A Twist in My Story

Nick groaned into his pillow when he heard his alarm going off on Wednesday morning. Turning over, he pulled the covers over his head and tried to ignore the blaring sound. But it was useless. Next thing he knew, a pillow was falling down on his head.

“Dude, turn that thing off,” Tim grumbled from his bed. Nick groaned once more before pulling the covers aside and turning over. He slammed his hand against his alarm clock, effectively ending the unwelcome blaring. He turned on his back and closed his eyes. It was far too early to be getting up. Granted, he had been getting up at this time for the past two days, but on this particular Wednesday morning, it was too early. Since it was only syllabus week and he still didn’t have much work, he had agreed to play video games with a few guys on the floor. None of them had realized, however, just how late they had stayed up and now, four hours after crawling into bed, it was time for Nick to get up for class.

“It’s too early for this,” Nick grumbled to himself.

“Happy hump day,” Tim grumbled from the other side of the room. Nick released a sigh. Squeezing his eyes tightly, he willed himself to get out of bed. He had already wasted enough time and if he wanted to make it to breakfast before his first class, he was going to have to rush.

He hastily went through his morning routine, envying his roommate whose usual morning class was cancelled for the day. Just as he was exiting the building, he ran into one of the guys from his floor. He looked just as dead as Nick felt. “Dude, we can never do that again,” Brandon, who lived just three doors down, mumbled once he saw Nick.

“Agreed,” Nick stated, walking alongside his floor mate. They silently agreed to eat together, neither boy too concerned with making conversation—it was a wonder either one didn’t fall asleep in his cereal.

Olivia watched from across the dining hall as Nick ate his breakfast. She didn’t have any other classes with him besides their writing class, and hadn’t seen much of him around campus in the past two days.

“Who’s the hunk?” Olivia’s eyes snapped back to the girls around her when she heard one of them addressing her.

“What?”

“That guy you’ve been staring at since we walked in. I saw you talking to him on Monday. Who is he?” Jamie, one of her quad mates, asked.

Olivia looked down at her breakfast, hoping her cheeks weren’t flaming up. “Oh, he’s just this kid I went to high school with,” she responded, hopefully casually.

“He’s cute. Did you guys ever date?” Carrie, her roommate, questioned.

Olivia was pretty sure her cheeks were bright red by then. “No! He’s just a friend. We’ve known each other since we were born. Our parents are friends,” she explained as casually as she could manage, hoping her friends bought it.

“Uh huh,” Christina said, clicking her tongue. She had a feeling neither one of them believed her, but she was grateful that they didn’t press the matter. They switched the conversation to another guy that lived in their building and was apparently in one of Jamie’s classes. Thankful that they weren’t paying attention to her anymore, Olivia allowed her eyes to fall back on Nick.

Since their lunch on Monday, she hadn’t spoken to him, and that sort of had her spirits down; she was really looking forward to them reacquainting themselves. For that reason, she was eager to get to their writing class—she wanted to talk a bit more with him before class started. She was also excited to have lunch with him afterwards, something they agreed to on Monday. She had a feeling she would have to take baby steps with him.

Two and a half hours later, Olivia walked into her writing class. She had seen Nick walking a few steps ahead of her, but couldn’t catch up to him because all of the people that had been walking in front of her. Olivia’s eyes quickly roved over the large room and caught Nick’s curls as he was sitting down in the general area they had sat in on Monday. She hastily made her way up the steps and into the seat next to him. Nick gave her a small, tired smile, not bothering to start up any conversation at all. Her heart fell a little at that but decided not to let it get her down.

“Rough night?” she asked, starting the conversation herself. Nick merely grumbled in response—he had already propped his head on his fist and had closed his eyes. Olivia let a small frown tug at her lips before trying a different approach. “It’s only the third day of classes, I can’t believe you’re already pulling all nighters,” she teased in a light tone.

Nick’s eyes opened slowly when he realized Olivia wasn’t going to let him rest for those few minutes before class. “A few of the guys on my floor were playing video games last night,” was all he offered in way of an explanation. Olivia’s eyes widened in understanding.

“What time did you go to bed?” she asked, keeping the conversation going.

“Three?” Nick grumbled.

“Wow! That’s late! You must be beat,” she stated with a chuckle, leaning into her bag to gather her notebook and textbook. Nick, however, gave no response. She glanced up at him to see if he had fallen asleep on her and saw that he hadn’t. His eyes were very much open and staring over her shoulder with a glazed look in his eyes. Olivia sat forward and turned her head to her right to see what Nick was looking at.

Correction. Who he was looking at.

Two girls were walking down the row in front of them towards the middle seats. Nick’s eyes were glued to the girl leading the way. At first glance, Olivia immediately thought that she wasn’t anything like Nick’s type. She was wearing gray skinny jeans and converse, a gray t-shirt with a giant peace sign splattered on the front and a black vest over it. Her hair was tucked into a black beanie but by the way her bangs were cut, Olivia could tell the rest of her hair was probably cut in a pixie style. Her bangs were mostly dark with a few blonde highlights in it. She looked nothing like all the preppy girls Nick had hooked up with in high school. But then her eyes briefly scanned over them before sitting in the seat in front of her and Olivia begrudgingly thought to herself that she was actually pretty. She may be punk rock, but she pulled it off really well.

“I’m so glad you’re in this class Marcy, now I have someone to get notes from whenever I don’t feel like coming to class,” the girl was saying to her friend. The other girl just smiled over politely.

Olivia looked back at Nick and saw that he was staring at the back of the first girl’s head. Her heart plummeted at the site—she knew that look all too well and not because it had ever been directed towards her. “Nick?” she said, trying to gain his attention. It was futile. Nick had already leaned in and tapped the girl’s shoulder.

She looked over her left shoulder at him with raised eyebrows. “Hi. I’m Nick. Nick Jonas,” he stated, giving her the boyish grin he used on girls he was interested in.

The girl’s eyes swept over him twice before landing back on his, a coyish smile pulling at her own lips. “Nice to meet you Nick,” she stated, purposely not telling him her own name. She could tell he was a freshman whereas she was a sophomore. She had always made it a point not to associate herself with people younger than her, but this bold frosh had her intrigued. He was kind of cute.

Nick was mesmerized by her the second she sat in front of Olivia. She wasn’t what he was used to, but he was in college, and a change of pace was what he was looking for. He chuckled at the girl and leaned in a bit closer. “Are you going to tell me your name?” he questioned flirtatiously.

The girl shrugged, flicking her head to get her bangs out of her eyes. That action made Nick focus in on them. They were done up in dark make up, but looking closer he could see they were an olive green with a hint of brown shining through. The freckles that were sprinkled on her nose just added to her cuteness. Nick was definitely smitten by her. “That depends,” she replied.

Nick couldn’t help the amused smile that tugged on his lips. He loved when girls played hard to get. “On what?” he asked with a chuckle.

“What’s in it for me?” she asked. At this point she had fully turned around in her seat to talk to Nick. Her friend was busy doing some last minute reading assignment and Olivia just watched their encounter with a dejected frown. But neither one of them even noticed her.

Nick pursed his lips before allowing them to stretch out into a smile. “You’ll be making a new friend,” he stated with a wink.

The girl’s eyes worked their way across his features and assets once more before allowing the smile to stretch across her face. “In that case,” she said, sticking her hand out in front of her, “I’m Serena. Serena Scanlon,” she said, imitating the way he had introduced himself to her. Nick cracked a smile as he shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you Serena,” he stated with his crooked smile. “So, I didn’t see you in class on Monday,” he started their conversation.

Serena looked away from him and at all the other students in the classroom. Nick did the same thing, curious to see what she was looking for. He noticed that the girls that were staring and giggling at him on Monday were once more looking at him. Serena noticed the same thing. “I don’t know kid, this is a large class. How do you know I wasn’t here?” she questioned coyly.

“I would have remembered seeing a pretty face like yours,” he shot back, pulling out his Jonas charm.

Serena tried to hide her smile. This kid was pretty forward. Before she could respond, the professor walked into the class, immediately greeting the students before starting in on his lecture. Serena just shrugged at Nick before facing forward, not bothering to hide her smile when Nick winked at her.

Olivia had watched their entire exchange in silence. It was like Nick had completely forgotten she existed—he didn’t even bother to introduce her. And as she watched the two of them interact, her courage plummeted. With every flirty smile, giggle, and light touch that Nick and Serena exchanged, she felt herself shrink even more in on herself.

Throughout the entire class period Olivia noticed that Nick wasn’t taking notes or paying attention for that matter. Every time she looked up from her own notes she noticed his eyes fixed on the back of Serena’s head. She never bothered to turn around and acknowledge him however, even though she had to have known he would be looking at her.

And Nick just couldn’t look away. He was fascinated by her and wanted to know more about her. By what she had said to her friend and the fact that she didn’t even open her notebook to take notes the entire period, but rather texted throughout the class, Nick could tell she wasn’t at all concerned with her schoolwork. She seemed like the type of person that was independent and prioritized her life in a way that best suited her. And Nick was intrigued. He wanted to know why she hadn’t been in class the first day and what her story was with her unique hairstyle, bold clothing choice, and detailed tattoos. She was unlike any other girl he had ever talked to and the difference between them made him all the more interested.

The hour long class flew by. As soon as the professor dismissed them, Nick snapped out of the trance Serena had put him in and quickly made his move. She hadn’t unpacked any books, so when class was over she merely stood up and made a move to follow her friend out of their row. But before she could, Nick reached over Olivia and held on to Serena’s shoulder. She looked at him curiously. “Yes?” Serena asked with raised eyebrows.

“What are you doing right now?” Nick asked, bracing his hands on the wooden seats in front of him and leaning forward towards Serena.

Serena merely shrugged. “That depends,” she stated.

Nick just smiled at her, knowing she was still playing hard to get. “I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me,” he stated.

Olivia, who had slowly gathered her things while Nick talked to Serena, felt crestfallen when he asked her out to lunch. They had agreed on Monday to go to lunch after their writing class—it was sort of a little tradition she had been looking forward to starting. Now he was inviting Serena to join them. Since she didn’t get a chance to talk to him at all before class, Olivia had been looking forward to this lunch. She didn’t want Serena taking away the little time she got to hang out with Nick. She prayed Serena turned him down, but deep down she knew that she probably wouldn’t.

Olivia, who had stood next to Nick after collecting her things, didn’t realize how ridiculous she looked just standing there until Serena’s eyes landed on her for the very first time. She felt self conscious when Serena’s piercing green eyes roved over her body, flashbacks of high school running through her mind. She glanced over at Nick and saw that he too was looking at her with his eyebrows raised, as if surprised that she was even there. Olivia prayed to God she wasn’t blushing as she hiked her bag higher on her shoulder and cleared her throat. “Uhm, Nick, I thought we were going to lunch together,” she said in a small voice.

Nick’s eyes momentarily widened as he realized that he indeed agreed to have lunch with Olivia after each writing class. Serena took the silence that settled amongst them as an opportunity to turn Nick down. “Well, if you already have plans…” she trailed off.

Nick’s head immediately snapped back at her. “No, I don’t. I can have lunch with her any time. I want to get to know you better,” he quickly stated. Olivia quickly felt the tears welling behind her eyes; Nick’s words sent a stinging sensation through her. She closed her eyes for a second to suppress the tears and when she opened them again, found Serena staring at her curiously. Nick also turned to look at her, seeing as she had Serena’s attention. “Oh, she doesn’t mind at all, do you Liv?”

Olivia bit her lip to suppress her sob. Nick was looking at her with such a pleading look (and had even given her a nickname!) that she couldn’t even deny him, even if he had just broken her heart with his insensitive words. “No, not at all. Like you said, we can have lunch anytime,” she replied in a low voice. Nick smiled widely at her before turning back to Serena, as if the matter were settled. Serena, however, was still staring at Olivia curiously, which was frustrating Nick. He turned to look at her again and raised his eyebrows, as if wondering why she was still standing there. “Uhm, I guess I’ll see you later Nick,” Olivia stated.

“Yea. Later Olivia,” he said, dismissing her and once more turning his attention to Serena. The lecture hall was clear of most people, so Olivia quickly made her way down the row towards the steps. But she couldn’t get away quick enough.

She heard Serena’s extremely feminine voice say, “In that case, I’d really like that,” in response to Nick’s invitation.

By that point Olivia had reached the bottom of the steps. She turned around and saw a giant smile on Nick’s lips as he walked with Serena, already starting a conversation with her. She quickened her pace and exited the room before they could reach her. As she exited the building she chastised herself for thinking that Nick Jonas could ever see her as more than the preacher’s daughter. Just because he had said he’d be her friend didn’t mean he would ever have romantic feelings towards her. She had a feeling it would only be a matter of time before Nick found a girl here at Penn State that caught his interest. And she really hated that despite the fact she had suspected something like this would happen, she still let herself get her hopes up.