Hard

Prologue: Love is a curious thing isn’t it? One day you are living your life as usual and the next a beautiful mystery comes after you. It is baffling how one person can affect the other. When Auden came into my life, the plan wasn’t to fall in love with her. The plan was to be with her in any other way than committed but it is impossible to keep myself at a distance. Even though it may seem over, I know that hand in hand, we fell hard.

I wake to the sun shining through my blinds and my alarm blasting music from my playlist. Slapping the snooze button on my alarm, I pull the covers over my head in the hopes that no one will find me under here. The first day of sophomore year at NYU and it is the last thing that I want to do right now. I do not want to get up and shower and go to a class of a hundred people. I do not want to listen to professors talk about how important their classes are. I really do not want to listen to a bunch of girls invite me to boring parties that I am already invited to. I am the son of the dean so I tend to get a little popularity, but I hate how people think that if they befriend me it will help them with their lives. People like Devin. She’s hot for sure and a welcoming distraction for when I am bored but she always wants some validation from me.

“LINC!” My mother screams from downstairs. We have an intercom system but the woman’s voice can travel so she prefers her own built-in intercom system.

I shove the covers off my body and involuntarily get out of bed. I open my bathroom door to find that it is spotless; mother must have gotten the maids to clean it while I was out partying with Jace. The hot water from the shower hits my sore and tired muscles, waking me up so that my hangover seems a little less present than it did before. If my father, the precious Dean Carlisle Black, sees me hungover on my first day back, the man will kill me.

Once out of the shower, I ignore the pre-picked outfit set on my dresser from my mother and pull out a black t-shirt and jeans. I know that my mother wants me to look like some college preppy boy who is a virgin and goes out on mother-son dates but I am just not that guy. I dress in comfortable clothes because I don’t care what other people think.

“LINC!”

“Mother save your breath! I will leave soon!” I yell down the stairs and hopefully, she doesn’t smack my head for doing so.

My phone goes off and before I reach for it, my dad enters my room and grabs my phone off my desk by my door. “Hmmmmmm, Jace wants you to know that he is hella,” He rolls his eyes at that word because he knows that it isn’t one, “hella hungover and wants you to get him on the way to class.”

I take a mental note to hit him when I see him and snatch my phone out of his hands.

Be there soon. I text back.

“I am about to head out so you wanna give me the lecture now or later?”

He laughs a little and then gives me his credit card, “You guys grab some coffee on the way there so you aren’t completely out of it when you get to English. ”

I laugh a little and we bump fists. He can be a major pain but not as much as my mom can. “Don’t tell mom.”

He throws his hands up in surrender and I throw on my book bag over my shoulder and head out the back stairway to avoid my mother’s annoying nagging about how I should dress for the job I want.

I pull up to the frat house that Jace lives in and there are dozens off people on their way out all looking like zombies. At least I do not look like that. Jace swings my door open and grabs the coffee from the drink holder on my dash, “Sweet you got the Audie today?”

“Yeah, what’s with the shades Maimi Vice?” We both laugh a little from my joke and he points to his head probably the light is too much for his head right now. When we go out, he always parties way too hard. I am the life of the party and he is part of the party that dies from alcohol poisoning. I just hope he doesn’t go back to his old ways, “I got you your disgusting girly drink with extra pumps of vanilla...”

“It is not disgusting, it is the best drink ever and girls and guys can like coffee equally.”

“Yeah, guys like coffee and girls like disgusting drinks with extra pumps of vanilla.”

“Just drive you wanker!”

I hate his British lingo but I simply slap his arm and rush to school so that we are not late for British Literature.

When we enter, Jace and I meet up with Eliot and Devin at the back of the class. We like to sit together when we can except Devin always works her schedule with mine in the hopes that if I see her more than we will magically fall in love. She plops her extremely small ass next to mine so that Jace is forced to sit next to Eliot. I give him a ‘please help me’ look but he just gives me a shoulder shrug. There seem to be fewer people than I originally thought there would be. I can tell who knows who by the clusters of people in seats next to each other. Threes and fours all spread apart from the other groups to keep their clicks from mixing with the others. Not that I am any different than anyone else. My group of four is spread the furthest away.

Eliot perks us when a blonde boy and a curvy brunette girl walk into together, “Gabe!” They turn and Gabe smiles at Eliot. Does Eliot already have a new man? He and Donovan just broke up but then again he always says a good way to get over someone is to get under someone else, I wouldn’t know since I have never had someone to really get to know. The blonde boy hugs Eliot and Jace and I both give him a curious look but he just smiles mischievously; he’s got a plan for the cute blonde boy and his dimples.

There is something different about the brunette girl that he is with. I can spot freshmen from a mile away but she’s different. They all usually look anxious but welcoming nonetheless. She just looks empty. She’s hot that for sure though. Her hair is more of a copper and her soft waves hit just below her shoulders. She smiles at Eliot and shakes his hand. “Guys this is Gabe, my new roommate and this is...” He looks at the quiet brunette girl waiting for her to introduce herself.

“Auden.” She says but her gaze is only on Elliot, she must not like a lot of attention. Her black bookbag looks similar to mine and she has a copy of the textbook in her hands only she is gripping it not holding it. I wonder why she is so on edge...

“Well Auden nice to meet you, you guys sit next to us from now on.” Gabe hops over from the row below us and sits next to Eliot but then lends his hand to Auden to help her up. She takes a seat next to him and pulls out her laptop and notebook. I wonder what she and Gabe did to get into a sophomore-level English class.

Devin must notice me staring at Auden because she swats my arm with jealousy, “She isn’t that hot,” she whispers.

Jace then leans in, “Oh dear Devin, I respectfully disagree.” I wonder if Jace is already working on a plan to win the girl over.

The professor finally makes an appearance and greats the whole class. Welcoming us, he tells us to get on his website and open the syllabus. A majority of it it just a reading schedule but I have already read most of it giving me some free time and one upcoming project about great women in literature, “As you all see you already have pre-picked partners assigned by my TA Harper. It is randomly selected and will not be changed. I suggest you all swap numbers after class with the person you have and plan out how you want to proceed with the project. At the end of the year, we will have a presentation at the end of class over the woman you picked by reading a work she had done so choose wisely; you don’t want to bore the class.”

I cross my fingers in the hopes that I either get Jace or Eliot because I will not survive this if I have to get stuck with Devin. Scrolling down the list I see my name and... Auden Tate. Well, this should be interesting.