Loving Grayson ✓ (Book 2, the Hating Series)

13

Dallas

"I cannot believe it's the first day and we already have a shit tonne of studying to do." Hannah complained from across the table.

We were now seated in the library, studying. Well, Hannah was studying, because she was surprisingly dead-set on going above and beyond with her classes this year. I, however, was sat across from her flipping through the pages of a comic book.

"It's not even that much." I respond to her, scanning the page that I was currently on.

"Why aren't you studying?" She asked me.

I roll my eyes before setting them on her. "All he gave us was an agenda of what we are going to be learning this year, plus a tiny questionnaire. It's not that deep."

"Not that deep?" She practically scoffed. "We're going to be reading all of these books!"

"Shhhhhh!" Someone seated at the table beside ours scowled at us.

Hannah mimicked her before turning to me. "What a rude bitch."

"Oh my god. Hannah, calm down." I implored her. "Like, take a breath."

She begins dramatically hyperventilating.

Where is Lucy when you need her?

"It will be okay, Hannah." I assured her. "Trust me."

"I don't think I can do this."

"What have I missed?" Lucy entered, eyeing Hannah with a look of concern.

"Just Hannah having a mental breakdown." I say, sliding myself out of my chair to place to comic from where I had gotten it.

Honestly, what kind of college library has comic books?

The library in question was far grander than I expected. Then again, I wouldn't imagine that it would be some kind of imitation of an ordinary public library. Honestly, looking at it from the inside, it almost reminds me of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. Like, honestly, this place was absolutely medieval.

I walk across the room and turn to head down the aisle where I had found the comic book, only to collide head-first with another student.

Ouch.

I stumble backwards, dazed as I heard the sound of more than a few books thumping against the ground.

"Fudge! I am so sorry." I hear the other person voice.

"No, it's... it's my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going." I say, taking him in. His light brown hair in tousled curls above a face that was covered in faint freckles. He had a nose piercing, as well as a set of blue eyes that stared back at me before he nervously averted his gaze.

"Are you a freshman here too?" I decided to ask him as a way of being nice whilst I leaned down to pick up our fallen books.

"Oh, uh... yeah I am." He says.

"That is a lot of books." I say to him, inclining my head to his fallen books.

He, too, leaned down to help me pick up the books. "Yeah," He says. "I am panic-studying."

A phrase I thought I'd never hear come from another human being... like, ever!

"You'd get along well with my friend, Hannah." I slightly chuckled at the thought.

"Why?" He wondered.

After collecting the books, we each get back onto our feet. "She is also panic-studying." I tell him.

"She sounds like a nightmare." He says.

An accurate diagnosis.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean..." he paused. "I was joking. I just meant... You said-"

"It's fine, truly." I say to him. "She actually is a nightmare." I chuckled.

"Oh.."

Things became awkward very fast.

"Well, I better put this comic book back." I say to him.

"And I better get back to panic-studying." He responds, giving an awkward smile.

He seemed like a nice guy.

"Charlie," A girl appeared beside us. "Is everything okay?" Her eyes fall on me, eyeing me up and down, as if summarising my entire personality inside of her head.

"Yes, Ella.." He says. "I was just getting more books."

"Okay..." She eyes me once more, curiously so. "Well, Clayton is about to call us from Arizona any minute now."

"Right." He holds the books with unease. "Well, sorry again for bumping into you...?"

"Dallas." I introduced myself to him.

"Nice to meet you, Dallas." He smiled. "Again, sorry."

"Oh, It was my fault, don't even worry about it."

"Let's just agree that it was a mutual accident." He said.

"Okay."

"Okay, bye." He gave an awkward wave whilst somehow still managing to keep his books within his grasp before walking off after that Ella character.

Later that night I am lying down in bed at something past midnight, unable to fall asleep, despite how many times I had silently begged sleep to take me.

Why couldn't all humans be genetically programmed to physically switch ourselves off rather than lie awake in bed for minutes that turn into hours of trying to force ourselves to get to sleep?

Trust me when I say that it would make life a hell of a lot easier.

Especially given the fact that I have been trying to sleep for almost two full hours now, and despite my eyes aching for rest, I just could not get myself to comply.

There's also the fact that I am sleeping across from a guy that was practically a stranger to me. No, not practically, he was a stranger to me. He may be nice, but that doesn't change the fact that I was still awkward about sharing a room with him.

I mean, what if he's a serial killer?

Okay, maybe that was just a tad dramatic of me.

I roll over and reach for my phone in the dark. I unlock my phone and then found myself scrolling through all of mine and Grayson's old texts.

The other night was awful.

Well, it was great, then it was amazing, and then it was awful.

Still, all I wanted to do was text him.

Should I?

No, of course I shouldn't. I may have taken things out of hands, but I should not be the one to fold first, especially when he was the one that ruined our perfect night. And even if I did want to text him, it's not like he would be up this late...

Would he be?

I decided to just say 'fuck it' and attempt to start typing something, but I just couldn't jot down the words.

All of a sudden, my mind went blank and I had no idea what I would even say to him.

Ugh!

I decided to lock my phone and place it back on my nightstand before lying down in bed.

I returned to my former attempt at trying to get some sleep.