"effort reflects interest"

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

I finish the last bite of my sandwich and take a sip of my iced tea. "That was really good."

"I know. This place is my favourite café near campus," Aspen says as she stacks our plates on top of one another.

"So what are your plans for the rest of the day?" the blue-eyed goddess of a woman asks me.

Aspen was a model when she was younger. She's always been gorgeous. With her wild blonde hair and her style, guys and girls line up to be with her. Luckily she's not my roommate, Beth and Harper have that pleasure.

I don't think my sleep schedule could handle her sneaking her one-night stands out of the house every morning. Not that I'm judging of course, if anything I'm jealous. I'd kill for her looks and ability to get anyone I want.

All my friends are gorgeous, which can be tough on the self esteem. I don't think I'm necessarily bad to look at, but my list of boyfriends or literally anyone who's asked me out makes it clear that I'm nothing more than maybe slightly above average.

My list, by the way, is 0. Contrast that to the other girls, it's somehow more embarrassing.

"I'm going to go straight to the library after we pay," I answer.

"Oh, that's right! You're tutoring the hottie with a body."

Why did I tell her he was attractive? Not that I had much choice, she pried the information out of me. I also can't really keep a secret, especially when that secret is 6'3" and easy on the eyes. Nevertheless, he's a dick.

"Please never use those two words in a sentence together again," I comment on her deplorable nickname, "but yes, I am."

"I'm sensing some sexual tension."

"I hate to break it to you, but your senses are off. There's nothing but studying going on," I assure her. "We're not even friends, I can barely stand him."

"We'll see about that," Aspen smirks to herself.

I decide against arguing with her.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

"What the fuck are you doing?" I ask as Sterling pulls the claw clip out from my hair.

He doesn't answer.

"You're supposed to be studying you know," I add annoyed.

He nods his head and mumbles something about being bored.

I watch him as he focuses on my hair clip, opening and closing it over and over again.

I sense taking it from him would be counterproductive, "Can we get back to work if I let you play with that?" I offer.

"Mhmm."

So we resume studying. He continues to play around with the clip and I ignore his fidgeting, glad he's somewhat focused.

"Laney?" he stops the little amount of work we've been doing.

"Yeah?" I mumble, not looking up from the notes in front of me.

"Why do you always wear these?" Sterling asks out of nowhere.

I look over to his newest fidget toy, feeling the urge to bother him, "That's a generalization considering you've known me for a few weeks."

"Ok, well you've worn one every day I've seen you, so excuse me if assumed." I'm taken aback by his attentiveness.

"What?" He refers to my nonexistent response, "You surprised I noticed?"

"Well, don't flatter yourself, Laney," he looks me in the eyes, "I'm just a big fan of these little things, not you." He continues to fiddle with the pink clip.

I can't help but chuckle at his fascination.

"Don't laugh at me."

I pretend to gasp in shock, "I would never."

He jabs me in the stomach and I can't help but squeal. In the library may I add.

I look around, humiliated at the stares I'm getting.

I smack him on the back of the head, "Idiot," I whisper.

He leans down, his lips brushing my ear, "You're telling me you're not used to lots of attention? Look at you."

Before I can ask what he means, he gets up, "Bathroom," he says, walking away from me.

I'm left alone until a guy I've never met walks up to me. I subtly panic. He can't kidnap me here, I'm in the library on campus, I assure myself.

"Hey, I'm Jax," he introduces himself. He's pretty tall, not nearly as tall as Sterling though. He has brown eyes and messy hair, but not in the good way.

"Delaney," I shake the hand he offers.

"So, what're you up to right now?"

Is this guy an idiot? I mean I'm in a library, with books and notes in front of me. Come on man, put two and two together.

"Studying."

"Sounds like fun," he speaks with a straight face.

Jax runs a hand through his hair, clearly trying to look more appealing yet utterly failing.

What in god's name is happening right now? Someone get this guy out of here. Where is Sterling when you actually need him?

He looks behind me, suddenly losing some of his disproportionate confidence.

"Alright, that's my cue," he backs up a little, "it was nice to meet the girl Sterling claimed as off limits." Jax says as he walks away.

What the fuck is he talking about?

"What the hell were you doing with Jax?" Sterling asks, reappearing beside me, slightly calming my heart rate down.

Irritated, I look up at him, "You said I was off limits?"

"That's disgusting. I'm not your property," I explain, my heart picking up its pace as I get progressively more upset.

"I didn't say that. I just told Jax he couldn't go out with you is all," he says nonchalantly, literally confirming he did exactly what I asked him.

"So then you did," I remark.

"Did what?" he questions, apparently not even listening to this whole conversation.

"Said I was off limits."

"I guess I did," he admits, shrugging his shoulders.

"God you're annoying," I exclaim frustrated, but I back down knowing I won't get anywhere with him.

"But thank you," I whisper, almost hoping he doesn't hear it. From the little time I spent with Jax, I hated it.

But I know he catches what I said when I see him try and hold back a smirk.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

After a million distractions we finally get a bit of work done. That's until the library announces its closing in 10 minutes for some professor conference thing.

"It's like the universe is trying to stop us from working," I mutter, mostly to myself.

Sterling obviously overhears this, sensing my frustration, "We can go back to my place if you'd like."

"Is this a ploy to get me in your bed, darling?"

"Only if you want it to be," he delivers straight faced.

"Funny."

"But seriously, we could get some work done there."

"Ok, sure," I take advantage of a probably rare chance of him doing work.

The two of us pack up our area as quickly as possible, trying to avoid the death stares we are receiving from the librarian. We walk out of the library together, books in both our hands but my backpack on his back because he insisted.

I laugh at his tall frame with my child sized bag on him, "You look cute."

"Why thank you," he takes the comment as flattery.

"That's not supposed to be a compliment. I was making fun of you because you look ridiculous in that tiny backpack."

"No," A smile plays on Sterling's face, "you said cute, not ridiculous."

I roll my eyes, "Yeah well, I meant ridiculous."

"Can't take it back now, Laney," he grabs me by my waist and turns my body closer to him.

I look up at him, confused at our sudden proximity.

"You were going the wrong way," he explains, probably not even noticing his hand is still resting on my waist.

Meanwhile, my heart is beating a mile a minute. If I'm honest, I'm not exactly experienced with guys. And by that, I mean no guy has shown interest in me in the history of my life. Because of that sad life fact of mine, much to my dismay, my stomach is full of butterflies and my heart is racing.

We reach his car and I hop in. Damn this is a nice car. Clean too.

"Your car is clean." I blab.

What the fuck, Delaney? Stop talking immediately.

Sterling laughs.

It's maybe a 5 minute drive from the library to his house. We pull up to a cute little home just off campus, definitely not what I pictured him living in.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

"Fair warning, all the guys are home right now which means there's a high probability you're going to get ambushed."

"Guys? Ambushed? I'm going to need a little more information," I request.

Sterling unlocks the door and opens it up, letting me walk in first, "You'll see, Laney."

I look around, partly expecting to be tackled to the ground by 20 guys, but nothing happens.

I glance back at him, slightly puzzled.

That is until I see a guy walk out of the kitchen and over to me. He's slightly shorter than Sterling with dark skin, maybe 6'1". He has a pretty smile and kind looking eyes.

"Bringing a girl home? That's a first Blake." 

Ah, so that's who uses his last name. It's fine, I like darling.

"Not quite," Sterling replies.

"I'm Luke, by the way. Luke McDowell," he uses his full name.

Before I get a chance to introduce myself, another guy appears.

"Who's the pretty lady?" a brunette asks. He's got short yet shaggy hair and he's beaming, which appears as if he always is.

He doesn't give me or Sterling a chance to butt in and speak before a look of realization flashes in his eyes.

"Mason! Theo! Get your asses over here, Blake has a surprise!" the boy yells across the house.

Gazing back at Sterling, I try and send a signal asking for help through my eyes.

He just shrugs his shoulders and rubs my arm reassuringly.

I hate that his action makes me feel safer.

3 seconds later and I'm now surrounded by 5, very tall, men.

Luke whacks the brunette on the shoulder, making him wince.

"Right sorry," he apologizes, "I'm Owen Pierce."

"I'm Theo Holloway." My eyes wander over to another brunette, this one with tamed hair in a middle part. He has really pretty grey eyes, and he's holding a book, which I try and identify, but his hand is in the way.

"And I'm Mason Young." I finally meet the fourth guy in the line in front of me, Sterling still behind me.

His blonde hair is the first thing that catches my attention, setting him apart from the rest of the boys. He has blue eyes, a similar shade to Aspen's and he's significantly shorter than Sterling, probably standing at 5'10".

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Delaney," I squeak out, giving them my best smile.

"Ah, I see, you're the famous Laney," Luke speaks, using air quotes around my nickname.

"I'm famous?" I smirk up at Sterling.

"No, you're not," he very quickly shuts me down, "and it's Delaney to you boys." He looks at the bodies surrounding me.

"Ok, we're done here." Sterling places his hand on my lower back, leading me upstairs.

I turn back to my new friends, "It was nice meeting you all!"

They smile at me, Owen shooting me a wink instead.

"They seem nice!" I exclaim to Sterling once we reach his room.

"They are when they want to be."

"Ok, I guess we should get started then, darling."

"I guess we should."

And so we study. Surprisingly with very few distractions, once I give Sterling my hair clip again. I check my phone, realizing the time.

"I should probably start packing up, I need to get some sleep."

"You could just stay here if you want."

"Not in a million years."

"Well then I'm driving you back to your house." He leaves no room for discussion.

I gladly take the offer and I get back in his car once again. We don't say much during the ride, apart from me giving him directions.

"Thanks for the ride, darling," I say as I unbuckle my seatbelt and open the door.

"You're welcome, Laney."

I take my keys out of my pocket and unlock my door, not missing the fact that he stays in the driveway until I disappear into the house safely.

I replay my day over in my head and question how someone I had the intention of hating could be so likeable.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

Once again, it's 2:00 AM and I'm just now finishing this chapter. This is definitely a longer chapter, almost double what I usually write. I hope you guys don't mind, I just wanted to have this whole thing as one chapter.

Question for the chapter: What time do you go to sleep?

Thanks for reading you guys! Stay safe and healthy <3