Ezra talked a lot, Adrian discovered on the ride over to the other boy's house. He wasn't judging, of course, since he too was quite good at holding conversation, but he was just surprised that this boy, who seemingly hated him a week ago, was talking to him as if they were friends.

"I really did try to read it. It was just boring and I fell asleep," Ezra was saying, and Arian rolled his eyes. They turned onto a familiar street.

"It's not supposed to be a fun read," he pointed out and Ezra shrugged his shoulders.

"What even is a fun read? I've never read anything fun. Reading in general is extremely boring to me". Adrian wondered how he could have had sex with someone this stupid. Who had never liked a book he'd read. Who was really fucking sexy. Oh yeah.

"Well how many books have you even read before?" Adrian asked, determined to get to the bottom of this all books are boring thing. Ezra laughed as he pulled into his driveway, not saying anything. "That's not an answer".

"I don't read, Adrian". For some reason, Ezra had begun to say his name a lot, and each time he did it drove the younger insane. "Why would I read? I have a life".

"You also have three F's". Ezra considered this, and then nodded as he turned off the car and withdrew his keys.

"That's fair". Adrian felt as if he had won. "What do you suggest then?"

"What?" He was confused, but Ezra took his time answering, climbing out of the car and slamming the door. Adrian followed. "What do I suggest?"

"You know," Ezra walked ahead of him to open the door, "books?" The inside of the house was as empty as it had been the first time Adrian had gone, and he wondered where Ezra's parents were.

"You're asking me to recommend books for you?" Neither of them were paying attention to the words though. They were both staring at the couch, remembering what had happened there less than a week before. Adrian, for some reason since he was never embarrassed, felt his cheeks flame. "I'm going to sit on the chair, if that's okay".

"Yes," Ezra said simply, but he then pulled Adrian to sit down on the couch next to him despite his words. "We have that test coming up, and I don't even know how to study for it". Adrian wasn't really listening. He was thinking about how the last time he had been sitting here, the only thing he had been wearing was a thin layer of his sweat. "Adrian? Can you help me with this? I need to get a good grade on this test. It's the only opportunity I'll have to get my grade up to a D before we play Valley Falls".

Valley falls was their rival school. They competed on everything from music to sports to academics. Springfield excelled in music, but Valley falls had better academics. Where they really clashed was sports, specifically the big three. Basketball, football, and of course, soccer. Whenever any of these teams played Valley, the entire school went to show their support. It was a big deal. The soccer game was coming up soon, and without Ezra, the team would most definitely lose. This was proved last year, when a boy from the opposing team had tripped Ezra and caused him to sprain his ankle within the last ten minutes. Spring Field had lost 3-5.

"Yeah, I can help you with that". Even though Adrian didn't care for sports, he wanted to see the team win... It most definitely didn't have anything to do with Ezra. Nope. Not at all. "Where are your parents?"

"Ahh," Ezra said, as if he just realized that they weren't there. "They love each other too much so it's easy for me to convince them to leave the house so you can come". Adrian wanted to know why he couldn't meet the other's parents, and Ezra seemed to sense this because he sighed loudly. "They're very embarrassing". Adrian smiled at this.

Adrian wished that he was able to talk about his parents with that level of affection. Even though Ezra claimed that they were embarrassing, he said it with a fond smile on his face that caused Adrian to feel unjustifiably jealous. But he really didn't want to think about this, at least not now. Not when he was supposed to be happy Adrian. "Language arts".

He looked over at Ezra only to find the other staring at him. There was something strange about this boy, something that made Adrian incredibly nervous. Ezra didn't get embarrassed. Ever it seemed. Everything he did was done confidently. This was something that Adrian only had seen in himself, but it didn't seem to apply when Ezra was around. "Language arts". A pause. "You smell like strawberries".

"Language Arts, Ezra".

"Right".

***

It was very cute how frustrated Ezra got with himself. His hands kept repeatedly raking through his brown hair as he stared at the book in his lap. "This just doesn't make sense. There are too many right answers". Adrian was pressing into his side, looking over his shoulder and tried not to chuckle at this.

"Use that to your advantage . It's all opinionated, Ezra. If it's asking you a question, write what you think".

For the test, they had to analyze a poem, and then answer questions about it. It was simple, or at least Adrian thought so, but Ezra didn't seem to understand poetry, or analyzing. "I don't know how to," Ezra said, dropping back against the couch.

"You don't know how to have an opinion?" Adrian asked, taking the book off of Ezra's lap and placing it onto his own. He yawned as he looked down at the words. "Here. I'm going to read it to you, and you're going to answer the questions".

He recited the sample poem on the page once. "You have a wonderful voice. Do you sing?" He read it again because it was clear that Ezra hadn't been listening. "Okay. I think I get it".

"So what do you think the girl signifies?" Adrian asked softly, glancing back at Ezra who had closed his eyes as he thought.

"All women in today's time". His eyes opened and they were very green, so much so that it was hard to believe that they had ever appeared to be blue before. "Is that right? I don't know".

"Ezra, if you can support it, it's right. Everything is right if you give examples". Ezra looked very intrigued and sat up, now looking over Adrian's shoulder at the book.

"So I could say, that the girl represents all womankind because," Ezra cut off and pulled the book off of Adrian's lap and his eyes skimmed over the poem. "Fuck this is morbid. Does she really feel like this?" Adrian was looking at Ezra, perfectly aware of how close their faces were. Being only inches away, Adrian could see each individual freckle and admired their beauty one at a time. Ezra's eyes raised and Adrian swallowed.

"That depends. What do you think that the poem is saying?"

After maintaining eye contact for a long second, Ezra looked back down. "Well, she clearly feels inferior to men. She fears them. We don't listen, and we read body language wrong and act on it when it's unwanted". As if convinced by his own words, Ezra leaned back away from the other.

"If you write all of that on your paper, and write how you got that, you're going to be very happy with your results".

"You're good at this tutoring thing," Ezra said, smiling and the boy had fucking dimples. "Are you any good at math?"

"That depends which class you're in," Adrian said, but he was sure that he'd be able to help.

"Pre-Calc," Ezra said, turning away from him and riffling through his backpack for a moment, pulling out a rather familiar textbook. "Have you taken it yet?" Without speaking, Adrian flipped over the text book and pointed to the name in there, directly above Ezra's. Adrian Vang. "Well fuck. How are you so smart?"

"I try hard," He said without thinking, and then realized this could come across as rude, like he was implying that Ezra wasn't trying, when it was very clear he was. "I don't really have anything else to do most of the time. My parents and I don't really spend much time together, and I can only practice saxophone so much before I go insane".

"What about that girl you hang out with? The pretty one". This bothered Adrian, even though there was no real reason for it to. Ezra was simply stating a fact. Helen was very pretty. "Doesn't she spend time with you?" Adrian thought about Ezra's best friend, the blonde one, who he had only ever seen by Ezra's side. Though, now that he thought about it, he had seen him hanging around Liam, the only other person in Adrian's math class, upon occasion. This seemed insignificant though, so he dismissed it.

"Helen. My parents don't really like her so she has to sneak into my house when she wants to come over". Ezra raised his eyebrows. "I do have some people that I go out with upon occasion, but they're busy a lot so I'm usually just left alone to read and study".

"Go out with?" Ezra asked hesitantly, looking away from Adrian, his eyes skitting around his living room as if he was nervous about something. "Out to do what?"

Fuck in cars. "Mostly smoke, I guess".

"You're a smoker?" Ezra looked incredible concerned about this, and Adrian sighed, wondering how he was to explain this to yet another person.

"Not really". This didn't seem to be enough, because Ezra was still looking at him expectantly. "I don't do it much".

"You're not addicted?"

Adrian thought about how they could be using this time to study more, lord knows Ezra needed it, but then he answered. "No. It's a rare thing, but some, very very few, people can smoke without getting addicted to nicotine. It's still not healthy, it just means that I can do it whenever I want".

"But what about the saxophone? I can't smoke because of soccer".

"Because of your scholarship," Adrian added. Everyone knew about Ezra's scholarship to the state university. It was the talk of the school for three or so weeks since he got one, but some boy name Fransis something didn't.

To Adrian's surprise, Ezra shook his head. "No. It has nothing to do with my scholarship. I just love it". He spoke with such passion that it made him even more attractive. "Don't you love playing to saxophone?"

"I do," Adrian said, and he did. The instrument gave him a sort of purpose he had yet to feel while doing anything else.

"But smoking isn't good for your breathing. You're willing to risk it just to smoke every once and awhile?" Adrian thought long and hard about this, and it remained quiet as Ezra gave him time. Ezra Drake, Adrian then realized, was much smarter than anyone, himself included, gave him credit for. "I don't mean to judge or anything. I'm just trying to understand".

"I'm not offended, " Adrian said, but he didn't say anymore, still thinking about what he had been asked. They just looked at each other. Brown eyes meeting green, and Adrian swallowed, fighting to keep his eyes on Ezra's eyes rather than his lips. The other was clearly failing at this, his attention slightly lower than Adrian's eyes, and without thinking, Adrian swept his tongue over his lower lip in case the other actually kissed him.

And he clearly was about to, and would have, Adrian was sure, if his phone hadn't rang just then, their mouths inches apart and he whined loudly as Ezra, seeming flustered, sat back and gestured for him to get it.

"Hello?" He said into the phone, not even checking who it was as his eyes remained on Ezra.

"Adrian".

The second he heard the voice he knew who it belonged to. "David". Ezra's interest in his phone call became evident than at the sound of another man's name, but he was obviously trying not to look intrigued at the same time.

"Hey baby, what are you doing tonight? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever". Adrian swallowed, dropping his eyes just as Ezra looked up at him.

"What'd you have in mind?" Adrian was definitely tempted. Ezra was causing him stress that ne needed to release in some way.

"The usual". David sounded different some how, and it made Adrian nervous. "So? Are you in?" The year before, Adrian had spent his birthday night with David, and it had been the best birthday that he had in a long while, but maybe, just maybe, he wanted to try something different. .

It took one more look at Ezra for him to make up his mind. "No. I'm already doing something". He hung up.

Ezra blinked at him, his mouth opening and closing as he decided what words to use. "Uh. Pre- Calc?"

"Pre-Calc," Adrian agreed, throwing his phone down and directing his attention to the book in Ezra's lap.

Try as he might, he couldn't focus on the work, too distracted by the fact that Ezra smelt like cologne and winter mint.