camouflage [h.s]

3

Harry's POV:

Sweat beaded down my face as I continued my morning jog. My first class didn't start for another two hours, and since I could sleep all night partly due to Leah Hudson lingering in my thoughts, and somewhat due to the loud party going on downstairs.

I could see the university coming into view, it seemed like a ghost town besides a few cars which most likely belonged to professors.

That's when I saw her, beautiful dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail, knees hugged to her chest as she read a novel. She sat alone in the benched area, seeming to be oblivious to everything around her.

I slowly made my way towards her, my footsteps didn't even seem to catch her attention.

"Leah." I tried to be as discreet as possible, but she still jumped out of surprise. Her eyes widened as she stared at my shirtless torso. She visibly gulped before pushing up her large framed glasses.

"Harry. Hi, I didn't even notice you, um, I was just reading as you can tell." I laughed at her shyness, clearly she didn't have much experience around people whatsoever.

"It's alright, you seem really into that book. What is it?"

"It's called 'The Fault In Our Stars' it's absolutely amazing, and I hear they're making a movie for it."

"That's cool, what's it about?" I sat down besides her, tying my headphones up and stuffing them in my pocket.

"It's basically where this guy and girl have both had medical issues and tells the story of how they fall in love. Kind of cliche, I know." She said as if I'd judge her.

"I might have to borrow it sometime, I'm actually really into books as well."

"What kind are you into?"

"Mostly mysteries, they always blindside you and leave you shocked at the end." She smiled, a smile that could make the world stop spinning.

"Can I do something?" She nervously nodded. I reached over and slid her glasses away from her eyes. She looked completely different with them off. Her features could be seen, and god were they beautiful.

"Um, can I have those back? I'm kind of blind right now." I chuckled loudly before handing her the glasses back, she put them on and blinked a few times to adjust.

"They're kind of like your camouflage." I said just above a whisper.

"What do you mean?" She asked with genuine intrigue.

"Your glasses hide the real you, last night I saw it. You had contacts in right?" She nodded.

"Last night you were so, I don't know, confident. I was really happy you even talked to me."

"I'll take that as a compliment?" She said it more as a question than statement.

"Yeah you should, I'm just saying that you're beautiful and should show it off more." Her cheeks flushed and she quickly looked away.

"You really don't like compliments do you?"

"I've just never really received any besides my parents telling me I looked nice."

"So you're telling me that no guy has ever given you a compliment?" She shook her head in embarrassment.

I reached my hand up, using the pad of my hand to caress her cheek. She stiffened at my touch, but slowly gave in.

Suddenly my phone alarm went off telling me I had to get back home to get ready for classes.

"I should get going, I'll see you in class." She gave me a nod before picking up her book and reading again.

Yes she's shy, but she's also beautiful and extremely smart, and I plan on getting to know the real Leah Hudson.

-

I made my way into my first class of the day. I caught sight of Leah sitting in the corner by herself. Niall seemed to be waving me over, but I shook my head and made my way up the stairs.

Leah jumped as I sat besides her. She already had her laptop out and notes ready. I put my bag down and got out my own journal and computer.

"You've really got to stop doing that." I said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Getting scared whenever I'm close to you, I won't bite, I promise." She smiled at that, but it quickly vanished as soon as the bald professor walked in. Everyone became quiet as he stepped onto the podium.

"Hopefully everyone has emailed me their assignment from last night, if not please do that now." You could literally see sweat already building on his forehead.

Once again, he gave us a thousand word assignment, then dismissed us, leaving an hour before my next class.

"So, do you want to hang out?" I asked after all my things were packed up again.

"Actually, I was hoping to study, I have the test next class." Leah said with a pout.

"Already? That's insane." I said in disbelief.

"I know, it's for history too and we haven't even been given any material yet. He just said it'll be on major events since 1900."

"Well, I could help you. I'm actually not s'bad at history."

"I would love that."

And so we sat there, for an hour going over major events in the past, which didn't really work out because I just ended up telling terrible jokes as she laughed, probably out of kindness. I managed to get bits and pieces of her childhood out of her and it seemed that figuring out Leah Hudson might just be possible.