Izzy's POV
Freshman and sophomore years of college were a distant memory as I woke up this morning to get ready for my first day of classes. I knew junior year wasn't anything special, having to still complete a few of my general education requirements and all. But, I was finally getting to the fun part, all the more specific courses. I was going at it alone, though, which put a damper on that excitement. I didn't mind not really hanging out with anyone, but sometimes I would find myself wishing I got invited to go out, or at least to a party.
I brushed my teeth as I scrambled to pack up my backpack, having forgotten to last night. I was a last-minute person, but it's worked my whole life so far so I didn't feel the need to change. I had 10 minutes to get out the door and to my first class which was regrettably an 8 am lecture for pre-calculus. I hated math. Even if I understood it I still hated every second of doing it. I rinsed my mouth out quickly in the bathroom right off of my room and slipped my shoes on.
It was times like this that I was grateful for upgrading to a single room with my own bathroom. I would never get to class on time if I had to use the bathrooms that the whole floor shared. I slipped my key card into my back pocket and swung my backpack over one shoulder before hastily running out the door. I was in the same dorm building as last year, just a couple floors up.
I walked into the classroom just in time and sat down right before the professor walked in. She wasn't what I was expecting, but after my first two years I honestly wasn't surprised by anything. High school teachers had nothing on college professors, they were just naturally cooler. She had purple and blue hair and started the lecture off by talking about her cats, with a slide show.
Once she introduced herself, she made us all go around and tell the whole class our names, majors, if we lived on campus or not, and one fun fact about ourselves. This was, personally, the worst part of the semester. The 'ice-breakers' for every class were always the same, and they gave me crippling anxiety every time.
I zoned out most of the kids as we went around the room. I figured I wouldn't remember anyone's names even if I listened anyway. When it got to me I struggled to think of what to say for my fun fact, considering I'm really not that fun.
"I'm Izzy. Um, I'm a bio major and I live on campus. I guess my fun fact is you'll never see me around without headphones in." I nervously said, slightly chuckling at the end as if it'd somehow make my horrible fun fact funnier.
I saw some kid with glasses out of the corner of my eye, even after the next girl started talking he kept his eyes on me. It was uncomfortable, but I ignored it. The rest of the class went by uneventfully, with me noticing the same guy looking at me every so often. I grabbed my things and left to go find my next class the second she dismissed us.
My break came faster than I was expecting, which was a welcome surprise. I grabbed a box a sushi from the dining hall and went to sit by myself at a small table. I've had three classes so far, with two more to go. I decided to jumble all of my courses into three days, so even if I was here until after 4, at least I had Monday and Tuesday off. I was just about to open my sushi when the same kid from pre-calculus just sat right on the other side of my table. I looked up at him, giving him a weird look until he spoke up.
"You're in my pre-calculus class." He told me. Duh?
"And?" I said, a little blunter than I intended, but oh well. He regrouped before he continued, obviously a little thrown by my attitude.
"I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Michael." He said with a small smile. I looked at him for a second, not fully believing that he just wanted to introduce himself. He was honestly cute. He had straight, bleached hair mostly hidden under a beanie and clear framed glasses adorned his face.
"Izzy." I told him, returning a small smile right back.
"You weren't lying, you really do have headphones in most of the time." He chuckled, motioning to the one I had in my left ear, letting the other hang loosely around my right.
"It'd be a weird thing to lie about." I laughed, watching a small smirk spread across his face.
"Do you want to come sit with us?" He asked me, still smirking a little bit. It wasn't a cocky smirk, just a friendly one as if talking to me was something he actually enjoyed.
"Depends, who's us?" I asked unsurely. Michael was fine so far, but other people could be a different story.
"Just my friends. They don't bite I promise." He chuckled, trying his best to convince me. I really didn't have anything to lose, though. I nodded and began picking up the few things I had out.
I followed Michael until he sat down at a larger table with 3 other guys sitting around it. He motioned for me to sit next to him as he introduced them all.
"That's Ash, Calum, and Luke. Guys this is that girl from my first class I was telling you about, Izzy." He said, but I got stuck on the last part. He was talking to them about me already?
"Hi guys." I said shyly, not knowing how I'd be accepted into this little group.
"Hey. Nice to meet you." They said in unison, except for the blonde which I think was Luke.
Ashton had curly brown hair and dimples, which I noticed immediately when he smiled at me. Calum was tan as hell and had dark hair and dark eyes. I looked at Luke when I realized he hadn't said a word, only to find him staring at me. I couldn't read his face, but as I tried to I took the time to analyze him.
Blonde hair that laid flat across his forehead was covered by a hat worn backwards. He had his lip pierced and the most vibrant blue eyes I think I'd ever seen. As beautiful as they were, though, they were burning into me. I looked away, only to find myself looking his torso up and down. The flannel he was wearing had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing his nearly completely tattooed forearms. If he weren't so intimidating I'd be a lot more attracted to him.
"You said you live on campus, Izzy?" I heard Michael call to me, breaking me from the trance I found myself in. I slowly turned to him.
"Yeah, I had a roommate last year but she kept bringing guys back to the room so I opted for a single this time." I laughed, recalling how irritating that bitch was.
"Fuck that." They all laughed with me, except Luke.
"What about you guys." I asked them all at once.
"We all dorm, too. Luke decided to get a single this year and fuck up the system, though." Calum nudged Luke's shoulder, earning a scoff from him.
"I didn't fuck it up, I just wanted my own room." He defended himself with quite a bit of attitude. What was wrong with this kid?
"Which meant I had to get a single so I wouldn't get stuck with some random." Calum fought back. Luke rolled his eyes, smirking slightly.
"I did you a favor, that's how I see it, mate." Luke leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his stomach, bringing his stare back to me. I think he noticed when I shifted uncomfortably, considering his smirk grew into a highly egotistical one.
"You said you're a bio major, right?" Michael asked me again.
"Yeah, bio-med." I smiled to him.
"Luke's in chemistry, maybe you have classes together." He said optimistically. I, on the other hand, was praying that wasn't the case. "Don't you have chem next?"
"Yeah, organic." Luke said simply.
"One or two?" I asked him, hoping I wouldn't get attitude like all the guys have.
"One, with Wester." He answered me with very little enthusiasm, but at least it wasn't rude.
"That's where I'm going next." I tried to give him a small smile, but he just narrowed his eyes at me and stood up, pushing his chair back in the process.
"Where the hell are you going?" Ashton grilled him.
"Shit to do." He mumbled, grabbing his trash and walking away. My eyes trailed him as he threw his trash away. I couldn't pull my stare away, even after his eyes met mine, giving me a nasty look and then continuing out of the dining hall.
"They don't bite, huh?" I said to Michael sarcastically.
"Don't mind him, he's just a prick sometimes." He sighed.
I went the rest of my break talking with the remaining 3 guys. I almost forgot about having to go through a whole semester of having Luke in my chemistry class. We all exchanged numbers before saying our good byes and splitting up.
By the time I got to the lecture hall it was still pretty empty. I took a seat a little further towards the back and set up my notebook and binder. I had my headphones in again, writing some things down in my planner so I wouldn't forget them later. That was until a hand reached across me and pulled one of my headphones out. I turned to see Luke sitting down next to me, putting in the headphone he stole.
"What are you doing?" I said plainly, not really wanting to deal with such a blatant disregard for my privacy.
"Beartooth?" He asked me, sounding more surprised than anything.
"Give it back." He handed it to me and I placed it back in my own ear, ignoring his observation that I was indeed listening to Beartooth.
"No offense, but I wasn't expecting you to actually listen to that shit. You look like more of a wannabe to me." He said, pretty rudely. I was wearing a black short-sleeve crop top with black high-waisted skinny jeans, and a flannel tied around my waist. This was literally just how I dressed.
"You don't think before you speak, do you?" I asked, being just as rude as him. If he wanted to play this game I definitely could, too.
"Oh, come one, now. You can be all buddy-buddy with my friends, but not me?" He asked, making himself sound sincerer than he actually was. When I ignored him, he draped his arm on the back of my seat and rested his head on his hand. "Is it because I'm not as cute as Michael." He pouted.
"Can you fuck off?" I swore at him, still not looking up from my paper.
"Not likely." He smirked. I had had enough, though. I grabbed my things and moved over to the end of the row, about 5 seats away from him.
"You don't really think you're getting off that easy, do you?" He chuckled, placing his bag on the floor in front of him as he moved to the seat next to me again. Right as I was about to make another rude remark, the professor walked in and told us to sign in at the front before he disappeared into the hall again.
I got up with my pen to get in line to sign in, Luke trailing close behind me. The crowd of classmates waiting to sign in as well was surrounding us. I just stood with my arms crossed over my chest, praying that he'd leave me alone before he ruined my day.
"Why'd you slice yourself up, huh?" Luke asked, pointing to my left arm and making my mouth drop. A couple kids turned around to look at me and I immediately felt put on the spot.
"Screw you." I told him before walking back to my seat to wait until the crowd dissipated. Finally, he stayed away at least until he could sign the paper. The second he was about to sit back down I got up and brushed my past him, making my way on the now clear path to the front desk.
The rest of the class couldn't have gone by slower. I was itching to get out of the lecture hall the second the professor started talking. Luckily, we didn't talk about anything important yet, so I zoned out for most of it. Who the hell does he think he is? Calling me out like that in front of so many people? I have scars but most of them were covered by a tattoo I got, which was obviously placed there for a reason. He had to have grilled my arm to really see them. They're so old that they're barely visible at this point.
I was out the door before Luke could even get his backpack on. I had one more class left, but it was my lab for this last chemistry course so I would be in there for almost 3 hours. Before I went in I stopped at the bathroom to take a breather. I just wanted a moment of silence to get the thought of Luke out of my mind.
I walked into the lab and headed straight for the back of the room. There were pipes running over each bench so I couldn't see if anyone was really sitting on the other side as I got further back. I just knew I didn't want to be near anyone. Once I got to the row second to the back, I shot my head back in frustration.
"Not again." I mumbled, turning away from a sitting Luke to go to an empty bench in the last row. I pulled all of my stuff out of my bag before placing it on the window sill. When I turned back, Luke was already taking over the bench right next to me.
"What the hell do you want?" I asked him aggressively. I've never been this rude to someone, but then again no one has ever been this rude to me.
"I'm not bothering you, am I sweetheart?" He asked all innocently. Bullshit.
"Stay out of my way." I stated plainly, putting my goggles on in the process. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me.
The professor walked in and explained the experiment to us before assigning instruments to everyone. I pulled a hot plate off of the shelf and added my reagents to a beaker to put in a hot water bath. I followed the lab directions, trying my best to ignore the nagging blonde haired nuisance sitting next to me. I was writing down some notes in my lab notebook when I saw that it was time to pull the beaker out of the water and put it in the ice bath I had ready. I quickly turned the hot plate off and went back to writing.
"You know, slapping a tattoo over them doesn't make them invisible." Luke whispers to me. At least he had the decency not to shout it like last time. I rolled my eyes and tried to continue with my task. That was until I felt his fingers running over my forearm. That was it.
"Don't touch me!" I raised my voice at him, pushing him away from me. I wasn't expecting him to come back at me when he regained his footing, though. He got right in my face, towering over me and giving me a cold glare. I stepped back when I flinched, and down I went. The chair behind me had me tripped up, so I reached for the bench to catch my fall. I felt my fingers burning and let go, finishing my not so graceful decent onto the floor.
I held my hand to my chest, blinking back tears. The hot plate I had on hadn't cooled off yet, and when I reached for the bench I grabbed onto that instead. I could see my fingers blistering already. The professor ran over and helped me up, but Luke was just standing there speechless, looking at me with guilt in his eyes.
I never thought I'd end up getting my burnt to a crisp hand taken care of by the medical staff my first day of the semester, but here I was. I just wanted the day to be over. My professor said she'd cleanup for me, and then brought me all of my stuff. I walked back to my dorm fuming, the only thing on my mind was how much a hated that bastard.
A/N
Hello to who ever is reading this!! I just wanted to thank you for your time and give some early explanations on how I'm going to be updating. I have up to chapter 60 written as of right now so I plan on uploading new chapters once every day or two. If I start seeing a ton of reads I'll definitely speed that up. I have absolutely nothing to do in quarantine so I have been writing literally everyday. It's shameful, really.
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, though! It's almost 6 am where I live so I'll probably update again when I wake up at 4 pm cuz I'm a crackhead. Once more is uploaded please let me know what you think! I plan on making this 100 parts and because I have no life even a sequel is on my mind. So grab a snack and get cozy cuz this is going to be a long one.