Chapter 2 — "I Am Not The Only One With Secrets Here"

Liam's POV

I smiled at Ken, looking him in the eyes. "Right. Nothing happened and I will keep my mouth shut like you want." I tilted my head just a little. "So why are you hard?”

And to think that Ken didn't see that coming — realizing that it was for real. He quickly moved away from me, placing his hand across the part of his body that had just betrayed him. It was kinda late for that but he couldn't help but lie in defense. "I'm not."

The smile that was gradually turning to a smirk was now on my face and I wasn't even trying to hide it at this point. There was something deeply satisfying about watching someone like Ken — someone who always had a comeback ready…come up completely empty.

"Oh, so that wasn't for the teacher." I let that sit for a second. "It was for me?" I took a small step back and looked him up and down once, just for effect. "Sorry man, but you are not my type."

His jaw tightened. Just barely though but I caught it.

I guessed it was probably still leftover from whatever mood Ms. Scott had him in before I interrupted, but honestly, that wasn't my problem. I turned away from him and left right away.

*****

The walk home felt longer than usual. My head was still running through everything — the scholarship shortfall, Ms. Scott's office, and then Ken. Always Ken somehow, ending up in the middle of things that had nothing to do with him.

By the time I pushed open the front door, I was already mentally drafting what I was going to say to Ms. Scott tomorrow. Let's say, something that didn't sound as desperate as I actually was.

"Hi mum." I called out, dropping my bag by the door.

She was in the sitting room, moving around the kitchen counter with that familiar ease she had even after a full day. "Sweetheart. You are finally home." She glanced over her shoulder at me. "Your peer is upstairs already, waiting for you in the bedroom."

I blinked. "Wait — already?"

"Mhm." She was pouring coffee into her cup, unbothered.

"Oh, um — sorry mum. I was busy taking care of some stuff at school." I said it quickly, the way you do when you don't want follow-up questions. She gave me that look — the one that said she had more to say but was choosing to let it go for now and I was grateful for that.

But underneath the guilt of being late, there was actually a quiet relief sitting in my chest knowing that finally someone has been arranged for me to tutor. That meant money coming in and in turn, it meant my tuition situation had at least one thread of hope attached to it. Ms. Scott might not give me that extension but maybe, just maybe I could get ahead of it if I moved fast enough.

‘Great. First day of tutoring and I am already late. It's all Ken's fault. That asshole.’ I pulled off my shoes and headed straight upstairs to my bedroom.

I was still low-key annoyed when I reached my bedroom door. I pushed it open without thinking too much about it — then I stopped and couldn't help but stare real hard.

You know that feeling when your brain sees something but refuses to process it for a solid few seconds? That was exactly what happened.

Because sitting in my chair — my chair, in my room — like he had personally paid the rent on this place, was Ken. Same guy from the hallway. Same guy from Ms. Scott's office. Twisting a pen between his fingers, eyes drifting lazily around the room like he was in no particular hurry to acknowledge that I had just walked in.

I stood there in the doorway and kept staring at him.

‘Was this some kind of setup? Did he follow me home? How does he even know where I live?’

"What are you doing in my—" I stopped halfway through the sentence because even saying it out loud felt ridiculous. Like I was in some kind of fever dream and finishing the question would make it more real than I was ready for.

I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. Ken tossed the pen onto the desk and finally fixed his eyes on me, that same unbothered energy from earlier still sitting all over him like a second skin.

I cut straight to it. "You are the one I'm tutoring?" I moved closer to him as I said it — not because I was trying to intimidate him, but because this was my space and I wasn't about to shrink in it. Whatever physical advantage he had on me didn't matter here.

He stood up from the seat slowly, like he had been waiting for exactly this reaction, and started moving toward me. "You know, if you hadn't interrupted, I would have just sweet talked Ms. Scott into changing my grades." He said it with zero apology in his voice. "But thanks to you and this whole scholarship partnership — I guess I have to learn from you." He glanced around the room briefly. "From my GPA down to my goddamn bedroom organization." His eyes swept the space again and he said it almost like it cost him something to admit. "Because I must commend how organized and appealing you made your bedroom look."

I didn't say anything to that. Mostly because I wasn't expecting the compliment tucked inside the insult and I didn't know what to do with it.

Then he closed the remaining gap between us, reached out and lifted my jaw slightly, just enough to make sure his eyes met mine directly. "Trust me." His voice was lower now. "This is not how I want to spend my Fridays either."

I pulled my jaw away from him before he even finished the sentence. The nerve of him to just touch my face like that, like it was the most natural thing in the world. I nudged past his shoulder and put some space between us because standing that close to Ken while he was looking at me like that was not something I was going to entertain right now.

"Yeah, well I am so sorry that I ruined your perfect first night hook up with the teacher." The sarcasm was thick and I meant every drop of it. "But I don't tutor assholes."

I expected him to get annoyed or at least look slightly offended.

Instead, he folded his arms and the corner of his mouth curved up. "That sounds cute then." He let that land before he continued. "But you need this job, don't you? I mean, tutoring pays well and you need every cent to stay here."

I felt my stomach drop just a little.

‘How the hell does he know that?’

I kept my face steady because the last thing I was going to do was let Ken see that he had just hit something real. But he was right after all. I mean, every single word of it was right. After what happened today, I already knew that Ms. Scott was not giving me an extension. The tutoring money wasn't just helpful but it was the only play I had left.

But I wasn't going to hand him that. Not like this.

"You are not worried that I'm going to rat you out?" I said it evenly, redirecting before he could settle too comfortably into being right about me.

He made a face — not quite a smirk and not quite a smile either. Somewhere in between. "Well, you know." He tilted his head slightly. "They say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, huh?" Then something shifted in his expression, just a flicker though but it was enough to make me pay attention. "Besides, I am not the only one with secrets here."

He reached into his back pocket slowly and I had absolutely no idea what was about to come out of it.