Vienna

chapter fifteen

"And this is the auditorium. It's a student tradition to touch the statue in the front during finals week for good luck," the tour guide, Henry, explains.

Hannah and I had been spending most of the afternoon touring Endermont's campus. Unsurprisingly, Daisy went home with Aiden and decided to spend the day with him rather than take the tour with us. I didn't think I'd like the campus as much as I have so far, but its beautiful buildings and proximity to the beach have amazed me.

While Hannah quickly made friends with a couple of the other girls our age on the tour, I was actually hitting it off pretty well with our tour guide. In the breaks where he'd let us explore an area or when we were walking between places, he was sort of giving me the unofficial tour.

Turns out he's a sophomore, and a friend of my brother's. Not that I'm shocked, that boy could befriend a pole if he wanted to.

"And this is the Literature Building, where most of my classes are since I'm a Literature major," Henry points out a large brick building.

"Wow, that must be a lot of hard work," a deep, sarcastic voice states from behind us.

I almost freeze in my steps, knowing that voice sounds much too familiar. I whip my head around to see my tall, dark-haired tormentor. Behind him, I see Hannah shoot me a look as if to say 'WTF?!'  to which I send her a simple shrug.

"Are you following me?" I groan in exasperation.

Nathan shoots me a glare, "I signed up for this tour a month ago. If anything, it seems like you're the one following me."

"In your dreams," I bite back, to which he simply winks in response.

"Do you know him, Vienna?" Henry asks, noticing our heated exchange.

"Nope," I reply at the same time Nathan says, "Yep!"

If I ignore him, maybe he will go away.

"And this is the main quad. A lot of students will have picnics on the grass, or study at the tables," Henry says, continuing his tour.

"Also where the students streak in their underwear at the end of finals week," Henry states amusedly, bending down to speak quieter to me. I giggle at this, imagining a bunch of students running around in their underwear.

"You run around in your tighty whities, Harry?" Nathan muses, poking his head between us.

"It's Henry, and everyone does it," Henry responds through gritted teeth, obviously finding Nathan as irritating as I do.

"So you'd do anything, just if everyone else was doing it?" Nathan presses.

"N-no, obviously not. I just mean-"

"It's alright, Harry. I wouldn't expect much from a literature major, anyway," Nathan mutters cockily.

I turn around sharply at his comment. "Did you wake up and actively decide to be an asshole today, or were you just born like this? Actually, no, don't answer that. I already know the answer," I snap at him. Who decides to be rude to a complete stranger for absolutely no reason?

"Maybe you and your friend should self guide the rest of the tour," Henry suggests calmly, trying to avoid a confrontation in front of all the prospective students.

This seems to appease Nathan as he gives Henry a sarcastic smile and drags me away from the group by my forearm. 

Hannah watches this with wide eyes, brows furrowed in confusion. I gesture that I'll text her and she gives a hesitant nod, before being distracted again by the girls she was in conversation with.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I scold Nathan, removing his hand from my arm harshly. 

"What?" he asks me innocently.

"You were just a dick to a perfectly nice guy! At his job!" I reprimand.

"Blah. blah. blah. Harry is so nice. Harry is such an amazing tour guide," Nathan said in a high-pitched tone. "He was only perfectly nice to you because he wanted in your pants," he points out flatly in a duh tone.

"He did not want in my pants! He's friends with my brother."

Nathan lets out a laugh, "You are so naive"

"I'm not naive! God, can't you go be an asshole to someone else!"

"What's the fun in that?" he smirks.

My temper flared. Is he incapable of a normal conversation without any sarcasm or conceited remarks? 

Deciding I was fed up with him, I walked away. I started walking towards the library seeing as that was the one thing I wanted to look at on this damn tour, and he just had to go and get us kicked off of it.

He catches up to me and ignores my annoyed glare as we walk together in silence.

"So, how's Ethan doing? I didn't get a chance to talk to him last night," he asks after a few minutes.

I look at him confusedly, before remembering they played football together before Ethan graduated. "Uh, he's good. He likes his teammates, his classes are going pretty well, and I think he's even gotten himself a girlfriend," I wince at the end, the image of him and Scarlett last night still haunting my mind.

Nathan lets out a laugh seeing the face I made, "You don't like her?"

"No, no, she's actually super cool. I just caught them making out last night, so I got all grossed out again by the memory," I laugh.

He scrunches his face in disgust. "I see," he says in amusement.

We keep walking towards the library in silence. Unsurprisingly, Nathan's presence is much more tolerable when his mouth is shut.

Sadly, he cannot keep his mouth shut for more than a couple minutes at a time because just as all the stress had finally left my body, he opened his mouth again, "So, do you think you'll go here? You know, if you get in?"

I shrug, "Before this weekend I would have said definitely not, but I've actually really liked it here so far. The campus is beautiful."

He hums in agreement. "Why would it have been a no before this weekend?" he questions me.

"I don't know I guess it's just too close to home, you know? And as much as I love my friends, I feel like a fresh start and meeting new people is an important thing in college," I explain.

"Yeah, I get that. Where do you want to go?" he asks me.

"I dunno. I applied to a few schools in cities on the east coast, and a few up in northern California. I guess I'm just waiting to see where I get in before I decide where I actually want to go."

He nods at what I said, and we fall back into an easy silence. 

"Where are we even going?" 

"The library," I state.

"Of course we are. You're such a nerd," he laughs.

"This nerd got you a passing grade on the calculus exam," I give him a pointed look.

"Touché."

I give him a look of amusement and we walk in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to the library.

Before walking in I stop and turn around to face him, making him look at me in confusion.

"You know what I just realized? You admitted a guy wanted to get in my pants," I smirk triumphantly.