Unfinished Perfection

Cafe Conversations

Lynette slept in the next day, exhausted from activities of the previous night. When she finally woke, it was past noon and the sun was high in the sky. It was a glorious Saturday, and she decided to get Hannah to go with her to the famed Pembroke College library. Hanna was more than happy to oblige and they spent some time exploring Pembroke's beautiful book collections and whispering excitedly about the rare tomes they found on the shelves. They borrowed some interesting books from the public section and walked back to the dorms discussing their favorite novels and all manner of other topics.

Hanna proved to the sort of person you could only really meet once in a lifetime. She was a self-proclaimed introvert, someone who enjoyed the beach when it was the coldest because, only then, was it deserted. Her best memories were made within the well-worn covers of her favorite books and her favorite characters were often also the people she most aspired to be.  She disliked real-life clichés and found every which way to defy the "social trappings of convention."

"Clichés are there for a reason, I suppose," she said thoughtfully, "but if you just gave it a little effort, you could turn something everyone's already familiar with, to something new and wonderful."

Lynette simply listened, silently wishing she could capture the essence of her friend in words.

Hanna looked at Lynette, her expression changing a little. "Now, Harry Potter. That's a clichéd favorite that I'm completely guilty of."

Lynette agreed wholeheartedly, "those books were my whole childhood."

They entered New Court deep in conversation and saw four of the boys from the night before. Liam, Louis, Niall, and Zayn were on their way out.

"Where's Harry?" Lynette realized a moment too late that she had spoken aloud.

Liam turned around and saw her. "He woke up with a pretty high fever so he drove himself to the hospital this morning. Don't worry though," he added swiftly. "He'll probably just get a few antibacterial drips and stay a day or two. It's nothing out of the ordinary." Liam glanced over briefly at the other boys and offered, "Do you want to go out with us for some food? We'll pick up Perrie and go to one of the cafes."

Lynette turned to Hanna, "Want to go with them?"

Hanna nodded, "Yeah, food sounds good right now. We should call Sara though. If we ditch her for lunch, we'll never hear the end of it."

Niall spoke up, "We'll wait for you outside ok? But we need to hurry this up. Food is waiting."

Lynette ran upstairs and knocked on Sara's door. She emerged wearing sweats and a haphazard bun in her hair. "Lynette? What's the hurry?"

"The boys invited us to food. Are you coming?"

It seemed to take only seconds for Sara to comb out her hair and change into jeans and a blouse. They rejoined the large group outside. Zayn had returned with Perrie and was being sickeningly sweet to her.

"Have I ever told you that you look especially beautiful today?"

Perrie scoffed, "Only every time you want me to abandon my own friends to go out with yours. Jade's given up on trying to convince me to stay in for girl's night in and Jessie was genuinely considering giving me lessons on how to resist a certain Zayn Malik."

Louis butted in, "Considering that some of us have girlfriends who happen to be miles away at the moment, you two could tone it down."

Niall looked to be getting impatient, "And considering that some of us happen to be hungry, let's go, let's go, let's go!"

Hanna seemed to share his enthusiasm and began pushing Lynette along. Niall followed suit and then rushed on ahead. "We're going to Café Pembroke, I assume?" he asked the general group.