Better for You

Of course I was going to meet Harry on this road, he's one of them I reminded myself, referring to the gangs that evidently hang around here. "Hey Harry." I spoke slowly, feeling slightly intimidated by the crowd of his friends that had gathered around us. There must have been about about 9 others, ten in total including Harry, and I didn't recognize a single one of their faces, not even Zayn was there.

"You know her mate?" One of the boys asked loudly and I nervously looked around to Abby who also looked to be slightly intimidated by the crowd, however was hiding it much better than I was.

"Of course not!" Harry spat, giving me a dirty look as he looked my outfit up and down with a face of disgust. I suddenly felt very self-conscious under his hard gaze. Of course, the insecurity that I felt was nothing compared to the stab in my heart when Harry claimed to not know me. I don’t quite understand why I feel betrayed by Harry when I really don’t know him that well, but he came to my room last night and now he’s denying the knowledge of my existence and this change in attitude is messing with my head.

"Then how does she know your name Harry?" Another guy asked and my eyes immediately flickered in his direction, taking in his scruffy blonde hair, dull blue eyes and lanky form as he took a drag from his cigarette. And in that moment, I was so glad that I had found someone like Mike, who wasn't involved with this type of crowd.

"I have a reputation you know." Harry explained, but no-one looked to be buying his story, so instead he let out a bitter laugh and added, "you really think that I know a girl like that?" He asked, waving his arm up and down in front of me. "Come on guys, I do have some standards!" Harry told them, and after taking a good look at me they must have believed Harry, as they began nodding their heads. Ouch.

My heart felt like it had been stolen from my chest and beaten on the ground by Harry's hands and harsh words. They way he talked about me, right in front of me. He's just like them my mind reminded me, and I scolded myself for actually believing that Harry was different. He's like all of the other players, if anything worse; he had made actually start to think he was semi-decent and then put me down and humiliated me in front of his friends.

"I um..." I began, when I realized that nobody was even listening to me anymore. They had all turned their backs to me and had began muttering between them.

"Come on Izzy, let's go." Abby encouraged, tugging my arm and I followed her, walking away from the group of nasty teenagers. I felt eyes on me as we walked away, and turned my head back to the group to see Harry watching me walk away with a straight face. When he realized that I'd noticed him staring he tilted his head at me before turning back to the rest of the group.

The walk back to the dorms was quiet, I wasn't quite in the mood for talking. I don't know why Harry being an arse had affected me so much, but it had. I had somehow believed that he wasn't the same as how everyone else saw him, that maybe he was better than that. I just thought that maybe he wasn't the same as his reputation. But of course, I'm just the innocent girl who was being naive to the mysterious heart-breaker. What was I thinking? Of course he was just the same as the rest of them.

"I'm sorry Izzy, I know that you thought that he wasn't the same as everyone else, but at least you know what he is before you got too attached." Abby told me, as she closed the door to our dorm and gave me a tight hug.

"He’s a dickhead and he’s not worth my time" I told Abby, and she chuckled in response. I sighed and pulled away, plastering a small smile on my face, trying to reassure Abby that I wasn't that hurt by what he had done. I shouldn't be hurt by him pretending that he didn't know me, but the way that he did it, maybe that's what hurt so much? The fact that he had basically said that I wasn't good enough for him and wasn't worthy of being acquainted with him; that hurt.

Abby's phone buzzed and she looked at it and replied before then looking up at me. "Um, Andy's having a few mates around and suggested that we should come, you in?" Abby asked and I shook my head. I really wasn't in the mood to talk to people. I wanted some space to just be with myself, maybe take a walk or something, I don't know. Just anything to take my mind off of the way the boy with curly hair and plenty of attitude who had put me down.

"No, I was thinking of going on a walk tonight or something, plus I promised that I'd Skype Mike back considering last time it got cut short by Harry." I explained, spitting out Harry's name like it was a disease.

"Ok then, I'll see you later then?" Abby asked, walking towards the door and I smiled and nodded. She smiled at me in return and then walked out of the door. As soon as she left the room I let out a breath, I wasn't aware that I was holding in, and flopped back onto my bed. Memories of the way Harry spoke of me with so much distaste flashed back through my mind, and I had to try very hard to fight off the tears that were forming in my eyes. Hold yourself together Izzy I told myself, and blinked back my tears and eventually my vision cleared.

I grabbed my laptop, and switched it on, logging onto Skype. I brought up Mike's profile and called his name. However, after a few seconds of ringing Mike seemed to have declined the call and shortly after I got a text from him stating that he was busy. I sighed and chucked my phone onto my bed, frustrated at the world.

Instead I decided to take my laptop out and started watching a few episodes of Suits. I mean, it’s about lawyers so technically it counts as studying right?

After a good few hours of staring at the perfect being that is Harvey Spectre, I let out a long sigh, and prepared for bed before laying down in my bed and switching off the bedside light and falling into a deep slumber.

A grunt escaped my lips as the sound of my alarm cut through the air, waking me up from the lifeless face that was haunting my sleep.

I got up and walked grumpily towards the shower, my footsteps harsh on the tile floors as I made it to the shower, hoping the shower might wake me up.

I didn't take long in shower and quickly got changed into a pink thin strapped lace dress and then hurried back into the dorm, where Abby laid quietly, still asleep. I then put on light eye makeup and a bit of my favourite nude lipstick, before accessorizing with pink bracelets and sunglasses.

My phone then buzzed on my dresser as I walked over to pick it up. 'Wanna meet up at Starbucks in half an hour? -Andy xx' Andy asked, and typed back a quick yes before continuing with my outfit by adding some studded sandal heels and a black biker jacket. I then quickly tied my hair up into a messy bun, before stuffing my English stuff into my brown leather bag and hurried out of the door.

I made it to Starbucks a few minutes early and ordered a vanilla latte when Andy walked through the door. "Hey!" She greeted, smiling happily as she walked straight over to me as no-one else was in the cue.

"Hey!" I replied handing the man my money. Andy then ordered a vanilla iced-frappe, and we waited for the drinks to be made, discussing our notes.

After a few minutes of waiting, our drinks were handed to us, and we decided to sit outside and bask in the summer sun. "I really love your dress" Andy told me and I smiled at her fiddling with the lace hem.

"Thanks" I replied, taking a sip from my latte. "So how was your day off?" I asked and Andy shrugged, sipping from her drink.

"It was alright, I had the guys over and Abby, you should have come! We had a great time!" Andy gushed and I smiled softly.

"Yeah, well next time I’ll make sure to come" I told her, not really wanting to bring up why I ended up decided to flake on her plans.

"Yeah, Abby also mentioned your encounter with Harry. I'm really sorry, he's just an ass." Andy told me and I nodded weakly, taking a sip of my drink so that I didn't have to force a smile.

"I know, I was just a little hurt by the way that he put me down, you know? He talked about me like I was some crazy stalker girl who was not worthy of knowing him and it just, it kinda sucked." I told Abby, my eyes cast down on my thumbs as they fiddled with themselves nervously.

"Yeah, I know, he has a reputation of hurting girls. But at least you now know what he's like." Andy told me sincerely and I smiled at her weakly, before she moved onto a story of how Niall had managed to fit 10 marshmallows in his mouth all at once while playing chubby bunny.

After a good 20 minute talk with Andy, we both began to walk towards our class, of course arriving 10 minutes early. We took our seats at the front and took out our notes, and began discussing the texts we’d been given to read.

"Yeah, I think what’s really important is the differentiation between the mens rea and actus rea" I told Abby as the chair next to me screeched along the floor. I raised my eyes up to find the person residing at the top of my to kill list staring down at me. Of course Harry would be in today, and of course he would take the seat next to me while looking nothing short of perfect. I rolled my eyes and looked back at Andy who started mentioning something about recklessness and intent to commit crime.

Half way into the lesson, the professor had given the class a text to make annotations on. I tried hard to concentrate on my work, however it was almost impossible when I could see Harry watching me out of the corner of my eye. "Psst," he whispered, but I ignored him as I had told myself that I would have nothing to do with Harry Styles anymore after what had gone down yesterday.

However, Harry didn't seem to like my idea, as he began poking my arm. "What?" I growled at him and he furrowed his brows at me, probably shocked at my tone.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" He asked and I rolled my eyes at him, looking back down at my paper in front of me.

"You should have been listening." I whispered back, flicking my head to the side to look at him. He had a frown on his face and looked deep in thought.

"Why are you so mad at me?" He asked, and I sighed, shaking my head and continued with my work, ignoring his comment and his presence for the rest of the lesson.

At the end of the lesson I handed my work back to Mr Richards before I made my way out of the classroom. I walked out of the building and into the fresh air as someone tapped my shoulder. I swung around to face them and was met by the one person who I had been successfully ignoring up until now. "What do you want?" I hissed, turning around and began walking away, however Harry just began walking along side me.

"Why are you so mad at me?" He asked, matching my footsteps as we walked in time with each other. I shook my head, not quite understanding how he didn't know why I was mad at him.

"You're kidding me right?" I stopped and asked while Harry remained looking clueless as I laughed a forced laugh. "Just go away Harry, you made it very clear that you don't hang out with girls like me, so why not just stick to your words?" I replied, walking away once again.

"Don't tell me that you're actually offended by what happened yesterday?" Harry asked, genuinely shocked as he followed after me. "Look, I have a reputation to hold and you're-" Harry began, but I interrupted him mid sentence, stopping once again.

"And I'm just me. An average naive girl who would never stand a chance against you. I get it, I really do, ok?" I told him and Harry frowned at my response. "We're two people who are worlds apart. So, why don't you stick to your world, and I'll stick to mine." I told him, and turned to walk away. Harry didn't follow after me, which I assumed meant he understood that what I said was right.