Dane

"Fuck!" Noah steps out of the way as my pitch comes close to smoking him in the elbow. We're doing batting practice in a cage together, and my mind hasn't been in practice at all this morning. This is the second time that I've thrown something that's almost hit Noah. "What's your deal, man?"

"Sorry." I mutter. My father yelling at me for my low grades had ground my brain to a fucking halt. I couldn't get his words out of my mind. You're being fucking useless! I'm not paying for your stupid degree if you're just going to be failing your goddamn classes.

"You alright?" Noah asks.

"Just tired." I tell him. My chest squeezes and I feel mildly sick as I lie to Noah. I'm ready for practice to be over so I can go to the safe haven that is the newspaper office and spend some quiet time with Mackenzie. I'm not sure how she'd resisted asking me questions about my phone call with my father last night, but I was thankful for it.

I can tell that Noah doesn't believe me in the slightest. "Just-- be a little more careful, man."

"I will." I promise. "Ready?"

Noah nods and I throw another ball. Noah gets off a solid hit and I duck behind the protective L-screen as the ball flies towards me.

Luckily, we make it through the rest of practice without me injuring anyone. I can tell that Noah is keeping an eye on me, but I ignore him. I don't have the energy to explain myself to him right now.

"What're you up to today?" Noah asks. We're getting dressed after showering. Kingsley is putting on his shoes next to us and looks up at me to see my answer.

"More comp sci." I tell him.

"So you're out on mini-golf?"

"Fuck, that was today."

"Yeah." Noah eyes me. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." I sit down next to Kingsley to pull my shoes on. "Gonna have to skip mini-golf though."

"I kind of figured." Noah says. "Way to be responsible for once, bro." I roll my eyes. "Bet Mackenzie makes it really easy though."

"Noah--" I say in warning.

"Just saying." Noah smirks. "You did spend Friday night with her."

"I don't think spending a Friday night with someone means that you're interested in them." I say defensively, perhaps a little too defensively because Noah's smirk grows into a full blown grin.

"Doesn't mean that you're not interested in them though."

"She's my tutor."

"That's kind of hot." Kingsley offers. I elbow him and Kingsley raises his hands up in defeat.

"There's nothing between me and Mackenzie." I tell Noah.

"But she's still off limits to the whole team?" He asks. I know that he's poking all my buttons on purpose.

"Yes!" I say vehemently. Mackenzie is too nice and too smart for the baseball team. She's too nice and too smart for me, and I consider myself one of the better ones.

"I hope you have fun today!" Noah tells me with a little too much joy as I sling my bag over my shoulder.

"Go fuck yourself." I reply, which only causes him to laugh as I walk out of the locker room.

I walk to the student center, realizing that I'm starving, and forgot my protein shake, but that none of the food places open until 11AM on the weekend.

The newspaper office is the only office with its lights on in the student center basement. The door is propped open and Mackenzie glances up at me when I step into the doorway.

"Morning, Dane!" Her peppy voice brings a small smile to my face. "I got you breakfast if you're hungry. I didn't really know what you liked, so I just guessed." She pushes a brown bag and a coffee towards me.

Apparently she remembered that I only put cream in my coffee because when I take a sip it tastes exactly how I would make it. The bag contains two breakfast bagel sandwiches. One has bacon, egg, and cheese, and the other has sausage, egg, and cheese. "Are these both for me?" I ask.

"Yeah." She gives me a small smile of her own. "I've watched you eat before. I know that will only hold you over for like, two minutes." She snorts.

"Ha, ha, very funny. It will hold me over for at least ten minutes."

Mackenzie gives me a full blown smile that makes me forget about how tense I'd been for the whole morning. I sink my teeth into one of the breakfast bagels. It's delicious and I devour it in less than a minute. I take a long drink of coffee, thankful that Mackenzie had the foresight to get me food.

She seems focused on her work and she turns away to start typing something. I watch her screen with interest as she types out a long paragraph. I peer closer, she's typing her Letter from the Editor. "Gonna add some interesting commentary about tutoring baseball players?" I ask her.

"Well, I've only ever tutored one baseball player. So not sure I'm really an expert." Mackenzie's fingers fly over the keyboard as she types.

"What are you writing about for this one?" I ask.

"I'm encouraging students to pursue an interest in the theater and arts programs at our school, as a way to expand their horizons and learn more about their community." Mackenzie tells me.

"Is that important to you?" I'm genuinely curious. She turns her hazel gaze on me, breaking her concentration.

"Yeah, I think it's important that students are engaged in their community, and art and theater are a way to do that. If we're all focused on our studies all the time, then there's no community, and I think that's kind of sad."

"What about parties and shit?"

"Are you claiming that parties form community?" Mackenzie asks, looking skeptical.

"I don't know. I'm just saying that it's a form of engagement."

"I guess." Mackenzie says doubtfully. "But I'm not really sure I can be promoting that in the student newspaper."

"That's a good point." I agree with a smile. Mackenzie rolls her eyes and returns her focus to her screen.

I pull out my computer and get to work on my third redo assignment. Mackenzie and I had made it through the first two last night and I'd already emailed them to my professor. I wanted to show him I was serious about getting them redone on time. Mackenzie and I had agreed that if I was done by the end of the weekend that would be best for getting all of my other assignments and studying done during the week.

It's almost 1PM when my hunger gets the better of me. Mackenzie is reading through something, and I can tell she is deep in thought. I wait until she's clearly through the article she's on before saying something. "I have to go grab some food. Do you want something?"

"Sure, what are you getting?"

"Probably just something from upstairs. What do you want?"

"Chicken strips." She says without hesitation. I snort. "What?"

"Are you a child?"

"We already established that I like hot chocolate. So I guess I am." Her voice is light and her lips are curved up slightly. I briefly wonder what it would be like to kiss her, and then quickly divert my thoughts.

"I'll be back shortly." I promise, checking my pockets for my wallet and phone before heading out of the office.

I'm on my phone waiting for our food when a hand caresses my shoulder from behind. My first thought is that it's Mackenzie, but when I glance down at the hand and see the perfectly manicured nails, I realize that it's Amy.

"Hey, hottie." Amy's voice is sultry. My fucking dick betrays me and twitches slightly. I turn to face her, wishing that I could be anywhere else.

"What do you want, Amy?" The memory of her calling me stupid and then making out with Grant presents itself as soon as I see her face.

Amy pouts. "I just want you to know that I miss you."

"I don't miss you." I tell her.

"Dane--" Amy steps closer to me and even though I know she wants to get a reaction out of me, I step back. Amy's smile grows. "Scared to be too close to me?"

"I want nothing to do with you." I say.

"Grant and I broke up." Amy says. "He's an idiot." I'm not shocked, but I also don't believe that it will last. Grant goes back and forth with women constantly. I'm pretty sure he has them on some sort of rotation. "And I wanted to say I'm sorry about what I said to you last weekend."

"It's too late, Amy. You said what you said, and we're not getting back together."

"Dane." She pouts again, then bites her lower lip in the sexy way that I always used to like. My body can't help it's reaction, but my brain knows better. "I know you want me."

"You're wrong." I tell her.

"I'm not." Amy insists. I want to strangle her, but I show remarkable restraint and just stand there, waiting for her next move. They can't call my name soon enough for food. I need an easy escape. "We were Dane and Amy. The hottest couple on campus. Everyone watched us, wanted to be us. You're giving up on that?"

My mind has been preoccupied with another girl, and so my mouth says, "Yes." Without a second thought. Amy's face twists into a sneer and then she masks it with an easy-going smile. The duplicitous bitch.

"Number 12!" My number is called and I turn to grab our food.

"We're done, Amy. Leave me alone." I say, making my voice as rock hard as I can, and then I walk away, leaving her standing alone in the food court.

When I return to the newspaper office, Mackenzie is rearranging an entire page of photos. I slide her food in front of her and she gives me a brilliant smile that makes me forget about how annoyed I am with Amy.

I watch her for a moment as she dips her chicken strip into ranch and takes a small bite, never breaking her gaze from the screen. She eats with her left hand and navigates the mouse with her right, clicking and dragging pictures.

Since Mackenzie is focused as hell, I return to my code and get back to work. Since I've done the more advanced assignments with Mackenzie's help, these earlier assignments are coming to me surprisingly easy.

I'm wrapping up assignment four when I glance up at her again. She's leaning forward, her eyes flicking back and forth rapidly. I'm suddenly struck by the thought that she's beautiful, even in the shitty light of the newspaper office. Her brown hair falls in soft waves around her face, framing her dark eyebrows and intense hazel eyes. She's biting her bottom lip as she reads, and I have to clench my fists to keep from reaching out to her to brush away a strand of hair that's stuck to her cheek.

Absent mindedly she brushes away the hair that I'd been looking at. I force myself to look away, because I realize I'm staring obsessively at a girl who I had claimed was just my tutor only hours earlier.

"Dane, I need you to read this paragraph. Tell me if it makes sense to you." Mackenzie points to her screen and I lean in closer to her to look at what she's talking about. She enlarges the text for me and I read it.

It doesn't really make sense so I read it again. "It's confusing. But maybe I've just been looking at code too long." I tell her.

"No, I think it's confusing too." Mackenzie sighs. "Fuck. I thought I was done with this one." She types rapidly for a minute and then turns to look at me again. "How's your stuff going?"

"It's good." I say, trying not to stare at her lips. I'm not sure why I have a sudden obsession with her mouth, but I'm very aware of the fact that we're alone in this office in the empty student center basement. The things I would do with her down here if she was a different type of girl. But she isn't the kind of girl that I would want to fuck on a desk in the basement of the student center.

No, Mackenzie Brooks is not that kind of girl at all. Mackenzie Brooks is helpful, and smart, and kind, and I can't deny that if I was going to fuck her, it would be on a soft bed, with romantic lighting, ideally with a lot of foreplay. Somewhere that she would feel good about, not like I was trying to keep it a dirty little secret.

"Do you want to go grab dinner together somewhere?" The words are out before I can stop them. "I feel like we deserve a break."

"If you give me another thirty minutes I'll be finished with this issue." Mackenzie says. "And then, definitely yes." My heart skips a beat when she agrees to dinner with me, even though I know that it's not a date in her mind. It's not really a date in my mind either, just a dinner for my tutor because she's been so helpful.