Three

December 15

Outside, frost clung to the window of the classroom and fogged the glass. December was Alia's favorite month for many reasons, the main being presents. Lots of presents. James, on the other hand, was more than annoyed by the weather outside.

She stared happily out the window, her eyes seeming to have an unusual sparkle to them. James narrowed his eyes at her but she took no notice. "What the hell are you so happy about?" He closed his textbook and stuffed it into his unorganized bag haphazardly. "It's too cold for you to be this cheery."

Her head snapped in his direction. His brow creased as she stared at him happily. Her usual retorts weren't heard coming from her lips. In fact, today she seemed to ooze pure joy. It almost felt like she was trying to infect him with some sort of cheerful disease.

She glanced at the clock behind him and began packing her things, suddenly in a rush. "I'm happy because today is me and Alex's two year anniversary!" Alia blurted to him.

He raised his eyebrows since he couldn't raise just one. "Um, congratulations?" James ventured with a lopsided kind of smile.

She leaned across the table separating them, held his face in her hands, taking him by surprise, and pressed a quick kiss to his right cheek with enthusiasm. "Thank you, James!" Still holding his face in her hands she all but screamed in his ears, "I'm so happy!"

Before he could even react to the kiss she'd planted on him, she was bolting out of the room and down the hall. From down the hall through the open door, he heard the sound of two people laughing. A man and a woman. Alia and her boyfriend. The jealousy he suddenly felt made him uncomfortable.

He had a strange realization in that classroom he sat in every day after school. He realized that, after spending an hour and a half with her every single day, he had developed feelings for his tutor.

He rested his chin in his hand and huffed. Staring out the window she'd stared out of with such happiness with a glum expression, he muttered in an annoyed voice, "How cliche."

Falling for someone you can't have. How stupid could he get?