank back in her chair, a bit embarrassed by her outburst.

  “Yeah, fine,” Kyler admitted as he threw up his hands. At least he didn’t have to pretend about anything anymore.

  Lilah shook her head and quietly laughed. “And what? You thought you’d come here a few days, be nice, act like you’re interested in anything I have to say, maybe flirt a little, thinking that I’d turn to a puddle of goo and give your coach a stellar report?”

  “I never have, nor do I ever intend to flirt with you,” Kyler scoffed in disgust.

  Lilah shook her head, a smile of confidence still plastered to her face. She placed her hands on the table and rose from her seat. She reached for her bag with one hand when she felt the strangest and most unknown feeling singe through the one still on the table steadying herself.

  “Wait,” was the only word Kyler managed to get out as he instinctively reached for her.

  He only meant to stop her from leaving, but something about her skin beneath the palm of his hand stopped any thoughts he had. A tingling sensation ran from his hand up his arm.

  As if in unison, they both glanced down at the contact. A moment that may as well have been an eternity passed. Neither knew which pulled away first, but a second more and both of their hands were gone from the table. A brief silence followed, Lilah’s bag dangling from her other hand, though she hadn’t taken a step in the way of departing.

 
; “What,” she asked, more softly than she wanted.

  “What?”

  Lilah narrowed her eyes, noticing that Kyler had momentarily lost his confidence. “You’re the one who said to wait. I thought we were done.”

  Kyler scrambled for a response. “No. You got an attitude after I told you the truth.” There it was. He was back.

  Realizing that they were going nowhere, Lilah cut to the chase. “Do you actually want me to tutor you, or do you just need me to tell your coach something nice come Friday?”

  While the correct answer should have been both, “I’d really like it if you could help get me through this.” He couldn’t help but add, “Just until Friday.”

  Deep down, Lilah still doubted him, but if he knew even the slightest bit about her, he should know that no matter what he did or said, she would be telling his coach the absolute truth Friday.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Around 6:40, an alarm on Kyler’s phone went off, interrupting a strangely productive but exhausting session. He quickly silenced it, but was painfully aware how long they had been going over the first act. Lilah had helped him complete two of the worksheets that went with it, and prior to the interruption, they were about to start on the third.

  “I’m sorry,” he sincerely apologized. “I didn’t realize the time. I have to be getting out of here.”

  Lilah rubbed her eyes and yawned. After nearly two hours, she could use a break from the pages of black and white.

  “Same thing tomorrow,” Kyler asked.

  Lilah ached as she rose from her seat. Generally, when she came to the library, she preferred to study on the couches near the windows, unless her studies required the use of a table. She wasn’t quite sure why, but studying on a couch with Kyler didn’t seem like the best idea.

  “Sure,” was all she said as she reached for her things.

  Lilah left before he could say anything else on the matter. She and Kyler were not friends, and she didn’t want to give him any indication that they would ever be.

  The phone only rang twice before Antonio answered.

  “Hey, Antonio. I’m done at the library. Can you pick me up,” Lilah asked.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Lilah. Shortly after I dropped you off, your father got a call for an emergency meeting out-of-town, in the city.”

  “So, what am I supposed to do?”

  Antonio paused for a moment. When he was hired as Steven McCallister’s driver, he was unaware that there were three, now two, children that would be using him as a shuttle service to and from school activities.

  “I believe your brother is at a neighbor’s or friend’s, so I’m not sure if your mother…”

  Lilah stopped listening as soon as he informed her of her brother’s whereabouts. Of course, that meant that her mother wouldn’t be home. There was no point in even calling her.

  “It’s okay, Antonio. I’ll find another way home. Thanks.”

  Lilah was startled by the presence making its way down the library steps as she closed out her call.

  “Boyfriend?”

  “Eavesdrop much,” she hissed.

  Lilah immediately went to a group conversation with Jolee and Alice in hopes that one of them would be able to give her a ride home, but stopped before sending the message. She knew right away that Jolee was at a theater function.

  She could always just walk home. It would easily take half an hour or better, but there was still plenty of daylight.

  Her thoughts were soon interrupted.

  “Do you need a ride,” Kyler sighed in annoyance.

  Lilah’s facial expression was enough of an answer. Her eyes nearly fell from their sockets at the suggestion.

  He didn’t have time to entertain her any longer. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He then pulled his bag over his shoulder and started back down the few remaining steps.

  This was going to take everything in her, but as of right now, she could think of no definite and dependable way of getting home. “Okay, yes,” she shouted out.

  Kyler dreaded those words. He glanced down at the time on his phone. There was no doubt that he’d be late.

  Chapter 5

  For the most part, the short ride had gone in silence, the longest amount of talking being that of Kyler teasing Lilah for being seventeen and not having a driver’s license.

  Lilah was surprised to find her mother’s car in the driveway as she walked from the gated entry; however, when she opened the door, she knew that wouldn’t last long.

  No sooner than she closed the door, Lilah glanced up the staircase, her mother in a dress she had never seen before, rushing down.

  “Sweetheart, how was school? You’re home early,” Jenna squealed excitedly, though Lilah felt some of the emotion was lacking.

  “It’s already 7,” Lilah pointed out.

  Jenna gasped. “Oh dear, then I’m running late.”

  “Dinner with your girl friends?”

  Jenna stopped rummaging through her purse for a second and kissed Lilah on the forehead as she continued to make her way to the door. Completely ignoring Lilah’s question, “I should be home before 11. See to it that your brother turns off the video games by 9.”

  That was it. Just like that her mother was gone. At first it hadn’t been as frequent, but it seemed like she had plans nearly every night now, and none of them included Lilah or her brother.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “So you’re seeing him every single day after school now,” Alice slowly asked as she sipped on her chocolate milk.

  Lilah quickly swallowed her bite of lunch so that she could correct Alice before she got any absurd ideas. “Just through Thursday, so only three more days.”

  “How was it,” Alice asked excitedly, to which Jolee groaned in pain.

  “I mean, it’s Hamlet so–”

  Alice interrupted with a huff. “Stop it. You know what I mean. What’s it like being one-on-one with Kyler West?”

  Lilah shrugged. “I don’t really know. We got through two worksheets, so at least he has some level of comprehension.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”

  Lilah made a barely audible noise, desperately wanting to stop any talk of Kyler or the tutoring. She had to give him credit, he had tried. For most people, especially people her age, Shakespeare wasn’t the easiest of readings. While she preferred her texts to contain some amount of depth, for the most part if she saw girls her age with an actual book, it was usually about brooding vampires.

  After the mentioning of Kyler, Lilah couldn’t help but glance over at the table where he and most of the other players ate. Today several of the cheerleaders had joined them. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits, laughing and joking, except for Dawson. Dawson had his head buried in a large textbook.

  She rolled her eyes when she got to Kyler. Leaning on his shoulder was none other than Sarah. Lilah had to find humor in it. It was such a cliché. The quarterback and cheerleader.

  It was at that moment that Kyler’s attention was lost on whatever Miles was talking about and he met a pair of green eyes across the room. They held no emotion other than perhaps a little humor, but just as soon as he looked up, her eyes furrowed and returned to the two girls in front of her.

  Kyler clenched and unclenched his left hand. Something still ran through his skin after the previous afternoon, something he couldn’t quite place.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  As Lilah headed to her honor society meeting right after school that Thursday, she was a little disappointed when she thought about what she’d have to tell Coach Turner. Monday started off a little rocky with Kyler, but the last two days it appeared that he was sincerely trying. He was easy to read; she could tell when he was turning on the charm to get his way, but it hadn’t been like that. While he still made rude comments and rubbed her the wrong way, for the most part he was strictly business from 5:00 until when their sessions concluded, which generally happened when his alarm went off at 6:40. Although Kyler was sti
ll behind by a few assignments, he had two weeks before the first report card went out, and Lilah had no doubt that he’d be passing enough to play.

  A voice startled Lilah, awakening her from her thoughts of her last tutoring session with Kyler and her conversation with Coach Turner the following morning.

  “Is this seat taken?”

  Lilah was a little speechless when she looked up to see Simon towering over her. He was like a Greek god of academics. His jet-black hair was never out of place, always sporting a fresh cut. His outfits looked like something picked out of a men’s magazine. What did it most of all for Lilah were the glasses. Something about them didn’t make him look nerdy at all. Instead he looked refined and educated. He was like a male version of Lilah, but with a better personality.

  Lilah moved her bag that she had placed on the empty chair next to her. “No, not at all.”

  Simon sat down and tapped at his phone before the meeting started. Lilah glanced at hers to check the time and noticed a message.

  Kyler: How late can you stay tonight?

  Lilah: Why are you asking?

  Kyler: I don’t have plans, so I was hoping you could catch me up with the rest of my assignments.

  Lilah groaned at the idea. Two hours was long enough. Did he not think that she had a life?

  Lilah: I’ll have to see. I might have plans.

  Kyler: Yeah, right. Antonio can wait.

  Lilah was furious by his assumption. Since he overheard her conversation on Monday, he had already teased her more than once about Antonio. She hadn’t bothered to tell him the truth. Kyler had called her a snob twice that she could remember. She didn’t want to parade around the fact that she used her daddy’s driver to get around.

  Before she could get a chance to respond, “Did you sign up for any of your volunteer work?”

  Oddly, Lilah looked around to make sure that Simon was addressing her and not someone else.