Tale of Two

Chapter 10

"Openness is not that hard to find these days. We're told from a very young age that an open mind is the key to understand the world and its different people. An open heart is something we can't spare if we want to have good friends and honest relationships. But life's changing fast and there's always plenty to worry about, so we need to face our futures with open will, or the fear will eat us alive."

Or that's how it should be, Cora thought. She never understood these little phases of hers, when inspiration just hit her and she could write about anything, for as long as she didn't stop. It was one of those days, and she couldn't have felt any better. She had a free essay to write and a few chapters to read for her History of Art course, but other than that it was a pretty lazy week. She wanted to go for a run later, maybe finally look for a nice gym so she could get back in shape. It's no wonder a break up is called a break up. It really does break your routine, and messes everything up. But after a long month, she finally felt a little more like herself and the unspeakable cause behind her rapid healing process was Harry. She was almost embarrassed to admit it even to herself, it was so cliché, yet so unlikely.

He was always on her mind in some way. She was either thinking about when they were going to run into each other at the uni or at the studio on one of those rainy afternoons, or she tried to make a list of all the things why she had to keep some distance between them. She was over of all their old nuisances, but there were new ones. The biggest of them all was that she was in fact attracted to him, but at the same time it was painfully obvious that she shouldn't get involved with a man like Harry.

With this thought she groaned and opened a new tab to search for some pictures to attach to her essay. They were currently seated in the library and surprisingly everybody was deep in work, laptops, notebooks and empty paper cups scattered around them. Liam and Cora had their headphones in, listening to music and wandering in their own worlds, while Emma and Zayn were silently talking, having a deep discussion about one of Zayn's pieces. He showed up covered in paint and sadness, because he couldn't stop himself from sleeping with his nude model again, and now things were terribly awkward between them, the chemistry was fucked as much as the model, and the painting was rubbish. He knew he needed to let go of her, but was really worried about finding a new one. Emma nobly volunteered for the job though, earning an eye-roll from the two others.

"Be careful mate, don't mess it up this time..." Liam chuckled, wriggling his eyebrows.

"Ha ha, very funny," Emma retorted, cutting in before Zayn could answer. His ears were flaming and he was restless.

"I so envy you right now... My nude model is 62," Cora added in a flat tone.

"Oh come on, Mr. Okeke looks better than Harry did or will do at any point in his life," Zayn answered, exchanging a knowing look with Liam.

"What? How Harry comes into this?"

"Well I thought that you guys ar-"

"Is he coming to the cinema by the way?" Emma cut in before Zayn again, preventing him from saying too much.

"How would I know?" Cora thought that nobody knew about their little make out session, but it was crystal clear that Harry told tales out of school. She wasn't mad or anything, but she hadn't even decided if she wanted to discuss what's happened with Harry himself. And it was further evidence that Harry was not a gentleman. Because a gentleman never kiss and tell. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I don't know, why?" Emma asked back with wide eyes, looking as innocent as a lamb, but before Cora could have answered, Harry waltzed in, throwing his bag down next to their joint tables.

"Hello losers, I'm back," he announced, making Cora wonder why she even spent one second of the last few days thinking about him. He was as rude as ever. But nobody was mad at him. Like ever.