A Different Telling

I dont want you to leave will you hold my hand

The leaves are starting to pile up. Harriet loves it when autumn gets into full swing and she can kick and shuffle them everywhere. Red, yellow, orange, and every shade in-between. She looks up and sees the leaves fall against the architecture of the social sciences building behind her as she leaves her sociology lecture.

"Harriet!" The dirty blonde boy she sits next to in class runs down the stairs to catch up to her.

She turns to face him and smiles. "Hi Tyler."

"Hey, I missed lecture last week. Do you mind passing on what he discussed?"

Harriet steps over to the bench near them to drop her bag. "No problem. You okay?"

He grins. "Yes, great, thank you. Just felt a little run down that day. Thanks so much for these," he says as she hands him the papers. "I'll just snap a picture of them real quickly."

Harriet nods and takes a seat, zipping her brown suede jacket up as the wind gets stronger.

Tyler passes the notes back to her. "Thank you again, Harriet." He leans into her kindly against the wrought-iron armrest of the bench, setting his arm around her shoulder "How do you like the course so far?"

Harriet leans back a little, out of Tyler's arm. She has a feeling about where this is going. "It's good. Wish the professor was a bit more active in discussion, but I enjoy the topic. Do you?"

"Yes, I suppose I agree. I'm studying sociology, so it's quite good that I do."

Harriet smiles.

He smiles as he pats her arm. "D'you want to grab coffee sometime? Maybe after next lecture?"

Harriet smiles again, but it's more forced this time. She clasps her hands together and brings her knees in. "I'd love to see you outside of class, Tyler. But, uh, just coffee, right?"

"As friends, then?" He keeps up his cheery attitude but his face seems a little crestfallen, yet determined.

Harriet feels bad, she does. But she also doesn't feel apologetic. "It's not you, it's me. Promise." She reaches out and grips his shoulder kindly. "Friends, for sure. And actually, uh, I think I'm usually busy Monday evenings. Tomorrow afternoon, though, are you free at four? The shop on-campus."

"Yes, that's good. See you at four."

She gets up and heads toward the library to wait for her next class, forty minutes from now. Not a minute into her walk, though, she feels someone grab onto the back of her rucksack and bring her to a halt. She whips around, half expecting either Jess or a rapist to attack.

"Whaddaya want?" She exclaims, not seeing who it is at first. And then - Oh. It's Louise, panting and looking rather sheepish.

"Sorry, Harriet, just wanted to catch up to you." She brings her hands to her knees, pretending to be winded.

Harriet rolls her eyes mockingly. "You're not winded, you're a footballer." She pauses, then continues, as Louise looks up at her expectantly, "But what do you want, really?"

Louise stands up straight. "Can we walk?" She gestures her head straight ahead and past the library.

Harriet is incredibly confused. Louise is teasing her in the toilet, teasing her during karaoke, shifty with her on the football field, flirting with her at the pub, rejecting her at the pub, teasing her again at karaoke, and now seeking her out during school hours. Zainah's little spiel explained the first few instances, but she's been genuinely confused since Monday. She had assumed that Louise was trying to be friendly and move on from the awkward that had ensued on Friday, and she was willing to play along with it so they could both enjoy the karaoke club, but she's more than a bit pissed to see her looking for her now.