0% interest

2

Hayden walked into the small library, her heels muffled by the newly carpeted floor as she hurried down the hall to their rented study room. '201..202...203' She scanned the rooms looking for 207. Her eyes lit up in triumph when she found the room and opened the door.

This room was one of the small study rooms. A small circle table sat in the middle with 5 chairs. A white board sat on the left wall, opposite the window. Her group members took up 3 of the chairs: The chair closest to the window sat a girl with short pink hair in a floral dress, on her right was a boy with curly red and black hair with his head down, and sitting a seat over from both of them was another boy wearing a grey hoodie scrolling through his phone. 'Great not only do I have to act like a idiot but I'm also the last one here'

Hayden inwardly sighed accepting her fate of embarrassment, but she was never one to commit to a bit half baked, "Freaking French Fries! Hi, so sorry I'm late traffic's a bitch." Hayden greeted cheerfully, cringing after she said that and took the closes available seat between the girl and hoodie guy. To their credit no one questioned her but the one on the phone did give her a vaguely disgusted face.

The girl was first to recover, "Hi, I'm Lilly! And no worries.. I saw there was a villain attack earlier so that's probably why." Lilly smiled at her, or at least she thought she was, she was looking over her shoulder.

Hayden laughed and subtle looked behind her, but saw nothing, "Yeah, I heard about that. I swear it a new villain every week." She looked at the other two expectantly.

"Names Ben." The boy in the hoodie huffed sitting up slightly, "You want a cookie?" He motioned to the box of cookies in the center of the table.

"Oh-fries yeah." She caught herself with a cringe. 'God...I sound like an idiot.' She reached for a cookie, Ben slightly pushing the box into her reach. She took a bite and waited for the remaining member to introduce himself.

...And waited....

"So what's your name?" Hayden asked when she finished her cookie. The duel-haired boy just looked up at her with tired eyes and slight smile. Hayden's eye twitched with annoyance.

"This is Mateo." Lilly voiced for him. Hayden looked at her when she spoke, only to once again be meet with a gaze over her shoulder. Hayden could tell this was going to be a long semester from all their uniquely weird vibes.

"Let's just get this thing started." Ben said with a nod an agreement from Hayden and Lilly, and a "fuck yeah" from Mateo.

Hayden glared across the table at him 'wow. seems like he does talk.' Mateo just smiled and looked away. Rude.

An hour has passed and for the most part things have been going smoothly, minus whatever problem Mateo seems to have. They have the basic outline of what they want the study to be so they decided to call a quits for the day.

Mateo, go figure, was the first to leave after leaving his number with Ben and Lilly for the group chat. Hayden couldn't wait to debrief Wyatt knowing how they would offer to fly over to defend her 'honor'.

"Well that was a-" Lilly's phone cut her off, "oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I have to take this. Text me the details for next time" She called out already half way through the door.

Hayden waved goodbye and packed her own stuff, zipping her computer into her bag and folding her notebooks back closed. The almost empty cookie box slid across the table lightly tapping her books. "There's still a cookie left, you want it?"

Hayden looked up at Ben. This was her first real look at him all day seeing as he was mostly hidden behind his computer and hood. The first thing she saw was the scar across his face. It was pale cutting from above his left eye and over to under his right, her nosy nature almost made her want to ask how he got it. Hayden thought it suited his sharp face and sharp blue eyes. A peace of his hair fell over his face, under his hood she could see his messy slightly-less-than shoulder length brown hair. Her eyes catch the red writing on his hoodie and she tried, and failed, to muffle a laugh, "Fries yeah."

She looked back to him with the cookie in hand, her eyes drifted back down to his hoodie. It was an oversized white hoodie with bright red writing on the front that said Cutie Patootie with a small red arrow pointing up. She must have stared at it too long because he grimaced, "It's a friend's."

His admission was somehow funny to her because she started laughing. "I'm sorry.. that's just-...your friend's.. funny" Hayden made out between laughs, "I'm not laughing at you...I swear."

Ben just scoffed picking up his own stuff, "I'll make sure to never tell him you said that. Punk's got a big enough ego." Hayden could have sworn she heard a small smile in his voice. "Anyway," Ben pushed his phone forward with the add contact screen up, "give me your number."

Hayden paused for a second thinking over his words. 'Why would he want her number..'

"Nothing weird. Just so we can make group chat." Ben looked at her with a blank face.

"Yeah of course!" Hayden quickly took the phone and typed in her number. Hayden hoped he didn't pick up her voice crack and quickly pushed his phone back, leaving the room. "Here."

Hayden felt the embarrassment on her cheeks. How self centered was she, thinking that he liked her even though they only just meet. It didn't even matter that they just meet, that's a weird thing to assume. She didn't even like him like that! God, she was starting to act like Wyatt.

Hayden hurried down the stairs to the first floor composing herself when an accented voice called out to her, "Hayden?" She turned around at the mention of her name and saw him, Lucas. Now don't tell Wyatt this, but Hayden was lying earlier. Hayden may have, only hypothetically, dressed up in case she ran into Lucas.

A short boy with even shorter wavy blond hair waved from behind the counter. He wore a dark green polo shirt with a small university logo on the chest. He worn a black lanyard with his glasses hooked on the front. "What are you doing here, Denny? I've never seen you at the library before." He questioned with a smile.

Hayden blushed at the nickname, 'He knows if I'm at the library or not', glossing over his correction observation that she has not once been in the library.

"I um.. yeah I have a group project. I didn't know you worked here?" Hayden scolded herself for stumbling over her words, she's usually very quick-witted.

"Yeah, I started a week ago." Hayden knew this, he told her. Good thing he didn't point out the fact they already had this conversation. "How did the project go? Think you'll get an A?"

Hayden laughed at that, "Maybe? It's a semester long thing and my group is a bit.... odd." 'Yeah odd the best way to put it' Hayden thought. They were all normal but something just seemed slightly odd, but who was she to judge. She just spent an hour saying fries every other sentence Hayden's sure they also thought she was odd.

"Wow, bummer. I'm sure it'll be fine though!" Lucas cheerfully replied, it almost made her think that she may get an A after all, but then she remembered the last hour of her life and thought maybe not.

"Honestly, a C sounds great to me." She smiled back at him. She hasn't known Lucas long, only about 3 weeks, but something about him makes her feel so calm. It's refreshing in a city full of chaos.

"It was great seeing you, but I should probably get back to work." Lucas pushed off the counter and grabbed a book that was lying there.

"Totally. See you around!" Hayden called out as he walked away. She lingered a moment longer and watched as he put the book with the other books in a cart and pushed them away. She watched as he passed the stairs and passed someone coming down them.

Hayden's eyes widened. She quickly turned back around and walked out the library door, not wanting to run back into Ben out of embarrassment.