Across the Pond (Prince Harry #2)

Chapter Eighteen

When Meredith awoke in the morning, there was snow on the ground. The paparazzi, however, were immune to it. Meredith welcomed the snow and the dip in temperature. It was too cold outside just yet, but once it hit negatives, the paparazzi would run away with their tails between their legs. Meredith focused on her walking on the newly formed snow. She had missed the fact that it snowed all night, and now three inches of snow stayed on the ground.

Computer Science managed to bore Meredith out of her mind. None of it made sense to her. She hoped eventually they might move onto something more useful. The teacher didn't see it that way.

More paparazzi were out when she was on her way back from class, just moping around with nothing to do. Meredith enjoyed the snow, but she was suddenly scared of falling. It was an usual thing for her, but she didn't want to fall in front of all the cameras.

"Meredith!" Tabitha yelled, and Meredith twirled around. A snowball hit her in the chest. Meredith immediately bent down but Tabitha was ready, and she got her friend in the shoulder. Meredith grabbed two handfuls of snow and chucked them at Tabitha, getting Tabitha easy. "That's cheating. You used to play softball."

"Baseball," Meredith corrected, grabbing more snow. Tabitha didn't have time to move out of the way as Meredith lofted more snow at her. She groaned, "We need more."

Tabitha held up her hands in peace. "You're going to get it. It's supposed to blizzard this weekend."

"Fun." Meredith glanced over to the paparazzi. "Perhaps it'll finally drive them away."

Tabitha shrugged as they went into the building.

Going to her room, Meredith opened the door and a note crunched under her wet boot. Carefully she picked up and the door closed behind her. She locked it. Holding the note, she pulled off her boots and walked around her room.

The note said, If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. Do you want to die?

Putting the note down, Meredith stepped back. "Where the fuck is that other note?" Immediately she grabbed at the supplies on her desk, throwing things about. Her fingers curled around markers and pencils. She checked all her notebooks and textbooks. "Where are you!" she screamed, throwing things to the ground. It wasn't on her desk. Getting to her knees, Meredith searched under boxes and in her desk drawers.

Meredith gave up and pulled out her phone, calling Campus Safety. Unfortunately they couldn't come over right then and there, another dormitory was in the middle of fire alarm after some residents set a microwave on fire. She had class so a meeting was set up for three in the afternoon. Meredith down played; it was just a note after all. It also gave her time to clean her room, where hopefully the other note would come out again.

Leaving her room again, Meredith kept a close eye on the paparazzi as they waited across the street. It had to be one of them. One the paparazzi had to be paying someone in the building to be doing this to her. It all had to be for normal. The paparazzi wanted her to scared, but Meredith wouldn't be scared. Her survived one crazy person, she would survive another.

Music left Meredith bored and an anxiety filled. The three hours away from her room. She had time to go back to her room and just be there, but she knew she might obsess over it. By might, she meant she would definitely obsess over it. The hour between classes was terrible because she nothing to focus on but her mobile.

It had been a while since she went on Facebook, and she had many friend requests. On Twitter, something she never used, somehow she had a bunch of followers too, and they would be sorely disappointed. Going onto Instagram, she was up to two million followers. Who were these people? She hadn't posted anything in a while, and everything waited for a word from her.

Pushing her red rain boots up, she placed them in front of the window. She sat on the second floor, glancing out. It was all white snow below. The trees were hunched over with the new snow, and students had done their best to stay on the cleared paths, as if not to effect it. Even college students understood the beauty of the first snowfall. Meredith snapped the photo and looked at it. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea, certainly because she was known for her red rain boots. She wore them a lot in Scotland. There were pictures of her in red rain boots with Harry.

She had to do something. Meredith posted the picture. What was the worst that could happen, really? Someone was threatening to kill her. "YOLO," Meredith sighed.

Going to nature writing, Meredith couldn't focus on anything. There was something about an essay due soon. She had another thing to do this weekend. Was it bad that she just didn't want to get out of bed? The whole weekend was meant to sleep off this week, and then she was going to sleep off the following week in advance.

When class ended, Meredith was the first one out of the classroom, just trying to get away from the judgmental eyes and worried voices. She didn't want to deal with it today. Walking past the paparazzi, she watched them again. She kept a smile on her face, but under her sunglasses, she watched them like a hawk.

Getting back to her room, she felt her phone buzzing. Glancing at it, it was Harry, but not now, she decided. Throwing open her door, Meredith heard more paper crunch under feet. There were at least five notes lying at her feet. "Do you have nothing else to do?" she asked aloud. Bending down, she picked up the notes and slipped off her red rain boots so snow wouldn't get into her room. She pulled off the shoes and then she wondered how it didn't catch her eye sooner.

Taking two steps forward, Meredith stood in her room, surrounded by herself, literally. At least five hundred pictures of her were posted all of her room. There were pictures from... well, everywhere and at any time. There were pictures of her when she was young and some from in high school. But most of the pictures were from Scotland, with Harry. She couldn't take them all in, but all of her rested on her.

"Well, fuck."