The Academy // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Harry’s POV

Liam ended up never really giving me an answer to my question about why he had brought up Nicole and I while he was talking Liz. Well I guess he did give me an answer by telling me that he just wanted to know if Liz really hated me or not, but it didn’t feel like a legitimate answer to me since I had specifically told him not to bring that up to Liz because it didn’t matter.

I wasn’t going to question him any further on the subject because it really wasn’t worth it anymore. Liz knew and there’s nothing I could do about it.

I really just wanted to be furious with Liam right now, but of course I knew that that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I ended up leaving the dorm room about ten minutes before I really needed to because I just couldn’t stand to be in there anymore.

I felt like I was going to crack and lash out at Liam any minutes. I knew meant well, he didn’t know the consequences that would come for Nicole and I, mostly Nicole, if he let her friends know about our relationship.

As I was walking to one of the sitting areas that was near the dining hall where I would be meeting Nicole, I saw someone already sitting on one of the benches and I debated whether or not I was still going to go over there or not.

Normally I wouldn’t care if anyone was sitting in the place where I was headed, but right now since I was about to go to a party full of people, I really didn’t want to be around any people right now. They might try and start a conversation with me or ask about me or some crap. And since I’m not in the best mood right now, I’d rather not have to fake a put together and perfectly fine façade for a random person.

I wouldn’t be able to tell them about my problems at all because strangers don’t care and they would instantly regret talking to me because no one wants to hear the problems of some random person who was sitting hear them. I decided just to suck it up and ignore the person if they decided to talk to me.

As I got closer to the bench, I realized that the person sitting there wasn’t a random stranger, but it was Nicole. She was looking down at her phone, probably playing some game or something.

There’s this one game she has where you like move pieces of candy into rows of three that she seemed to just be obsessed with although I didn’t understand all the hype over the game.

I wondered if she was out here because she didn’t want to be in her dorm room since her friends, or at least one of them had found out and told her or something. My guess is if it’s bad enough that she doesn’t want to be in the dorm room, Liz probably told all her friends.

She didn’t seem very upset right now though and I figured that maybe she would’ve contacted me or something to tell me now that she isn’t around them right now and is by herself. I wonder how long she’s been sitting out here all alone.

I wished I would’ve known sooner that she was out here so I could keep her company. When I walked over and sat down next to her, I decided to keep quiet about the fact that I knew that Liz knew about our relationship.

There’s the possibility that Liz hasn’t let her know she knows this, and if I told Nicole, it would probably just stress her out and possibly make her angry at me since of course it was pretty much my fault that her friends knew.

“You out here alone?” I whispered in her ear as I walked up behind her, disguising my voice so she wouldn’t know it was me.

“Piss off-” she stopped mid reply once she turned around and realized that it was me standing behind her and not some creep.

“Don’t do that,” she smiled as I greeted her and walked around the bench to sit next to her.

“Payback for when you did that to me, calling me creep when I was waiting for you outside the dorm,” I told her and she laughed.

She seemed pretty okay right now, not looking like anything was really affecting or bothering her right now. Maybe I really was worried for nothing and Liz wasn’t going to say anything to Nicole, at least not today.

“How’s you day been?” I asked her, wanting to know what all has happened with her so far today.

She told me that not that much had really happened and she just talking about how her friends had still been talking about what all they did over the week with their families. She told be the gifts that her friends gave her and how Christina had already received one of the gifts Nicole gave her, but in a different color.

When I had asked her why she was out here instead of with her friends in the dorm, she told me that she had just gotten ready before all of them and was getting tired of sitting in the dorm waiting for them as the room filled with the scent of perfume and hair products.

As she continued to talk about whatever she felt like speaking about, I just kept wondering if what she told me about why she left the dorm was true or not. It’s like I was almost just waiting for her to tell me that her friends knew about our relationship, but she never did say anything on the subject.

Of course I would be lying if I said a small part of me wasn’t hoping that she would tell me this. I kind of wanted them to know so I could do whatever I wanted without having to have Nicole be so paranoid about her friends noticing us together.

By the time that it was about time for us to start heading to the building where the New Year’s party was, Nicole still hadn’t said anything about what I couldn’t stop thinking about. She wasn’t even talking about anything that was remotely close to the subject that would give her a reason to bring it up at all.

She was telling me about what all to expect at the party and what the party was like the previous years that she’s gone to it. Even though she’s already told me like have this information at least three times already, I didn’t stop her and I let her continue on talking.

I’m guessing everything seemed to be normal for her right now and she had no clue of the conflict that was most likely going to occur soon.

I wanted to make sure she had a nice time tonight since her week was probably going to be ruined either tomorrow or at least in the next few days. So I continued to let her ramble on about things that she’s already told me and I complimented her on her outfit even though she could basically show up in any outfit she wanted and I really wouldn’t give a crap since she would be here and that’s all I really cared about.

As we walked up to the building, I laced her fingers with mine, not even caring anymore if her friends were nearby to see. I knew she was probably going to pull away, but I at least wanted to hold her hand for a few moments in public on campus, getting used to what it could be for us once we wouldn’t have to hide from her friends anymore.

She surprised me though when she didn’t let go but held a tighter grasp on my hand. Maybe she knew her friends weren’t going to be here yet or that they were already inside. Either way I didn’t care, I was just going to enjoy it.