I was playin' everything, but cool.
"Dude, you have to come tonight." Mason breathes into my ear, whilst slopping his meaty arm around my shoulder. He's sweaty from football practice, well, so am I, but he's essentially been in a sauna, whilst I daintily form sweat beads. Man, I sound like a bitch.
"I need to study for that bloody final in Whitfield's class. I am barely passing and if I want to make it to Cambridge, I need to focus." His face falls, almost like I killed his damn puppy. "I'm sorry, mate, but if we are going to be the best friends forever and ever like you want..." he laughed slightly and shrugs off my 'no'.
"Whatever, H. I understand, but if I need you, can you be on standby? I may have a pint or five."
"Or five? It's usually or two?" He laughs and goes on about some stupid new trick he's trying on the field, it'll apparently get him bragging rights with Cambridge's coach. I try to pay attention, but something, more like someone, catches my attention just across the corridor. Her hair sways innocently across her perfectly smooth face, she swats it away, the spring heat finally kicking in, her hair sticks to her slightly sweaty forehead, along with her glossy lips, I can only presume she layers with balm or gloss.
"Are you even listening to me?" Mason whines, looking over to her as well. "You're ignoring me for Hampstead?" I inquire slightly, looking to him with confusion in my eyes, hoping he will continue. "She's a third year and she's basically a square, mate."
"Her name is?" He rolls his eyes.
"Y/N, but everyone calls her Hampstead because her dad is from there and he's like super famous for inventing a computer program or something." He rolls his eyes yet again and continues on, "she's nice and chill, but she's not into fucking around and she's really devoted to school."
"Cool to know." I stare as long as I can, she laughs with her friend, whom I recognize but can't put a name to.
Mason seems to know and yells her name which I now know is Beatrice. She walks over and Hampstead follows suit. Bloody hell. I will murder him later. I will do it and no one will ever know it was me. Gemma watches those crime shows and I can hide a body and make it look like he went on a vacation.
My murderous thoughts having put on hold, she stops in front of me whilst her friend inquisitively asks Mason what the hell he yelled for her for. Her eyes are even glassier up close, almost like looking into a freshly cleaned mirror. She's gorgeous. Her hair is wavier than I could tell moments before, I'm guessing from the humidity and her constant flipping of it. She's short too. I have to cram my neck to really look at her.
"Right H?" Mason slaps the back of my neck. I didn't hear a word the kid said. I ask him nicely to repeat. "Just telling the lovely ladies that we are going to study tonight instead of that party, they want to tag along." His shit eating grin is enough to bring my Dahmer thoughts back, but I withhold them when her little voice rings.
"I really need some help with maths, so if you two can do that, I'm all in." Her voice is like silk and her eyes crinkle when I mention that I have always gotten A* in all my maths. "Cool, so we will see you guys at 6, long hill library?"
Mason says an aggreance, whilst I stick a thumb up, but not before saying, "not if we see you first!" She laughs and turns away and I see them whispering to one another before her head arches back in a cackle. The sound is music, but it's about me and I know it; it hurts a little, but I quickly recover.
"Smooth, Styles. Real smooth." He laughs. I trip him with my trainer covered feet. "Let's go, you gotta shower for your hot date."
•
We arrive slightly earlier than we are meant to. I kick myself for not asking for their numbers, so I could prepare if they decided to ditch. "Mate, you're making me nervous. Quit pacing." I look down to his seated form, realizing I am walking back and forth and twiddling my thumbs aggressively. I look like a maniac.
"Sorry." I sit next to him. We organized a private study room, luckily Mason knew the library assistant, she's in his theology course and she took a liking to him. A little empty promise of a lunch date after class and we were in. "I'm just anxious, I guess."
He nods and begins, "you don't even know the girl and you're already smitten." I attempt to correct him, "shut up. You are pacing like a freak. You practically turned into a toddler when she came up and you're going to freak out when you realize she's walking over." I whip around to see an empty library sans the regulars that were here when we arrived.
"Ha-ha very funny, you prick."
"But you aren't smitten?" He smirks evilly.
"Okay, maybe I am. She's just gorgeous, man. And she seems genuine." He nods along. "I don't know. I guess I'm ready to get into a serious situation, every girl I've been with is so ordinary and doesn't last. I'm bloody 23 for goodness sake. I need to find someone so I can attempt to settle down."
And before I could finish that sentence, I heard her laugh, for real, I turned around just as quickly as before and made direct eye contact with her as she waltzed toward our room. "Fancy, boys, I have tried so many times to get a study room and she always rolls her eyes and tells me to fuck off." We all laugh and get ready, she mumbled something about Beatrice needing extra time to get ready, something about wanting to impress a guy who always worked here on Monday's. "She's very particular, so this guy must be something special." Her laugh is contagious. I don't even know the situation and I'm laughing. Mason mocks me in the corner, I wish I could throw my shoe at him, but they're tied and she may think I'm mental. So, I settle for a middle finger and a mouthed, 'I'll get you later, bitch.'
"Harry!" She scolds me, giggling all the while. "Treat people with kindness, bubba." She laughs even harder now, Mason following suit and I just admire her from my chair. Amazed at such a sweet girl, a heart of gold and someone I couldn't imagine not having in my life.
•
"Harry, stop moving!" Hampstead scolds. Her craft scissors scaling the ends of my hair. I was in desperate need of a trim, but I didn't have a barber in Heath. "Your hair will look like shit if you don't sit still." I was having trouble remaining calm, my ass ached from sitting on the tiled floor of her childhood kitchen for so long. She was meticulous in her craft, she didn't want me to look manic for my first meeting with her grandparents. Her parents loved me, weirdly enough, especially her dad. We got on so well.
"Baby, my ass hurts." She giggled. She stopped her motions for a moment and I laid on my stomach a few feet away, giving my backside some breathing room. I felt her little body sitting on top of my back moments later, the comb and scissors doing their movements again, but now my ass wasn't on fire. "Thank you."
"Are you excited?" She asked.
"I'm nervous actually." She rubbed my shoulders slightly, placing the comb and scissors down beside her, seemingly done with my mane.
"Why?" She laid down beside me, her arms supporting her head as she looked at me, I stared at her for a second.
"What if they don't like me?" Her eyes searched mine and they read solace, something I had longed for my entire life. We started dating just weeks after that study session. Beatrice needed a lift home and Mason left me there to 'bond'. We kissed that night and she didn't speak to me for days after. I took it as I moved too fast or worse, she hated me. She later told me she was terrified of her feelings for me, how they had grown so quickly. She immediately called her mum and sister to spill about our affair. They told her to take the leap. And here we are. Two years later. I'm graduated and studying at Cambridge, she's applying in the fall. We are happier than ever and still, I am terrified of losing her. And what better way to do that than to disappoint the grandparents.
"They'll love you, bubba." She smiled. Running her fingers through my freshly cut hair. I closed my eyes at the feeling. She truly calms me. "You're my favorite person in this world. And soon, you'll be there's too." She rose up and kissed my towel covered shoulder. "Let's go get your hair styled."
•
"How did we end up here?" I laughed to Mason. He shrugged. "This is insane." I looked out to my yard, where my girls ran through the sprinkler I just installed. "I'm married with a kid."
"You're married with a kid." He repeated. Laughing along with me. He raised his beer and gently waited for me to reciprocate. "To stupid uni decisions." I clinked my beer to his. "Who would've thought a useless study session at college would lead to this?"
"I definitely never thought it would, but hey, even stranger things have happened." I nodded over to his wife, the one and only Beatrice whom was giggling at my family whilst planting roses Hampstead had always wanted, her swollen belly just barely small enough to allow her to do yard work. "I can't believe this is our life."
"Believe it man, we have to believe it or it'll disappear." Before I could comment on his morbid thoughts, my little girl can bombarding my lap, her mum following suit, each girl on each knee, both looking at me in adoration. I kissed my wife, and planted a similar one atop my daughter head. I couldn't think to tell them anything, all I did was thank God in that moment, for once I felt at peace and it was all because of a study session in a library.