The Way We Learned to Love ✓

18 - lily

"Did I tell you guys about my hot professor?" she asked out of nowhere.

Lily nearly choked on her coffee. "Sorry, what?" She had yet to encounter any professors who were even mildly attractive.

"Hold on, I'll try to stalk his Instagram." Izzy whipped out her phone and found him in less than ten seconds. "Here we go."

Lily's eyes widened when she and Katie leaned over to look at the picture. All of their professors were stuck-up boomers and Izzy got to look at that? How rude.

"That is certainly not a bad-looking man," Katie observed.

"Not gonna lie, it makes it kind of hard to focus in class," Izzy admitted.

Lily sipped her drink. "That's a sacrifice I would be willing to make."

Her focus kept darting back to Henry, so she was only halfway listening as Katie and Izzy went off on a tangent sharing the random bits and pieces of gossip they had picked up on. She didn't know there was so much drama to go around after only one week of school, but apparently they were also getting tea from some of the sophomores - who's dating who, who said what at which party, which professors to avoid, and so forth. Lily started to zone out, their chatter going in one ear and out the other. Some girl named Mikayla Ashford tripped and broke her leg on the first day of class. Everyone had a crush on Izzy's hot professor. Mason Stewart, the captain of the men's soccer team, was newly single. The sophomore class president, Caroline Davis, was seeing someone new after things ended with that shady Liam guy no one had heard a word from since-

Lily was finally snapped out of her wandering thoughts and nearly jumped into the conversation, but she stopped herself.

"Wait, why are we talking about people we don't even know?" she frowned as an unpleasant knot formed in her stomach.

It wasn't that she thought she was above all the petty gossip - she often got sucked into it as easily as anyone else would - but sometimes, like now, it transported her back to almost two years ago when Jacob went and told all his friends everything he knew about her.

"Sorry," Katie said sheepishly.

"Yeah, you're right. We're trash," Izzy conceded. "My sandwich is probably done by now, I'm gonna go check."

She popped back inside Starbucks and reemerged in a matter of seconds with a small brown paper bag in her hand. Lily grabbed her coffee with one hand and the textbook that was sitting on the table in front of her with the other. Starbucks was sadly just a pit stop on their way to the library. They needed to crack down and get some homework done and although Lily loved being outside, it was too distracting and currently way too hot.

A warm breeze rustled the vibrant green leaves in the trees, the sound almost reminiscent of rainfall, as the girls started off down the sidewalk towards the library. Lily nearly jumped when she heard the grass crunch and Henry was suddenly there, bounding a few steps ahead of them and attempting to walk backwards so that he could face her while they talked.

"Jesus Christ," she muttered.

A goofy grin plastered itself on his face. "Just me." He must have noticed that something was off with her because the corners of his mouth turned down into the slightest frown. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing's up with me."

There was a tiny slurping sound as Katie took another sip of her drink. "She's jealous that girls actually like you now," she corrected flatly.

Lily's jaw fell. Such betrayal! She forced her mouth shut as Henry raised his eyebrows at her. Ugh, he was definitely going to get a kick out of this.