Through the Dark (A Liam Payne Story) || Season 5 1D Watty Awards Winner: Best Liam Payne

Chapter One

Hi there, everyone! I told you I would be back... only needed some time to collect myself and my thoughts. I have every intention to make this story the one of my dreams. I promise I will not be going anywhere until all of my stories have been completed. That is my goal.

I am republishing all of my chapters and adding new ones. That means I will be making this story better, making chapters longer, adding more details and giving the justice that this story deserves.

Thank you for staying with me all these years. Here is the new Through the Dark.

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College. What every high school senior doesn't want to talk about, but yet here I am. Starting my freshman year of college at Claremont McKenna College all the way in California after taking a gap year. I have been preparing for this since my junior year of high school and now I'm starting a new chapter in my life, leaving all my high school friends behind... or rather the friends I never really had because no one wanted to be seen with "Little Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes". Now it's time to meet new people and try to fit in with the crowd. This new chapter means starting over, becoming a new person altogether, possibly a new look, new personality, new everything, but I'm still going to be myself.

It's the first day of classes and I can't help but wonder what this year will bring. A new beginning, hopefully. Maybe I won't be put down anymore, whether it be by people in my past or on my own. Moving out of my parent's house and dorming was the best way to start over and learn to be independent. My roommate's name is Valerie and she's a foreign exchange student from London. Surprisingly, we get along and our schedules are the same, so we can spend our free time together, which is amazing. We have found that we have a few things in common as well. We like to read on our down time, journal, watch movies, go for mindless walks to take our minds off of reality for just a little bit. We've gone on a few of those already, walked arm in arm down the lit-up walkways at night, laughing at something funny either one of us has said, laid on the ground on a blanket for a picnic and stared up at the sky during the day. I smile to myself just thinking about the past few days building up to today.

I woke up before Valerie this morning and I can blame the butterflies in my stomach because I'm really nervous for the day ahead. Trying not to wake her up, I walk over to the window and look outside. Sunny, warm, and a few students are already walking around the campus. A slight breeze blows a few strands of my hair over my face and I tuck them behind my ear. I lean a little bit over the opening of the window to see a small group of tall, tattooed, muscular guys are walking toward our building. I can't make them out too well, but one of them looks up and notices me leaning out my window, and he whistles, "Hey there, pretty lady!"

I blush and quickly move away from the window to avoid more of an interaction. I turn around to see Valerie throwing her covers off her to get out of bed. "Good morning, Rose!" She smiles at me and walks over to me, giving me a hug. "You're up already?"

"Morning, Val! Couldn't sleep," I say, yawning. I was just wondering... have you seen these boys around campus before I got here?" I move toward the window again and point at the boys standing outside of the entrance to the dormitory. Val arrived on campus a few days earlier and was able to meet most of new and old attendees of the college.

"Oh, them... I suggest you stay away from them," Val advises.

"Why?" I ask curiously.

"I have heard things through the grapevine about that lot about their time here over the years," she says. "I'm being serious here, Rose. I heard from a few upperclassmen that those boys have gotten in a lot of trouble in the past but they have somehow managed to stay in their programs on campus. And I know one of them." She looks outside and points at one of the boys. "That one over there, that's Liam Payne." My eyes follow where her finger is not-obviously-pointing to see who she is talking about.