Stepbrother With Benefits 18 (Third Season) by Mia Clark Page B

not to cross for both these things. I can take notes, but also be close as fuck with her, and it's not distracting. In fact, I'm pretty fucking sure I'm a million times more attentive right now. Her quiet excitement, just fucking... sitting there and listening with rapt attention to Doctor Roger Telford... yeah... it's kind of rubbing off on me.
    I've never once in my life wanted to get an A in a class. I just wanted to pass, you know? Passing is enough, or it was enough, but...
    I kind of want to get an A in this one. US History? It's not even that important, but maybe it is.
    It feels really important for a different reason. Maybe that's how everything is. You just have to find your reason.
    My reason is currently looking up at me with wide eyes and pouty lips. I take a break from taking some notes to bend down and give her a kiss. She holds it for a moment, our lips resting together, and then we break away. She goes back to listening, and I go back to listening and writing some stuff down.
    The class ends faster than I expected, except when I check my phone it's already been an hour and a half. Uh, wow. How the fuck did that happen?

Ashley
    I feel like I've just had a once in a once in a lifetime experience, except it wasn't anything special, if that makes sense. I know it doesn't. I know I'm being contradictory. I'm just not sure how to describe what just happened and how it makes me feel.
    I think I just experienced something special, significant, and important, but... it was just Ethan and I sitting next to each other in class while listening to Doctor Roger Telford give a guest lecture about Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America . The thing is that I never really thought I'd ever end up doing something like this.
    It's not just about Roger Telford. Yes, I love his book, and I think his ideas about Tocqueville's writing are amazing. I really wanted to go to this lecture, even if I'm not exactly supposed to be here. I know this isn't my college, but I figured I could sneak in and no one would know. It's the second day of classes, so an extra student isn't going to stand out very much, you know?
    That all kind of changed as soon as I saw Ethan walk in. It didn't help that the only empty seats in the lecture hall were right next to me, so he sort of needed to sit there. I was going to explain everything quietly once he sat down, but then, um...
    Things escalated. That's what I'm going to say happened. They escalated.
    And then it turned into something amazing. Except not. I'm contradicting myself again, aren't I?
    It was just sitting. I literally just spent about an hour and a half sitting next to Ethan while he took some notes about the lecture and Doctor Telford spoke to Ethan's class. It's not really anything amazing, but to me it was.
    It wasn't amazing because of the lecture, it was amazing because I got to be with Ethan. I know I'm with Ethan a lot, or I can be, but I never thought we'd be in a class together.
    It reminds me of when we were in class together before. It seems like a long time ago. We didn't really have a lot of classes together in high school. He was in a physical education class with me once, and we were in some electives together, but I was in the higher tier classes most of the time as far as core learning went. I don't hold that against Ethan or anything. I just...
    I liked when we were in class together before that. In middle school and elementary school. I don't know why. It's not like we talked a lot. I just liked it.
    Sometimes I'd get jealous of girls passing boys notes in class, too. Not just with Ethan, but anyone. I always wanted to pass a note to someone, but I didn't really have anyone to pass it to. I could never pass a note to Ethan. It just... no. It wasn't anything I thought about. I mean, yes, I thought about it, but...
    That was it. Daydreams and ideas. Silly little things. The daydreams sort of ramped up after we kissed during the party Ethan held in high school, but we