Earnshaw Heights

Chapter Three

After a moment's hesitation, Normani realized her jaw had slacked open. At the threat of possibly drooling over the girl in front of her, Mani mentally shook herself off and tried to stop acting so flustered. She concentrated on slowing her heart and catching her breath, which was out of whack from all the running, of course, and surely not from viewing the girl still standing in front of her, staring amusedly back. Mani walked across the living room until she was a foot or two away from Lauren and outstretched her hand.

"I'm Normani, your roommate! It's so nice to formally meet you," Mani plastered a smile across her face that was not completely genuine, but that was only because she was feeling weak at the knees for some strange reason. Probably the running.

Lauren stared at Mani's hand and chuckled. "Yea, I suppose a handshake does make it pretty formal." Lauren took Mani's hand in her own, and the touch was nothing like when Niall had grabbed her hand earlier. She felt electric and unnerved, like her heart had stopped beating and time had frozen completely. Lauren's skin was as smooth as Mani had expected from the moments earlier in the day when her eyes had wandered over Lauren, but it was also warmer than she had imagined. Mani was stuck contemplating why this handshake with her new roommate was making her feel so nervous and so at home in the same moment.

When Mani realized that time had not actually stopped and that she was causing the handshake to linger a bit too much, she dropped Lauren's hand and clasped her own together in front of her. Lauren used her now-free hand to run her fingers through her long hair in a gesture that was obviously out of habit more than out of need to fix her perfectly tousled locks. The pair stood like that for a moment longer, looking at only one another, lost in some strange moment that Mani was having trouble figuring out. Their battle of eye contact was interrupted by a forceful entrance into the room when Niall ran in and dropped to the floor, rolling onto his back, panting.

"Jesus Mani, I swear you used magic to run up here that fast," he barely got out before needing to refocus on catching his breath. Mani chuckled at her friend, silently thanking him for interrupting whatever the hell was going on in this room.

"Sorry dear, but I'd never need magic to beat you in a race," Mani cooly joked with her friend. She swore that she saw Lauren flinch at her use of dear with Niall, but she was probably just reading too much into the moment.

"Well, dear," Niall responded, smiling, his voice returning to normal. "We'll just have to have a rematch soon." Niall rolled onto his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows to look at the pair. "Hello, Lauren," Niall said, and it sounded slightly harsh to Mani's ears.

"Hey, Niall," Lauren responded in the same manner. Normani glanced back and forth between the two of them, trying to pick up on the subtext of the encounter before her.
"Soooo, do you two know each other already or something?" Normani found herself matching their tones, feeling out of the loop.

"You could say that," Niall answered evasively. Normani caught Niall's eye and tried to send a mental SOS for an explanation. He mouthed 'later' to her, and Normani realized that unless she wanted to create an even furtherly awkward situation, later would have to suffice.

Normani turned back to face Lauren, whose head was tilted down, her eyes focused on her boots. She looked upset or at least shaken, and when she looked back up, the light was gone from her eyes. Normani hadn't realized how much she had enjoyed seeing that light until it was stripped away. Feeling some innate desire to make Lauren's eyes sparkle once more, Mani struck up conversation to lead the girl away from Niall. "So have you checked out our room yet?" Mani plastered her smile back on her face in hopes that it would bring a smile to Lauren's face as well.

"Not yet. I just got in here a moment before you two burst in," Lauren replied, her voice nearly drained of emotion. Without thinking too much, because that always caused her trouble, Mani reached out and grabbed Lauren's hand. The electric feeling jolted through her body again, but this time she continued on with an urgency to make Lauren smile again.

"Well how about we go do that together then?" Mani's voice was gentle as she looked into Lauren's eyes, hoping that the girl wouldn't recoil away from her touch and would instead go into the next room with her. Lauren furrowed her brow for a moment as though she were concentrating hard on Mani's features, searching for something - but Mani couldn't tell what. All that she could decipher was that Lauren's current expression was making her heart skip beats.

After a moment, Lauren's expression softened, and the smirk from earlier crossed her lips. Lauren nodded in agreement, still holding on to Mani's hand. Mani felt her smile grow, turning more genuine as she watched the spark return to Lauren's eyes. Mani pulled at the girl whose hand was now laced in hers towards the room to her left to explore where they'd be living for the rest of their stay in the castle.