#come onnnnnn two days ago being at the library helped at least a little bit but now i've been here 3+ hours and i've got nothing

[newspaperburritos-forbreakf-blog]

Tutor Time || Tittie

A/N: This was probably like two months ago?

Tito, newly (secretly) back in school, needs help with his essay writing, but he definitely wasn’t expecting his tutor to be Lottie

TITO

It was no secret that Tito wasn’t the most educated guy in Swynlake, but what was a secret was that he was doing something to change it. In between shifts at the garage, he’d been taking a few Pride U classes working towards a degree. He didn’t know what it would really do, but he knew it’d keep him busy, distracted, and maybe he’d end up better than before, ya know?

Tito was doing fine. Engineering classes were cake with his hands on experience and math never gave him a problem. English? Core classes like history and writing papers and shit? That wasn’t any walk in the park for sure.

The New Yorker never really asked for help, but his professor told him it was get a tutor and make up as many points he could on the rest of the assignments and the final or fail. And he definitely  wasn’t about to fuckin’ let half a semester go down the drain to do it all over again next semester.

He was expecting some brainiac nerd to come in at any moment. Some chick who probably had as much social skills as a plank of wood and was about to start spitting all sorts of grammar shit at him. Whatever, he’d have to grin and bear it. Get through it and maybe learn a lil to help him get by in the future.

The mechanic sat back in his chair at one of the large tables in the library. His books piled up next to him as he scrolled through his phone at some dumb shit Dodger was talking about, just waiting for his tutor.

LOTTIE

Lottie had meandered her way into the library, two cups of coffee in hand (one already stained with her pink lipstick), bag balancing on her shoulder as she looked around the room for her newest friend for the next few weeks. Or semester. She didn’t really know how long she’d be around this guy.

She had received an email earlier in the week asking if she might be interesting in helping to tutor a first year leveled student with his English. Writing to be more specific. Which, for the record was a little strange considering Lottie had never taken English at PrideU, It was something she had actually taken while she was still in high school, but apparently had done well enough in it that they thought her to be more than capable helping this student. Regardless of why they asked her, Lottie happily agreed, the person on the other end of the email providing her with the name of the student (Ignacio…...something. He had a lot of names) as well as where the tutors typically met their tutorees.

Which is why she found herself looking for him that particular day, the coffee warm against her very cold fingers (Lord, did she hate English weather). She wanted to start their meeting off right, bringing him some coffee to hopefully warm him (ba dum tss) up to her and the idea of her helping him out. Considering you know, one look at Lottie would lead you to believe that she was not the brightest bulb on the Christmas strand.

She saw a guy though sitting alone at one of the tables, his back was towards her so all she could really see what his curly brown hair as she began to slowly approach. When she reached the table though, she offered the (woah, cute) guy a bright smile. “Hi, are you Ignacio?” Her southern accent absolutely butchering his name, but truly it was the best that she could do considering she wasn’t entirely sure how to pronounce his name.

TITO

Having forgotten where he was completely and busy texting Dodger about how stupid he sounded right now, Tito did not notice the person coming up behind him until his government name was used (and kinda butchered with a Southern accent) which sent him jumping in his seat.

He whirled around to see… definitely not a nerdy looking girl. Hell, she was fine. He could get used to this shit. Instant Tito charm turned on, his racing heart and phone (which was now on the floor) forgotten. “Yeah, that’d be me. Ignacio Alonzo Julio Fredrico de Tito. But you can just call me Tito, chica if that worst best for you. And you are…?” He grinned at her, leaning against the back of the seat like he was the smoothest motherfucker that didn’t just look like a spazz.

The mechanic turned back around and cleared some of his stuff into his area to make room for her to sit wherever. “You aren’t really the tutor I was expectin’ to be honest. Not that that’s a bad thing or whatever, I’m just sayin’ sometimes you like have an image in your mind of people and shit and… well, it’s a nice surprise or whatever. Plus like my professor set this up and I don’t really know her all that well so...” He shrugged, trying to keep his smirk from growing too big on his face. Blondes were his type after all, and with the way she dressed, he seemed to be falling right into old habits with the rich ones.

LOTTIE

Now being that Lottie was Lottie, she felt absolutely horrible for the reaction that Ignac...Tito had had. She hadn’t meant to sneak up on him, only wanted to make sure that she had the right person! Without even thinking about it, Lottie set the coffee cups down on the table, bending down to pick up the not so stranger’s phone. “Lord, I am so sorry,” Lottie spoke out, placing his phone in front of him as she sat down in the adjacent seat. “I didn’t mean to startle you like that, sugar!”

Again, probably shouldn’t call people you just met sugar, but Lottie never really was one to play by those sorts of rules.

She let out a small laugh though, “That certainly sounds a heck of a lot better when you say it than when I try.” Lottie mused, no, STOP IT LOTTIE. You are here to tutor this guy, not flirt with him. You need to stop. “But it’s a pleasure to meet you Tito. Did I say it right that time? My southern accent just makes it sound so wrong.” Which was true, she really felt like she wasn’t even saying it correctly still.

Her hand shot out next to her for him to shake, “My name is Charlotte Rose La Bouff, but you can just call me Lottie.” She lightly teased, giving him her full name since he had for her. “Oh! And I brought you a coffee.” She brought the cup without the lipstick stain in front of her a bit more. “I wasn’t sure how you’d like it so I just had them put a little bit of cream and sugar in it, but I mean, if you want more, you can always just have mine. So long as you don’t care about the lipstick.” Another small laugh. “And that’s alright, really. Don’t worry about it. Can’t say that I haven’t heard it before.” Lord knows she had played into that stereotype for long enough.  “Your professor had emailed me about it too, we’re workin’ onnnnnn….” Lottie began, pulling out her iPad to check her email but it hit her before she even had the chance. “Your writing? Right? Got an essay comin’ up here in a few weeks if I remember right.”

TITO

Her voice was so fuckin’ cute that it didn’t even matter that she fucked up his name (most people did, shit was long af and full of accent shit). He smirked at her slightly, was she flirting with him or just being really fuckin’ nice to get a good review? ‘Cause in his years of bein’ himself, he’d take that as flirtin’.

“Yeah, you said it real good, chica. Perfecto.” He chuckled and leaned back in his seat a bit, “Believe me, I ain’t one to judge on accents.” He poked fun at himself because well, if you ever heard him talk you’d know how much New York and then Mexico kinda fucked together to combine his way of talking.

Lottie. Chica was fuckin’ fine and had a cute name (and apparently was smart af or at least smarter than him). Tito was pulled out of his inner thoughts on how best to proceed with this attractive female when she offered him the coffee and then all the thoughts just kinda leaked right out like someone had punctured his oil tank right out from under him by giving him a coffee.

His eyes softened and he took it. It was a small act of kindness. And that’s what it felt like, kindness, and not some piece of charity or something because she didn’t even know him or see him before she got him the drink, there’s a difference right there, Ignacio Alonzo Julio Fredrico de Tito didn’t do handouts. His whole demeanor kind of changed from hormonal fool to focused pupil. “Nah, yeah, that’s good. You picked right.” Tito didn’t drink a ton of coffee in general (when you had as much energy as he did you just got shaky and hyper with the added caffeine) so he’d probably just sip on it.

The mechanic took a sip to appease her and grinned a small little grin before looking down at the prompt he’d brought on paper on top of his legal pad because well, he didn’t really grow up with laptops and fancy gadgets (even if he did there wasn’t a way for wifi to happen). So he liked to do outlines and stuff on paper first. Laptops just sorta distracted him.

“Yeah, I, uh, I brought the prompt. My professor said that I need like grammar and structure improvements on my last paper. Like the concepts are there, I just can’t communicate them well, ya know? Like I got the bullet points lined out but words get all messed up and mixed together and it turns into like a run-on rant or somethin’.” He scratched his head slightly and looked over at her, kind of feeling vulnerable telling her about all this weakness shit that he’d never admit to in front of people, but he couldn’t flunk out, not when he’d put in so much work. He let out a small huff of a laugh and shrugged,  “Guess I just got a lot of pasión when I write or somethin’ so my thoughts kinda all come out at once and don’t make a lot of sense to other people but make sense to me.”

LOTTIE

Okay, perfect. That meant perfect, right? See, Lottie could get down with this Spanish thing. All her years growing up learning French and a little bit of Creole hadn’t prepared her for a meeting like this, but well, that word was easy enough to get down and close enough to the English word that she was able to at least figure it out!

“Can I take a guess at where you’re from?” Lottie questioned, hoping that maybe the idea of getting to know each other to him would potentially get him even that much more open to the idea of her tutoring him. “Well, besides the Hispanic heritage of course.” She added with a bit of laugh. That much was obvious. “New York? Or New Jersey? No, definitely New York. That’s what I’m bettin’.” Her hand coming down to slap the table gently.

She watched him carefully as he took the coffee though. He had leaned up in his seat, not exactly leaning back and putting on that “cool” demeanor that he had first exhibited once Lottie revealed herself. (Which for the record, she thought was a little silly. If anything he just looked like he was trying a little bit too hard, but who was Lottie to judge?). Regardless, she had noticed the softened look on his face as he took the coffee and had wondered why exactly something as simple as a warm drink had affected his attitude so much. “Good.” She finally replied with a smile, “I was debatin’ on that my whole way over here. I was like, shoot, I shouldn’t have added any cream and sugar and just brought it with me because what if he didn’t like cream and sugar? Or what if he doesn’t like coffee entirely? It was a mess, I probably looked like a fool.” Another laugh escaping her.

Lottie arched her neck so that she could see the prompt that he had been assigned since the professor had not sent her that much. It looked easy enough, a simple essay from an intro level course. This wasn’t going to be too much trouble to get him all squared away! But she listened carefully as he spoke, turning back up to face him as she nodded her head. She imagined that it must be hard. Sometimes it was hard, and she imagined it must be especially hard for him if English was his second language. “Hey, no worries,” She smiled, quickly resting her hand on top of his as reassurance. “That’s what I’m here for. To help you. And it’s a good thing that you have passion, that’s what that word meant right? In your writing. It means that you have a lot of good ideas that you want to get down on paper. We just have to figure out a way to bring it in just a teeny bit.” Her hand coming off of his, her pointer finger and thumb coming very close together but not quite touching.

TITO

The mechanic quirked a brow at her when she offered to figure out where he was from. Most of the time people guessed right. It was sort of a specific accent and when people weren’t from the US, the first place they named was New York. (Not that she wasn’t from the US, that southern accent definitely gave her away). Shit, would he have to guess where she was from? Most Southern accents sounded the same to him.  

Sure enough, she guessed right the first time. Then went to New Jersey which wasn’t a huge hop from NYC but she corrected herself. He let out a chuckle as he pushed the coffee cup between his hands on the table. “You’re right. Born in the Bronx. Lived in Brooklyn. Regular New York City boy in Swynlake.” He squinted at her slightly, “I’m not too great with Southern accents but Imma have to say you’re from… Texas?” Really he was drawing a blank and she didn’t sound like some Alabama or Mississippi hick to him. Geography was not his strong suit either so he was glad he could name a few southern states off the top of his head to choose from.

Tito debated on telling her about his relationship with coffee, but after realizing she might bring him more in future sessions he decided it would probably be best. “I mean, I like coffee. It don’t necessarily like me.” He laughed slightly, looking down at his papers, “I don’t drink a lot of it. I already got too much energy in me so it just sorta supercharges me.” He looked back at her slightly with a small smile on his face, “But yanno, I was feeling a little tired today so I appreciate it, Lottie. You definitely aren’t a fool, chica. I’m the damn fool. You’ll never look like the fool when you’re around me, promise ya that.”

“Yeah, you got it. You learn any Spanish? You’d probably be good at it.” He winked at her before listening to the rest of her words, except he totally got distracted by her hand covering his. It was nice. A warm feeling he hadn’t felt in a while. Her hands were so soft compared to how rough his were from scraping them up as a kid and working on cars all day. No one touched his hands anymore. Oddly enough it was more personal than anywhere else on his body that got touched. It was a gesture. He couldn’t really read her too well, which was interesting because girls had become so easy to him. Lottie was a mystery so far.

“Sounds good, chica.” The dark haired boy pulled his hands back to him, not wanting to keep them in that spot anymore looking like an idiot. “So uh, where should we start? Like, what’s your process for this shit? You got some sort of like writing formula/guideline or something.”

LOTTIE

So yeah, maybe Lottie was a little proud of herself for getting the answer right, but really, shed have to be a little stupid to not put together the fact that he was from New York. It was as strong and stereotypical of an accent as it could possibly get, coupled with the Hispanic accent. It was cool though, Lottie enjoyed it. It wasn’t a pairing that she had expected to ever hear before, but that’s what made him unique!

She let out a bit of a laugh, her head bobbing around a bit. “Closeeeeee, so I’ll give it to you. Just go one state over and you would have had it. Born and raised in Louisiana. New Orleans to be more specific. But I’ve been up to New York a couple times. Of course, we mainly stayed in the touristy areas which I’m sure you steered clear from.” Her hand sweeping out in front of her as she let out another laugh.

Oh, this was awkward then now wasn’t it? He didn’t even like coffee and she had gone and brought him one! Stupid Lottie. She should have asked him somehow first. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to then, I ain’t gonna be mad or upset.” She replied, offering him a smile. “Next time though you’ll have to let me know what you like so I can pick that up for you instead!” Another smile, but totally understanding the feeling of being supercharged with energy. Sometimes when she drank coffee she felt like she was bouncing off the walls. The following comment though had caused Lottie to smile even brighter. She hadn’t known if it was meant to be a joke, but it definitely was sweet to her and made her smile. “I don’t know if I believe that.” She teased before getting out a couple supplies of her own.

“Never learned, I just got lucky with that one I guess.” Her shoulders popping up into a shrug. “Only know French and a little bit of Creole. That’s what some of the people in Louisiana speak. Not a whole lot though, just a teeny bit. Hey! How would you feel about maybe teachin’ me a little bit of Spanish though? I help you with your English, you help me with some Spanish?” It was an idea that got her excited, the thought of learning a brand new language. She just hoped that he would be on board too.

Though she’d understand if he wasn’t.

Lottie nodded her head, “I do, yes! But it sounds like you’ve already sort of been doing the same thing. The first thing I start with when I get a prompt is I go back and look at it. Highlight the keywords that are gonna push me where I need to start. That way, when I’m pulling everything together, I know that I didn’t miss anything and won’t be losing easy points. Why don’t you go ahead and do that.” She replied, offering him one of her (pink, of course) highlighters.

TITO

Louisiana. It all clicked now. Shit, rich french blonde was apparently his type. He never learned did he. Only difference was that he wasn’t exactly in his prime Tito flirting self. He was more grounded. Probably because he was legit here asking this girl for help when he never asked for help from nobody. He did shit for himself. He’d been on his own longer than he’d had anybody so askin’ for help didn’t really come too easy for him. On the streets, asking for help showed weakness, showed you gave up on yourself. It was hard for his pride to sit here and have someone else (no matter who it was) help him.

He scratched the back of his head with a nervous chuckle, “Nah, I mean, you can’t exactly avoid Times Square or Central Park. But yeah, mostly Brooklyn and the Bronx were my stompin’ grounds, yanno?” Usually those were prime locations for pick pocketing. He and Dodge could make a fortune just by doing the old fake out, bump and sneak as kids. He shook his head, making sure to take a big appreciative gulp of the coffee, which did not exactly get swallowed correctly causing him to cough slightly and say between coughs and a small wheeze. “Nah, it's really okay.” He took another sip to clear his throat and then sat the cup down away from him giving her a smile like he hadn’t totally just fucked up being smooth.

Tito shrugged and looked down at his paper, “Guess we’ll find out then huh.” He gave her a little mischievous smirk before looking back down, trying to decipher the prompt a little bit better before she started asking him questions. He didn’t want to seem underprepared or something.  Unfortunately, she was pretty distracting so he read the same sentence about five times before looking back up at her and giving a chuckle, “Yeah, sure. Least I can do, yanno for you helpin’ me out. And hey, that’s pretty impressive, I mean… Je parle un peu de français” From Daisy. His accent was never quite right in French. Most of his words tried to lean towards his Spanish accent. “But I’m no expert in languages or anythin’.”

He listened to her, prepared to learn some new techniques and shit. He smiled at the highlighter. Of course it was pink. Right, key words. Figuring out what all this bullshit in this prompt meant. Good start. He started highlighting some stuff and immediately he could tell that he was highlighting too much. The whole paragraph mostly looked pink. He sheepishly looked up at her, his voice kind of quieter, “How do you know what things are the most important? Kinda just.. I dunno everything looks important to me so it's hard for me to focus on the more important things, yanno?”

LOTTIE

“Sugar, I said you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to, not chug it down to the point that you start chokin;.” Lottie laughed out as she placed a han on Tito’s shoulder to try and steady him. Because, yes, in order to help someone who is choking you needed to steady them by holding onto their shoulder. (Lottie’s brain worked in mysterious ways). “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing, are you okay Tito? I can’t have you dyin ‘on me this early.” Or you know, at all that would certainly be tragic and definitely would make Lottie probably the worst tutor in the history of tutors ever.

It was weird. Because from the get go Tito had seemed so cool, calm, and collected. Or at least try to play like he was. The way that he had leaned back in his chair when Lottie had first walked back, the fact that he called her chica with that grin of his (which yes, it was much different than Lottie calling everyone sugar because she did not flash people smirks like that), and pretty much just his entire demeanor. Whatever it was though, he had already seemed...well…not like that at all. The way that he had sort of choked on his coffee because he was trying to appease her (which was sweet that he still was going to drink it) and how that wall that she assumed he put up came down when it came to the actual work she was there to help him with. Whatever it was, Lottie felt like maybe not a lot of people saw that side of Tito so she was at least happy she got a hint of it now.

He seemed like a nice guy!

Lottie clapped her hands quietly though as Tito agreed to help her with her Spanish before the French had rolled off of his lips. Her expression had changed into one of surprise, even bucking her head back just a bit, “Ahhh tres bien!” Lottie mused, already a bit impressed since he had managed to put together the sentence that quickly. She knew the two languages were a little similar, but she was still impressed nonetheless.

She let out another small laugh as he began to highlight the entire prompt. Definitely not what she had been going for, but mistakes were alright! That’s how you learned. “Here,” She replied, taking the notepad he had brought as well as the prompt so she could quickly write it down once more. “My go-to rule with highlighting is,” Lottie began as she jotted it down, “To try to stay to only highlighting like, five words, eight max.” She added, shooting Tito a playful glare before glancing back down to the pad as she finished up. Lottie pushed it back towards him so that he could see. “See look, this bit at the top is really only giving you some background information.” She spoke, using the pen to point out the sentence. “This really isn’t telling you what you need to write about, it’s just getting you to start thinking. Usually what you’re looking for is in the middle or right at the end. Try again, I think you got it this time.” Lottie offered with a smile. Positive affirmations. “Remember, try and look for those ‘buzz’ words. The ones your professor wants you to see. Not all that junk at the beginning.” 

#Tittie