STOCKHOLM ➵ tomlinson

sixteen

happy earth day! enjoy!

JOSEPHINE
saturday, four days after

--

I sit, with a mug in my hand, at the white round table beside the window. A wide beautiful city jumps at me and I am speechless; my breath is taken away.

"Nice, isn't it?" The dark-haired boy says to me while smiling. He holds his guitar in one hand and sits down across from me.

I jump and roll my eyes at myself for being scared so easy.

"Sorry," he begins. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," I mumble back.

Yesterday night, Louis introduced me to all his roommates. I've met two out of four; Ashton and Michael were the only ones home.

"How do you like it here?" He asks politely.

I hesitate whether to reply honestly or not, and realize I'm staring at him. He doesn't seem to care, though.

"It's.. different. Much better than where I used to be," I reply and shrug. "I was in high school, but I'm out now. So that's better."

His small smile grows into a big one and we jump into a topic about high school and old times.

.

The door jingles and I assume it's Louis so I continue talking to Michael and he asks me if I'm dating anyone. I say no.

"Yeah, it's weird to say," Michael begins. "But I have a--"

"Mikey! We're home!" A voice calls out down the left hallway.

I don't find out what he's saying because he gets up to the door.

"Hey! Go to the kitchen! Louis' friend is here. She's pretty!" He shouts loudly. I blush from his words and I feel my entire face heating up.

Three bodies walk into the kitchen in the corner of my eye; a tall blond, a black-haired boy, and Michael.

The black-haired boy walks to me first, sitting in the seat across me where Michael was, and says, "Hey! I'm Calum!"

Michael walks towards me and rests his arm on my shoulder as he sits down beside me. He smiles at the friendly exchange and looks down at me, "I'll be back."

He leaves and Luke, Calum and I just stare at the floor for a while.

"So yeah! I'm Calum! I already said that! Sorry! I'm just excited to see a new face around here. Luke, introduce yourself," Calum says with pure excitement. It's like he's a little kid waiting for ice cream.

Luke glares at me and walks out the room without another word.

I suddenly feel awkward and insecure, with memories from 9th grade hitting me hard.

// trigger warning: abuse //

"Everybody, this is Josephine Horan! Introduce yourselves," my teacher exclaims.

Everybody stares at me, and then one boy says, "Weird new kid! Haha! Look how weird and thick her hair is!"

After school, they pulled me into the back area and hit me, spat on me, and pulled on my hair. I never felt more invaded  in my entire life. One girl cut my thigh and it left me with a wound for 2 weeks. I pretended that I was playing on the playground. My mother scolded me and said it was my fault for playing in the jungle gym since I was 14 and too old anyways.

//

"Josephine? Josephine? Are you okay?" Calum asks worriedly. I snap out of it, and glance at him.

"I'm perfectly fine."

"Sorry about Luke, he's usually chill. I don't know what's wrong with him. Don't worry about it."

I give him a small smile and start to get up.

"Wait!" he shouts and pulls me back down. "What do you want for dinner?"

----

Sorry this is short! School is time consuming!

Q: How do you like Stockholm? Got any advice/ requests on what you wanna see? What ships you wanna see? What less you wanna see? How you want the chapters styled?

ALSO:: Who do you imagine Josephine as? I don't really have a strong idea right now, but I have a person in mind. Remember she has brown hair and blue eyes! I kinda imagine her as Lauren Jauregui, or more known as Lauren from Fifth Harmony, but with blue eyes.

Comment who you think she should be played by!

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful day.