Cambridge

“Wait, so you have no clue who that guy was? “ Clara, my best friend since 8th grade, said as we made our way through one of the huge center campus courtyards on our way to class Monday morning.
“Yeah, no clue. He seemed awfully familiar though. Like I felt like I’d met him before and you can call my crazy but, I don’t know.” I put a piece of my brown hair behind my ear. “By the way, where is Niki?” I stopped abruptly and turned around, trying to spot my other best friend/roommate.
“Believe me, knowing Niki she’ll already be in class.” Clara giggled.
“True, let’s go.” I chuckled and turned back around, only to bump into a stranger and fall down on my butt.
“Hope!” I heard Clara reach for me. My vision had gotten hazy for a second but then it focused on another hand. I followed the hand back up to the face to find that I had bumped into Liam Payne. Liam was known to be the nerdiest of the nerds here at Cambridge. He would always make a point to say “hi” to me during breaks and would always blush every time I talked to him about an assignment. I didn’t know him well enough to classify him as a friend, but then again, being popular has its advantages. Many of the popular guys bully him and tease him, and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable. I felt like he was a good student and didn’t deserve the stuff that happened to him.
“Oh, sorry! I wasn’t looking.” Liam’s shaky voice said as I grabbed his hand to help me off the cold pavement. He nervously pushed back the thick black-rimmed glasses that sat on his face and avoided eye contact with me, his face getting redder by the minute.
“Just watch it next time.” Clara spat out, disgusted.
“Clara, it’s fine.” I eyed her. She looked back at Liam while I grabbed my books that had piled onto the ground.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Liam tried again as he knelt down and helped me with my books.
“It’s no problem, Liam. The fault was entirely mine; I wasn’t looking.” I smiled at him. He finally made eye contact with me; his pink lips had curved into a cheeky grin as he ruffled his chocolate colored hair.
“Here you go.” His beautiful brown colored orbs locked with mine as he handed me my “Literature Studies 101” textbook.
“Thank you.” I gave him a smile as I took back the textbook.
“Oi, heyy loser!” I heard the familiar sound of Henry and the rest of his group climbing up the steps and huddling around Clara and me and pushing Liam.
“Hello, Hope, darling. How are you today?” Henry’s muscular arm snaked around my waist and shoulder, interrupting Liam and me. I quickly turned to face him, surveying his gorgeous blue eyes, trying to remember if he had remembered anything from last night.
“Are you sober today?” I snapped back at him, crossing my arms.
“Yes, darling. Of course, why?” He giggled with the rest of his group.
“You don’t remember.” I muttered under my breath and looked away.
“Hi, honey.” Joseph came up to Clara and gave her a kiss as his hand made his way to her butt.
“Joseph! Not here!” She giggled as she intertwined her fingers with his.
“What are you doing with little Payno?” Henry snarled, slamming down the books in his hand. Liam, merely looked down, red faced; he then knelt down and tried to pick his books up without a word.
“Seriously, Henry? Come on, stop it. We have to get to class.” I rolled my eyes and looked at Liam desperately, making sure he wasn’t upset as I walked away. When our group huddled into class, we all dispersed and went to our seats.
“Hey, Niki.” I chuckled as I put my textbooks down and sat in my seat, looking at her face buried in books.
“Hi, Hope.” She gave me a quick smile and wave and continued reading her book.
“You okay? Clara and I were looking for you on our way to class. I thought you were coming with us?” I asked.
“Yeah, there’s a pop quiz that I decided to study for in class. Sorry, next time I’ll walk with you.” She smiled back at me.
“You seriously need to let me hook you up with a guy.” I chuckled as I opened my notebook.
“What?” She asked surprised. She closed her book and faced me, giving me the first glimpse of her face all day. Her sleek, thick black hair fell past her shoulder and her caramel colored skin began getting redder and redder.
“Seriously! I could hook you up with a guy, a sweet one. Not one of the guys in Henry’s group, but like a really sweet one!” I winked at her and flipped my hair.
“I could never.” She looked down at her feet and started biting her nails, nervously.
“Hey, believe me, any guy would be lucky to have you! I just need to find the perfect guy!” I grinned.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I would be able to-“
“Niki, you’re in college. You deserve to have at least a little bit of fun!” I interrupted. She blushed even more and looked a couple of seats behind her. I followed her gaze to the one and only, Harry Styles.
“You’re kidding?” I giggled, as I looked back at her, wide-eyed.
“What?!” She laughed.
“You have a thing for Harry!” I half-whispered, half-shouted.
“Shhhh!” She threw her pencil at me and chuckled.
“Oh my god, wow. I did not see that coming. But, nonetheless, I’m determined.” I rolled up the sleeves to my pink blazer and went to the back of the room.
“No, stop! Hope! Stop!” I heard Niki call behind me. I ignored her and strutted to the back where Harry and his gang hung out.
I cleared my throat and stood up straight, “Harry?” I said, causing him to turn around and face me, looking at me head to toe. His floppy, curly brown hair was tucked under a light grey beanie, his light green eyes flickered with surprise, and his tattoos covered his arms in full. He bit on his lip piercing as he sat back in his seat, examining me. Harry was known to be the punk kid in our class; he messed around with every one and would even make the teachers frustrated. I wonder how he even got into Cambridge considering his track record has been pretty spotty. Some said that he really was smart and he just hid it behind his jackass personality. Some even said he was really nice to any girls that he dated, but I honestly didn’t know what to believe. If Niki liked him he had to have some sort of redeeming quality, right?
“Yes, Ms. Campbell?” He replied in his husky voice and grinned.
“Harry, I’m going to be really straight forward. I know that not a lot of people come up to you and ask for stuff but this is really important.” I looked dead in his eyes.
“Yes?” His green eyes sparkled with delight that could only be seen as sarcasm.
“First of all, I want to know, how much of a jerk are you really?” I questioned, totally serious.
“Well, I don’t know.” He scoffed.
“Well, my friend and I wanted to hang out with you sometime. Tomorrow after class. Don’t be late.” I smiled and walked away without letting him give a response. His whole entire gang was speechless and started giggling as I walked away.
“What the heck did you do?” Niki asked as I sat back down in my seat.
“A little magic.” I giggled and winked.
“Pssst!” I heard from behind me. I turned around to see Clara behind her book.
“Clara? What’s up?” I asked.
“I need to tell you something!” She said urgently.
“You okay?” I sounded alarmed and looked up at the front of the class where the Professor stood about to start class.
“It’s about you! There’s a rumor about you… Joseph just told me about it.” She said, totally serious.
“What is it?” I questioned, my stomach churned.
“Henry s-“ She started but was cut off by the Professor starting class.
“Alright, turn to page 457 in Literature Studies 101 and get your assignments out!” His shrill voice interrupted as I turned around and faced the front.

Notes