birds // hs

12. University

"Baby, relax," Harry laughed, his fingers combing through my hair slowly as we sat in his Range Rover in some back parking lot. "Seriously, no one will know. Just try not to jump me, yeah?"

I looked down at him and bit my lip nervously, my hands shaking slightly as I ran them up and down his chest.

"But what if someone says something?"

"They won't," he assured me with a grin. "I promise, okay? No one will know."

I nodded and he placed one small kiss right between my eyes before we climbed out, both of our faces becoming flushed when the salty breeze hit us.

Harry was looking gorgeous as ever in a long sleeved black shirt and dark jeans, his long curls held back by a beanie and a hoodie hanging over his arm in case it got too cold inside. In comparison, I looked like I was trying to copy him.

In an attempt to look older, I was dressed in black leather pants, an oversized black shirt and some cute black bootie wedges to make me taller. Harry said I looked more mature but I think I still looked like his little sister- not exactly the look I was going for.

"Let me put my hair up real quick," I muttered as I stopped near a bench and bent over, my hair tumbling in front of my face as I tried to wrangle it into a rubber band.

"Mister Styles?" Someone called from a small distance away. "Oh my god, I thought you weren't coming back until August!"

When I stood up, Harry was being bombarded with shrieks and hugs from a small group of girls, sorority girls from the looks of their shirts.

"Girls, this is Rachel," he introduced me smoothly. "She's my friend from back home."

"Nice to meet you," one of them smiled. "Are you coming here in the fall?"

"Oh no," Harry shook his head. "She's um...she's going to be a senior."

"In high school?"

"Yes."

"Huh," she raised her eyebrows smugly. "Cool. So how is the syllabus coming? As hard as last year?"

While they talked about book prices and term papers, I wandered off and decided to look around the campus a little. It couldn't hurt, right?

So I took a few turns and somehow ended up in the huge open area right in the middle of campus, where there was a large group of people gathered around some guy playing the guitar. I stopped to listen and he was actually really good, better than I would expect from such a young boy. He couldn't have been older than sixteen or seventeen.

I was just getting into 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' when a strong hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back, sending me colliding into Harry's hard chest.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He hissed, dragging me away from the soft strumming. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? I called your cell phone like eight fucking times!"

"I-I'm sorry," I blinked as I stepped back from him. "You were talking to those girls and I just thought I would look around. I didn't mean to worry you."

He let out a deep breath and nodded, then gestured for me to follow him as his long strides picked back up again.

"You could go here, you know," he said with a grin as we walked side-by-side. "I could give a recommendation and with your grades, you'd get in for sure."

I shrugged. "Maybe. I always saw myself somewhere cold, like New York or something."

"You want to move to New York?"