Out of Bounds [h.s. au]

Chapter 5

The rest of my weekend was uneventful. I spent most of the time finishing my English paper on Pride and Prejudice, which admittedly I was grateful for. I only talked to Harry once when he texted me Sunday saying that the night before hadn't been nearly as fun without me there, and that he'd hoped I'd enjoyed my cheesecake. I told him he was sweet.

Professor Crawford introduced the next chapter in Sociology on Tuesday, so Harry and I met at the library on Wednesday evening to begin work on our second paper. With the semester well under way, the library seemed more crowded than usual. Like before, we both threw out a few ideas, but nothing really grabbed both of our interests. Behind us was a table of girls who kept giggling. At first I thought they were giggling at Harry, or worse, me with Harry, but we finally concluded that they were high. They were finally asked to leave, which made Harry and I giggle. In the end we both decided we weren't going to get anywhere that night, so we decided to try again on Harry's next night off, Saturday.

We had agreed to meet at his apartment to study this time instead of the library. Less distractions, he'd said, though I wasn't so sure about that. At least the library was a public place. How on earth was I going to handle being alone with him? Of course these thoughts were never discussed out loud. They were only in my head. Other than the harmless flirting we continued to exchange daily in class and in the library, Harry was a perfect gentleman. He had voiced that one time that he would ask me out if I wasn't married. And other than my visit to Mikado's, nothing similar had been brought up again.

Although I hadn't done anything wrong, and had no reason to be deceitful, I felt guilty about this evening. Up to now I had pretty much been honest with my husband. I told him that in Soc. class we had been put into pairs for the duration, and my partner was a boy named Harry. I'd even revealed that he was a cute boy, and about this he teased me, though I'd probably made it seem like he was just your typical cute kid, not the handsome young man he really was. I'd also told him that we had to get together to study and work on projects, which he seemed fine with. Late nights at the library were exactly that. Until tonight. I couldn't bring myself to tell him I was going to meet Harry at his place. I just told him it was another late night at the library.

I actually felt jitters as I got out of my car and stepped onto the sidewalk. "Get a grip, Tisa," I told myself. I clutched my backpack tightly and knocked on the door. A handsome guy with dark hair and a slight beard answered it.

"Hey, you must be Tisa," he said. He held the the door open and waved me in. "I'm Zack."

"Hi, Zack," I nodded. I had heard Harry mention his roommate's name before, but of course he hadn't mentioned he was a hottie too.

"That's Joey over there," Zack motioned toward another boy sitting on the couch, clearly engrossed in a video game. He quickly raised a hand and said "hey."

"And Grayson's in the kitchen with Harry," Zack continued, gesturing toward the small kitchen. I heard Harry sing in a low voice, "Grayson's in the kitchen with Harry," to the tune of "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah." I giggled.

Harry peeked his head around the counter. "Hi Tisa," he grinned.

I waved and leaned my backpack against the wall.

"Oh, hello, I'm Grayson," said the fourth boy who'd just stepped out from the kitchen with a beer in his hand. He held out his other hand for me to shake.