The Academy // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Nicole’s POV

We had been at the party for a while now, and so far Harry and I had just gotten some snacks and sat down at one of the tables. I was kind of surprising myself as I was talking to him. I seemed to know what I wanted to say in response and I wasn’t nervous about saying whatever I wanted.

I had tried my best to remember all the tips Becca and Liz had given me, and that with the alcohol was making talking to Harry pretty simple. Usually I wouldn’t know what to say to him because a lot of things that he would say would just render me speechless without a thorough response that I felt like I could say.

During the first few minutes of us talking, it was either silent or Harry was going on about how this was already a lame party and that I was ridiculous for thinking that this was a party and that I needed to see a real party. Luckily I had enough courage just to tell him to shut up and that caught him off guard a bit, but thankfully it worked.

The small plate that I had filled with the small snacks from the tables a few minutes ago was now empty, and ever few moments I had been taking a pretzel off of Harry’s plate. I laughed as he glared at me each time I took one, but he never stopped me.

“So you never gave me an answer to the question I asked you during lunch,” Harry said to me after awhile.

“What question?” I asked, trying to hide the giggle that was threatening to come out as I spoke.

“You know the question that I’m talking about,” he told me, obviously not wanting to repeat what he had asked me during lunch in the coffee shop.

Normally I would’ve just tried to avoid the question again like I had the first time that he had asked me, but right now I was going to use my newfound confidence that I had in myself and the fact that I may not fully remember everything from tonight when I would wake up tomorrow morning.

“I get the sense that you really don’t like me very much,” he told me.

“I definitely have feelings towards you, I just haven’t decided if they’re positive or negative yet,” I told him.

He smirked, “Well let me know when you figure it out,”

“You’ll be the first,” It was silent between us after that, and I was trying to think of what to say or do next. I was getting bored of just sitting here though, so I decided to get up and walk around.

“Where are you going?” Harry asked me once I stood up. I shrugged and began to walk away, and I waited for Harry to catch up with me before I walked any further.

“I really don’t want to participate in any part of this so called party,” Harry told me, but I just ignored him.

“Hey guys, come join us we’re going to play a game,” a girl who I noticed was in my hall say to Harry and I as we were passing their group sitting on the couch.

Harry was set on ignoring them, but I decided that I was going to join and Harry sighed and went ahead and sat down next to me on the couch.

“Write your name on this paper and put it in the cup,” she told Harry and I as she handed us small pieces of paper and a pen.

“What’s this for?” I asked as Harry wrote his name on the paper and threw it in the cup. “Seven minutes in heaven,” someone told me.

“This is bullshit, twelve year olds play this game,” I heard Harry complain as I placed the paper with my name on it into the cup.

“What’s this game about?” I asked again since no one had told me what this game was yet.

Still nobody responded and one of the guys in the group started drawing names from the cup.

“Lacey,” he called out and I watched as a blonde girl got up from the couch and started walking over to the supply closet.

I squinted my eyes in confusion, and another name was called out and this time a guy rose from the couch and walked to the closet as well.

A while the guy who had been calling out the names got up and walked over to the closet, knocking on the door and announcing that time was up, and they both emerge from the closet. I didn’t know what they did, but when they came back to the couch they said nothing. A few more went and came back and I was still at a loss to understand what this game was about. I had a few ideas of what it was, but I wanted to believe that it was something else.

“I don’t get the point of this game,” I whispered to Harry.

“I’m just surprised these goodie goodies are playing this game instead of a ten year old game like truth or dare,” he told me.

“I still don’t get what you’re supposed to do,” I said.

“You will soon enough,” he told me.

I sighed and crossed my arms as I waited and watched as more people went to the closet and came back. But when my name was called, my heartbeat quickened and a nervous chill shot through me as I nervously got up as everyone watched me and walked down to the supply closet.

After a few seconds of standing in the dark space, I make a motion to open the door and just leave, but the door opens before I get the chance.

Someone has now entered, and the door shuts again, surrounding me in darkness again. I hear the person sigh and something falls in the closet as the outcome of him moving into something.

“Shit,” he mumbled, and I make the voice out as Harry’s.

“What is this about?” I asked quickly.

“We’re in here together for seven minutes,” he tells me.

“I still don’t get the point,” I told him and he let out an annoyed sigh.

“Seven minutes in heaven, you’re smart, I’m sure you can come up with an answer,” he told me.

I had already had an idea of what the point of this game was, but I had just wanted to know for sure because I really didn’t want to be right.

“Oh,” I told him, letting him know that I understood now.

As my eyes adjusted more to the dark, I can see a bit of us face and I notice an amused smile on it.

“But you would never do anything, would you?” he stated.

I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to admit that he was right. The alcohol I was given tonight had given confidence as far as speaking to him, but I could slowly feel that confidence start to fade away as I became more and more aware of this situation and who it was with. His face is closer to mine now than I realized and his arms are on the wall behind me, hands pressed above my head.

“You’re still pretty nervous around me, aren’t you?” he asked me.

“N-Not really,” I told him, and I scolded myself in my mine for stuttering when I said that.

I could see a smirk come onto his face.

“If you’re comfortable around me then, how about you answer that question now,” he said, and I knew that I probably wasn’t going to be able to avoid it again.

“I told you how I feel about you, now how do you feel about me?” he said after a few moments of silence from me.

I was intimidated by how close his face was to mine; I was taken back more when I feel his lips now on mine in a hard, insistent kiss.