Chapter 1-Grr! Mondays!

Brielle Fisher woke up in a panic. She had missed her alarm after a long night of fighting with her ex-boyfriend. She took a deep breath as she washed away the mascara from her cheeks. After brushing her teeth and taking a quick shower, she got dressed and headed to her second class that she was already running late for. As she dead bolted the door to her apartment, she dropped her backpack.

“Fuck,” she screamed realizing that her backpack wasn’t zipped in the rush. She gathered her things quickly and took off running down the street to the metro station to get the train to the campus of the University of London. Luckily her laptop was in a case in the second compartment of the backpack, so it hadn’t broken. “Well at least something is going right today,” she mumbled to herself. As she put her earbuds in, she almost fell back asleep when her stop was announced.

Stepping off the platform, she bumped into someone and mumbled a low, “Sorry.” Before heading down the steps to the street below. Running once again, she ran into the building as the rain started.

“Fucking seriously,” she asked herself as she stumbled through the door of her English class. Everyone turned to look.

“Miss Fisher, nice of you to join us,” the professor commented as he went back to lecturing the class about the hyperbole found in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Brielle took the only seat that was available in the classroom which was next to the familiar face she saw everyday both in class and at the coffee shop she worked in. He didn’t look up from his notebook as he scribbled down the notes from the PowerPoint the professor was going over. Brielle pulled out her laptop, as she pressed the power button, the orange light blinked indicating the battery was dead. Trying not to scream, she realized that her charger was still at her apartment on her desk. Quickly grabbing her book and her notebook, she searched her backpack for a pen. After coming up emptyhanded, she sighed turning to the boy next to her.

Caught in a trance, she studied his face. He bit his lip as he crossed a T on the page and crinkled his nose before going onto the next word he was writing. She couldn’t remember his name even though she knew she wrote it on his coffee cup every day.

“Excuse me,” she whispered to the boy next to her with the thick glasses and the slicked back hair. He glanced at her for a brief second then turned to make sure the professor wasn’t looking.

“Hi,” he said in a deep voice that she wasn’t expecting.

“Um…do you have a pen that I can borrow?”

“Uh…yeah, here you go,” he replied handing her the one in his hand before reaching down to his satchel and pulled another one out quickly.

“Thank you so much,” she replied as she immediate scribbled down what she could that she had missed. “I’m Brielle, by the way.”

The nerdy boy next to her smiled, “Har-Harry.”

Brielle barely paid attention to what her professor was saying as she studied the boy next to her out of the corner of her eye. He was so precise in all his movements and he asked questions to make sure he had everything correct that the professor was saying. She had seen him spend hours studying at the café she worked in, but she didn’t know anything about him other than he was always by himself. His cellphone rang occasionally and he always had his face buried in a book or the screen of his laptop as he typed papers. He often had a red pen in his hand, and if she had to guess, he edited papers he had written for classes.

The professor wrapped up his lecture and Brielle began packing her things. “Thank you for letting me use your pen.”

“Give it back to me on Wednesday,” he whispered as he smiled briefly and made a beeline for the door. Brielle went to her professor’s desk and explained the reason for her tardiness. He smiled at her and thanked her for being honest. He was one of the most understanding professors she had and after working for him her first semester as a work study, she knew he understood perfectly having two teenage daughters who both had boyfriends.

“I’ll email you a copy of the power point. It is also on BlackBoard,” he told her as she smiled and walked towards the door.

“Thank you, Dr. Samson.”

“Anytime, Miss Fisher.”

She walked towards the café she worked in to get a quick breakfast before her next class that started in half an hour. Luckily the café was owned by her roommate and best friend, Autumn’s dad.

“You look like shit,” Jessica, her coworker told her as she ordered a sandwich and a latte.

“Yeah, it’s been a long two days. Last night sucked, today isn’t any better.”

“Zayn,” she asked as she handed the cup to Brielle.

“You’d be correct. He came to my apartment last night drunk begging me to take him back. I called Liam to come get him and he went on and on about how I was a shitty girlfriend, that is why he cheated one me.”

“That fucking asshole, I will kill him.”

“I’m tired of crying over him.”

“Drinks this weekend,” Jessica asked.

“I freaking wish,” Brielle replied. “I have a paper due that I haven’t even started and I have no idea what the hell to do for my accounting homework. I’m actually heading to the administration building tomorrow to get a tutor.”

“Maybe next weekend then?”

“That should work.”

Brielle sat down and pulled out her book to read the two chapters she had to read. “Hey Brielle, can you work tonight,” Jessica asked. “Christy called in sick?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” she smiled before burying her face back into her book.

The alarm on her phone went off signaling her break was over and she headed back towards campus. She smiled as she saw Harry on his phone chatting animatedly to whoever was on the other end. Her view of him was blocked by a black t-shirt. She knew that tattooed arm belonged to the reason she had cried herself to sleep the night before.

“Move out of my way, Zayn,” she said not even looking at the man.

“Brielle, I’m sorry.”

With a sarcastic laugh, Brielle rolled her eyes. “Whatever, you’re always sorry. I’m tired of fucking hearing it. Leave me alone and get out of my way, I have to get to class.”

“Can we have dinner and talk?

“What part of leave me alone do you not understand? Why the hell do you think I changed my number? Please get out of my life.”

She shoved past him and made her way into the building. As the day ended, she headed home and got ready for work. When she arrived home after her shift, she finished her homework and took a shower before falling asleep. The next day flew by quickly despite how her week started and it was now Wednesday, her classes didn’t begin until noon and she had time in the morning to stop for breakfast. Heading to the café where she worked, she ordered a coffee for herself and for the boy who saved her day yesterday when she had asked for a pen.

Brielle checked her watch as she entered the classroom. Harry was sitting in his seat despite it being half an hour before the class even started. He quickly looked up from his spot as the door closed behind her with a bang.

“Hey,” she smiled walking over to him. “Please don’t think I’m a weirdo or some kind of stalker, but you always come into the café where I work to study and always get the same thing, so I stopped on my way here and got this for you. Take it as a thank you for saving my ass on Monday.”

Harry blushed and Brielle smiled as he put his head down before looking at her. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“To me it was, here you go.”

“Thank you,” he smiled taking the cup from her hands.

Brielle reached in her backpack and sat the pen down in front of him. “I stopped and got a whole pack yesterday.”

Harry laughed as more people began filling in the classroom. Brielle couldn’t help but stare at him and wonder what it was that drew her to him. She didn’t know, but she was determined to find out.

Notes

New story, please let me know what you think.