Tip One: Greet your roommate in a friendly manner.
Harry sat on a bed, assuming it was his from the way the other simply held a discarded suitcase, and drew a book from his bag. He grinned sheepishly, reading the cover.
How To Fit In At College
College can be a difficult time for even the social butterflies among us, but with this simple guide you can stumble your way through, and perhaps make a few friends on the way! From parties to roomies, dates to studies, use this book as your guide!
Written by Gemma Styles
He was proud of his sister, of course, for getting her first book offer, but not so much that she had decided to use him as a guinea pig for her guide.He understood though, he was exactly the person this book was for. Awkward, clumsy first years at college who had no clue what to expect. He fit the description perfectly. On the other hand, his sister had completed college, bringing with her not only a whole army of friends, but one dedicated fiance, James, who had helped her to publish her book along with his fathers company.
He skimmed along the introduction, and notes about the author, to the first section. It was simply titled: Getting Settled In. He guessed, that this chapter would be about just that, and turned to the first page of it.
Tip One: Greet Your Roomate In A Friendly Manner.
Make sure to treat your roomie with the utmost respect, but try not to come across as clingy or friendless, even if you are. Act casual and deal with the situation as it comes.
What kind of advice was that? What if Harry's roomate was a nudist? What if Harry's roomate hated people?What if Harry hated his roomate (even though he had never hated someone before) or vice versa? Harry calmed himself. Act casual and deal with the situation as it comes. Being the mature person he was, he giggled a little at the innuendo in the sentence. Harry decided that he might as well unpack.
He placed his clothes in a wardrobe sat next to his bed, setting up his iPod dock on a small desk he had brought along with him, one that folded up under his bed if needed. He snuck a few private items under his bed in a shoebox, along with Gemma's book and his photo album. His camera was proudly placed on the desk, ready for whenever he decided to face society, as he would most likely take it with him. He found it easier to observe through a camera, that way anything that caught his eye would be captured. He felt it was necessary, sometimes, to hide behind the shutters. Which, as it goes, was a good metaphor for his personality. He occasionally opened up, almost immediately shutting back up, but keeping an imprint of the actions within the time span of his trust.
He hung up a few posters on the wall, of what his sister and the few friends he had invited to his room called 'Hipster bands'. Harry always scoffed at that. He wasn't a hipster. And if he was, he was a damn cool hipster. He walked over to the small kitchenette, spotting a few snacks and food items laying around, and putting them away in a more orderly fashion. He had brought cutlery and fruit, as well as less healthy snacks, of course! He was making himself seem all goody-goody and not macho! Harry was macho! Well, everyone but Harry himself disagreed but thats a minor bump in the road.
He moved back into the bedroom-area, lying down on his bed, onto to discover his feet hung over the end of it. He frowned, shifting around to fit onto his bed. Harry didn't realise when he had started growing, causing him to be out of proportion and unable to control his long arms and lanky torso. He was known for being overly clumsy. He had met Ed Sheeran, and was now quite great friends with him, by tripping over and breaking his guitar whilst he (Ed, not Harry) was busking. Harry had shyly complimented his singing, telling him he'd be famous with his 'amazing' standard of singing, and offered to buy a new guitar. Ed had simply waved it off, and it wasn't until later that Harry discovered Ed already was famous, when they were getting coffee and a girl asked for Ed to sign something. Harry had been quite shocked, but they had kept in touch, and Harry was now a great fan of Ed's music, owning most of it, along with various remixes and covers by people he liked.
Ed had been the first Harry had told he was gay, outside of his family, and Ed had welcomed him with open arms, making Harry confident enough to tell his other friends and, eventually, the whole school. He had taken quite a few bad comments, but now he was proud, and accepted wholy. The whole college thing scared him though. What if people weren't as accepting here? Harry was used to overall acceptance, with the few against him being ignored or quitened by teachers, who had taken a liking to Harry. Ed had been there the first time Harry had informed a girl he was gay, when she was flirting with him, and Harry barely heard the end of it. When Harry thought about it, he should connect with Ed again, having not seen him in a while.
As Harry debated calling Ed, two figures burst through the door, kissing, or well, snogging viciously. The bodies crashed slightly into a wall, landing on the opposite bed to Harry, who guessed at least one of these figures was 'Zayn', his roomate. The figures seemed to both be male, which kinda ruled out any fears of Harrys roomate being homophobic. One seemed to have a darker skin, and hair, his fingers tangled in his partners chocolate brown,short, quiffy style. The second had his arms wrapped around the first's waist, grabbing it intimately, and Harry decided he should probably speak up. He coughed quietly, and they pulled apart. The second one looked guilty, blush littered across his cheeks, puppy eyes standing out along with the scruff on his chin. He was undoubtedly attractive, as was the first boy. The first, on the other hand, simply smirked at the second, amber eyes showing a slight lust and longing for the boy that was undoubtedly younger than him, if only by a few months.
''Well..urm..Hi?'' Harry awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. He had never really seen anyone else get intimate, and he seldom did it himself. Much less when a roomate could have seen. Especially since he'd only ever shared a room with Gemma or Ed, who would never shut up about it if he did such a thing.''I'm Harry, I'm guessing one of you is Zayn-And hopefully the other his boyfriend, not a random hookup, because that would be awkward for me and you and everyone and really I wouldn't appreciate constant random hookups, not that you can't do that--You do that, I mean, go get some, just-Not while I'm here, and-Shit, I'm rambling, fuck this is awkward.'' He ran a hand through his hair, keeping his eyes on the rips in the knees of his jeans rather than the couple that were surely looking at him like he was crazy by now.
''I'm Zayn, and this is Liam, my boyfriend.'' The tanned boy introduced himself, or at least Harry discovered when a tan hand was grabbing his, shaking it. He seemed to have a possessive growl at the word 'boyfriend', making Harry wonder if he had perhaps offended either with his small rant. He probably had. First day and he's already ignored a tip in his sisters stupid book. ''Hate to be rude but-uh, wheres Danny?'' Harrys head snapped up at that, eyebrows furrowing. He hadn't heard of any Danny.
''I don't know a Danny, sorry.''He apologised. Zayn looked confused, and Liam looked kind of lost now that Zayn was away from him. Harry thought it was adorable, how Liam seemed to be so doting on Zayn, seemed to adore Zayn completely, and, in a way, that mistified Harry, and he was tempted to take a picture. He started fidgetting, as he did often when he saw things he wanted to document but was unable to. He knew it would be awkward, but his hands still wandered to his camera, playing with the strap, and he looked over, before blurting. ''I don't mean to seem rude, but could I possibly take a picture?'' He questioned, blushing immediately. Zayn looked even more confused at this, and Liam seemed to disregard it as not important to him. Harrys eyes flickered to where Liam looked around helplessly, not knowing what to do. He didn't realise he had taken a picture until he had, and looking over it he grinned. It captured exactly what Harry wanted it to.
''Did you just take a picture of my boyfriend?'' Zayn growled, snatching the camera from Harry, and Harry whined. Why couldn't people ever understand? It was a cute token of how much Liam counted on Zayn, not a perverted image for Harry to wank over. Harry lazily reached up to take it back, before opting to explain.
''It's just-He just looked so unsure and lost when you moved away and its adorable.''Harry grinned sheepishly. ''Its interesting and from a certain angle, could make someone question what he was doing. He could have been waking from a hangover, looking around to see where he was. He could have been finally inside his crushes house, after a hookup, even though he knew his crush was drunk, he was still eager to do whatever he could, but was lost as soon as it was over. A picture has a million possibilities, and reality is often the best one.'' Harry was animatedly talking now, motioning around a bit.
''So you just...took a picture?'' Liam asked slowly. Harry was beginning to see why people questioned him so much. He would be unsure too, if a practical stranger was taking pictures of him, but Harry would probably be flattered, too. Who wouldn't be? Harry saw the world as a masterpiece, full of endless discoveries, and he thought the best way to discover it would be to capture it in ways that sparked curiosity. He believed curiosity created questions, and questions inspired answers.
''Its a hobby of mine. Taking pictures of things that make you question them. A candle lit next to an empty plate, a flower crushed next to a smashed picture frame, things that make you want to know what happened, make you come to conclusions, create your own story to explain it.'' Harry smiled, he enjoyed photography, along with music, greatly, they inspired him more than any other subject, and he was, if anything, overly interested in them. ''Its also great to find something flawed or broken, and to be able to make people see the beauty within the item.''
''Thats actually, pretty inspirational curly.'' Zayn petted his head, handing him back his camera, before going to sit next to Liam, who hugged into Zayns side. Harry quickly shot another picture, seeing it as a follow up to his first, or perhaps he could display them in the opposite order, to insigate more questioning, as to where Zayn had gone, if perhaps that was why Liam was disgruntled in the picture he took first.
''So, who is, or was, Danny?'' Harry questioned. He was not only good at making others question things, sometimes even themselves, but he was also known to be curious and a little nosy. He disliked secrets, and was quite the control freak in having to know a lot about people, when he tried to keep himself closed up. He easily opened up on the subject of his camera and photography, though.
''Danny was my roomate.'' Zayn explained, now fondly petting Liams hair. Harry nodded. ''We thought he'd be here this year, too, but turns out not. Doesn't really matter, he seemed to like my Liam a bit too much.'' Zayn chuckled to himself. ''Not nearly enough to take a picture of him right after being introduced though.'' Harry chuckled too, a little weakly. He didn't want to get on Zayns bad side, and it seemed the easiest route to there was Liam. It was adorable, Harry was a romantic himself, believed in what others would call 'sappy nonsense'. He believed in soul mates, and thought that the very definition sat before him. He grinned to himself at that thought, hoping he'd be friends with the two long enough to get invited to the wedding, and maybe see them adopt kids! Harry knew he was getting carried away, and noticed Zayn looking at him as if expecting a response, but Harry simply continued thinking of small tan children with cute button noses and birthmarks and cheekbones and little adorable crinkles by their eyes like Liam had while Zayn was near him and-Yeah he was definitely getting carried away. He blushed lightly.
''You two are too good together, I can tell within minutes of knowing you.'' Harry complimented. ''Even a heartless beast wouldn't mess that up. And I'm a RomCom man.'' It was true, Harry acted more of a teenage girl than the 20 year old man he was.He loved to gossip about boys, swooning over singers, actors and boybands.He enjoyed applying makeup (And if he ever wore it, no one but Gemma knew better). He even slipped into a dress a few times, and recently dressed up as Miley Cyrus for Halloween.
''Thanks.'' Liam blushed, and Harry nodded slightly towards him. It was obvious, really, to Harry, who the woman in the relationship was. Liam seemed to be embarassed and shy, whereas Zayn was more outgoing in regards to their relationship. Zayn also seemed to be quite dominant over Liam, adding to their chemistry in a way. Harry thought that one day he'd like a relationship like that.
A/N So, this is my new story. I will be going through and editing/deleting my other stories, and I think I write better in third person, so I might be making them all third person, and this one will be at least mostly in third person. I think this is third person, I haven't really studied this or anything recently ;/
I'm sorry I haven't updated anything in a while, I'm just, as I mentioned, going through the stories and seeing which have promise, and I might delete a few, to repost the same story idea in a different setup. Hopefully this will have quite long chapters, and I'll try not to get carried away in banter as I have in other books, unless thats what you want! Really, it all depends on feedback from readers, so if you do read, don't hesitate to comment, but for now I'll keep asking @MustachioedDani.... x
Bye...
Het xx
Note: FANART NOT MINE. ALL CREDIT TO ARTIST :)