Hollis Johns is a college freshman who is comfortable in her life. A little too comfortable. It's time for a change.
Fresh out of high school, she's ready to get out of her comfort bubble - with her BFF Charli tagging along.
But when she decides t...
My alarm goes off at 9, and After hitting snooze twice, I decide I need to get up. Charli is already gone because her crazy self signed up for an 8 am class. No thanks. Getting out of bed is always a long process process for me. I crawl out of bed and take a shower. As I'm scrubbing the shampoo in my hair, my nerves are racing. I'm really worried about getting lost or going into the wrong class or not knowing where I'm supposed to go. I take some deep breaths to try and ease my mind.
After I shower, I blow dry my hair and put it up in a ponytail. I pick out jean shorts and a white, V-neck, cotton shirt. A simple outfit that Charli definitely wouldn't approve of. I grab my backpack and a planner I bought yesterday, and leave for my first class.
History 102. It's technically a second-year class, but I took 101 my senior year of high school to earn the college credit. I did that with most of my classes. Depending on how long it take me to decide my major, I could graduate early.
I walk into the lecture room and sit in one of the middle rows. I'm not the first person in the class, but I'm not the last. I'd probably be the last one dragging in if it weren't for my four alarms that I have set for every morning.
A girl with dark, curly hair in a black, ripped crop T-Shirt and black, ripped jeans walks in and starts looking around. When she makes eye contact with me, I turn away so it doesn't seem like I'm staring.
I glance to see if she's still standing there, but she's walking into my row and sits right next to me.
"Hey, I'm Nic. Are you a freshman?" she introduces herself and sets her bags down next to her, sliding into the desk chair.
"Hey, I'm Hollis. Yeah, I'm a freshman, are you?" I ask, wondering why she chose to sit next to me.
"No, I'm a sophomore. I didn't think I'd seen you in here before. I was in the History 101 class last year." She says.
She's eyeing around the room. She's honestly making me nervous. But what I don't need to do is let my social anxiety allow me to make an ass of myself with the first new person I meet here.
"I took the 101 class when I was a senior to just transfer the credit here." I say, trying to keep the normal conversation flowing, but the professor walks in and immediately writes his name on the board, turns around and yells,
"Hello, class. Welcome to History 102. For those of you who don't know me, I am Professor Cole. Today is the beautiful syllabus day. So, let's get started, shall we?" He goes over to his podium, grabs a stack of stapled papers, and starts handing one to each student.
About five minutes into him reading over the syllabus, the door at the top of the class opens and two tall guys, both wearing leather jackets and black, ripped jeans walk in, everyone turns around, including Nic. They both nod at her and she does the same back, then turns to look at me and snickers.
"That's my ex. I'm kind of hiding from him." Nic says, and my question about her sitting next to me is answered.
The professor doesn't look surprised as he greets the two of them.
"Ah, gentlemen.. nice of you to join us. Let's not make this a habit of you two coming in late like last year." They look at each other and let out small laughs as one of them says,
"Yeah, sorry, Professor Cole, won't happen again."
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Professor rolls his eyes and continues going through the class schedule.
I discreetly look over my shoulder to look at the two mysterious guys that walked in. Trying to figure out which one is Nic's ex.
One is dirty blonde, with hair that sticks straight up and has some light brown scruff on his jawline. He's average height, with a giant tattoo on his chest. I could only see it because he had holes all ripped all over the top corner of his shirt. Similar to Nic's shirt.
The other one is tall and pretty muscular. He's definitely the most attractive out of the two. He has deep brown, wavy hair. It's much longer than the blonde's. I can feel their presence in the room. More than likely because of Nic trying to hide from them. I turn my head over my shoulder to glance at him again.
He catches me studying him. He holds eye contact, and I can feel my heart pick up it's pace. I look away, still feeling his eyes on me.
When I turn over my shoulder to glance their way again, he's leaning over and whispering something to the blonde, and the blonde boy looks at me. What could he have just said? I get a little heated with myself for being annoyed by them over that. I look away, telling myself not to look again.
"Don't start drooling, girl. So not worth it." Nic laughs. I giggle a little back. Trying to shake off their faces and focus on anything else.
"Oh, no. Definitely not drooling. You know both of them?"
"Yeah," she nods towards them before continuing,
"The blonde one is Niall Horan, he's my ex. We broke up a few months ago, but things are finally not awkward between us, but I'm hiding so it'll stay that way," She lets out a little chuckle and a small eye roll before continuing,
"And then the dark-haired guy, that's one of my friends, Harry Styles." she glances at me looking his way again, and I break my focus to turn back to her.
"I've known him my whole life. We had this professor with Niall last year. We all started partying a bit together with a few other friends of ours. Niall and I are cool, but I know Harry would just purposely make things awkward." She laughs.
"Yeah, I get that. It's good that you two are okay. Then you all can still hangout." I'm trying to keep up a conversation so I won't start to overthink about why this complete stranger is being so nice to me and telling me so much.
"Totally." She says sarcastically and we share a chuckle.
She turns around to glance at them again, and I do the same. The dark-haired boy, Harry, I think she said, turns to her when notices us looking at them, and he widens his eyes at her and slightly bucks his head forward. Nic flips him off and laughs, but he doesn't look at me again. Nic laughs quietly before turning back toward me.
She starts laughing at me and nudges my arm when she notices I'm still glancing over my shoulder.
We go on whispering to each other about ourselves as the professor continues going through the syllabus. She's still undecided on her major, same as me. She lives in the dorms, too. I ask her about the area, and she tells me a few cool places to go here.
We talk a little about our families and friends, and she even asks me more questions about Georgia. She tells me she, Niall, and Harry are all second years here at UWC. I don't mention the fact that I'm actually from the town our college is in, Santa Monica, because I haven't been here in 10 years, and although she seems really nice, I just don't feel like having the conversation of why my mom, sister, and I had to leave.
When the class ends, we all stand, and Nic hands me her phone.
"Here, put your number in here. We have some cool parties and you don't seem too bad to hangout with either." She chuckles and I do the same.
I might've actually made a friend on my first day. I put my number in, then she heads to the top of the class toward the exit with Harry and Niall. The nervousness I felt about my first day of college has started drifting away. I take a deep breath and gather my things.
I begin walking up the stairs in the class. When I look up, Nic and Niall are chatting with each other, they don't look as awkward as she made it seem. They're about to walk out the door when Harry turns around, looking at me. I feel my face turning red and begin to wonder what he's thinking. He's studying my face again like he did the first time, and my confusion is back.
I expected him to wave or nod, or do something. I should just walk away, but I don't. He just keeps eye contact before turning around to follow behind Nic and Niall out the double wooden doors at the top of the lecture hall.
