2 | ≠ hope

"Where were you?" I question Eli, who is entering class almost 15 minutes late. Out of the many things I know about Eli, the most important is that he is never, ever, late. He loves being punctual but thankfully he never imposes his love of punctuality on others.

Then, our chances of becoming friends would've been quite thin.

"Just bumped into this girl while coming to class," he says, a little out of breath. It's clear that he ran to class, making me wonder who exactly the girl was.

"Who?" We know almost every girl on the campus- a fact that we aren't particularly proud of but when you're in a football team filled with idiots and when you yourself like to have a little fun with willing ladies, you tend to know most of the girl population.

"We don't know her but I've seen her around campus with her blonde best friend," he says, not meeting my eyes.

Because at the mention of the blonde best friend his cheeks instantly tint red.

"Dude, are you blushing? Does someone have a little crush?" I tease.

He quickly glares at me and with a barely concealed smile, he replies, "No. I've just noticed her around."

Raising my eyebrows at him, he simply rolls his eyes and removes his notebook, finally paying attention to the lecture.

I drop the topic, turning to face the ma'am. Since Eli is majoring in Physics and I am majoring in Computer Science, we don't have any classes together except our chosen elective, psychology. Since we both are in our junior year of college, we both thought, Why not?

I met Eli in my freshman year. We were both assigned the same dorm which we had to share with another guy. The said guy was the most unhygienic guy we had ever seen and that's a lot to say because both of us aren't exactly clean freaks. So at the end of freshman year, we decided to move out of dorms and rented an apartment on campus. ISU provided a pretty sweet campus housing facility with Sunday football parties and outdoor movie weekends. That was the best decision we made and we haven't looked back ever since.

His science puns and cool, collected nature is an almost contrast to my own reckless nature. With his brown hair identical to mine and blue crystal eyes, girls simply fall straight at his feet. He's practically family.

After finishing the lectures, we have an hour to kill before practice. As we walking towards our apartment, my eyes catch a glimpse of long brown hair walking in the opposite direction of where we're heading. The girl looks pretty out of it, juggling her books and laptop in both her hands and rushing towards something. I can't recall seeing her on campus before and it irks me to no length how she could've gone unnoticed to me.

"Hey! That's the girl I bumped into earlier," Eli remarks.

That makes sense. He did say he hadn't seen her around much either. Only her best friend. So either she is new or really good at blending in. But guessing by the way she's walking around campus, it seems like she's quite comfortable with the surroundings. As I continue to stare at her, engrossed in my own thoughts, she turns her head to look directly at me, as if she felt my gaze on her.

Play it off Nathan, play it off.

Her face lights up with a smile as she waves in our direction and something in me kickstarts. I turn around to see Eli waving back and walking towards her. I follow after him, curious to meet this girl.

"Hey bumper," Eli greets her.

"Hey yourself. Fancy seeing you here," she greets back. Her voice, although soft, has a certain rasp of huskiness to it. Her eyes are a deep shade of brown, almost reminding me of chocolate. The sun is shining down at her, making her brown hair look lighter in some areas than the rest. I notice a few strands of subtle highlights running down the length of her hair. Her tan complexion, paired with her almost curvy figure makes me want to keep staring at her for as long as she allows me to.

Hell, I sound creepy as fuck.

"As opposed to when you saw me right here almost an hour back?" Eli asks, making me snap my attention back to their conversation.

"Good Point. I really have to get going though," she says, biding her silent goodbyes to us.

And then, I panic, not wanting her to leave without actually getting a single word in the conversation.

"Why are you leaving already?" I ask her without any particular reason. Her brown eyes snap to me, staring at me as I'm an alien. I suddenly fidget under her curious gaze, and she notices, letting a small smirk slip on her face.

God fucking dang it.

"Because I would like to continue to pay for my expenses. I work at The Bakery."

"Oh, you do?" I ask dumbly. I feel like facepalming myself. Eli looks at me with a funny expression, and I ignore it, focusing on not blurting out more dumb things in front of the very pretty girl whose name I don't know.

"Yep. But I won't be if I don't reach in time. I'll see you later Eli," she pauses, her gaze landing on me and staying there. She smirks again and nods, "You too, Nathan."

And with one last look at us, letting her gaze linger on me for just a tiny bit more, she walks away from us.

"What's her name?" I ask Eli as soon as she's far enough from us.

"Why didn't you ask? Oh sorry, I forgot, your brain was busy blurting dumb things," he smirks as we continue walking.

"Come on! She knew mine! It's only fair I know hers," I argue.

"But you didn't tell her. So ask her yourself."

I sigh and keep walking. At least I know where she works.

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

We're all out of breath, panting heavily. That's what happens when you're made to run 10 laps around the field without a single break.

"Anyone want any more laps to run?" Coach says, a smug smile on his face. We all shake our heads no. We are all pretty tired and want nothing more than to go home and take rest. The 10 laps were a result of a pretty crude joke our wide receiver Jason had made and since Coach's strategy has always been, "The team is technically one person. If one person receives a punishment, the entire team does". Honestly, it works pretty well and makes our team coordination and trusts pretty solid. But on occasions like these, we can't help but hope that we weren't 'one person'.

"Well then. You all are dismissed."

We all give a sigh of relief and get up from the field to freshen up and leave.

As we're getting ready to leave, we all catch sight of Amanda Lovell walking towards us. The boys look at me and give a teasing whistle.

I smirk and flip the bird at them. We all know why Amanda is walking towards us. She has been trying to get me to hook up with her since freshman year but I don't usually give her any attention. But today since she looks mighty hot, wearing extremely short shorts and a crop top which leaves little to the imagination. I need some way to let off some steam after my awkward encounter yesterday with the pretty brunette and, I figure one time won't hurt. Her boobs are practically falling out of the top as she walks with a bounce in her step.

I look at Eli and he gives me a look which clearly says,

Nice.

"Hey, Nathan," she says in a flirty tone.

I cringed, recognizing the tone at once. Sure, Amanda is probably the second hottest girl on campus, she is not my type at all. Not one bit. But I play along anyway.

"Hi," I say.

"I was thinking, maybe if you're free now, I could come over and we could have a little fun," she says, natural easy confidence oozing out of her. She knows what she wants, and she's asking for it. Although the way she's standing looks very uncomfortable, I am not about to comment on that.

I am not trying to lead her on, but she knows what she's getting into. It's casual and quick. I don't feel anything towards her, and I know she doesn't either. I haven't for anyone for years now. I've never felt anything about the past handful of girls I've been with, mainly because none of them can hold a conversation with me for even a minute. None of them sparked my interest, questioned me, or challenged me in any way possible.

At this point, I'm not hoping for anyone either. I'm quite happy with my daily schedule which I have developed over the years.

But I'm not going to let go of this opportunity either.

"Lead the way."

⋈ ⋈ ⋈

Hiya! Hope you all had an amazing week! You have now met our very own Main Characters and things are only going to get better from here {I hope ;)} POVs might change randomly, there's no particular pattern in which chapters will be so the banners will help!

Anywhoo, onto our question for the week!

Q. What is the first thing you wanna tick off from your bucket list?

Hope y'all like the chapter! Feedback is always appreciated! Vote, comment or do anything you'd like to!

Love,

Anushka <3