Temptation | HS AU

Chapter 2

They had been at the party for an hour and Nora had yet to see Harry. She didn't know if he was hiding or something, but no matter which room she went into or how hard she looked, she still couldn't manage to spot him in the crowd. The party was bigger than last weekend as everyone was now on campus, and Maddy and Nora kept running into people they knew, so now they've developed a little crew to hang out with. Their friends Taylor and Lauren arrived shortly after Maddy and Nora did, and they brought with them a girl who was in the same sorority as Lauren and was dating a DSig. As a result, they all end up trashed and dancing without much time passing.

    Nora threw her arms around Maddy and screamed the lyrics to a Post Malone song, and Nora felt utterly, blissfully happy. She had forgotten about this side of frat parties while she was gone—how happy she was when she was dancing and there was alcohol coursing through her veins. Some girl must have gotten hold of the music, because the song changed to an old Taylor Swift song and the girls lost it, jumping up and down in the crowd and screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs.

    "I need a drink!" Nora said when the song was over, her throat hoarse and her hair sticking to the back of her neck. The song switches, and the Maddy screamed—it was her favorite song and she had to be on the dance floor for it. Nora could see the torn look in her best friend's eyes, and she shook her head. "I'm good—I'll be back in a second."

    She pushed through the crowd, apologizing as she dug her elbows into people to make a path to the kitchen. She grabbed a beer, needing something cold and not too strong, and leaned against the countertop, letting the cooler air wash over her skin.

    "Hello."

    The words tingled down her spine, and she turned her head to see Harry standing in the door jamb. The kitchen had mostly cleared out, so it was just the two of them and a set of girls who looked like freshman trying to decide which mixer was less disgusting with their bad vodka. "Hi, H."

    "Having fun?" He was wearing a black t-shirt and it was tight in all the right places and Nora had to force herself to not consider what it would be like to take it off of him.

    She nodded. "Couldn't find you, though." The words tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them and Nora wanted to shrink into the counter. She sounded desperate and psychotic—she had barely known this boy and now she was complaining about now being able to find him?

    But Harry just smiled. "I was upstairs," he explained. "Was trying to finish a bit of work before I started drinking."

    If he was doing work here, Nora assumed he lived in the house. "You live here?"

    "Unfortunately." He moved towards her, grabbing a beer from the fridge next to her, and Nora caught a flash of light blue on his fingers. Harry painted his nails, she realized.

    This fraternity boy painted his goddamned nails light blue.

    Who was this boy?

    What planet was he from?

    And more importantly, where had he been all of her life?

    "I like your nails," she said. "What color is that?"

    He glanced down at them. "Dunno. Stole it from my sister over winter break. I can check and text it to you later, though."

    "I'd like that." Nora took another sip of her beer, the cold drink feeling good in her body. "Where are all your friends?"

    Harry shrugged. Nora got the sense that he didn't really care about all the fraternity stuff and she liked that. Frat boys had always annoyed with their "bro energy" as Maddy called it and she'd met some real assholes during her time in college. Harry seemed like an outlier though. "You want to dance?" He asked her, breaking her out of her trance.