All This Time // H.S. // A.U.

Chapter Two

HARRY

I was actually getting annoyed.

For some reason, I kept running into her. She just kept popping up everywhere. She's in almost all my classes, which really isn't that surprising, because we're in all the honors classes. She's always at her locker with me. I've seen her after school in the parking lot, sitting on the hood of her beat up car, talking to friends. I even run into her outside of school.

I've known Riley for years now and this had never been a problem.

Maybe it has. Maybe she's always been there, but I just never noticed. She was never really on my mind unless she was directly in front of me, wrapping her lips around my blunt and inhaling deeply to calm her mind, or dancing in a crowd of people, her chest glistening in sweat as she forgot the world around her. She was always alluring, beautiful, charming, but I hadn't noticed it like a lot of my friends or classmates. It never effected me like it was now.

And I was pissed.

I didn't like this feeling. I had never had these feelings, whatever they were. My eyes searched for her in the halls, my ears perked when I heard her laugh, and I found myself growing strangely protective over her. Carter bothered her quite a bit, and I got to see it firsthand since it was mainly at her locker where he felt he could corner her.

I never did anything though. It wasn't my business and she could handle herself. And if she couldn't handle herself, then Amanda would be right there, tearing Carter a new one. One I happily watched with a smug smirk on my face.

Word had travelled fast about him cheating on her, a shock to the system as it was rare that such juicy gossip remained secret for so long. It didn't look like it really effected Riley, though. She kept her head up high, and ignored most of the whispers.

Whatever this was that I was feeling, whether it was just attraction or a stupid crush, I knew I wouldn't be acting on it. I was determined not to get in a relationship my senior year. I would hopefully be going to Princeton next year, and I didn't want anything holding me back.

"Settle down, settle down." Ms. Canby said halfway through homeroom. "It's time to get you partnered up for your senior project!" There was some groaning from around the room, but she kept on like nothing happened. "I will say, I'm very proud of my matching skills, so try not to hurt my poor fragile feelings."

I held back a snort, but my eyes flickered over to Riley when she breathed out a laugh. Her hand came up to tuck her hair behind her ear, and I momentarily lost track of everything else, stupidly mesmerized by the action until Jeff nudged me, giving me a weird look.

Fuck, he caught me staring. I felt like he had been slightly suspicious of me all week, ever since that lunch on Monday when I was going to go to Riley's aide. I gave him a confused look, as if to ask him what his problem was, but he just raised his eyebrows at me and nodded his head at Riley. Thankfully my name was called, so I turned my attention back to our teacher.

"Mr. Styles you will be partnered with Ms. Everstaad." My heart practically dropped to the pit of my stomach hearing this, but I kept my face emotionless. I nearly cracked when her eyes found mine, a look of slight relief on her face. Why did she look like that? Did she want to be my partner? I didn't. This was going to make me bury my urges even more. It was hard enough just being in class with her, but now we would be spending a lot more time together. "Oh! I can't wait to see what you two come up with. Future valedictorian and salutatorian."

I ignored some of the annoyed looks from other students, and looked at Riley, now that I had a reason to. She was smirking at me, and mouthed "Valedictorian" and pointed to herself. I chuckled and shook my head. We had been back and forth since freshman year on who was ranked one and two, but I was currently ranked one.