Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen

"Are you here to just purposefully annoy me, or did you actually want something?" Ian spoke through gritted teeth. I looked up at him as he sat on the arm of the sofa, half of his body shielding me. His brother grinned and released a heavy breath, "Yes, actually. I am here for a reason." With that he reached his hand into a bag he held at his side and pulled out a site envelope with Ian's name handwritten on it. 'Ian x' It said and I watched Ian's face change from annoyance to curiosity.

Ian reached his hand out and took the white envelope from his brother's out stretching hand. I eye the envelope quickly as curiosity kicked in within me. What was it? I must have been more curious than what Ian was. Ian scowled at his brother and set the envelope of the glass table in front of me. He looks back over to his brother. "Is that it? Or was there something else?"

"Yes. Coffee no sugar." His brother said in a posh tone and plonked himself down on one of the other red leather sofas, opposite the one I was sitting on. Ian shot him a glare, "Whatever." He muttered and got up from the arm of the sofa, walking towards the kitchen.

Once Ian was completely out of the room his brother looked towards me. "So?"

I raise an eyebrow and reach out for my cup of tea which still sat on the glass table. Not to mention, it was now next to the curious site envelope Ian had left there. "Your Ian's student?"

"Yep." I smile and take a small sip of my tea. Craig tilts his head as if I am hiding something from him. "You look a little old for a student."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"No, I mean...you look...well, you don't look as if you are in school." He struggles to explain himself and I my fingers tighten around my cup of tea. "What year are you?" He asks. "Eleven."

"Oh, so my little brother teaches the GCSE grade students, does he?" He smirks and cocks his head. I nod and smile once again. I will normally say something rude or sarcastic as I am never much good and socialising with new people. However, I restrained my tongue and kept my mouth shut.

"What subject does he teach you?" Wow, he really is curious. I look down at my tea as I reply. "English."

"Ooh, literature! He was always like that, always loved poetry, books. All that crap." He grunted and sunk back into the sofa. "I don't understand why he didn't listen to his Mother and worked with me."

"What do you do then?" I suddenly asked. He held his chin up in pride. "Engineer." I creased my eyebrows together, not really understanding what that fully implied. He laughed, "Computer engineer." He added more fully. "You fix computers?" He nodded, "It's my fourth year now."

"Wow. So, how old does that make you?" I asked, taking another sip of my tea. He rolled his eyes. "Thirty."

"You don't look thirty."

"You don't look sixteen." He shot back. I rolled my eyes as he just had. "A lot of people say that."

"What are you planning to do when you leave school?" Craig shifted in his sitting position as he asked me that really difficult question. I thought for a moment and if I am honest, I had never given my future career much thought. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" He repeated and he seemed incredibly shocked. "Not even an idea of what you might want to do?" I shook my head and frowned, "No."

"How can you not know? Don't you have any hobbies? Anything you like to do? I mean...nothing at all?" I shook my head once again.

"Alice is very good at English." I was startled by Ian's voice. He entered the room and held out a cup of hot coffee towards Craig. "You would say that. Almighty literature boy." He joked as he took the cup of coffee from Ian's hand. Ian raised his eyebrows, "No. She is."

Craig looked towards me as if to ask for my confirmation, and I look up at Ian. Ian looked back at me and gave a soft chuckle, "Except she doesn't really know it yet." I shot him a confused look, but he just smiled and patted my shoulder.

"What have you been teaching her then?" Craig challenged. Ian smiled a wild smile. "Poetry mainly. Well, so far. It's only our first topic."

"Have you only just started then?" Craig asked as he took a large couple of gulps from his coffee. "A week and a half." Ian replied and his brother smiled in approval. "Good job but not something I would have gone for."

"I'm not you. You seem to forget that sometimes." Ian glared at him and I stared up at him. Craig looked back at him with the same glare. "Maybe we all would have been better off if you were a bit more like me."

Ian scoffed, "You would have loved that, wouldn't you?"

"No. I'm just saying, it would have done you some good."

"'Some good', is not enough for me. I needed to find my own path." Ian kept a straight face as he struggled to reason with his brother. Craig scoffed, "Some path!"

"Look, I'm not going to bring all this up now. Not in front of Alice." Ian said calmly and crossed his arms as he sat down on the arm of the sofa. I sat back and took another few sip of my tea. Craig seemed as calm as him, but his eyes spoke different emotions. Violent emotions.

"I don't see the problem."

"I do, and it's a very big one." Ian shot back. Oh god, where was this going? Craig scowled and gulped down the last of his coffee. "Is that all you came for? Or was it actually something important?"

Craig smiled, "I just wanted to see my brother."

"Well, you've seen me now so you can go."

"Oh, come on! Don't be like that!" Craig whined like a four-year-old child. Ian kept his Jew set and his fists clenched, "No, really. I want you to get out. Now."

Craig sighed and stood up from the sofa, "Alright, alright. I'm going. But make sure you read that letter." Ian nodded and closed his eyes. "I'll be sure to read it. I'll see you out." Craig held his hand out to halt him, "No need, I'll see myself out." He then looked down at me and winked, "Catch you later, beautiful." I looked at him wide eyed, it did seem quite a personal and touchy thing to calm someone when you had only just met them. I glance up at Ian and he looks so angry at him. Craig notices and holds his hands up, "I'm going! I'm going!" He chimes as he walks out of the front room and opens the front door in the hallway.

He shoots Ian one more glance before stepping out and slamming it shut. Ian and I are both left in painful silence.

"Are you ok?" I whisper. He looks tormentingly angry and I'm scared if he's about to do something. He scrunched his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, great." I say nothing and cross my legs as I lean forward and set my now empty cup on the glass table. Ian huffs and stands up from the arm of the sofa. He looks so frustrated and it put me on edge.

Out of nowhere a crash came from behind me, and I whipped my head round to see Ian had knocked over a lamp. He groans in frustration and runs his fingers through his hair. "What are you doing!? What the fuck?"

"Sorry, but he's such a... arsehole!" He growled, gripping at the roots of his hair. I purse my lips and try to come up with something to say. "Why?? He seemed nice." It was true, he was nice. Ian turned round and his face was red with anger. "He seemed nice!? You think he seemed nice!?!" I nod and slump my shoulders, "I think he was. What's your problem with him?"

"My problem with him? I'll tell you what my fu-...problem is with him!" He clenches his hand up into a tight fist, pressing it against his forehead. I could tell he wanted to let his frustration out by swearing but he obviously couldn't do it in front of me. "My problem is that he comes round here, judges me for my job and then! And then he tries to hit on my-" He pauses.

"Your...?" I turn in my sitting position. Our eyes meet and he quickly looks away. "...my student." He finishes in a careful tone. "Was you going to say something else."

"No."

"Oh." I mutter, disappointedly. I actually did want him to say what I longed to hear. Ha! As if. I was a wreck; he wouldn't want me if I was the last fish in the see. He noticed my disappointed tone and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I just-"

"No, it's fine. I get it." I hold my hand up to stop him in his tracks. His mouth is hung open as he obviously wants to say more but I have no intention in listening to the rest of that sentence. I stand up from the sofa and make my way towards the door. "I'm just you're next fling, well...until you move onto someone else that is." With that I feel my wrist being grabbed and I twist round.

Fuck...