Status: Very Active

Study of Life and Love

Handling It

I huffed in annoyance when my phone continuously buzzed in my bag; it was distracting me and destroying the silence of the library. I dropped my pen and dug for my phone. I barely looked at it, only to swipe when necessary and let the phone, now turned off, fall back into my bag, blissfully silent.

I turned back to the books in front of me and picked up my pen as I trailed along a few sentences until I found what I was up to, my pen poised above paper ready to jot down notes.

I stayed focus until my watch beeped pulling me from my focus and I glanced down in annoyance only to be surprised at the time. Gemma, the previous house leader, would be here at any moment.

I hurriedly stuffed all my books into my bag and rushed out of the library. I swayed slightly in the bright light of the day as I tried to get my bearings, small spots filling my vision before I took off again. I shouldn’t have let myself stay for that long in the library.

I huffed, rounding the corner of Emmanuel’s house and headed down the street. My stomach grumbled reminding me that I had forgotten to have breakfast before I had went straight to the library.

I rushed into the house and was greeted with the sight of last minute cleaning. All the girls in the house were rushing around to make things perfect.

“There you are, I thought you were going to be late.” Thea appeared in my vision, perfectly poised with only panic evident in her eyes.

“Sorry I was—.”

“Studying.” Caydance finished for me with a knowing look. She carefully glared at any of the girls that paused in their work. “Niall was looking for you, said that you weren’t answering your phone.”

I groaned and reached into my bag, turning my phone on.

“We don’t have time for that. Hurry up and dump your stuff. Gemma is going to be here in any minute.” Thea began pushing me towards the stairs and I obliged.

I dumped my bag in the corner and spared one look in the mirror to make sure nothing looked to out of place before I hurried down the stairs in time for a car to pull up.

Everyone piled into the foyer like they had been instructed to while I stepped forward as House leader and opened the door to greet our visitor.

Gemma was all legs covered in tight black jeans. Her hair was blonder than what I remembered and a pair of sunglasses covered what I knew were crinkled green eyes.

“Sidney.” She grinned and pulled me into a hug, her bag dropping to rest at her feet.

“Hey Gem.” I greeted warmly, pulling the sweet smelling girl tighter against me before stepping back. Riley rushed forward to grab her bag while Gemma took the time to survey the room.

“It feels so good to be back.” Gemma grinned at everyone, her eyes raking over the house itself. “Is lunch ready? I’m starved.”

Gemma was easy. She was all laughs and excitement. She met each of the new girls and tried to remember everyone’s name. She greeted the girls she already knew with hugs and kisses on cheeks.

She also ate exactly how I remembered, words coming a mile a minute with a loaded fork hanging inches from her mouth.

“You know my little brother goes here now. Just started this year.” Gemma said proudly. “He’s in Kings.” She added before shoveling her chicken salad into her mouth.

I was surprised we didn’t already know her younger brother. “What’s his name?” I asked, stirring my own salad around but not feeling overly hungry anymore.

“Harry.”

I gaped at her, shocked, why hadn’t we noticed the same last names before.

“Harry Styles.” Gemma continued unnecessarily.

My eyes had already wondered to Caydance who was sitting a few seats down from us. She was frozen, an empty fork hanging inches away from her mouth. Rhiannon was shaking with laughter next to her.

“You know him?” Gemma asked pulling my attention back to her.

“Yes, actually he’s dating one of the girls in the house.” I smirked, ignoring the glare I was sure Caydance was trying to burn through my back.

Gemma frowned, her eyes turning down to her food. “Really? That’s strange he didn’t mention dating anyone at Christmas.” She said. “Is it new?”

I glanced back at Caydance who was glaring down at the plate of food in front of her. Rhiannon had stopped laughing quite abruptly and was now worried about the redheaded girl next to her.

“I’m sure they’ve been dating for a while now. Before Christmas.” I said as Caydance excused herself from the table and left the room. Gemma barely noticed.

“Looks like I’m going to have to have a proper talk to my brother.” Gemma didn’t sound teasing, like one would when a sibling kept a secret. She seemed, instead, quite angry that Harry had a girlfriend and did not tell her.

I watched Thea quietly leave the table further down from us and follow Caydance out the door. She sent me a reassuring smile and I knew that she would chat with Caydance and I was confident she would have it all sorted.

I had forgotten about my phone until I finally headed up to bed. I was exhausted and Gemma seemed to be full of never ending energy.

I was crawling into bed when I noticed it on the floor. I reached down to grab it and pressed the middle button so the notification screen lit up. I was shocked by all the missed calls and text messages I had from Niall. The last one had been at three this afternoon and he hadn’t tried again since.

I debated calling back but my eyes were drooping and it was already eleven at night, Niall might already be asleep. I sent a text apologizing before leaving my phone and sighing wearily into my pillows, letting sleep overtake.

-

Riley was nervous her eyes shooting between Gemma and I like she was expecting one of us to deal her bad news. I eyed her shrewdly. She was behaving like a child who was guilty. She knew that we had only called her in here so Gemma could get to know her separately.

She could have been worried that we knew about Liam. Although we had known for a while, the diner was a dead giveaway. I wasn’t blind and Niall wasn’t as good of a liar as he thought he was.

But she no longer needed to worry about that. She was free to date whomever she wished and she had a guaranteed spot in Grace, unless she broke the rules of the University itself. Liam had said that he would tell her she was free but yet she still sat here looking seconds away from blurting out her deepest, darkest secrets.

I excused the both of us to talk quietly before Gemma started asking questions. I didn’t want Riley to have a melt down over basic questions about her life and study.

“Is everything okay?” I asked her gently. “You seem a little twitchy. Is this about you and Liam?”

Her eyes shone with panic but she shook her head, the plaits on either side of her head moved with the motion and slapped her cheeks. “No, no.” She murmured, her eyes casting around the room and not meeting mine. Gemma carefully flicked through her phone, eyes not wandering over to us but I knew in some way this would be a reflection on how I could help the girls that were under my care.

“What has you so worried? You can tell me, it’s what I’m here for. To listen to you all.” I said; starting to get worried, if it wasn’t about Liam what was she so worked up about?

“I uh was with Harry and Luke from Kings, this morning. Harry Styles.” She added, the second person to unnecessarily clarify who he was. I nodded at her to go on.

“And this girl came up, saying that she was his girlfriend and well Harry didn’t actually deny it.” Riley said slowly, her posture more relaxed the more she spoke, like keeping this secret was making her swell up inside. “And I, well, I wasn’t sure what to do and I—.”

“You told Caydance.” I cut her off.

She shook her head. “No! I wouldn’t. I just, she overheard Nina and I talking about it and she stormed out of here and over to Kings right before you called me in to talk to Gemma.”

I cursed knowing that minutes had went by and by now Caydance could have torn Harry to shreds. I ran out of the house immediately and met Liam halfway. His eyes were worried and he reached to grab onto me.

“Caydance.” I nodded at him, and he spun around and headed back the way he came without further explanation.

Half the boys of Kings were in the foyer of the house, watching on with wide eyes where Harry looked almost close to tears. Caydance was a fiery mess in front of him and there was a short girl not too far away, regret evident on her features. She looked seconds from cutting in on the fight but seemed weary of the fiery mess in front of her.

“So she’s your fiancé.” Caydance’s voice boomed out. I balked at the girl and checked her hand for a ring.

“No!” Harry yelled, annoyance seeping through his unhappiness. “I am not engaged, it’s just our families are close it was like of like a wish of theirs.”

“An arranged marriage?” Caydance asked, her voice portraying how unbelievable she found that.

“No.” Harry yelled, again. “Not really. Just when we were younger they put us together a lot and we saw each other for a bit in school and sometimes we slept around or whatever.” Harry’s cheeks turned a bright red with everyone watching on. “But not since I got with you. I swear.” He took a step forward and Caydance took one back.

That’s how I knew she was almost done. Caydance never took a step back from anyone in a fight. She never backed down because she never allowed others to see it as weakness. Caydance wasn’t ready for this fight.

A soft hand touched my elbow and I looked behind me to see Thea and Gemma standing in the doorway. Gemma was focused on her little brother.

“Are you broken up now?” Caydance asked Harry.

“We weren’t together.” He threw his hands out. I looked over to the girl and she didn’t seem to be hurt, at all, by what Harry was saying. She looked apologetic. “Look it was my fault for not letting her know. I didn’t see her at Christmas so I never told her that I was seeing someone. I didn’t see her at Christmas because I was with you.”

“That’s where the little shit went.” Gemma whispered behind me.

“Then why didn’t you tell your family about me then, huh? Gemma apparently had no idea that you had a girlfriend. If I was so fucking special then you would have told your family about me.”

I could see the fight fall from Harry. He knew he had lost this.

“It’s not that easy.” He whispered.

“Because I’m not important right? Not good enough for you and your family? Would your parents be proud to know that you bagged some ordinary chick like me?” Caydance voice was full of self-loathing and I knew this needed to end now and the only person that could save Caydance from herself was Thea and maybe Indiana.

“Thea get her out of there.” I murmured. Thea obliged, rushing forward to grab onto Caydance who stumbled back into her arms. Gemma moved forward too, stepping across the circle to be at her brother’s side.

“I won’t be a secret.” Caydance cried. “I deserve more than that and I thought you were better than that.”

Caydance let Thea pull her out of the house, a silence now ringing through the foyer. I met Louis’ eye. “Did you know?”

“Of course not.” He shrugged before snapping at everyone in the foyer to move on. A few began to migrate on to whatever that had intended to do before being caught in the explosion.

The girl that Caydance had accused Harry of cheating with joined Gemma and Harry’s side. She was continuously apologizing to Harry while Gemma looked half ready to shout at her brother but decided to comfort him instead when his face crumpled under her glare.

I caught Niall’s blonde hair out of the corner of my eye and rushed after him. He reached the stairs as I grabbed his arm.

“Hey. Where are you going?” I asked, surprised that he wouldn’t come and talk to me. “What the hell happened with all of that? Did Harry have a girl with him?” I asked Niall still needing something clarified.

“Don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?” Niall murmured, trying to pull away.

I frowned and let go of his arm. “Something wrong?” I asked him.

“Did you have breakfast yesterday?” Niall asked, throwing me off track by the confusing question.

“No, I uh forgot. I was studying.” I frowned at him.

He snorted derisively and shook his head.

Realization dawned on me. “We were supposed to have breakfast weren’t we?” I gasped, ready to apologise but Niall was already walking back up the stairs.

“Whatever Sidney, go comfort Caydance or some shit.” He disappeared up the stairs before I could say anything more.

“Guess it’s just not Kings’ boys that seem to be stuffing up their relationships.” Louis snorted from next to me.

“Shut up Lou.” I grumbled turning away from the stairs but Louis grabbed my arm.

“Hey, don’t you hurt my boy. Niall’s too good to be hurt.” Louis defended his mate.

I pulled out of his grip. “I didn’t mean to.” I hissed. “I forgot one date, that was all.”

Louis eyes narrowed in on me. “You’ve been so focused on studying that he’s barely seen you since we got back. Even before the holidays you were immersed in your studies. It’s okay to take a break.”

I scoffed at Louis. “Some of us actually care about our grades.” I bit at him before marching out of the house.

I was annoyed; annoyed that Niall was angry with me for forgetting one date. Annoyed that Harry had hurt Caydance. Annoyed that Caydance was so headstrong. And I was annoyed because all this drama was only going to make it harder to get any studying done today.

The house was creepily quiet when I got back. I knew everyone was home, asked to not make plans so we could get through most of the meetings today. So I could only assume that Caydance and Harry’s fight had already reached everyone’s ears.

I headed up to Caydance’s room and found Liam hovering in the doorway while Thea comforted Caydance on her bed.

I smiled at Liam comfortingly, letting him know I didn’t mind him being in the rooms at this point.

“You want to explain to me what that was all about?” I asked bluntly. Thea shot me a glare but Caydance just sniffled in her arms, looking up at me with a snotty noes and puffy eyes.

“Harry apparently had a girlfriend while he was dating me. Sort of.” She added at the end.

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes Caydance needed to not be so stubborn sometimes and she had been looking for ways to not date Harry since they first met.

“He said that they weren’t dating since he met you.” I supplied.

“Yeah but he didn’t actually tell her.” Caydance defended. “And it’s not just that. It’s the fact that he came to my house and met my family and my friends and made me feel like I was something special to him when the whole time his own family and friends didn’t know I existed. He apparently cares about me so much but not enough to tell his family.”

Caydance was from a poorer background then Harry. I knew from Gemma that their family was rich and both Harry and Gemma could not work a single day in their life and still be looked after more than comfortably. And I knew that Caydance was sometimes insecure about where she was from, sometimes she felt inferior because she chose to study acting and not something with a more promising future. It’s why she had slept around for so long, she had enjoyed the feeling of being wanted and being in control of her life. And now that she had finally decided to actually date a boy, a boy that was much younger than herself, he happened to screw everything up by playing on her insecurities.

“I just want to be left alone.” Caydance grumbled, turning back into Thea’s shoulder.

I didn’t want to argue with her so I turned and tugged Liam with me, shutting the door behind us.

“Well today has just ended up being drama loaded.” Liam commented when I walked him to the front door. His steps faltered when Riley came through the door.

Her wide blue eyes met his before she quickly scampered off towards the kitchen.

I groaned. “Please tell me you sorted everything out with Riley because she is acting seriously cagey.”

“Apparently I’m just another grade A douche that only wanted to get into her pants or some shit.” Liam grumbled, clearly angry that anyone would assume that of him. I was honestly surprised that someone could think that about Liam too.

“You didn’t explain your situation properly did you?”

“It’s not really any of your business, Sidney.” Liam snapped, startling me.

“Guess Caydance isn’t the only dramatic one today.” I snarked back, turning from the front door and heading to the stairs. I passed Olivia on the way.

“Tell everyone I’ll be studying in my room and not to interrupt me unless something actually problematic is going on, like murder.” I growled out before shutting myself in my room.

I fell down in my desk chair and glared hard at the books lying open. Everything that had happened today was unnecessary and a distraction from what I actually needed to be doing.

Before I could actually start reading anything there was a knock at the door. I groaned into the books and startled when the door opened itself.

I turned ready to yell at anyone walking in without waiting for an answer but I paused when I saw Gemma standing there, hey eyes sweeping around the room that would have been hers the year before.

“I’m actually about to get some studying done.” I gestured to my books helplessly hoping at some point today I would at least read one page.

“That’s actually what I came to talk to you about.” Gemma sat down on the end of my pale yellow comforter. She held my eye, her hands sure and constant as it ran along my bed. “I’ve heard that you’ve been studying quite a lot recently.”

I felt like there was an underlying disapproval about my studies and I wandered what her and Louis thought we were supposed to do here.

“I am studying law, it takes a lot of reading and work to pass let alone get more then just a pass.”

Gemma rolled her eyes and crossed her ankles together. “I’m well aware Sidney, but what I was not aware of was that you would have trouble completing your studies and dealing with this house.”

I bristled under her accusation. “I’ve been looking after this house just fine. I can handle both, easily.” I snapped at her.

“Mhmm.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “That’s why you look like you haven’t even seen the sun in the last decade or that the dark circles under your eyes have set up camp. Not to mention that half the girls in this house are worried that you study too much and don’t eat enough as well as too worried about bothering to come and tell you important things. They are supposed to bother you, you’re their house leader.”

Gemma was determined, her voice hard. “Riley should have come to you instantly, not be overheard by Caydance. The breaking of my brothers’ heart as well as Caydance’s could have been stopped. You certainly should not have called Liam overdramatic today because his relationship with Riley Henrickson has created tension between the two. As house leader you should have explained to Riley that their relationship is okay and that the rule put in place banning them from being together was not actually concerned about their relationship. Instead you let Liam, a member not of this house, try to explain our rules. Their tension could have been avoided.”

“You and Louis are supposed to be good friends, not against each other. Your friendship was a definite positive when Kings and Grace chose you both as next house leaders. We knew you would work together and iron out each other’s flaws. Instead you snapped and ignored him today.”

“And lastly, Niall Horan has been pining after you for many years and you were too focused on your studies to ever give him the time of day. The time that he thought he finally won from you has been recently reduced to nothing while you waste away in the library.”

I couldn’t be angry at Gemma, her eyes were too kind, she cared about this house and me and I knew that she wanted the best for us. But she had still only been here a day.

“I’ve got this handled.” I assured her.

She rolled her eyes and stood from the bed, her long legs straightening out beneath her. “Then eat a full meal for God’s sake, you’re wasting away.” She snapped, the door clicking shut with a finality behind her.

I sighed and closed my eyes wandering what I had to wish on to be able to restart this day again.
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Sorry guys I had so much trouble with this chapter because a lot of drama was planned and I had trouble trying not to create a soap opera basically. I'm still not entirely happy with this and I even cut out a lot of drama but eh I thought I better hurry up and post it since I am very late!

​xx​​​​