Getting Under Nathan

40: "Drugs are for mugs."

Chapter 40 - "Drugs are for mugs."

**Dedicated to jessy_jho as she wanted more of Jess, and there's lots of Jess in this chapter! She comments on most chapters too, which I really appreciate.**

Jess excitedly threw her arms around me as we greeted each other on the platform at the train station. Any sign of her previous sadness was no longer visible and had been completely replaced with elation instead.

"It's so good to see you!" she gushed, once we'd released each other from the hug.

"You too!" I grinned. "Your hair looks nice - have you had it done?"

She nodded and ran a hand through her thick, brown locks. It was significantly shorter now but still oozed a volume and waviness of which I was envious.

"Yeah," she said. "There's this place on campus that does haircuts and, although I was a bit nervous, it desperately needed a cut. Plus, I wanted it to look good for this weekend."

"Well, it looks great," I assured her.

We began our walk towards my halls of residence. It wasn't too much of a trek and luckily it wasn't raining, either. I'd asked Jess if she'd prefer to get a taxi, but she'd said she wanted some fresh air after the train journey.

"I'm so excited for a night out," she told me.

"Yeah, what did you fancy?" I asked. "We can go to a club, or if you fancy something a little quieter then there are some nice cocktail bars."

"Honestly, I really don't mind," she said. "My flat at uni never goes out and people spend all their time in their rooms...my social life is non-existent."

"Is that the Oxford ethic, or something?" I asked.

"I don't think so. I think it's just my flat."

"Well, my flat's a bit weird at the moment," I warned her. "There's a definite split forming, anyway."

"Hayley and Gemma?" she guessed.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I mean, the boys are still alright, I guess...Jack's as great as ever."

As we approached the block of flats, I punched in the security number to open the door. Jess was panting by the time we made it to the top floor of the block, where my flat was situated.

"How do you do that every day?" she gasped.

"You get used to it," I assured her with a smile. "It's great for your fitness, means you don't have to feel guilty about not doing any exercise."

"I never feel guilty about not doing exercise," she admitted.

"Me neither," I smirked.

Unsurprisingly, Jack was lurking when I let Jess into the flat. He casually strolled into my bedroom and interrupted a conversation about alcohol that Jess and I were having.

"Afternoon, ladies," he greeted smoothly.

Jess straightened up from where she'd been leaning over her suitcase to unpack. Despite Jack addressing both of us, I might as well have been invisible as his eyes focused entirely on my friend.

"I can only apologize on Izzy's behalf for her clear lack of hosting skills," he said to Jess, holding out his hand. "I'm Jack."

I rolled my eyes. "Jack, she only just arrived. I was going to introduce you after she'd unpacked," I said, as Jess laughed and shook his hand.

"Izzy, it's fine; you don't want to share me and I get that," he said with a casual shrug, causing me to roll my eyes yet again at his sheer arrogance. "But I can already sense some real chemistry between Jess and me."