Harry's POV

"I'm still hung over from last night, I really don't feel like going to another party, Niall."

"Even Liam is going," he says. "You have to go."

"Where is it?" I groan.

"Same place as last night I think," he says. He shrugs and takes the liberty of getting a tshirt out for me to wear. "Up and at'em, Styles."

Can I not just have one night without a party? I don't understand why we have to go out every night of the weekend. Sometimes it's okay to just sleep. I like to sleep, actually. Probably more than I like parting, but apparently that's not acceptable to my friends.

We walk with the five of us down the street, just a few blocks over. Niall, Louis, Liam, Zayn and I all live together in a house close to campus. Louis and I knew each other back home in England and the other three moved here when they were really young. Our parents were all friends when we were young and before they moved. We all sort of stayed in contact and when we found out we were going to be in the same school we moved in together right away. We've been living in this house for two years already and this is the beginning of the third.

"Liam you should have come last night, it was sick!" Niall says loudly. Liam looks at me with a weird smile on his face.

"Yeah, I heard it was quite the party."

What? Why is he looking at me like that?

When we walk up to the house Liam walks straight in. Weird. He always knocks. No one ever knocks at these things because well, it's a college party, but leave it to Liam to still use manners when everyone's wasted. But now he's waltzing right in. Weird.

"Zayn, do you know who actually lives here?" I ask, yelling over the music. The place isn't too crowded, but there's still probably at least fifty people here.

"I think it's some of the girls on the volleyball team," he shouts back.

"So they'll all be too tall for you then," I conclude, hitting his back. He laughs and flips me off while we find ourselves some drinks. I look down the hall and see Liam walking into a separate room. I was in a bathroom here last night and that wasn't it, so it must be a bedroom or something.

A few minutes later I'm working on a beer and Liam walks out, dragging a girl with straight blonde hair behind him. She's trying to yank her arm away from him, but he's not having it apparently. This is not his girlfriend, Talia's, house so who the fuck is he with right now?

"Harry, beer pong," Louis shouts. I follow him through the house to the table and we play two girls that are clearly drunk off their asses already.

"You boys are good at this," one of them says.

"Course we are," Louis responds. Such a dick sometimes.

"They're cute, too," the other one says, talking to her friend but clearly loud enough for us to hear. I am not in the mood for this right now. Drunk girls can be really fucking annoying. Not all of them, but most of them are. That girl I met last night wasn't, actually.

When we win two shots later I take the chance to escape the game. I don't plan on drinking that much tonight and I need to be drunk to deal with drunk college girls. I spot Niall across the room talking to some people and go to stand beside him.

"That girl was hot," he says to me. "She was into you man, you should go for it."

"Two girls in one weekend? No thanks, I'm not a man-whore," I joke. He rolls his eyes and goes back to his new friends. Niall can literally make friends anywhere he goes. I'm too quiet for that, but he definitely is not.

"I'm going to get another drink, do you want anything?" I ask him. He nods and I take off to the kitchen to get two more cups. A girl bumps into me on the way and wraps one arm around my neck.

"Damn," she drawls. "You're probably the hottest guy I've ever seen."

"I'm probably not the first one you said that to tonight." I take her arm from around my neck and she presses her body into mine instead.

"What's your name, handsome?"

"Harry." I try to put some distance between us but she grabs my hand.

"Well Harry, I think I could use another drink." She brings her cup to her overly red lips, a cup that is completely full by the way, and latches onto me while I continue towards the kitchen. Like I said, not in the mood for drunk college girls.

"I need that hand," I say in an annoyed tone. She finally releases me and I take my time pouring some random liquor into two cups with whatever juice I can find to mix it with. The damn drunk chick won't leave, though. I'm clearly ignoring you, just go away.

"Can I have one?" she asks, laughing at herself. I take both cups and shake my head.

"No, I think you're good."

"You haven't seen anything," she purrs, once again pushing her body against mine. How much more fucking obvious can I be?

"Harry, you alright there mate?"

I look over the annoying chick's head and find Liam laughing at me. Thanks for the help, man. He continues to laugh when I have to put my drinks down to get her away from me. She's handsy, this one.

"Paige, I think you should move on to the next one."

My eyes snap towards that voice as soon as I hear it. The girl looks at me with, surprise surprise, a bored expression and hops down from her place on the kitchen counter. As she walks towards me I can't help but smile down at her. She pries the other girl's hands from me and leads her away towards someone else. The drunk one latches onto another guy and as bad as I feel for him, I'm glad she's gone. I quickly turn back to Liam before she gets back.

"You know her?" I ask quietly. He nods and smirks at me.

"Yeah, and from what I hear you do too," he says. The girl- Carmen, I'm pretty sure- comes back to Liam and sits where she was a minute ago.

"Carter, right?" I ask, pointing at her and leaning my hip against the counter beside her.

"That's a guy's name." She doesn't correct me, though, just takes a sip from her red plastic cup. I look at Liam for help, but he looks quite amused with our exchange and won't be helping me.

"Two parties in a row?" I continue. "Quite the weekend, Carter."

"It's Carmen," she snaps. She sighs and rolls her eyes when I smile at her, my teasing working on her.

"She lives here," Liam explains. Carmen glares at him and he shrugs. "What?"

"You live here?" I repeat. She shrugs and takes another sip of her drink. I guess that's my yes. "So does that mean you're on the volleyball team?"

"Do you always ask this many questions?" She leans back against the cupboards behind her and the expression her eyes does not change from boredom. She remembers that I slept with her last night, right?

"Carmen is a starting left side," Liam says, once again speaking for her. Does this guy know everything?

"Hold on, how do you two know each other?" I ask, pointing back and forth between the two. She rolls her eyes and jumps down from counter.

"I don't feel like being interrogated," she says, looking at Liam only. "And I'm over this party. Thanks for coming, but I'm going to go to bed."

"Okay, text me tomorrow if you end up at the library," he says. She nods and doesn't look at me again before walking away and disappearing into the room Liam dragged her out of. When she's gone I punch his arm. "What the hell!"

"Thanks for the help!"

He laughs and shrugs. "It was funny."

"She really hates me." That bothers me more than it should. I slept with her one time, it's not a big deal.

"No, Carmen's not like that. She just takes a while to get warmed up to people, that's all." He smiles and brings his cup towards his lips. "Although you did sleep with her last night, so I'm surprised she hasn't already."

"She told you," I conclude.

"She didn't remember your name," he says, continuing to laugh.

"What!" I didn't know hers either, but come on. "Why is she so..."

"Bitchy?" he finishes. I nod and he laughs again. "She's not. She's just a little closed off. She doesn't really make new friends very much. She pretty much talks to me, the girls on the team and this other girl she knows from work. She also doesn't trust guys at all. Doesn't even go on dates or anything."

So she does the occasional one-nighter and leaves it at that.

"How'd you become friends with her?"

"I didn't try to flirt with her."

"I wasn't flirting," I scoff. Maybe a little. But she was all over me when I was here last night, so I don't really get it. Last night she wanted to fuck me and today she can't stand the sight of me. I don't get that.

"Whatever, Harry. We both know it won't take long for you to find someone else to date so just don't try with her. She's not going to go for it, might as well give up now."

He pats me on the shoulder and walks away, leaving me along and staring down the hall at her bedroom door. She seems really difficult and rude, but for some reason I don't want to leave her alone. It's probably not worth the trouble, but what if it is? She's gorgeous, I'll give her that, and honestly the fact that she's on a varsity team is a total turn on. She seems really independent, the kind of girl that takes care of herself and that's good enough.

After a few hours Louis is wasted off his ass and the rest of us have had enough. He pukes all over someone's lawn on the way back and when we finally get back to the house we all have to carry him up to his room. When I finally get to mine I'm exhausted and the only thing I can think about is the blonde girl that doesn't seem to want anything to do with me.

---

"Library?" I ask Liam as he walks towards the door. He never studies here, claims he can't get any work done around us.

"Yeah."

"Is she going with you?"

He laughs and rolls his eyes at me. "No, Carmen isn't going. She has to work or something."

I nod and continue eating my cereal as he walks out. Interesting. I have to do a bunch of homework today, maybe I should get some coffee first. When Louis comes down the stairs he looks like hell, so I assume he's going to agree.

After ten minutes we're driving through town towards the coffee shop. Louis' hangover apparently means he's incapable of driving, so I am and he's almost falling back asleep. Truth be told, I really didn't want to go see her alone. She's a little scary sometimes. Plus, she's probably going to think that I'm fucking stalking her or something.

"Come on, Lou." He groans as I push him out the door of the car. When we walk into the cafe the doorbell rings and today there are two girls instead of one. They're talking in the back of the area behind the counter and when the door swings shut they both look up. Carmen's mouth drops open and the other one doesn't seem bothered.

"Wow," I say, faking surprise. "What a coincidence."

"How is it that I've never seen you in my life and now it seems like you're everywhere I go?" she asks, stepping up to the register. She doesn't sound angry or anything, just mildly annoyed. I guess that's a start.

Notes

so glad you guys like it so far!! im super excited about this story so i hope it goes well :)

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