Paper Rings - HS

03

"Fuck I knew something bad would happen today."

Catapulting my body from the couch, I raced towards my bathroom picking up my toothbrush, globing toothpaste onto the bristles before shoving it in my mouth, brushing my teeth vigorously as if I was using it as a stress reliever.

My feet swiftly carried my body across the hall and into my room, toothbrush still sticking out of my mouth as I grabbed the first outfit my mind could put together that didn't look entirely first day tacky.

"Harry come tell me if this looks okay!"

I yelled from my room, mouth full of toothpaste as I looked at my outfit in the mirror.

"No need to yell, I'm right here." He let out a small chuckle as I looked up, jumping slightly at how close he was, now standing directly behind me.

"Fucking hell, you startled me." I rolled my eyes before laughing and pushing past him to go discard my toothbrush in the bathroom. After making sure I looked presentable in a second mirror I made my way back over to my room where Harry was still standing... or snooping I should say.

"Whatcha doing? Hm? Is Mr. Harry Styles snooping?"

He spun around to look at me as I laughed at his reaction. He walked towards me with a bit of confidence in his stride, silently placing his hands on my shoulders as his eyes scanned my body a few times.

"Okay c'mon don't you have somewhere to be?"

Harry shook his head "Nope. I've got a free day and a whole lot of nothing planned, not even football practice."

I backed away from him slowly, nodding before turning to walk down the hallway and towards the front door, Harry following right behind me. I pulled my old converse onto my feet as I looked up at the tall English man towering over me, leaned up against the wall as he watched me struggle slightly. Quickly collecting my bag from the floor beside the door, I reached for my keys.

"Staying here? I only have one class today. Just an intro class, should be back in less than three hours."

I slung my bag over my shoulder, watching Harry.

"If that's not a problem, I'd like to make up for as much lost time as we possibly can. We can't get our childhood back but we can always grow up together again."

I rolled my eyes playfully once again before shoving his shoulder softly.

"Spoken like a true poet. Two rules if you're staying here while I'm gone; wash the dishes and absolutely no snooping under any circumstances. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am, understood." He raised his hand in a salute before reaching to open the door for me. "Don't talk to strangers and try to have a good time, yeah?"

I had already started to walk out onto the sidewalk before I quickly turned around, tossing my keys back to Harry who was still stood in the doorway watching me walk away. I flipped him off as a joke, watching him reciprocate the movement with a cheeky smile.

"Love you loser!" He screamed before closing the door leaving me with my thoughts.

—

I was shivering by the time I got to the building that held my Intro to Lit class.

I followed a crowd of first year Uni kids into the open lecture hall with rows and rows of seats. I found Madi sitting in the front row of seats, her bag occupying the seat to her left as she stared down at her phone. I made my way over to her, swiftly moving her bag and placing it on the floor between us.

"I hope you don't mind me sitting here, I do not have the confidence to walk around looking for a free seat and to be quite honest I wasn't really going to give you an option anyways."