For Worse Or For Better

Chapter 06

    "You know, I would not have taken him as a note taking sort of guy." Cassidy flipped through Harry's notebook, pushing Blair's hands out of the way as she tried to pry it away from her. It sounded stupid, but from the small interaction between them, she felt pretty sure that Harry wouldn't want just anyone handling his notebook. She wasn't even sure why he'd offered it to her in the first place, so she wanted to make sure that nothing happened to it. 

    She'd spent most of the rest of her day flipping through it, memorizing his handwriting and little drawings in the margins. He was actually a really good artist from what she saw. If he could do that with just a pen or pencil, she wanted to see what he could do with a whole array of art supplies. 

    "He doesn't talk to anyone, so it's all he's got to do to pass time in classes, I guess." 

    Blair finally succeeded in acquiring the notebook and she held it carefully before placing it on her desk.The two girls were hanging out in her dorm room because Cas's roommate had her boyfriend over and they apparently weren't shy about showing each other affection in front of anyone. Cassidy had pointed them out to Blair in the cafeteria during lunch, and just by looks alone, the two of them hooking up wasn't anything she wanted to witness either. 

    "He must think you're hot," Cas wiggled her eyebrows. "I'd be creeped out if I were you." 

    "Why would I be creeped out?" 

    Narrowing her eyes at the blonde, Blair crossed her arms in front of her chest. The whole school might have thought he was strange, but it wasn't like he was an ugly hunchback doomed to hide away in the shadows for the rest of his life. 

    "Why wouldn't you be creeped out? Even being in the same room as him gives me the heebie jeebies. He just gives off bad vibes to me," she shrugged. "But you seem kind of into it." 

    Blair noticed the disgust in her voice. 

    "If you're going to judge me, you can leave." 

    "No!" The other girl shot up from where she lounged on Blair's mattress. "No, I'm sorry. I'm not judging you, I'm just trying to let you know that I'm not the only one that feels like that. He just always seems to be up to no good and he's always high on something. Everyone can tell." 

    "Maybe he's not trying to hide it." 

    Her memories flashed back to the night before, watching him lean over the lines of coke on his desk as he breathed it in, making it disappear before her eyes. Like magic. 

    "Look." Cassidy looked at her seriously. "If you're going to... whatever with him, just be careful, okay?" 

    "I'm always careful," Blair pulled a quick grin before she stood up, wiping the nonexistent dust off her jeans. "Are we allowed to go off campus?" 

    "Depends... What do you have in mind?" Cas eyed her skeptically. 

    "Just a little shopping."

    A few hours later, the girls found themselves running back into the dorm's entrance, clutching their bags to their chest. Blair knew that she shouldn't have done it, with the promise she made to her grandfather, but she'd just meant that she would stay out of trouble at school and she'd only gotten caught stealing that one time, when she was pretty sure she was a couple hundred times in to swiping things. And it was actually fun doing it with Cassidy. They'd found a system that worked for them; one of them would find a male employee and distract him, buying something cheap, while the other would grab a few things they really wanted. They'd never know what had hit them.

    They quickly stashed the stuff in Blair's dorm, under her bed, and started talking about their plans for the night, debating on a semi-quiet get together in someone's room or sneaking out past the curfew. 

    "Maybe you should just stay here and study your notes," Cassidy teased, nodding towards Blair's desk where the notebook sat. "Better yet. Invite him over for a study session."

    Her tone was playful, but Blair could sense the snide sarcasm behind the words.

    "You jealous?" Blair grabbed a pillow, swinging it at her as she laughed. 

    "Yeah right." 

    It took her a minute before she swung a pillow back, commencing a pretty rough duel of pillow fighting. After a quick whack to the head, Cas paused suddenly, hearing her phone ring. She grabbed it out of her back pocket and answered it, despite Blair still taking shots at her. 

    "Yeah, I'll come by real quick." Cassidy hung up the phone, whopping Blair one more time. "I'll be right back. Gunner's getting some stuff for tonight and I need to help him get it."

    "What kind of stuff?" 

    "Stuff that requires someone to show a little bit of tit to get a discount." She laughed, motioning to her chest as she skipped towards the door before swinging back to Blair. "It'll take, like, two minutes." 

       Blair grinned, biting the skin of her thumb as her eyes darted to the notebook once more. She was sort of glad for a moment of quiet. 

    My love life's so sad, I can't wait to be alone with a notebook. Blair snorted quietly to herself, realizing how stupid she felt. 

    Before she could truly start mocking herself, she crawled towards the end of the bed as she reached for the notebook, pulling it into her lap. Crossing her legs, she felt like a little kid reading a picture book for the first time as she studied, not the subject that was covered in the words, but the little details of what was in between the lines. Her index finger trailed over the ink that stained the pages. 

    "I'll need that back when you're done." 

    Blair jumped, her hand flying to her chest in an attempt to calm down the increased speed that was pounding through her. The voice had startled her as her eyes flew towards the door. The door that Cas hadn't bothered to close on her way out. 

    There, standing in the open doorway, in all of his glory was Harry. His hands shoved in his pockets, he stood cooly, leaning his weight on his left leg as he stared in her room at her. She felt like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, but she played it off flippantly, simply blowing a strand of curly brown hair that fell in her eyes. 

    "You'll have to come get it."