The Academy // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Nicole’s POV

It had been a bit hard getting out of my dorm tonight without being bombarded with questions from my friends about where I was going. That fact that I had actually dressed up a bit didn’t make the situation any better for me.

Once they had finally accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to tell them anything at all, they finally left me alone and I could leave the dorm. So now Harry and I were currently heading to walk off campus. A few minutes ago he had laced his fingers with mine, and that pretty much put a stop to any conversation. I honestly didn’t mind that much though, his hand was warm and just fit with mine so well and more butterflies were erupting in my stomach than there probably should be right now.

Another part of me was just kind of shocked that I was holding hands with Harry right now, I mean he’s Harry, the guy who I literally despised just last week. The guy who had no respect for this school at all. He was the one who I told my friends about saying he was just terrible, and he was the one who ditched me at lunch at the beginning of this week. It was weird, but I was surprisingly okay with it all. Harry then cleared his throat and began to speak, putting an end to our continuous silence.

“So do you know how we’re supposed to get anywhere once we are off campus? Because I don’t,” he told me.

“There’s a bus stop that’s just a few blocks away that I usually use to go into more urban areas on the weekend we are allowed to go off campus,” I told him.

I had been expecting some snarky remark about how he was surprised that I ever went off campus, but instead he just nodded and told me to lead the way.

As we were walking, his hand still holding mine, I wondered just what his plan for the night was. I hoped he actually had one and wasn’t just going to make up something for us to do on the spot once we got into the city. I wasn’t going to ask him though because I thought it would be rude, and like I doubted him. Conversation didn’t really pick up again until I informed Harry that the bus stop was now insight and we walked up to it.

Once we were there, Harry let go of my hand to go look at the big sign that showed all the places in the city that the bus would be stopping.

“Have you ever been on a public bus before?” I asked him as I watched the confused look on his face as he had looked at the list that was accompanied with a big map.

“No, and I’m surprised you have,” he said as he still continued to try and decipher the map for himself.

I stepped over to stand next to him to look as the map as well, “Where are we going?” I asked him since I knew I could probably figure out the stop where we would need to get off.

“Like hell I’m telling you,” he said.

“Then good luck trying to figure out where we are going to have to get off,” I told him as I walked over and sat down on the bench and waited for him to admit that he needed my help.

It only took five minutes before he called me back over to him and told me the street name of the place we were going, and I easily found it on the map. Harry had rolled his eyes at me and I laughed a bit as we both walked over to the bench and sat down. I was wondering if he was going to take my hand again, but I wasn’t sure he was going to right now.

“How long is this damn bus going to take to get here?” Harry asked me after a few minutes had passed of us sitting on the bench.

“It should be here soon,” I assured him, and almost as if on que, the bus began to drive up.

Harry and I were the only ones at the bus stop, so once the bus had stopped in front of us, we both got on and the doors closed behind us. There were probably about seven or so people on the bus right now sitting sporadically throughout the bus. Harry and I quickly found two seats next to each other and sat down so the bus could start moving again.

“Can you tell me where we are going now?” I asked Harry after we had been on the bus for a few minutes now of us being on the bus.

“No, so you might as well stop asking because I’m not going to answer,” he told me.

“Fine,” I sighed and crossed my arms.

Each time the bus stopped, I turned to look at Harry to see if we were getting off here, and he eventually caught on to that and would just look up at the screen telling us where we were stopped and then he would shake his head no. I still wasn’t sure what to expect from Harry, for all I know he has no idea what he’s doing and I’m probably going to end up being stuck somewhere I don’t want to be for the remainder of the night. I couldn’t be that quick to doubt him yet, we were probably just going to dinner or something. If we were, I really hoped it wasn’t a restaurant with food I didn’t like. I really needed to stop worrying about all of this, but I couldn’t help it. I was aware of his reputation at his old school and being alone with him like this was just beginning to make me a bit nervous.

“We’re getting off,” I soon heard Harry say, breaking me out of my thoughts as I looked up and saw him already standing up with his hand stretched out for me.

I hesitantly, yet eagerly took hold of his hand as he led me off the bus. We began to walk down the sidewalk, Harry stopping every now and then trying to subtly look around. I realized that he wasn’t exactly sure of where he was going, but his big ego causing him to not ask me for help, determined that he could do it on his own.

“You lost?” I asked him.

“No,” he scoffed as he began to walk again, tugging at my hand when I was beginning to fall behind his fast pace.

“Where is the damn place,” Harry said to himself after a few moments, and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit, causing him to glare at me.

“I’ve already messed up the night, haven’t I?” Harry said to me as he sat down on a bench in defeat, letting go of my hand.

“What are you talking about, Harry?” I said as I sat down next to him.

“I can’t find the restaurant and that damn bus took too long to get us here that we’re probably going to miss the movie too,” he told me.

I was relieved to see that he actually did have a plan, but I felt bad that he thought it was ruined, even though I doubted it was.

“Let’s just eat at that steakhouse across the street,” I suggested.

“Where?” he asked, and I pointed in the direction where I saw it.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” he said.

“What? You don’t like steak, because I’m pretty sure they’ll have other options and-”

“Let’s go,” he said getting up from the bench and grabbing my hand again as we walked across the street.

“This was the restaurant you were looking for and couldn’t find, wasn’t it?” I stated with a slight laugh once realization struck me.

“Shut up,” he said as he fought back a grin while I continued to laugh at him as we walked inside.

Harry went up to get us a table and then we followed the waiter to our table. Two menus were placed in front of us and the waiter told us someone would be here soon to take our drink orders. I thanked him before he walked away and then I picked up my menu and began to look at it.

I had an idea of what I wanted from the menu, and then I looked up to see if Harry was done looking at his menu, but he was still reading it.

It wasn’t until then that I realized that I’ve never really looked at him until now. I noticed his bright green eyes scanning the words on the menu, and his long, brown hair with slight curl to was falling in front of his face a bit, and he reached a hand up to his hair and ran his hand through it to get it out of his face.

“Liking what you see?” he asked and I saw a smirk form on his pink lips as he continued to look at the menu.

I quickly looked back down to my menu since I had been caught staring, and I heard a slight chuckle emit from him as I felt my cheeks begin to heat up.