The Darings

Ash walked into Professor Bains’s Biology class to a very strange sight.

Harry Styles was on time. And both he and Niall were smiling at her as she came through the door.

“Hey, Iron Lung,” Niall greeted teasingly, referencing her intense bong rip the night before. Ash smiled back as she began to put her things in her seat behind them, getting ready to take a seat.

“What are you doing?” Niall then asked, looking confused.

“Sitting down?” Ash replied, perhaps just as confused as Niall. “Class is going to start soon?”

Harry then proceeded to lift his knapsack off the seat next to him and let his smile turn into a beam. “Oh, Ash Ash Ash,” he hummed, shaking his head. Ash nearly melted at the sound of her name rolling off his tongue so languidly. “You sit with us now.”

“Really?” she stammered, not meaning for the word to really leave her mouth until it was gone.

“No, we’re joking,” Harry replied with a roll of his eyes. “Of course, really. Come on before the girl who normally sits in Niall’s seat shows up.”

Ash couldn’t help the smile that broke out across her full lips as she collected her things again and slid into the seat where Harry normally sat, now empty just for her. Her skin prickled at his proximity; his arm brushed hers for just a moment as she settled into the scoop and her nerve endings went wild. She’d been invited to sit with Harry and Niall. A week ago she would have never believed it.

Hell, two minutes ago she would have never believed it.

“So things got pretty crazy on Friday,” Niall commented off-handedly, leaning forward on his elbows so he could see Ash around Harry between them. “I honestly don’t remember much of what happened after Finn got in the fountain.”

“Well, we went back to your place and had a massive orgy,” Harry replied without missing a beat, sending Ash’s cheeks into a near fluorescent shade of pink. The pair of boys laughed uproariously, glancing at Ash to see if she would join them.

She simply smiled instead. “I had a great time,” she concurred in the slyest voice she could manage. “Watching Harry sing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ acapella on Gower Street was positively brilliant. Especially so with how chopped I was.”

The words sounded odd coming out of her own mouth – she hadn’t ever smoked before and had rumors that you don’t truly get high the first time you try. But watching Harry sing that Friday night was enough to keep her giggling until she fell asleep.

“You hear that Ni?” Harry exclaimed, turning to his snapback-ed best mate. “Positively brilliant.”

Niall rolled his eyes. “Still doesn’t mean you should be allowed to sing along to your music when we’re on the underground.”

Professor Bains then took his podium at the head of the lecture hall and all the voices of her classmates slowly silenced, like a wave going through the room. Even Harry and Niall settled back in their seats for once, prepared for the lecture. Ash found this odd.

Until she saw the slide projected on the screen, proclaiming The Female Reproductive System and Sex Drive. Of course that would be the topic that would finally pique their interest.

But as Professor Bains launched himself into his lecture, that interest proved to be weak under pressure. Bains, while intelligent and well meaning, spoke with an impossibly thick accent that was a struggle to understand on a daily basis. And that thick accent also produced erroneous words learned through a dictionary and thesaurus no doubt, making it even harder to understand him.

He was losing them and fast. Niall took to watching Sky Sports on his smart phone beneath his fold-out desk. Harry was texting what seemed to be six or seven people at once, flipping constantly between the conversations in an effort to keep up with them all. He was quite the popular guy on campus, that Harry Styles – always busy doing something or talking to someone, only to have half the campus talk about it later.

And Ash? Ash was pretending to doodle in her margin as always, but was really admiring Harry from the corner of her eye. His brown curls were particularly unkempt that day, in the way she wondered if they were planned that way or if he was truly just blessed with hair that amazing. A little crease formed in the corner of his mouth when he concentrated, his eyebrows furrowed a bit to feign a look of attentiveness. His hands were outrageously large around his phone, large enough to entirely engulf Ash’s. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking it. In fact, she couldn’t stop herself from admiring him. He was like a magnet to her.

Suddenly, she caught a flash of emerald green, only to realize it was his eyes on hers. She’d been caught. That blush returned to her cheeks as she debated in a split second whether to look away or to attempt to make a joke of it.

She didn’t have much to decide because soon, he was speaking to her. “Hey,” he murmured under his breath in that voice that made her spine shiver. “We should make this more interesting.”

She raised her eyebrows in his direction. “Alright,” she agreed tentatively. “How do you suggest we do that?”

“Do a dare,” came the Irish lilt. Niall had rejoined the world around him, apparently, and was decided on stirring the pot. Harry began to grin.

“My thought exactly,” he agreed. The pair turned to Ash with devilish looks, set on her doing the dare. Ash began to shake her head profusely, trying desperately to resist embarrassing herself in front of the class, but it was already too late.

“I dare you to ask Professor Bains a cheeky question,” Harry spoke indefinitely. “Now.”

It was like a binding contract. Ash’s hand shot into the air almost involuntarily, the gears in her mind working to come up with a question in time. After a few moments, Professor Bains turned to see her, just in time for her to have formulated a question.

“Yes? Miss…”

“Hughes.” Ash had never spoken up in a class before. Her heart was racing.

“Miss Hughes,” he repeated, obviously trying to make a mental note of her name for the future. Ash knew that after this, it was unlikely that he would forget her.

“I was just wondering,” she began, struggling to keep her features as serious as possible. “I was just wondering what experience you had on this subject that gives you any authority.”

A few chuckles rippled through the room.

“Excuse me?” Professor Bains questioned, looking stricken. Ash bit her lip to keep herself from laughing; Niall and Harry weren’t helping the situation any, busting up laughing beneath their breath beside her.

Ash cleared her throat and raised her voice this time. “What experience do you have with the female reproduction system that gives you authority on this subject?”

The laughter from the rest of the class only grew louder. Harry was clenching his fist so hard on his desk to keep from laughing that Ash could see his knuckles turning white. Professor Bains shook his head, his expression turning disappointed.

“I assure you Miss Hughes that I have a PHD in Biology and have quite a lot of authority on this subject,” he stated flatly. “Does anyone have any real questions?”

A girl in the front row took this as an opportunity to ask another question, and suddenly Ash was able to slip out of the spotlight. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins as both Niall and Harry beamed at her. She’d executed her dare so well.

“Oh my god that was brilliant,” Niall exclaimed under his breath, his excitement getting the best of him. “Did you see his face?”

“I was trying so hard not to laugh but oh my god, you slayed me,” Harry concurred. His approval made her adrenaline rush even more.

“That had to be worth like ten points,” Niall added lavishly, like he was handing Ash the highest praise. But what did that even mean?

“Points,” Harry mused, that line of concentration reappearing. “Now that’s brilliant Ni.”

It became clear to Ash then that these dares weren’t just a one time deal. They were becoming a thing, a bona fide thing between them. A thread that strung her, Harry, Niall and Finn together. Suddenly, through the dares, Ash had some semblance of friends.

“I can’t wait to tell Finn,” Niall breathed happily, reaching out his hand to give Ash a low five. “What a job well done.”

Ash grinned and gave his hand a light, satisfactory slap. “She’s going to be so mad we did this without her.”