Chapter Text
You stood, book bag near you, tapping your feet as you waited for whoever your tutor would be. Your eyes continuously scanned the area around you, trying to find his face. You soon found your fingertips tapping on your arm, the silence of the library somewhat deafening to hear. You hated how quiet it was when your brain was screaming so loud.
God you just hoped he would show up soon...
Dell walked up the steps, making his way into the familiar place.
A sanctuary you could say.
As he did he was staring at his phone, analyzing the picture of who he would be meeting today. As he stared a short thought came to mind.
'Had ta give me the good-lookin one huh?' He smirked at the thought. Originally it had been a friend of his assigned to the woman, but she had pretty much begged him to take her off her hands. Why she so severely didn't want to associate with you was beyond him. In fact he was rather excited to meet her.
When he finally looked up from his phone he spotted her immediately. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel a bit of nervousness flow through him.
She was leaned against a wall, her bookbag on the nearby table as she looked around. To Dell she looked like she was taken straight from a movie. Not surprising since Dell was always into those rather cheesy romances. That and old western movies.
A strange mix, then again he wasn't anything if not a rather strange person.
You soon saw him approaching, relief washing over you now that you wouldn't be stuck with just your thoughts. Once he stood close he reached out a hand, a warm smile on his face.
"Y/n right?" He asked before anything else. You quickly took his hand as you tried to return the smile, though even you felt that it was strained
"You'd be right on that. It's nice to meet you...?" You implied a question as you took your hand back. Catching on quickly he went to finish your sentence for you.
"Dell, though people like ta call me Engie from tahme ta tahme" He spoke with a light-hearted tone, his behavior a lot friendlier than you would have expected. Slightly confused by his words you gave him a questioning look. Noticing the stare he decided to elaborate.
"Ah'm real inta the Engineerin' field and people lahke ta pin me down to a topic. Else I'd talk their ears off bout pretty much anythin'" He explained the nickname in almost a joking form and for a moment a genuine smile crossed your face, his smile almost annoyingly contagious. The moment was fleeting though and eventually you went back to radio static to avoid having to address what you had been going through for the past few weeks.
"Yeah. Anyway, we should probably get to work. I doubt you want to be here all day" You cut to the chase, not really wanting to bother him with your presence too much. Due to being turned away you didn't notice the slightly disappointed look found on his face. He had hoped to get to know you a bit more before you two started considering he'd be your go-to for help for the rest of the year. Then again he supposed he should have expected to get straight to it considering that's what both of you came here to do.
So off into the world of complicated books and annoying facts you went.
Surprisingly it didn't start off too bad. You caught on quickly and for the first half an hour or so Dell was convinced that you just wanted a tutor to get answers quicker rather than finding them. It didn't take long for him to realize what was actually going on though. Every few questions you would begin to space out, as if your mind entirely dissociated from what you were doing. Now if it was one or two times Dell wouldn't have thought much of it, but by the third time he started to realize that this was in fact why you had needed a tutor. As tends to happen with Dell he got a bit curious, wondering what caused you to space out so much. Was it just how your brain worked or did you maybe have something on your mind? Were you upset? Was something going on? And why did you keep pushing him off when he tried to joke with you? Did he upset you? Or were you already upset before he showed up? Dell knew he was probably reading a bit too much into this but he never really could stop his intrusive thoughts-
Ping!
The high-pitched sound caught his attention. His eyes quickly glanced at the phone that laid on the table beside you before he quickly turned back to you. You seem to ignore the sound entirely so he decided to do the same.
Ping! Ping!
Two more sounds came. You ignored those as well and once again he followed suit.
Bzzzzz
You sighed, knowing you didn't have a choice but to pick up your phone now.
"Sorry, just give me a second." Quickly you grabbed your phone before hitting the decline button and going to turn the sound off. You stopped when you saw the messages that had flooded your notifications, your grip growing tighter on your phone as your face went blank. You clicked onto the message, quickly scrolling through the walls of text that caused your gut to churn.
Now Dell hadn't meant to, but seeing as he was sitting right next to you he managed to catch a glimpse of your phone. He was frozen solid at the sentence he had seen and thus quickly turned his eyes back, wondering if he'd seen that right. He was completely shocked when he was met with that and even worse.
'What a crazy ass person'
'Are you really trying to play the victim?'
'Stop trying to ruin Damiens life!'
'Fucking lunatic'
'a monster really'
'Why don't you go fucking kill yourself? Not even your daddy wants you on this Earth, why are you still here?'
Dell found his throat tightening as he noticed the look on your face and realized that these comments were directed toward you. He found his eyes glancing between the phone and you, somewhat horrified with what he was seeing.
After a moment of looking over the texts you simply turned your phone off before laying it back down on the table. Afterward you turned back to Dell who quickly changed his expression to neutral, not wanting you to know he just sort of invaded your privacy.
"Sorry um...I probably should have turned that off when we started..." You commented before turning back to your work, unaware that he'd seen anything.
The session continued on, no disruptions coming afterward. As much as Dell tried to pretend like nothing had happened though a shift in his demeanor was noticeable. He joked less and he also began to space out, leaving the rest of the tutoring session rather unproductive. By the end you both made the mutual decision that you were both 'tired' and decided to back up for the day. You made a time for the next meet up in the same place which you were grateful for since you'd rather not have to figure that out later. Just before you were about to leave though, Dell's voice stopped you.
"Wait! Uh, here" you turned back, seeing a small paper outstretched to you. You slowly took it, noticing that it was his number. You gave him a bit of a questioning look, wondering why you would need this if you two had already planned the next meet-up.
"It's uh...in case ya need anything" Dell answered your silent question, a nervousness found hidden in his tone. You stared down at the number a moment, questioning whether you should keep it or not. In the end, you decided it was probably better if you did. In case your next session was canceled.
"Yeah uh, sure. That makes sense. Uh, here" you quickly moved around your bookbag before ripping off a piece of loose paper, using one of your pens to write your number on it before handing it to him.
"In case something happens" you spoke as he carefully took the paper, a small smile found on his face at the small victory.
"Yeah...I'll be seein' ya" he answered before sending you a final grin and heading off, to your surprise, further into the library. As he turned and left your view your eyes found their way back to the small piece of paper before carefully tucking it into your pockets and heading off to finish your day, aka crash on your bed and hope sleep gets to you before your thoughts do.