Game Theory × NH

020 | calcium

× Mercury

"Hello, darling!" my grandmother said through the phone.

"Hey!" I responded. "What's up? Anything new over there?"

"Well," she started to say. I heard a gust of wind through the receiver and guessed she was outside, probably attending to her guardian. "That is why I'm calling you, actually. I had a strange visitor last night, a handsome young boy asking for you."

I probably would have scolded her for opening the door to strangers at night, but I was too overwhelmed by what she said after to discipline. My heartbeat speed up and my hands started to shake. Grandma didn't need to give me a name of the boy because there was only one boy I knew who was crazy enough to go out of his way to find me.

"Lynn? Are you alright, dear?"

"Yes! Yeah, I'm fine," I managed to say as I started digging in my dresser to find an outfit to wear for the day, but my hands didn't seem to work right. My head didn't seem to be communicating with my fingers as I picked up shirt after shirt absentmindedly. "What- what did you tell him? Did he give you a name?"

"Yes, he did. Oh, what was it? Braeden... Brenton... No, maybe it was Brandon-"

"Was it Bradley?"

"Yes! Bradley was his name! Oh, he looked like a lost puppy when I told him you left to London. Why wouldn't you tell him you were leaving?"

Because I had broken away from his trance and saw how much of a pig he really was, I thought. Why would Bradley go to my grandma's place? And why would he be looking for me now? It had been almost two weeks since I left, so what happened to make him realize that I wasn't by his side anymore? What made him come crawling back to little ol' me when he had other girls on the side?

"I just- I..." I fumbled. "Did he say why he was looking for me?"

"No," she stated simply. "But he looked eager to find you."

I decided just to change the topic of discussion. Grandma didn't need to know who Bradley was in my life and I was going to keep it that way. We chatted about what we usually talked about, her garden and the annoying dog from next door and I told her how much I missed her.

When there was a knock on my door, I finally had to tell Grandma that I needed to leave.

"Sure, dear. But I really think you should get a hold of that Bradley fella," she reminded.

"Okay, Grandma." Like that was going to happen, I thought.

"Oh! And have a wonderful first game tomorrow."

"I will. Bye, I love you."

"Goodbye, darling. I love you, too."

I hung up the phone and and padded across the wooden flooring to the door just as there was another knock. I had to blink a couple of times once I opened the door to make myself believe who was actually standing there.

He was in a plain white shirt and light blue jeans and Converse. His hair wasn't styled up like it usually was, but sticking up in every direction like he had been running his fingers through it all morning. He also had a laptop under his arm along with a notebook and a backpack over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I quickly tried to run my fingers through my hair to make it a little presentable.

Niall had made it pretty clear last Saturday that he was going to keep his distance from me, so I was rather confused as to why he was at my door so early in the morning