CHAPTER NINE
'YOU WISH'

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MONDAY MORNING ARRIVED WITH A LESS THAN PLEASANT START IF I'M GOING TO BE HONEST WITH YOU. When I awoke from my sleep to the soft sound of traffic going by outside, I rolled over in bed to check the time, once my eyes had adjusted to the brightness of my room, and almost had a heart attack when my sight finally cleared and I read the face of the clock.

'No, no, no, not again!' I panicked as I threw the duvet off my body and clambered out of bed, changing out of my pjs and beginning to tear through my drawers, before throwing on random items of clothing, as I always did in this situation.

As soon as I'd brushed my teeth and sorted out my appearance the best I could in the bathroom, I ran down the stairs and dashed through the hallway, almost knocking down an unexpecting Roger who was leaving the living room as I came speeding past him at a hundred miles an hour.

'Whoa! Slow down there,' he laughed, 'What are you running about the place like a headless chicken for?'

'I'm going to be late for uni...again,' I told him, slipping on a pair of trainers; the most sensible choice of footwear for sprinting down the street, 'My alarm clock didn't go off; it hardly ever does. I'm sure the bloody thing's broken.'

'Buy a new one, then?'

I rolled my eyes, 'A new alarm clock isn't exactly at the top of my list of priorities, Roger.'

The two of us fell silent as the drummer watched me hurriedly throw on my jacket. He suddenly spoke up again, 'I could give you a lift, if you want?'

'What?'

'I'll drop you off at uni on the way to work,' he explained, 'It's no bother, really. I'm going in that direction anyway.'

I just stared at the blonde anxiously as he collected his car keys and began making his way towards the front door, 'Um, I really don't think that's a good idea.'

'Why not? Because you don't want to be seen with me, is that why, Heidi? Bit strange - I can't imagine anyone who would refuse a lift from Truro's very own gift to drumming.' he smirked.

Scoffing, I muttered under my breath, 'I can think of several reasons...'

Obviously the drummer either didn't hear my comment or bother taking heed of it as he continued, 'Well? What's it gonna be? Walk to Imperial and arrive half an hour late for your lecture, facing the wrath of a pissed off professor, or come in the car with me and arrive there on time? Personally, I would go with the latter.'

Although I'd honestly rather walk than even consider getting in a car with Roger, I really didn't feel like embarrassing myself in front of a hall full of people and have my professor's disapproving eyes glaring at me the rest of the lecture, for the millionth time this term.

Crossing my arms to emphasise my discontent, I sighed overdramatically as I knew I didn't have any other alternative.

'Okay fine...I'll go with you,' I said reluctantly, as Roger beamed happily, 'But you'd better not drive like a fucking lunatic. I want to get there in one piece.'

'Excuse me, I'll have you know that I am a great driver. Never once had an accident,' Roger replied, defensively, whilst I grabbed my bag and opened the front door, 'Well...apart from this one time when I -'

'No! Don't tell me, I don't want to know.' I quickly stopped him, fearful of what he was going to say, before walking out the door and heading down the garden path, Roger laughing at me as he locked the door and followed behind.

Thankfully, despite my concerns, I survived the car journey to Imperial College with Roger behind the wheel, although I sat there in the passenger seat quite tense and worried that everytime he sped up or passed someone that we were going to crash. It's not that I had a phobia of cars or being in them, I just didn't know if I could trust Roger's driving skills, especially if they were anything like his personality.

When we pulled up outside the university building, Roger stopped the car and turned to look at me, 'That'll be a fiver, please.'

Unamused by his attempt to be funny, his grin turned into a laugh, 'Alright, Evil-Eyes, I was only joking. I get that you're having a bad day already but, c'mon, where's your sense of humour?'

'Oh, I have one, it's just that nothing that comes out of your mouth makes me laugh.' I told him bluntly, as I picked up my bag and put the strap on my shoulder, preparing to get out of the car.

Roger just chuckled at me, 'I think, deep down, you love my humour. And you're beginning to see that I'm not as bad as you think. It's just a shame you're too stubborn to admit it, though.'

Clenching my jaw, I opened the door and got out of the car, and then, turning around to face the drummer, I replying slowly, 'You. Wish,' before slamming the door shut behind me and marching towards the front gate of the college.

'What? Not even a 'thank you'?!' I heard Roger shout out of the rolled down window, trying to gain my attention, but I kept on walking, blatantly ignoring him.

Instead of trying to get me to turn around again, he annoyingly shouted out the window, 'Fine then. Have a nice day, Dee-dee!', before driving away, resulting in several people turning their heads in my direction and making my face turn red from embarrassment. Cringing, I kept walking towards the entrance of the building and disappeared through the double doors, keeping my head down whilst cursing at Roger's audacity under my breath.

* * *

The lecture itself went by slowly as Professor Nichols droned on about proteins or something or other whilst everyone furiously scribbled notes in their notebooks. I, myself, was no different, trying to keep up with what he was saying (and mostly failing) as I jotted down anything he dictated to us that was considered important.

By now, I was really starting to get worried. End of year exams were quickly approaching, and although I hated this course with every fibre in my body, I needed to get my act together if I wanted to have any chance of passing, which meant absolutely no distractions - especially those involving a certain infuriating drummer. I only had to put up with uni for a couple more months. I needed to remain focused.

Anyway, as I sat there at my desk, finishing off what I'd been writing, the person sitting next to me whispered something in my direction.

'Excuse me? You wouldn't happen to have a spare pen I could borrow, would ye? Mine literally just ran out of ink.'

Turning my head to see who it was, my breath hitched when I was met by the most mesmerising pair of brown eyes. I knew who they belonged to, though. It was Colin. Colin Donaghue. The ruggedly handsome, Scottish student who I'd shamelessly had a huge fancy for since the start of university. He was around the same age as myself; with ruffled brown hair and a smile to die for; although the stubble on his face, which suited him to a 'T', meant that he looked slightly older.

Nevertheless, I couldn't believe that he'd just spoken to me; let alone taken notice of my existence. And the fact I hadn't realised he'd been sitting right beside me meant that I was taken even more off guard.

Once I'd managed to put coherent words together, I stuttered nervously, 'Y-yes, yes, of course. Hold on a sec.'

Rummaging through my bag as fast as I could, I took out a black biro and handed it to him, 'Here you go. I think it works, but you'll probably have to test it out first.'

He just chuckled lightly as he took the lid off the pen and made a small mark at the top of his page, 'It works perfectly,' he said, 'Thank you...uh...'

'Heidi.' I told him far too quickly. Coughing awkwardly, I repeatedly less overenthusiastically, 'My name's Heidi.'

'Heidi - that's right!' he said in realisation, 'I should have known considering we've been in the same class for the last three years.' He reached his hand over for me to shake, 'I'm Colin, by the way.'

Oh, I know.

Unable to refrain from smiling like an idiot, I shook his hand and replied as calmly as possible, 'Pleasure to meet you, Colin.'

The two of us didn't really say much for the rest of the lecture as we were both busy concentrating on our work, however, trying to pay attention to anything other than Colin and stopping myself from glancing over at him every so often had become a bit of a challenge. Anyway, when class eventually came to an end, students slowly filed out of the hall and into the corridors, creating a large swarm of people outside. As I left and began making my way through the crowd, heading towards the stairs, I heard hurried footsteps running up behind me.

'Heidi! Hold up!'

Turning around again, I was met by a flustered looking Colin who approached me holding out the pen I'd given him earlier, 'I almost forgot to give you your pen back.'

'Oh,' I giggled, taking the pen from his grip; our hands slightly brushing in the exchange, 'Thanks.'

He smiled warmly, 'No problem.'

There was a short, awkward silence between us until Colin spoke up again, 'Listen, I, uh, gotta go. Can't be late. I'll see you around, Heidi.'

He started walking away in the other direction as I called out, 'See you around.'

Giving me one last radiant smile, Colin disappeared into the crowd and out of sight. Although I was slightly disappointed that our conversation had come to an end, I headed along the corridor back towards the stairs again, looking down at the biro in my hand, with a huge, uncontainable smile of my own plastered upon my face.

-

Hello everyone!

Looks like Heidi has got eyes for somebody else - can Roger change that? You'll have to wait and see 😉 Anyway, prelims are over which means I have a more free time now than before, so hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent. In the meantime, please let me know what you thought of the chapter. Oh, and also a vote would be lovely too!

Thank you ever so much!

- Anna :-) x

P.S. Sorry if there's a tonne of typos, it's quite late at night so I'll fix them tomorrow haha!