I was minding my own business in the cafeteria. Tiff had a lunch meeting, so I was catching up on work I didn’t do last night as I ate. Everyone else bustled around the large room, picking their food, chatting with friends and such.
Harry was on the other side of the room, eating with Zayn and Louis. The other two were still picking out their meal. They all were loud and shouty when they talked to each other, and when someone laughed, they all laughed—meaning the whole cafeteria and five blocks down could hear them too. And it also meant I saw Harry’s dimples nearly break his face as they flexed when he smiled.
So fucking obnoxious. I didn’t understand why everyone liked them so much, especially with guys like Tommy walking around—or the football team, or swim team or any team really. I mean why was everyone interested in those scrawny boys in skinny jeans while muscular athletes were walking around?
Well, I know for a fact that Harry isn’t scrawny…but he’s indie with ripped clothes and has a bandana wrapped around his head. I mean, what the hell?
“Hey, Marina,” I looked up to see Tommy leaning on the table and peering down at me.
Oh god.
“Hey.”
“How come you’re by yourself?” He slid into the seat opposite me and just like that I couldn’t hear Harry’s laugh anymore.
I shrugged, “I’m just doing homework.”
“Wow, you’re dedicated. You’d never catch me working and eating at the same time.”
“Am I still dedicated if the homework was due yesterday but I just kept procrastinating?”
He laughed, “I’d say so.” I held back a smile and looked down at my hands. “So…were you at the Kappa Pi party last night?”
“No, I just walked Tiffany there. How was it?”
“It just got a little out of hand,” he chuckled. “Throw up and passed out girls were all over the place.”
I shook my head, “Sounds like a blast.”
“You’re going to Harry’s party though right?”
“Nope.” I mumbled, popping the ‘p’ sound. “I have stuff to do on Friday.”
“What about Saturday?”
I dodged the question, “What, are they having two parties?”
“One’s for fun, one’s to raise money for charity.”
“Charity?” I didn’t know that.
“Yeah, one of them—I think it’s Harry—has a family member with cancer and he’s using the party to make money they he can donate to research.”
“Wow…” I breathed.
“So, are you coming Saturday?”
Now I’m going to sound like an asshole that doesn’t support cancer research if I say no. “I might.” I muttered cryptically. A cute smile lit up his face, and I think my icy heart melted a little.
“I hope you decide to come. It’ll be fun.” He got up before winking at me. “See you around hopefully.”
“See ya,” I stuttered. When he was gone, I let out a breath and closed my eyes. That happened. I shook it off though. Getting my hopes up is never good.
I finished my homework for the next classes before getting up to leave. Unfortunately I had to walk past Indie Boy and the idiots to get to the doors. I kept telling myself not to look at him, just pretend he wasn’t there like I’ve always done, but I think there was something wrong with me. I looked anyway.
