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Melanie

I woke up to the feeling of someone staring at me, and when I opened my eyes I was met with the culprit. Alana was standing over my bed staring at me. I laughed when I saw her there and questioned, "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh good, you are finally up!" she exclaimed, "I was waiting for you to wake up because I am starving and I thought we could go out to breakfast, or well lunch now."

Wait, what time was it? I looked at my phone to find that it was already almost one. How had I slept in so late? I have never split this late before.

"You should have woken me up!" I exclaimed as I got out of bed and changed out of my pajamas. "Where do you want to go to lunch?" I asked.

"I was thinking Panera," She answered. The Panera was only about a five minute walk from our dorm so we frequented it often. "alright let's go."

As we walked over Alana was recounting the events of last nights party. Apparently, some drunk girl got on a table and took off her shirt in front of everyone. Just the thought has me feeling embarrassed and reminding me why alcohol is never a good idea. "Did you meet any guys last night?" I asked.

"Well I was at this frat called DKE where all the big athletes live, and I did meet a really cute hockey guy but I'm pretty sure he just wanted to fuck so it didn't go anywhere. I swear to God that is all any of those guys want." She groaned exasperated. The report was always similar when I asked her about guys at parties, the only difference being whether or not she actually hooked up with them.

When we reached Panera, we both went in and ordered our regular, mine being a salad and Alana's being mac and cheese, and sat down with our food. "How was the library last night?" she questioned as she stuffed a huge spoonful into her mouth.

I chuckled at the sight, "It was the usual, just me wrapped up in my book," I lied. I don't know why I didn't want to tell her. Maybe because I felt like there was nothing to tell, maybe because I wanted to keep the night all to myself. Nonetheless, I kept the events of my night a secret from my best friend, leaving her disappointed with the lack of excitement in my life.

"Please come out with me next weekend. Just give it one chance and if you hate it I will never ask again. I just want you to see more while you are here than the inside of that library." I know that it was coming from a genuine place of caring, and I mean how bad could it be?

"Okay, I will think about it," I compromised. She responded with an ear to ear grin, "I'm not hearing a no!" I laughed, "I'm not saying yes."

That seemed good enough for her for the moment and she dropped the subject, but I knew I would be hearing more about it again.

— — —

I decided to head back to the library again tonight, knowing that the work for the week would build up preventing me from going on a school night.

The bottom floors were busier tonight, on account of it being a Sunday and everyone rushing to complete the work that they put off over the weekend. I made my way up to the top floor, where there was sure to be no one as usual.

When I got to the sixth floor I made a b-line for the corner, but stopped short when I heard a light humming I knew I was not alone. I walked out of the bookshelf to see the back of a boy, hunched over a laptop typing what appeared to be an essay. I knew instantly from the messy brown hair it was Hunter.

He seemed to have headphones in and didn't hear when I said hi so I tapped on his shoulder to get his attention. He jumped, clearly startled and quickly recovered with a smile.

He took out his headphones and said, "Hey you." The two words were enough to give me the familiar feeling in my stomach from last night. I sat down in my chair in the corner and sat facing him.

"I see you have hijacked my spot," I joked. "Well, I needed a quiet place to finish my essay because some girl rudely interrupted me last night." He responded with a smirk.

I laughed lightly at his remark and quickly shot back, "If I remember correctly you were the one that interrupted me." That earned me a laugh. "Well, what can I say? I just can't help myself around beautiful girls."

That was the second time he called me beautiful in the past 24 hours. Not that I was like keeping track or anything. "Is that so?" I smirked back.

I felt much more comfortable around him now, as evidence by the banter we keep exchanging. I have never been comfortable around a guy before. It usually takes me a while to warm up to anyone. I hardly said anything to Alana for at least a week.

"How is the paper going?" I asked, knowing that I should leave him to work but not wanting to stop talking just yet. "Well, at this rate I will be done with it by the end of the semester, which is only a slight problem considering its due tonight." He joked, showing me the screen of his computer which currently only had three of the ten pages written.

"Come on, you can do it. I believe in you!" I smiled encouragingly.

"I wish I had as much faith in me as you seem to. But I do know one thing that might help me finish this," he said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, and what is that?" I tried to sound flirty with my response, but having never really flirted before, I was almost positive it didn't come across.

"Sit with me until I finish. Maybe you will give me some motivation," He smiled. The fact that he wanted me to stay just as much as I wanted to was reassuring and of course I agreed.

"Okay I will stay but no talking, I don't want to distract you." I scolded him joking.

"Deal," he promised and then got back to his work as I opened my new book and began to get lost in the story.