How You Get the Boy (h.s)

Chapter Two

"Well you can start taking the tube then."

Blair sighed deeply. She leant her head against the car window and closed her eyes, thinking that if she couldn't see the clock then she couldn't stress about it. Out of sight out of mind.

Blair didn't like being late, not one bit. She was an organised person, always had been. She liked order and plans and things going to that plan, and that included being on time.

"You're dad came by the house yesterday while you were at work by the way," Jamie informed Blair as she drove in to the parking building by their UNI.

"You shouldn't have told me that. I told you not to tell me when he comes by," Blair groaned in reply.

Jamie shrugged. "You never explained to me why I'm not supposed to tell you when you're dad comes to visit."

"Because Jamie," Blair took in a deep breath, "if you tell me then that means I'm obligated to call him and for some reason I feel guilty if I don't call him. If I don't call him he'll call me and ask him why I never called him when I found out he came over. I'm an awful liar so I can't say you never told me. Therefore I'll have to call him or have him yell at me for not calling, so it's better off if you just don't tell me really." Blair finished explaining with a heavy breath. They'd both gotten out the car then and were making their way towards their lecture building.

"Right," Jamie rolled her eyes. "You could just call him so he doesn't yell maybe?" Jamie offered like it was the simplest thing in the world. And it was, well not for Blair because her dad he was, well, he was her dad and he never shut up about anything.

"But then he'll just yell at me for something else. It's better off if i ignore all his calls until I run into him when I go visit mum and the twins."

"What a complicated life you do lead Blair," Jamie shook her head with a small and quiet laugh.

Blair mumbled to herself as they parted ways. "Tell me about it."

---

Blair had arrived to her English lecture ten minutes late. It was more than a little bit embarrassing when she'd stumbled in with her backpack in tow to a lecture theatre full of judging looks and a professor with a scowl. After her English lecture she was free for the rest of the day, which she enjoyed very much. She spent her time until she started her shift at Marvellas wondering around the streets on oxford peering into all the clothing shops she only wished she could afford. But she was a student and she barely had enough money spare once the week was over to buy tampons let alone cashmere jumpers and silk shirts.

Her job at Marvellas was somewhat casual. Sue (the elderly lady that owned the bookshop) was one of her close friends so Blair spent a lot of her free time there. Some of which was unpaid, and she refused to take money from the sinking business. Blair knew Sue didn't need her working there, and maybe if Sue would allow her she'd find a different job. Blair knew she could never love any job she could get now as much as she loved the calm and casual work of Marvella's. It was her escape from her fast running life outside of the four walls of the old bookshop.

Blair walked into work with a vanilla milkshake in her hand, a smile on her face and her reading glasses perched on the top of her nose. A few boxes of pre loved books had been dropped off by a middle aged women and Blair for excited to sort through the treasures.

Books has always been Blair's 'thing'. Everyone had a thing, some peoples was sports, baking or designing clothes, Blair's was book. It had been for as long as she remembered, and any time that books hadn't been her thing wasn't worth remembering to her. She spent countless hours fawning over the worlds created in books, everything about the words on the paper completely enamoured her. The hours she'd spent reading, researched, sorting, thinking and writing would add up to days, weeks, months and years. Blair was that weird girl that actually read during silent reading in school.