Page 15 of Tutor With Benefits
“Yes,” I tell her. “After what happened to you last night, we figured that it’s time you get some real solid help in the art of seduction and intimacy. If you want to get Johnny’s attention, you’re going to have to do more than just stare at him and run away every chance you get.”
“You do want to get his attention, don’t you?” Taylor asks.
“Well, yes,” Tori admits after a moment of hesitation. “I’ve liked him since last year, but I just don’t see any way for him to ever take notice of me. He was there last night in the diner when I fell down, and even if he didn’t laugh at me, I could see in his face he was embarrassed. I don’t know if he was embarrassed for me and empathizing with what I must be feeling, or if he was embarrassed because he knows I like him and he can’t believe that someone as stupid as I am could be into him like that.”
“See?” I cut in. “That right there is a major red flag.”
“What is?” Tori asks, confused.
“You just said you’re stupid. And that’s the first thing that’s got to go,” I tell her.
“I don’t know how to make myself smarter,” she says.
“I’m not talking about making yourself smarter,” I clarify. “I’m talking about how you talk about yourself. You aren’t allowed to put yourself down like that. Not if you want to get his attention.”
She pauses, clearly thinking about what I just said, so I continue.
“If you walk around and tell yourself and anyone who will listen that you’re stupid, what is Johnny going to see in you? If you want a guy to think you’re worth being with, you can’t be telling the world you’re not, get it?” I ask.
“I mean, sure,” she says with a shrug. “But what’s it matter anyway? I could walk around and tell the whole school I’m the most amazing thing in the world, and he still hasn’t ever said a single word to me. It’s not like just telling everyone what I allegedly think about myself is going to change that.”
“Tori, Tori, Tori,” Taylor says as he shakes his head. “I don’t know where to even begin with you. Clearly, this is more of a project than I thought it would be when I first came up with this idea.”
“What idea?” Tori asks, immediately suspicious.
“Way to go and blow our cover, idiot,” Cory says.
“If this is some way you guys are trying to pull a prank on me, quit wasting my time,” Tori says as she once more makes a move to get up, but Taylor once again does what he can to block her into her seat as I quickly start talking once more.
I glare at my friends as I do, hoping the two of them will just shut up for a few moments so I can seal this deal.
“No, relax, Tori, this isn’t a prank, believe me. We wouldn’t do that to you,” I say.
She gives me a look, and I know she’s thinking about the prank I pulled on Haley’s sister at the party last year. Even though Tori wasn’t present for the party, she obviously heard about it. Not only was Anna there when I did it, but the entire thing was filmed and wound up online.
“I’m serious,” I say. “Think of it as more of a business opportunity than anything.”
“Business opportunity?” she asks, the incredulousness obvious in her tone and her expression.
“You know we need help in chemistry. Obviously. That’s why we came to your dorm yesterday,” I say.
“And I told you no,” she replies.
“Just listen,” I tell her. “Suppose instead of this being just a one-way tutoring situation, you can teach us what you know, and we’ll teach you what we know, so it’s really more like trading, you see?”
“I’m not sure I’m following,” she says.
“To put it bluntly,” Taylor cuts in, “we want you to teach us what we need to know in chemistry, and we’ll teach you how to be the girl no guy can resist. The only catch is that if Johnny falls for you faster than we’re able to bring up our chemistry grades, you have to still help us out with that.”
“Think about it,” Cory says. “Suppose the two of you fall wildly in love and live happily ever after. What’s a few extra weeks of helping us out after the fact when compared to the rest of your life together in total bliss?”
Tori opens her mouth to reply, but then she closes it again. I get the strongest impression that her initial reaction is to turn us down, but there’s another side of her that’s not letting her be so black-and-white about this. After all, we are essentially offering her what she wants most in the world, and in exchange we just want her to help us out with something she clearly already knows and understands.
The trade is obviously in her favor. At least, as far as she’s concerned it is. The way I see it, as do Taylor and Cory, this is our ticket to getting through school on the hockey team and going into the pro leagues.
“So if I were to agree to this crazy idea,” Tori says at last, “what’s the first step in tutoring me?”
Once again, my bluntness doesn’t do me any favors as I simply blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind.