Tragic Kingdom (80s/90s imagines)

67. Whoever You Want

H/n= his name (or her but I didn't think about it until I was nearly done to make it gender neutral 😔)

The downside to not having friends in your major meant that you didn't have classes with them very often. Maybe an elective or GenEd class, but you just never seemed to luck out with scheduling. Every class was a room full of strangers to you.

He decided the middle of the classroom was a good place to sit. He wasn't sure if the stigma of sitting in the back carried over from high school, but he wasn't taking chances. Besides, he didn't have friends to sit with anyway. None of them were taking World Lit this semester.

There were only a few people already in the classroom when you walked in, and you decided to just sit down at the first desk you looked at. "Are you saving this seat?" you asked the guy in the next desk over.

He looked up at you, shaking his head. "Nah. You're good." Then, he turned back to his backpack that he had been rummaging through.

You two sat next to each other every other day. You exchanged little more than a quick smile every now and then, and then partner work was introduced. Neither of you spoke to much of anyone in the class; nobody did. You answered a question and then shut up. So when Professor Philips announced that you would be doing a project in pairs, everyone that hadn't made friends in the class were internally frantic.

The worry must have shown on some faces because Professor Philips gave a warm smile. "Don't worry. I'll choose for you, so you don't hurt anyone's feelings." He went over more details of the assignment- due dates, parameters, visual aid ideas- before beginning his partner selections.

You couldn't say you were hoping for anyone in particular. You had spoken the equivalent of a poorly constructed paragraph to any given person in the class. Not that you didn't have an idea of what most of them were like by now. The semester was almost halfway through, and you were a people watcher by nature, so you had a few clues to personalities.

Especially the guy next to you. He was fidgety but not in the annoyingly obvious way. You would see his knee bouncing in her peripheral, and as soon as it stopped, he was scribbling in his notebook, like most of the energy in his body concentrated in one area at a time. His sense of humor appeared in the moments he let out an amused huff in response to something that was said.

He was hoping to get almost anyone other than the dude behind him. The guy had sneezed all over the back of his head one day, and he hadn't quite forgiven him. You weren't a bad option, he thought as he glanced over at you. Of course, so was anyone else who could keep their germs to themselves. But you were also funny. He could hear the little remarks and jokes you made to yourself in whispers. He could use a little humor.

"Y/n," Professor Philips called out, as your attention drew to him, eyes wide in anticipation to see who you would be paired with. "I want you and H/n to work together. Is that alright with you two?"

You both looked at each other and exchanged a friendly nod. "Yes, sir."

After going over the assignment, you two decided to meet in the library later that afternoon.

You were already there when he walked into the library. You waved him over after noticing him looking around. "Hey! Is this table fine, or would you rather go to a study area?"

He shook his head, sitting down across from you. "This is fine. So what you were you thinking as a visual aid?"

"I have this idea of a collage or a poster." You pulled out some notes you had taken to tell him about. "I had a couple other ideas, but I had just really stuck to that one." You looked up at him again, quickly adding "But it's whatever. If you prefer something else, that's cool."