to love and be loved

one

one

"Mary, are you even paying attention to me?" Zoe giggled, throwing a piece of the popcorn she had currently been munching on at my forehead.

"Yeah! Sorry, didn't get much sleep last night." My mind returned to the conversation at hand.

"Oh, sorry about that. Harry was helping us study for that anatomy test." Bryn added into the conversation, trying to hide the fact that just bringing Harry into the conversation made her blush.

"Sounded more like a fit of laughter and not a whole lot of studying to me, but whatever works right?" I shot them both a small smile, knowing that they were not studying for that test, and if they were, Harry certainly wasn't the person to ask for help.

"Anyways, back to my story. So after practically getting run over by the new kid's brand spankin' new Audi, I went over to give him a piece of my damn mind, considering he should not be going fifty miles per hour in a parking lot, but once I saw him, I was actually unable to make words. He's gorgeous." Zoe babbled on.

"You think every boy who drives a nice car is gorgeous." Bryn rolled her eyes.

"No, I promise you, this one is proper cute. You guys have to see him."

Zoe was always telling us about how cute a different boy was every week. I like it to call it 'the boy of the week club' but Zoe just called it 'keeping her options open'.

"I'm sure we will see him eventually. He's gonna be Niall's dormate, it's the only open dorm." Bryn shrugged.

"Wow bryn, I'm surprised you know that, considering the only thing you pay attention to around Niall is Harry. I never knew you were actually listening to our conversation." I sarcastically smiled at the brown eyed beauty, earning myself a nice punch to the upper arm.

"Oh shut up, I do not stare!" She gasped, acting as if she was actually surprised I noticed her infatuation with the curly haired kid.

"Hah! Yeah okay, both of you couldn't be more obvious if you tried. He isn't that special, I promise." I rolled my eyes at the wide eyed girls.

"Okay, that's not fair. You've already dated the guy, you can't judge!" Zoe whined, making puppy dog eyes at me.

"It was freshman year, doesn't count. Plus he wasn't even a good snogger!" That was a lie. Harry was a great kisser, but I didn't want to fight fire with fire.

Bryn, Zoe, and I all met my sophomore year. I was giving freshman tours and the two could not stop talking over me about how cute the senior tour guide was, making me actually hate them for the first couple weeks of school. Then, when we got room assignments, I was, of course, assigned to room right next to them. They would consistently find new ways to annoy me, whether it was staying up until the crack of dawn or playing loud ass music while I was trying to study. I hated them until they were my only option for shelter when my slutty roommate brought a boy back to the room to "talk" and during those nights, I found my best friends.

"What about the time you hooked up your sophomore year? And last year? Couldn't have that bad of a snog if you keep going back for more." Bryn snickered.

"Oh my gosh, I'm not gonna bloody marry the boy, he's just easy and convenient. Plus, the first two times were to make Louis jealous, and the third was to make Niall jealous. It worked every time." I said, smirking because they both know that Harry is, and always has been, my ticket in to that group of guys.

"Will you text Niall and ask if his new roommate it there? I would love to meet him." Zoe changed the subject.

"You and I both know that Niall is in his room doing nothing so let's just go hang out with him. New guy will show up eventually."

Zoe threw her afternoon snack away while Bryn grabbed their room key and we headed across campus.

***

Walking across campus to the lads' dorms was always an adventure. You always saw someone gettin' it on under the large oak tree that sits in the middle of campus and if they weren't getting it on, they were getting high. It was always a toss up.

"So, Zoe, are you gonna try and chat up the new bloke or are you going to watch him from afar?" Bryn joked as she pulled open the large glass door to the boys wing of rooms.

"I'm not sure, I need to figure out if he's an asshole or not."

"Mary! Girls! Hi!" A squeaky voice chimed from down the hall as we all turn to look at the petite brunette skipping down the hallway.

"Sophia, hi." Zoe answered, knowing at I sure as shit wasn't about to be nice to her.

"What are you girls doing over here?"

"Going to hang with Niall! What about you?" Zoe kept the conversation going.

"Scoping out that new chap, we finally got some new meat in this godforsaken school. He's quite the cutie." She smiled, turning to me, "You might need to tell your daddy to buy you a new car, new guy's car is actually nicer than yours. Shocking right?"

"Always a pleasure talking to you Sophia." I plastered a lovely fake smile on my face.

"Or you could just have him buy you your own wing of dorms, I mean, you're already halfway there since he bought you your own room." She rolled her eyes before looking back at Bryn and Zoe, "It was nice seeing you girls!"

Sophia trudged passed us and out the door, leaving a strong trail of cheap perfume in our presence.

"She's so skanky it hurts." Bryn coughed, "Like, she's the only reason you have a room to yourself."

"Plus, the new lad will never like her, she's a pain in the arse, and her bum is completely nonexistent." Zoe chuckled.

Knocking on Niall's door, we heard a large groan before we heard the door hinge unlock.

"Oh hey girls, what's up?" Niall cheerfully answered the door, "Or are you just here to see Liam?"

"We came to hang with you! I don't give a damn about the new guy." I lied, but it put a smile on his face.

"Well then come on in! I haven't seen you girls all summer, what's new?"

"Niall, you went yachting with us two weeks ago.." I awkwardly laughed at his stupidity.

"Oh, yeah! Okay, well how have you been since then?" The door started to unlock and none of us answered Niall's question, all eyes were fixed on the opening door.

"Niall, why are there so many girls in the hall, isn't this the-" He said before looking up, "oh! didn't realize we had company."

"Oh yeah! Sorry lad, but these are some of my friends, this is Zoe." He looked at Zoe, smiled and said hello. "That's bryn." And he did the same to bryn. "And that's-"

"Mary." He spoke softly.

"Uh yeah, okay well that's Mary but you apparently know that." Niall looked just as confused as I did.

"Have we met before?" I raised my eyebrow, seriously questioning how he knew my name in the first four hours he's been at the school.

"Our dad's work together, they're partners actually. I'm always in the office and there are about a hundred pictures of you so I kinda just guessed." He smiled, "annnnd we met last year at the christmas party."

"Oh well that explains that, I was completely plastered at that party."

"Yeah I know, I tried to get with you that night but your date was not havin' it." He said, very dimly.

Shocked at him being so blunt, "Well yeah, he was my date."

Liam rolled his eyes and set his bag down beside his bed. Was this guy for real? He was giving me attitude that I wouldn't do that hanky panky with him a year ago.

"As much as I love reminiscing, I'm gonna go get some grub, anyone want to join me?" I changed the subject.

"I'd love to, I'll drive." Liam said sharply. Bloody hell.