Meet Me in the Hallway (HS AU)

twenty one.

Thursday lunch rolled around rather quickly and as much as I'd hate to admit it, the eagerness for Harry to try my food was a large part of the reason. My morning ran smoothly, the kids were excellent and I hadn't even paid much attention to the bruises littering my body.

The lunch bell rang and shortly after the kids dispersed into the hallway, I made my way towards the staffroom to heat our lunches.

The microwave beeped and I made my way over to his office. Knocking still felt like the right thing to do at this point, so after three light knocks, I walked in and saw him at his desk. He looked both surprised and not surprised at all to see me.

He pointed one finger to the ceiling, "It's not storming?"
I pointed towards the two Tupperware containers in my hand, "It's risotto."

He paused for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and reached out towards the containers. After passing him one of the containers and a spoon, I threw myself down onto the couch.

"Hey, about yesterday. I might not like you but that doesn't mean I can just stand by if things are happening to you, you understand that right?" As much as my heart needed to hear his statement, my head couldn't take it.

"I don't know what you're talking about, eat the risotto before it goes cold and you complain about it."

I watched him take the lid off and raise the bowl to his nose, much more discreetly than he had watched me the day earlier. The spoon passed his lips and his eyes fell shut. I suddenly felt very nervous, and for what? It's not like I was seeking Harry's approval, we weren't even friends, but the thought of letting him down after his food yesterday made me feel sick to my stomach.

He started shaking his head, oh fuck why is he shaking his head? He put his spoon back in the bowl and pressed the heel of his hands to his closed eyes and threw his head back.

"You just had to one up me didn't you?"

Weekly meetings resumed this week and I had little to no desire to sit and discuss teaching strategies with some of the other teachers. Yes this was a staffroom of a primary school, but you could have sworn it was a lunchroom of a high school. The staff had their own cliques and groups divided by either age, class year level or subject specialisation. I didn't really have many teaching friends because I didn't feed into their bullshit, all of my work 'friends' were in administration.

The only thing getting me through this meeting was the shitty iced coffee I bought at the supermarket this morning to keep me awake during the presentation. It tasted like shit but the caffeine was greatly appreciated.

The hour dragged on and it felt as though I had been sitting on this chair for a whole week. When we were finally dismissed from the meeting, I waited for everyone else to leave so I could grab my Tupperware from the dishwasher.

Just as I was about to slide my chair out from under the table I had been sitting at, a hand reached over my shoulder to tap the plastic cap of my iced coffee bottle. I followed the arm to the culprit and Harry was shaking his head again.

"That is disgraceful." He began walking towards the hallway but not before calling over his shoulder, "a true crime against coffee!"

I stepped out of my car on Friday morning around the same time Harry did, but on opposite sides of the car park. The gravel crunched beneath my boots as I made my way towards the front entrance, the crunching got louder as Harry approached it as well.

"Morning, Mr Styles." I opened the front doors and allowed the warmth to engulf me.

"Morning, Josephine." He extended his hand out towards me and I caught a glimpse of what was in his hand, or both of them to be exact. "I couldn't let you continue to commit coffee murder. As someone who appreciates good coffee, it hurt me too much."

This fucker had bought me an iced coffee from the cafe down the road. "I don't see how my coffee choice affected you in the slightest," I grabbed the cup from his hand, "but it did taste like absolute shit. So thank you." I took a sip, it was exactly how I took my coffee. I don't know how he managed to guess my coffee preferences, but this was one of the best I had ever had.

"It's good, right?" He nodded as he sipped his own. I nodded in response and drank another mouthful.

"I bought more risotto. If you don't want it again that's fine, I can take the extra serve home. But it's there if you do." I would have completely understood if he didn't want to eat my food two days in a row. Yesterday he probably only accepted it to even the score, so I was prepared to face food rejection.

"Oh, god yes. I'll definitely have some more!" That beautiful smile spread across his face and I couldn't force myself not to reciprocate one.

The simple act of buying me a coffee was stuck in my head for the entire weekend. As much as I tried to convince myself it was just a kind gesture and he had guessed my coffee order, I couldn't stop my brain from overthinking the entire exchange. I spent all of Friday trying to distract my brain so it didn't swim in thoughts of him and all of Saturday and Sunday trapped in my head thinking about it.

Part of me worried he felt as though I couldn't afford good coffee and he felt it was a charitable thing to do? I hated being pitied and if that's what this was all about, I would riot.

The other part of my brain scared me more than the first, what if he wanted to be friends? I couldn't simply become friends with someone who continued to refer to me as Miss Cook when I had begged and pleaded for him to not.

Hot air was spread over my skin as kisses were pressed to my exposed neck. This pulled me from my spaced out state and I was reminded of what I was doing, Will's moans and groans travelled through my ears and I did my best not to cringe. If he was consistent, I wouldn't have to deal with this for much longer. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later I felt all his body weight collapse on top of me. I couldn't breath for those few moments until he rolled onto his side of the bed and fell asleep.

****

Hi all, sorry for the boring chapter BUT over the last 72 hours, my book sat intermittently at Number 3 of #harrystyles and I somehow gained two thousand additional reads which is INSANE!!

I've also had some personal stuff going on over the last 72 hours that has just left me emotionally exhausted so hopefully the next chapter is a bit better. The plans I have for Chapter Twenty Two are HUGE.

So much love x