I was drowning in words. I was choking on the words on the pages in front of me; they clogged my ears and nose and mouth. That was the only accurate description I could muster for what I was suffering. I'd learned in my very first basic drawing class that the first half of the term would be Art History. I'd religiously studied tons of artists since I learned to read, but I felt like I could barely breathe with all of the information I'd crammed into my brain in the last couple of hours. I had two weeks until mid-terms and over a hundred artists to memorize.
I sat at a desk in the library, smelling of highlighter ink and crisps. I probably looked a mess, with my hair barely washed and little effort put into even looking decent this morning. I really couldn't be bothered, not with midterms approaching so quickly.
Violet and Niall both had class this afternoon while I had two this morning. I had all of tomorrow through Monday off because my Music teacher cancelled our class for personal reasons, so I had made plans to go home over the weekend. But, of course with my luck, my sculpting teacher assigned a big project due next week and there was no way, physically or mentally, that I could manage completing a project and visiting my home. The disappointment of not seeing my family was weighing on me along with everything else. All I wanted was to go home for the weekend and not have to worry about assignments or anyone in London. I wanted to see my family and lie on the beach.
It'd been three days since I'd seen Harry, making it Thursday. I'd thought about him in my very scarce free time, despite the constant accusations about him I heard from Violet.
"Jenson?" a familiar voice spoke from above me, pulling me out of my bitter thoughts of not being able to go home.
"Hi, Louis." I said, giving him my best attempt at a smile. He grinned down at me, obviously buying it.
"Study day?" he asked, his eyes roaming over my books.
"Something like that." I chuckled. "You?"
He shook his head. "No, libraries are far too quiet for me. Harry's just holed himself upstairs somewhere." I felt myself slightly perk at the mention of Harry. I hoped Louis didn't notice. "I've gotta go find him. Apparently Harry hasn't eaten all day and Niall, being the gentleman he is, begged me to bring him something to eat before my seminar which is in about... five minutes." Louis cursed. "You wouldn't have happened to see him, would you?" he asked, looking around the big room for a second.
"Actually, I did. I think he's on the second floor. I could take it to him for you if you'd like. Wouldn't want you to be late." I said, lies slipping from my mouth easily. His eyes widened, and he nodded. I couldn't deny that I wanted to see Harry, or that I was developing a miniscule crush on him, regardless of how many times I convinced myself that our time together meant nothing.
"You sure?" he said with raised eyebrows.
I nodded.
"Thank you!" Louis grinned widely. "I owe you one." He handed me a bag of fast food, rushing a goodbye and another thank you before scurrying away.
With a sigh, I shoveled my books into my bag and threw it over my shoulder. I picked up the take-away and started to wonder throughout the massive library in order to find Harry.
After nearly twenty minutes of aimless wandering, I found Harry on the third floor. He was legitimately surrounded by books. He was hunched over a laptop with the eraser of his pencil between his teeth. I approached him, pulling out the seat across from him at the wooden table. "Now this is something I never thought I would see?"
He looked up at me and frowned.
"Jenson? I know you said you weren't stalking me before, but now you've followed me to a library."
"Oh, piss off. I intercepted your food, play nice or I'll keep it for myself." I replied.
"I'm reading every detail about a rather boring murder case from nineteen ninety-nine, I deserve whatever Niall made Louis bring me."
I grinned at him, handing over his food. He pulled a burger out, barely getting it out of the wrapper before taking a bite from it.
"It's cold," he muttered.
"I could have eaten it on the way here, don't be ungrateful," I joked while he scarfed down the burger in less than 30 seconds. "Do you do this often?" I asked.
"Eat? Yes, I try to stay alive and I think eating is a smart way of doing so," Harry said. He was being more sarcastic and snappy than usual.
"I meant holing yourself up in a library and not eating, and then making your best friend worry about you and send people to make sure you're eating." I sighed, readjusting the glasses on my nose.
Harry ignored my question, closing his textbook and pulling the lid down on his lap top.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I said quickly.
"You look upset."
"No I don't," I snapped.
"Yes you do. You're not perky and happy or doing your normal Jenson things." He said, tilting his head to the side and examining me. "You haven't even told me how pretty it is outside and how I'm wasting a beautiful day."
"I think it's raining. Except, we'd never know because this damn library has like two windows." I rolled my eyes.
"See, regular Jenson would've been happy about the rain. She would've spilled a bit of bullshit about how rain is beautiful, too. Plus, you clearly look like someone ran over your puppy. What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"My sculpting teacher gave me a project--"
"Oh, how dare your teacher give you an assignment!" he interjected with sarcasm.
"--and I planned on going home for the weekend. My youngest brother has this little fall play with his class planned for Saturday night and I thought I would be able to surprise him, but now I have to stay and finish the project." I sighed. "And I know it's dumb to be so upset about things you can't change, but he's not adjusting to me being gone very well and he leaves me these pitiful voicemails whenever I'm busy and can't answer the phone. I just wanted to be able to see my brothers and my parents and be free of uni for a weekend."
It was silent for a moment and I realized I'd gone on a little rant. I became a bit flustered and felt the need to curl up in a ball and cry. Harry was staring at me quite intently, mulling over my spill.
"So, what are you doing here then? Go." Harry said.
"I have to do my project." I groaned. Someone shushed me, but I didn't even glance their way.
"Okay.." Harry said. "then I'll help you."
"You can't, you're-"
"What's the project on?" he asked, pulling up some books and pushing them into his back pack.
"I can't ask you to do that, you've got your own things to do." I shook my head, standing up with my bag hanging from my shoulder.
"You're not asking, I'm volunteering." Harry stated. I frowned at his stubbornness.
"Are you sure?" I asked, biting onto my lip.
"Positive," he said, already heading for the door.
As we walked back to my dorm to get the things I'd need for my project, I filled him in on the guidelines. "She said it has to be made out of household items, like the things you'd find in junk drawers. And basically it must stand for something meaningful in your life." I sighed. I really was dreading this project, I was never very good at sculptures, especially ones with requirements like this.
"How are you supposed to create something meaningful with crap laying around your home?" Harry scoffed.
I laughed. "Well, I think the point is just that. Anything can have meaning, whether you realize it or not, everything has a purpose." My cheeks grew red at the look Harry was giving me. "At least, that's how I took it. Maybe that's a little dumb."
"No, it's not dumb. Just I never would have thought about it like that." he said thoughtfully. "So what are your ideas? What's meaningful in your life?"
I looked at my hands. "I haven't given much thought to it yet. There are so many possibilities. My little brothers, books, the beach, my art... I don't know."
Harry nodded, biting onto his lip in thought. I couldn't help but notice how attractive he looked when he did that.
"Well, what if we found every piece of blue junk in both of our flats to make the water of the beach and figured out something for the sand." He suggested.
"And we could put it all on a big piece of foam board, then use things to make little animals." I said, ideas already forming in my head.
"We could go get things from your dorm and then work on it at my flat. We have the pool table." Harry said, already turning towards the girls dorms.
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"No, no, not there, over there." I said, pointing directly where I wanted Harry to put the scented blue marker we found in a drawer in Harry's kitchen.
He nodded, only seeming to be a tad irritated with my bossiness. I was a perfectionist when it came to my art. Harry and I had already mad the sand with a cut up tan dish rag and some left over sand paper we found from a shop class Niall took last year. I had sea shells from a decorative bowl I brought from home scattered across the water line and in the sand. Our water was being made out of a blue glass that Harry shattered and a couple of random items. Harry just wanted to smash another glass, but I told him it wouldn't be necessary because the sea was full of diverse things.
The best part, though, was that Harry had flexible wire in one of his drawers, so I was able to turn it into a fish with a little bit of paint, of course. We had it standing up so that it looked like it was jumping out of the water and pipe cleaners were strategically placed around it to look like a splash. Harry looked very proud of our little sculpture and I was feeling pretty great about it too.
I glanced from Harry's very concentrated face, as he hot glued the last marker, to my bandaged hand. I'd cut it open while grabbing a shard of glass, and while I panicked, Harry removed the glass from my hand and washed and bandaged it up. He only made a couple jokes about my unfortunate luck of always getting hurt.
"And.." Harry said, standing up and setting the glue gun down. He took a step back to stand where I was and examined it with me. "We're done."
"It's brilliant!" I squealed, turning and throwing my arms around his neck. I felt an odd, dazed sense of déjà vu as he slowly recuperated the hug. My whole body buzzed. "Thank you so much, Harry."
We pulled apart, both turning to look back at our masterpiece. We did it in three hours, it would've taken me six, maybe longer. I was so grateful that he'd helped me.
I looked at the time on my phone and it read 4:20. My train left at 5:10.
"I better get going, my train leaves in 50 minutes." I said, going to one side of the board and gesturing to Harry to go to the other to pick it up. "And I've got to go back to my dorm and pack."
Harry nodded and grabbed his side. we successfully got it out of the flat and into the flat trunk of Harry's car.
"How're you getting to the station?" Harry asked me as we pulled out of his parking spot.
"I planned on calling a cab." I shrugged.
"Don't waste your money, I'll drive you." he scoffed.
"You've done so much for me today, you do not have to drive me to the train station." I said, shaking my head. "Plus, I'd be wasting your time and gas money."
"Don't worry about my gas money. I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to." He said looking away from the road and locking his green eyes with mine.
I bit onto my lip and nodded slowly, causing a dimpled grin to spread across his face.
"Good, it's settled then."
After I ran up to my room to grab all of my things, I came back to Harry leaned back in his seat with closed eyes, playing music. I tapped on the window and he jolted up.
"You all set?" he said a little groggily.
"Let's go!"
When we got to the train station Harry pulled into a parking spot instead of dropping me off at the front, causing a confused frown to fall upon my features.
"I'm going to make sure you get to your train okay." he shrugged like it was no big deal. "Violet would ring my neck if she found out I didn't."
I did my best not to think about Violet and her opinion of Harry and I.
I bought my ticket, and Harry walked all the way to the train with me, his hands stuffed into his pockets. I only had one bag, so he really wasn't necessary.
"Well, that's my train." I said, pointing. He nodded.
"I see."
"Thanks for everything you did for me today. I owe you big time." I said.
"I'd do it again." Harry said. The ends of his mouth quirked up.
I grinned and hugged him. While he hugged back, I tried to memorize his smell so that I wouldn't forget how amazing it was over the weekend. Was that weird?
I pulled away, and took a step back.
"See you when I get back?" I asked, a small smile playing on my face.
"Yeah." Harry nodded. I nodded back and turned away, towards my train.
I walked towards the train and stepped on, then stopped. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking, but I turned on my heel and walked right back to where Harry was still standing, waiting for me to get settled before he left. I actually didn't know he had this much consideration in him.
He frowned as I jogged towards him, my bag still slung over my shoulder. I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips firmly to his. He responded immediately, catching my waist and pulling me close. My whole being was in an adrenaline rush and I felt as though every single molecule in my body was buzzing.
Our lips moved together and I nearly deepened the kiss before I remembered we were in a public place. I slowly pulled away, slightly out of breath. I was on my tippy toes and Harry leaned down so our foreheads were pressed together.
"Call me if you have time while I'm gone?" I breathed.
Harry nodded.
"All right, I can't miss my train." I said, my eyes glancing down to his lips.
"Wouldn't want that." he agreed, eyeing mine. He pressed his lips to mine again in a chaste kiss, and we let go of each other. His warm body and lips were detached from me as I stepped back, grinning.
I gave him a small wave and he nodded back. I sat down on the train, and put my ear buds in with a small grin on my face.
The train ride home was too long for me, so after I'd played games on my Mac I ended up sketching.
Finally, after what seemed like centuries, I was home. I caught a cab to my parents' house on the water, the homesick symptoms I'd been experiencing were finally being treated.
We pulled up to the house , and I thanked the driver and paid him. I jogged up the pathway and up the wooden stairs to the front door. It was only ten at night, so I knew that most of them would be awake. I used my key to unlock the door and pushed it open.
"Hello?" I called through the house.
"Jenson?" my dad called back.
"I'm home!" I yelled.
The sound of my dad's footsteps sounded from our kitchen and he appeared in front of me in a gray t-shirt and pajama pants. His face lit up as he pulled me into a huge hug.
The sound of footsteps on our completely wooden house could be heard as my mom and Collin stampeded through the house.
"JENSON!" Collin yelled as he wrapped his arms around me. I squeezed him a hard as I could until he passed me to my mother who was on the verge of tears and then back to my dad who (like the emotional man he was) also had watery eyes.
"What are you doing home? I thought you weren't going to be home until November." Collin asked.
"I got a long weekend and I couldn't pass up the opportunity." I shrugged, a grin still plastered across my face. It'd probably stay there until I left on Monday afternoon. "Plus, I wanted to surprise George for his play. Where is he, by the way?" I looked over my mom's shoulder to the living room but I saw no George anywhere.
"He fell asleep watching cartoons." My mum said. "Collin just carried him up to his bed."
"I figured he would be asleep, I'll just see him tomorrow." I told her, cutting my eyes over to my brother. He knew what I was saying, just by the look I gave him.
"Well, we should probably all get to bed. I expect a very detailed conversation about your uni life at breakfast tomorrow." My dad said.
"I already gave you like three detailed conversations over the phone!" I laughed.
"It's different in person, Jen." he said, giving me a playful eye roll. He and my mum chorused goodnight's and so glad you're home's before walking towards their bedroom.
I gave Collin a knowing look and turned towards my side of the house. I bounded up the stairs to my bedroom. After flinging my door open and throwing my bag onto the floor I lunged onto my fluffy, white bed.
Not a minute after I was settled underneath my sheets, my door was flung open. Collin stood and ushered George into my room. He was pulling his blanket after him and rubbing his knuckles over his eye to clear them.
"Jenson?" he said quietly, tilting his head to see if it was real. "JENSON!" he screeched, running and jumping into my bed and latching onto me. Collin followed suit and crawled in on my other side. I got George settled and he fell right back asleep, and then I could hear Collin's soft snores from my other side. I couldn't get the smile of my face or that overwhelmingly happy feeling I got from being back home.
What surprised me that night was that I didn't have dreams of my family, but of a boy with curly brown hair and a grin.
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hi, we hope you enjoyed this chapter & we'll try to have the next one up soon!
(also I'd like to give total credit to Annabel for this chapter. I've been really busy with school and she was so understanding and wrote so well. <3 -Skylar)
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