The Dating Tutor: Alec's Story Read Online Free PDF

bag. Snatching it up, he pushed out the kitchen doorway without a comment. It wasn’t worth it. No good ever came from arguing with his father when he was drunk.
    Alec was up the stairs and in his bedroom with the door locked before the burning sensation in his eyes registered. He blinked back the angry tears and threw the bag across the room. It hit his desk and fell with a thump to the floor.
    Jerich was more than likely passed out on the couch again, too wrapped up in his own misery to notice the sound.
    Alec stood in the center of his bedroom, arms at his sides, hands balled into fists. He sucked in a few shuddering breaths that did little to ebb his despondency. He silently assured himself that he was good at hockey. He could get a scholarship.
    He wasn’t his father. Even if he struggled in the minors his entire future career, he’d still be playing the game. He wouldn’t be bitter and resentful. He would be grateful for any level of recognition of his talent.
    With a frustrated growl, he crossed the room and pulled open the drawer of his bedside nightstand. Inside laid a framed photo of his mother. She was holding him on her lap, and the two of them were laughing at some unknown joke. They both looked so happy, so carefree.
    He sank to the edge of the bed, the photo held reverently between his hands. “He hasn’t ever gotten over you,” he tearfully told the woman in the photograph. “He never…” He wiped tears away from his eyes with the back of his hand. “I just wish you could tell me what to do.”
    A soft sob escaped him that he attempted to muffle even further. He did not want his father to hear him crying. He could not sit here weeping over a memory long gone. Wallowing in self-pity wasn’t healthy.
    He needed out of this house.
    The decision made, Alec climbed swiftly to his feet. He tucked the framed picture back into his nightstand before yanking his shirt over his head. He needed out of the house for the night. He needed away from his spiteful father and the memory of his mother.
    He’d had a shower at the school, so he was clean enough until morning. Yanking open his top dresser drawer, Alec pulled out a white cotton t-shirt and pulled it over his head. He then stripped out of his jogging shorts, the only thing he’d put on his lower body after practice.
    He didn’t even bother grabbing boxers. He simply snatched up a pair of flannel pajama pants and yanked them up over his hips. Next he stuffed his bare feet into his sneakers and crept across the room to the window.
    Not hesitating, he swung a leg over the windowsill and dropped down into the darkness below. He landed easily on his feet and started off in the direction of Ellie’s house. Without needing light to aid him, he tiptoed through the yard and hopped the fence to her yard.
    Ellie’s bedroom light was off, but he knew she would understand if he woke her. After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d snuck in her bedroom window to get away from his father.
    Making his way across the yard, he grabbed one of the low hanging branches of the tree right outside Ellie’s window and swung himself up. He knew the tree outside her window like the back of his hand, and before long, he was inching carefully across a thick branch that would get him close enough to climb inside the house.
    Reaching a hand out, he eased the window open and crept carefully inside. He crawled across the top of her desk, being cautious not to tip anything off onto the floor. The last thing he needed was to wake her mother up and have the poor woman thinking…
    He shook his head at this. It wasn’t like that; it had never been like that. It was just that things were so easy with Ellie, and he didn’t have to explain why he was here to her. She knew, but she didn’t make a big deal about it.
    Lowering his feet to the floor, he crossed the room. He saw her eyelashes flutter open and recognition enter the green depths of her eyes, but she remained soundless.