Word Travels - Harry Styles

3

At lunch she tried avoiding him. She really, really didn't want to sit with his friends, not after this morning. But, she couldn't stop him from spotting her. He called her name, jogging over to where she stood in line. She put a small smile on her face, trying to hide her anxiety. "Hey. Whats up?"

"Do you still want to sit with us? My friends are really excited to meet you." He smiled, looking down at her and nudging her with his elbow. She shrugged.

"I guess. They didn't seem too excited this morning.." She laughed softly, "In fact, they looked kinda freaked out."

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head too, "Those people aren't my friends. They're just.. acquaintances, really. I don't even know why they like me so much." He laughed, running a hand through his curly hair.

Because you're gorgeous and charismatic. She thought, laughing slightly along with him. He continued; "My friends are about as big of dorks as you and I are."

"You're a dork?" She side glanced, scoffing slightly, "I haven't seen you do one 'dorky'-" She mimicked quotations with her fingers, "- thing since I started here."

Harry rolled his eyes, nudging her with his elbow softly, "You just haven't been around me enough. Don't worry, that's going to change."

Good, she thought, I'll be another one of your acquaintances. This made her sad, slightly, and her smile faltered for a moment until she watched another boy, who was smaller than Harry and also had brown hair, jump onto his back. She held back a few giggles while Harry tried to figure out who had jumped on him; "Oh, hey Harry!" The boy said between laughs, "I didn't see you there. Whats up?"

Harry growled playfully, pulling him off his shoulders, "Louis! How did you even manage to sneak up on me like that, what with your incredibly obnoxious voice."
Louis, she presumed was his name, rolled his eyes and did something she guessed was supposed to be sassy. Quite the flamboyant one he was. "Wow. Atleast I'm not a gentle giant." He stood on his toes (at that point the tips of Louis's hair barely reached the top of Harry's head) and mimicked Harry's deep voice, only making it slightly deeper, "I'm Harry. I'm nice to everyone but really, I'm an asshole." He made a face when Harry hit him.
"I'm not an asshole!" He said loudly, laughing. Louis rubbed his arm where he had been punched and stuck his tongue out, "Whatever you say, big guy."
Throughout this entire encounter she had been standing to the side with a hand over her mouth, laughing quietly at the mess. Louis finally looked over at her, and squinted his eyes, "Hey, Harry. Is this the girl you were telling us about?"
Harry looked at her and smiled, "Oh! Yeah. Louis, this is Darcy. Darcy, this is Louis." They shook hands, and Louis smiled, "I'm his best friend. Don't let the others fool you." And she just laughed, retracting awkwardly. Of course Harry had to have a really cute best friend too. Were all of his close friends as good looking as him?
They finally got her food and she followed the two to their table. Two other boys sat at the small circled table in one of the far corners of the large cafeteria. When Harry and Louis approached, they looked up. One of them, a blonde boy, looked at me first, and didn't stop.
"Hey guys. This is Darcy, she's the girl I was talking about."
Darcy smiled awkwardly, waving slightly and sitting down in the one empty seat next to Harry. The others smiled at her, and one with a shaved head spoke, "Nice to meet you, I'm Liam." He, too, had a British accent. Jeez, Harry, Louis, and Liam are all British? She nodded at him, and mumbled a "Hi."
The blonde boy, who still had not stopped staring at her, spoke up then, "And Im Niall. And, by the way, I really like your hair."
She reached up and touched her short blonde hair like she had forgotten it was there. She smiled, blushing slightly, "Oh, thank you.." He smiled in return, holding eye contact before looking at Harry, "Well!" Niall began, "She seems interesting enough."
"But is she cool enough to sit with us?" Louis said, a handful of chips halfway to his mouth. Harry nodded, "Shes the coolest girl I've met so far. Besides-" he shrugged, the others nodded.
Besides who? She thought, then realized, Oh. His girlfriend probably.
This realization sent a soft pang through her chest. She felt... Jealous. Why? Its not like anything would ever happen between them anyways. This was probably going to be a one -time thing. She quietly picked at her food while they talked, only half listening to whatever nonsense they were spouting.
"Darcy, right?" She looked up slightly, Niall was looking at her again, "Uh. Yeah. Thats my name." She laughed slightly, pushing some of her hair out of her face.
"Thats a really pretty name." He smiled, showing a row of slightly messy teeth. Oh boy, he was cute. "I haven't seen you around before. Harry said you were new?"
"Oh- Uh, yeah. I just moved here I uh-.. Had some problems back home uh- nothing big." She half smiled, shrugging slightly.
He nodded. Liam spoke up then, "So you aren't from around here either? It always sucks going somewhere new, believe me, we understand."
"Oh yeah. Whats up with that? You're all like British, right?" She looked around at the four of them.
"Actually, I'm Irish."
"Niall, shut up. There isn't even that big of a difference!" Louis remarked, pointing a fork at him.
"Uh, yes there is. Ireland is a completely different coun-"
"Okay. We really don't care about the history of Ireland." Louis stuck his tongue out, then turned towards Darcy, "We're here for some permanent foreign exchange thing. Honestly I don't really understand it enough to explain it to you."
Liam laughed, "Basically, we moved here and are now living in the United States permanently. But only because of school."
"So.. You're all from the same school back in England?"
They laughed, kinda obnoxiously, she felt a pang of anxiety.
"No. We were just a part of the same program. Its a long story." Harry said, he had been the only one not laughing.
She nodded, only sort of understanding the situation.
"Hey, Darcy? Can I get your number?" Niall asked, a small smile on his face. Her eyes widened, and she nodded slightly, "Oh, uh, sure!"
He handed her his phone and she typed in her number. He smiled, "Thanks."
Just then, the bell rang, dismissing them back to class. She stood up and walked over to the trash can alone, trying to walk away from that table quickly. Someone grabbed her shoulder, "See. I told you they'd like you." Harry leaned down and whispered in her ear. She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Sure. Thats why they all laughed at me."
"No, silly, they were laughing because everyone thinks we're either related or we came from the same place or-.. Just. They weren't laughing at you, I promise." 
She shrugged, pulling the straps of her backpack tighter on her shoulders and walked quietly back to class, ignoring everyone who got in her way.