College Crushing

“I’m supposed to dip this,” Harry holds up his french fry and points to his shake, “into this? How is that supposed to taste good?”
“It just is! Try it! Haven’t you heard of those salty and sweet M&M’s?” he nods, “This is better.”
He does as I say and once he finishes chewing he mumbles, “Kennedy Matthews. You are a genius.”
“I know.” I steal one of his fries and dip it into his shake and eat it.
“Hey!”
“What? It was my idea.” I laugh and do it again, but before I can stick it in my mouth he steals it and puts it in his and reveals his dimpled smile to me. “Loser.”
“Alright. Here you go.” He takes a fry and dips it into his chocolate shake and places it in front of my lips, “Open.” I close my eyes as I allow him to put the delicious milkshake covered fry in my mouth.
“Mm. Tastes so good.” Harry and I have only known each other for a couple of days, but he is quickly becoming my best friend. We’ve been meeting each other at the library every day since and eating dinner together. I open my eyes and see him staring at me intently, “What?”
“Nothing.” He shakes his head quickly, “Um. When do you find out about Nursing School?”
I shrug and take another fry but this time he holds his shake out to me, “probably not until Thanksgiving break.”
“You’ll get in, no need to worry.” He gives me a genuine smile and I can’t help but believe his words as I smile back, “You have cute dimples.”
The heat rises to my cheeks and I look down at the table and let out an awkward laugh, “thanks? You have dimples too, you know?”
“Yes, but yours are cuter.”
I roll my eyes at this, “and how would you know?”
“Just do.” He plops another fry into his mouth and smiles at me once again. “Your dimples are more proportional and cute, little, round dimples while mine is more like a small line.”
“A small line?” I laugh, “hey, did you know dimples are a genetic defect in the facial muscles because they are shorter?”
He rubs his hand on his chin as if he’s thinking hard about this, “Hm. So mine must be shorter than yours since mine are larger?”
I shrug, “I don’t know. I just know the cause of dimples. Not the reason for the different sizes.”
“Aw. Kenny. You’re letting me down.” He winks at me and I reach across the table to throw a fry at him.
I try to brush off the new nickname he gave me. No one has called me Kenny before, just K or Ken. “Hey. Don’t forget that I’m the one that showed you this delicious dessert.”
“Touché,” he dips another fry in the milkshake and instead of eating it, he offers it to me. “Truths?”
I grab the fry and bite it, “another one, and we’ll call it even.” He shakes his head as he chuckles and hands me my fourth chocolate milkshake covered fry. “If you eat this again, make sure it’s chocolate. It’s not as good if it’s vanilla. And don’t go to a place with shitty fries.”
“Got it. No shitty fries and only chocolate. You’re such a great teacher,” he ends with sarcasm dripping from his voice.
I’m fixing to reply, but I hear my name and turn to see Tanner walking my way after ordering, “Hey T! What are you doing here?”
“Trace needed me to get him lunch, and he wanted Chick Fil A.” She gives me a smile and then glances at Harry.
“Oh, sorry. Harry this is Tanner, my best friend, roommate, and sorority sister. Tanner this is Harry.” I try to ignore the awkward way I introduced them, but I honestly didn’t know what to call Harry. We’ve only just met a few days ago, but he’s at that stage where I’m not sure if I want him to be more than a friend.
“Nice to meet you, Harry.” Tanner shakes his hand and he gives her his gorgeous smile.
“Lovely to meet you.”
“Oh? Are you British? How’d you end up in Texas?” Tanner asks intrigued and Harry begins to explain about the program he’s in and where he’s from. Once Tanner’s order is called she cuts the conversation short, “Wow. That’s so interesting! I would love to know more, but my boyfriend’s probably starving by now. It was really nice to meet you, Harry, let’s hang out sometime and you can meet Trace! Bye, Y'all! Love you, Ken!”
“Love you!” I shout to her as she grabs her order.
“She’s a nice girl,” Harry inquires.
“Yeah. She’s the peacekeeper of the group. Alex is the wild one.”
“Why the wild one?”
“Let’s just say, that it’s not a party unless Alex is there,” I rest my elbow on the table and place my chin in my hand.
“Ah. I see. So you go to parties?”
“Since I’m in a sorority, Sigma Delta Phi, I’m invited to all of them, but I don’t go. I think I may have gone to one last year.”
“Hm. You don’t like them?”
“They’re not really my scene.” He nods at this and I ask, “Are you not in a fraternity?”
“No, I am.”
“What? Why did you never tell me?” He shrugs and I continue, “Which one are you in?”
“Gamma Chi Sigma. I’m the Treasurer, might run for VP for next year.”
“What! That’s our brother club, why have I never seen you?” I lean back in my chair and cross my arms.
He laughs, “I don’t go to a lot of things. But I’ve been to some, maybe I’m at all the parties you blow off.”
“Hm. I can see that, probably have all the girls throwing themselves at you.”
While rolling his eyes he places his forearms on the table and leans toward me, “Girls don’t throw themselves at me, none of the ones I care about at least.”
“Oh?” I go back to resting my chin in my hand and eye him curiously, “Who are the ones you care about?”
He narrows his eyes at me but then grabs his shake, “Nobody. Want any more?”
“No, I’m good.” I could have pushed more on the subject, but I decide to let it go.
“Are you ready to go back to the library?”
“Yep! Gotta study for my quiz tomorrow.” I pick up my trash but Harry grabs it from me and throws it away himself, “thanks.”
“Not a problem. I feel like you always have quizzes.”
“That’s because I do. My lab has a quiz every week and my other classes just randomly have pop quizzes. Very unfortunate.”
“Uh. Remind me why you want to be a nurse again?” He playfully asks
I laugh, “Careful. Here soon I’ll be asking you why you want to be a lawyer whenever you’re in law school.”
“True. But we just need to think that it will be worth it in the end. All the homework and studying.”
“And stress,” I add
“Yes. Why must college be so stressful?”
“I don’t know. But if you think about it, if we weren’t in college we would be asking why life is so stressful. I think stress comes from the thought of failing and no one wants to fail. We are challenged every day and faced with the potential to fail. No matter what, we will always be stressed about failing, it’s what motivates us, but if we don’t control it or relieve it, it can also break us.”
“Wow. That was deep. How are you so wise?” Harry nudged my shoulder gently as we walk closer to the library.
“Harry!” I hear a female voice call
He turns and smiles, “Hey! Where’s Liam?”
“He’s at home playing some video game with Louis and Niall. Who’s this?”
“This is Kennedy. Kennedy, this is Cheryl.”
We exchange hellos and I learn that she is the girlfriend of Harry’s friend, Liam. Harry talks to her about some class they have together and once they say goodbye he adds, “I need to introduce you to my friends.”
“Are they all in Gamma Chi Sigma?”
“Well, the guys are. Cheryl and Gigi are in Kappa Kappa Theta.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” I knew a lot of girls from KKΘ and I really loved that sorority, but I ended up following my friends into Σ∆Φ. I love it too, but they always were known for being partiers, but I guess every sorority kind of is.
He grabs the library door as I walk in, “Yeah. They normally eat lunch together, want to join?”
“Sure, why not? Sounds like fun.” I grin and set my stuff down on our usual table in the Theology room.

Notes