You Make It Real (A Harry Styles Fan Fiction) {EDITING}

Chapter 21

PIPER'S P.O.V.

That first week was more bearable than I had expected. Riley and I skipped our classes that Monday after our goodbyes and spent it at Disney World on our own. Waiting in lines was so much worse after not having to. By dinner time, we were ready to go home. The next few days were a blur, filled with lectures and science labs that I tried my hardest to focus on. Harry texted me as often as he could, usually for a few hours while he was on the bus in between naps. I felt bad that he hadn't slept much the weekend he was with us. Surely, his weekends off are usually spent sleeping as much as possible and now he was more exhausted than ever. We FaceTimed three times that week, usually for only about ten minutes, but it was still nice to see his face. He did look tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, his face looked paler than normal, and his eyes were bloodshot. Whenever I told him he should go to bed, he always insisted on talking to me instead, but it worried me that he was so over-worked.

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"Hey, Pip, what classes do you have this morning?" I had to turn my hair dryer off to hear her better.

What day was it? Thursday. Riley looked like she had some sort of a plan up her sleeve.

"Umm. Marine, Trig, and English. But, I'm going to lunch with my mom so I'm skipping English. Why?"

"I was kind of hoping that you might skip a class or something and go shopping with me. Maybe a little retail therapy?"

"Well, how about you come to lunch with us? My mom would love to see you, I'm sure and we're eating at the mall. We can shop after."

"Perfect! I'll meet you hear after noon and we can ride together."

I nodded in agreement at Riley's suggestion and continued to blow dry my hair. I had almost made it through the first week of no Harry, but I had a feeling that the weekend would be the worst. School was a pretty good distraction and it gave me something to do, besides search Tumblr for new pictures of him or texting him. The regularity of our conversations was reasonable and didn't make it much harder. I got my daily dose of Harry, but not so much that I was unable to do anything else the rest of the day. The fact that we were both so busy and had our best friends with us helped a lot. I was excited to see my mom that day. She could finally hear about Harry and feel like she was included in my life more. 

When I left for class, I had some extra time, so I walked to the Starbucks on campus to get some caffeine. The guy standing behind the counter looked familiar but I couldn't tell from where. Probably a class, but I never paid attention to anyone.

"Hey, you're Piper, right?"

"Umm, yeah. I'm sorry, I don't know your name, but you look familiar."

"Yeah, I'm James. I sit behind you in Psych."

"Oh! Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm oblivious most of the time."

He chuckled and turned his gaze to the counter shyly.

"It's alright, I sit behind you, so it's not like you're staring at the back of my head every Monday and Wednesday."

We both laughed and the girl behind me cleared her throat, indicating that there was an impatient line of people behind me.

"Oh, sorry. Umm, Venti upside down soy iced caramel macchiato, please. Hold the whip."

"Damn, I guess you've got the bases covered."

I started to hand him a ten dollar bill but he shook his hand at it.

"It's on me. I'll see you Monday."