Strings // lrh

chapter three

2 weeks. 14 days. 336 hours.

I was sitting down in a squeaky, brown, and old chair in the corner of the coffee shop that was on a quiet corner in Australia. I was flicking through the virgin, untouched pages of the brand new book I had bought.

Every two pages I would take a sip of my now room temperature coffee, appreciating the perfect taste that I enjoy and nail every time that I have to put the correct amount of creamer, sugar, and vanilla into the liquid that stays steamed in my cup.

I hear something in the background, but I'm invested so deeply into this book that I don't care to do so much as pay any mind to it, let alone look up to see what was this background noise in the tiny coffee shop that I adored for the sole reason that it gave me some damn peace and quiet, which I could never get on campus.

I roll my eyes harder than I could ever expect myself to ever, my focus and investment into the pages of poetry breaking and completely walking out of the cafe door as I hear somebody clear their throat, trying to get my attention.

I look up, my gaze being more of a deadly glare than it should be, seeing a male sitting in front of me. He's got minimal freckles going across his cheeks, his skin being very fair, his chocolate brown eyes looking at me expectantly.

"You know, you don't have to look at me like I just killed your dog." He jokes, trying to lighten the mood since he sees that I am not amused, due to him interrupting me reading, which is honestly the worst thing that you could do.

Reading takes me to another dimension. The characters that you hate characters that you deep down love and can relate to. Characters you love are characters that feel like your children. I'm in my best state of mind when I read, so whenever somebody interrupts me, it isn't a pleasant thing to do.

When this person sees that I'm not amused, he has a certain mood plastered across his face, a mood that I can't bring myself to identify or understand. So I just sigh and close my book shut, knowing it won't be the same if I try to just open it back up and get back to the state of focus I was in before I was disrupted.

"I'm sorry if I got you at a bad time, it's just that we have the same chemistry class together, and I've always thought you were cute, and so I decided to approach you since I saw you. I'm Everette."

I just roll my eyes. Now that he does mention it, he is somewhat familiar looking, and the fact that he couldn't just approach me any other time when I am not reading or doing something important just bothers me, and I can't seem to shake off the feeling.

"And what makes you think I wanted to be interrupted from reading my book? Maybe I just wanted to sit here in peace, since this is the only place I can get peace. Say whatever you want to say to me, and I'll decide if you can sit here and have coffee with me." He looks taken aback with my words, and I purse my lips in annoyance, "Did I stutter? Just say your peace."

"I think you're really, really pretty, stunning, breathtaking, even. I wanted to take you out on a date and I thought that since you were here it would be a great opportunity, and I didn't mean to disturb you. I'm genuinely sorry and I would still enjoy to have a chance with you if I didn't blow it by agitating you just now."

I glance at him, and I notice that he has a string connected to the lady at the cash register. Not connected to me. I've had several guys approach me and tell me I'm pretty and beautiful and ask me out on dates, and when I was a young teenager, and before I knew what the strings truly meant, I would always say yes.

Cause I just liked the attention, but now that I'm older I realize that I don't need a mans attention to make me happy. I don't need a man to gas my head up. So, if they don't have a string attached to me, I simply tell them no.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I'm the right person for you. I'm just really trying to focus on my grades this year," I'm lying. Almost all my credits are finished, and it's the end of the semester, so the professors don't really care. "And it's just not a good time for me. Why don't you try for the lady at the front desk, I'm just not the right girl for you."

I tried letting him down easy, but the determined look he had on his face said that he was not taking my rejection. "No, you are the right girl for me, and I could help you finish your credits if you need any help-"

I cut him off, "Just stop. I don't like pushy, and you're being really annoying. Just accept that you got rejected and please go away so I can just finish my book in peace." He mutters some profanity under his breath as he storms off, obviously not happy that he got told no.

I realize that once he left, I had no interest in finishing my book. So I put the book gently in my string bag, grab my coffee, and I leave, not in the mood to do anything but hang out with Maggie.

Once I got back to my dorm, Maggie looked as if she was waiting for me. She was sat on my bed, on her phone scrolling through some app.

"I was waiting for you. Why the hell did you not say something to me!?!" She practically yells in my face, obviously angry with me not telling her something. I don't know what I couldn't have told her.

"What did I not tell you?" I ask her, my eyebrows knotting together, showing confusion all over my face. I can't think of what I haven't told her that would be a 'must' in the 'tell your best friend department'.

"That Luke Hemmings fucking followed you!" She says, overly loudly to the point where I wince at the level of hertz her voice is at.

Oh, that.

It was around last night at two in the morning around the time he liked my tweet. I was spamming him with likes and retweets, when suddenly I got a notification, once again, followed by several.

Once I had checked it, I had gotten the famous 'omg congrats, luke followed you!' And stuff of that sort, and once I had scrolled to the bottom of my notifications, pushing past the brand new ones that were popping up, I saw it. Luke followed me.

Of course, with it being 2 AM, I started freaking out and crying and dming him so many 'MENDJANDNEKD TANK YU LUEK' and messages of that sort, I saw that he read them, but didn't respond. So that made me freak even more.

And Maggie was upset, cause I forgot to tell her.

So I explained all of it to her, her and I fangirled for a while, and then we kind of forgot about it for the rest of the day.