You Can't Have it All || a.g

1.1 New Friends and Old Ends

Ariana

Driving to school was hard, but not as hard as this. I attempt to zoom past traffic, but I end up being caught at a red light; at the turn into campus. My watch reads 7:54 am and I've only got six minutes to find parking, and walk across the large parking lot in heels to campus. I avoid picking up my cellphone to text Alexa back by blasting the morning radio, and singing along to All of Me by John Legend- the mixed version that makes people want to grind and fist pump in a club.

Surprisingly, I find myself a parking pretty fast but unfortunately, its about fifty parking rows away from campus.

I run in heels, and thank God for the gift he has blessed me with; I could run in heels fast enough to get me there in less than the three minutes left. But when I arrive at campus, finally, I'm astounded to see a chaotic crowd of people. Their voices loud and echoing the lobby of the school. I see Alexa talking two guys- two guys that I've never seen before, along with twelve other people behind them who are talking amongst themselves, also people who I don't know. And this shocks me.

I walk over, fixing my skirt and hair self conciously. The closer I get, the more I realize that I recognize one of those two guys that Alexa is talking to. Graham Phillips, twenty one and hot like the sun. Ugh, I hate myself.

So, I do what I do best and I pretend that I don't know him- or see him or the other curly headed disaster beside him. I turn to Alexa, and flash her a smile, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Hey." I greet her softly, trying my best not to let my brown orbs flicker to the two men.

Alexa grins, her beautiful grin at me, and the usual pit of envy is brought back to me, but I ignore it- and remind myself that she is my best friend and we are the same people. "Hey, Ari! We have these two new students, but um," she pauses, leaning closer to me to whisper in my ear, "Graham Phillips is one of them." She whispers, not so softly, and its audible to the two males watching us intently. Graham looks amused, as if he's enjoying my entire displeasure. Whereas, the curly disaster's expression looks perplexed.

I do my best to laugh it off, and I stare right at Graham. "I'm sorry, Alexa. I don't know who this is, at all."

Graham's smug smile turns into a deep brown, and its my turn to be amused. Alexa, totally dumbfounded for whatever reason, raises her eyebrows quickly for a moment. She realizes that I have no intention of being friendly towards Graham and she sighs, exasperated.

"Fine." She states, narrowing her eyes at us. But the smile soon returns to her features as if she remembered the curly headed boy. I step back from Graham, realizing how close I was to him when I was grilling his eyes with mine. My smile is actually genuine when I look at the other boy, and he looks as if he were about to burst from confusion. I giggled.

As if on cue, Alexa ruins the comforting silence and speaks up. "Ariana, meet Harold. Harold meet Ariana," and her hand gestures between us two, and I almost forget Graham is there.. Almost.

But I hold out my hand in front of Harold, and he finally breaks out into a cheeky smile. "Ariana, pleasure. I'm Harold, but I go by Harry." His deep voice gives me chills, the good kind, and it makes the blood rush to my cheeks after I hear the british accent in it.

"Call me Ari, Harry." I reply, then another giggle falls from my lips. "It rhymes."

Graham awkwardly coughs."You never let me call you Ari."

I narrow my eyes at him, and shrug. "Because I never knew you, and nor do I want to."

I drag Alexa along with me, who pulls Harry along with her. In the crowded hallway, we look like a stylish and sexist train trying to get to first class. We're exceptionally late.