Friends with Rhett

"Remember, Harmony, you don't have to force it if you ever need someone to talk to me and your aunt is always there for you." A plump man with a bald spot said.

Harmony opened her eyes. Although those dewy moonlight blue eyes had remained closed during the duration of the ride from home to college, she was nothing but asleep. Her stomach had been twisting with nervousness, as this was her first day in college.

Harmonica Saint was a natural introvert. Since high school she had seen nothing wrong with the way she dreaded leaving her house, the anxiety she felt when she had to speak with others, or the self-consciousness she felt when she was around large crowds. Now leaving the comfort of her old town and her family, she was a mess, it felt like she could vomit from the churning anticipation settled in her gut.

Harmony blew out a breath. "Sure, Uncle Sam, you don't have to worry, I'll be fine." She said, leaning away from the car seat to face her Uncle.

Uncle Sam and his wife Aunt Miranda had supported her unconditionally since the unfortunate loss of her parents. Having no children of their own despite trying for years the couple had treated her like their child.

They were good people, and seeing them worry so much about her obvious social anxiety made her guilty.

The balding man sighed. "I don't want you to think I am over worrying but…. You haven't left so far away since you were five, I don't think I'm taking this well." There was a tremor in his voice.

Harmony's ginger eyebrows dipped down into a slight furrow. "Stop worrying so much old man, it's not like I'm going to another world! It's just college." She said with a small laugh.

She was excited. Despite the crippling anxiety that showed no sign of stoppage, she was excited. New people, a new place, and even better she was one step closer to leaving school forever!

Uncle Sam waved his hands. "Ah, you're right, now get out of my car, egghead."

Harmony threw her head back and groaned. "Uncle Sam!"

A hand reached out and ruffled her ginger mop of hair with two locks at the front bleached silver. She huffed and stepped down from the car, water droplets trickling down her hair.

"Shit, we should have brought an umbrella." Uncle Sam, craned his neck out of the car, seeing the rain showering down.

Harmony shook her head. "I'm fine, it's not like it's pouring, it's just a little rain." She glanced up at the dark skies.

The balding man breathed through his nose and nodded his head. "Fine, fine, I'll leave," he waved his hand at her, to which she waved back. "Don't do drugs, little egghead."

Then he drove off, leaving her to yell at the smoke. "Uncle Sam!" She screeched.

It turned out that even in such an emotional scene her Uncle would still tease her. She let out a breath, cold air escaping her mouth. She turned around.

Her uncle had dropped her at the gate of the school because non-students weren't allowed inside the school. As she gazed at the long road leading to the campus she was disheartened.

It should be noted that Harmonica Saint was lazy by nature. Preferring to spend her days watching heart-wrenching K-drama, or playing some games, rather than doing anything that benefitted her health, seeing this kind of extended road, her heart suddenly felt painful.

Thankfully she spotted a tricycle bike parted at the side just inside the gate. There was a line of tricycles and students were boarding them to enter the campus.

She breathed out in relief. This was very good. Feeling a loss of cold droplets, her eyelashes fluttered. 'Has the rain suddenly stopped?' She raised her head to look up at the sky to check but her view was blocked by a pitch-black umbrella.

Raising her head like that, the rain-soaked droplets in her hair slid down from the crown of her head and dropped her eyelashes, tickling and thickening them.

Hm? She pursed her lips at the sudden smell of something so savory that she felt like she could taste it on her tongue. The sweet scent made her stomach grumble shamelessly. Her eyes bulged at the sound and instinctively she craned her neck to the side.

Indeed there was someone by her side, holding onto the black umbrella. Harmony couldn't help being startled by the mere size of the figure, as she had never seen anyone that…. Big. The person was framed with thick hard muscles and added to that height, the stature became intimidating at first glance.

In a black turtleneck long sleeve, matching black trousers, with equally pitch black sneakers, the menacing frame of the person was forged. With skin so pale anyone would have the idea of him being a corpse, the black clothing accentuated his menacing yet admirable frame.

The boy… The boy had a mop of curly silver locks that was lazily tousled on his face. A face that had symmetrical features akin to a magazine model.

Her body was trembling. Harmony felt her body trembling, but she had a slight idea it was not from the cold. Beautiful people come and go, but she had only ever seen someone with such features in the movies. She was afraid her expression was giving away the awe she was feeling as she continued looking like a…. creep.

So spontaneously that she didn't see it coming, the gaze of the figure left the board with several parchments of paper slapped on it and descended on her…. Yes, with the obvious height difference, his pitch-black eyes could only look down at her.

Harmony could feel the drumming of her heart in her very ears. The cold…. Why was the air getting colder? No longer only seeing him from the side of his face, Harmony was able to see every graceful line and angle that forged his aristocratic look…. Only that aristocratic look was marred by the silver hoop piercing attached to the corner of his lower lip.

Only when a droplet of rain from his equally soaked hair dropped onto hers because of the way he bent his head did she realize their proximity.

"You—"

She didn't allow what sounded like a velvety and gravelly voice to continue.

It was her last straw. She felt as if her fragile heart would be unable to take the fear and exhilaration that spasmed through her from those inky black eyes looking unwavering at her, bottomless and unfathomable.

She bolted. She ran so fast she could have slipped and fallen.

"Here!" she shouted to the tricycle driver, as they approached a large campus building with the billboard 'General Studies Hall' erected next to it.

The driver stopped immediately, she dropped down from the tricycle and paid. Sucking in a breath, she crossed the gutter and began her walk inside the Campus hall.

When she entered the Lecture hall, she was stupefied by the sheer size of the hall. Then she couldn't stop her head from automatically trying to calculate just how many people were present in the hall.

"They're so much…" The words unconsciously slipped out of her mouth as she watched the number of people present and the occasional students that entered the lecture hall.

She had never felt so intimidated before. These people were each going about their business but still, she felt as if they were each conscious of her presence, that their differing eyes were jeering at her, that the occasional chuckles from one or two persons were aimed at her.

Stupid. She reprimanded herself internally while she worked herself hard not to tremble from the gnawing feeling of trepidation successfully overwhelming her rational thoughts.

"Argh, this is ridiculous." She groaned, rubbing her fingers on her forehead.

Unable to withstand the prowess to continuously restrain her body from shaking in anxiety, she walked out of the Hall, leaning against the Hall doors to catch her breath for a hot second.

She felt as if she was deeply out of place even though she was in a mass of other differently-built people.

Harmony sucked in a breath and breathed out. Her fingers reached for her wrist only to find them empty. She nearly laughed in self-pity, she had forgotten she had disposed of her rubber band a year ago.

Unable to snap a band on her skin she decided to use the method her therapist had taught her. "Red car, yellow car, blue car." She murmured while praying no one was noticing her weirdness.

She enjoyed saying the tongue twister and thought it sounded amusing to always get it wrong when she said it wrong. It was enough of a relaxation as well as a distracting means.

This was abruptly disrupted by a loud voice. "What did you say about Vanessa again?" The words were followed by a vicious slap.

Before Harmony was a broad-looking boy with an extremely red cheek.

That had to hurt, Harmony thought as she saw the redness of his cheek. The boy said nothing, simply locking his jaw and looking away from the girl before him.

Harmony had prided herself on having an average height considering both of her parents were not on the taller side, but this girl was much shorter than Harmony.

She was an Asian girl, wearing a white and pink outfit, which Harmony thought was daring seeing as how they were so bright. She had long black hair which she tied into a ponytail.

The girl had a look of malice in her expression. "What did you say? That you weren't cheating on me with her?" The words once again were accompanied by another smack.

'Oof…. Isn't this person a little too savage?' Harmony mused in her head, completely stunned by the viciousness of the short girl.

Even disregarding the hot slaps she had dished out to the boy. Even her demeanor screamed of someone hot as fire. She looked like she was restraining herself by just slapping the boy.

"Huh? Why aren't you saying anything? Mark my words, Kyle Dunkin, I will so fucking ruin your life! I'll mess you up in a way you'll never imagine!" The short girl shrieked, making sure to land her legendary smacks on his face.

The red-faced boy obviously couldn't take it anymore so he finally unlocked his jaw. "Yes! So what I cheated?! I love Vanessa! She's kind and not as fucking shallow as you are!"

Harmony although dumbstruck by how the current events were playing out like a TV drama was engrossed in it all. Secretly she hoped the other girl whom they referred to as Vanessa would show up so the whole thing would explode!

It was a very mean thought…. But such are the thoughts of socially inept introverts.

Following Harmony's wishes for drama and dog blood [1] violence, the girl cursed in a language Harmony didn't understand before swinging her purse at the guy, hitting him mercilessly with the purse.

Harmony felt guilty about the way her eyes brightened at the dramatic scene, but she continued watching.

"Would you stop that?!" The guy yelled, upon being hit by the girl's purse without mercy.

"Bastard!"

"Stop!"

The boy grabbed the boy, trying to pull it away from the girl's grip.

"Get your cheating hands off my purse!"

"Then stop hitting me!"

The purse flung away from both their grasp, and in an instance, a certain ginger-haired girl had a purse smacked against her face.

'Is this playing?' Harmony's excitement watered down after being smacked in the face by the purse that must have had something thick in it because a burst of pain surrounded Harmony's head. 'Is this karma?' The thought crossed her mind.

"Ouch!" Was the only thing Harmony could make out, having the staring audience removing the boy and girl and the center of attention, and replacing them with her.

She touched her forehead. She felt the urge to do the pathetic scream she did whenever she stubbed her toe, but the audience that caused her guts to suddenly twist refrained her from doing so.

"Are you okay..." The girl was not able to finish her words because the subject of the matter had fast walked away.

"What's her problem?"

Harmony heard the girl add as she sped away from there, not just because she was terrified of the plenty of eyes that fell on her but because she needed to outwardly express the pain she felt on her forehead.

Without anybody bothering to go after her, Harmony lost the crowd soon enough and found herself at the edge of a gutter.

"It hurts…. It hurts…. It hurts," She chanted, rubbing her forehead profusely. "What did she have in her bag….. I feel like my head will end up swollen. Is this what I get for cheering public violence?"

Knowing there were very few people around this place, Harmony couldn't help her words.

"I should have grabbed the bag and thrown it back at her…." Harmony remembered the bag looked like a designer. "I should have grabbed it and ran away then sold it as compensation."

She released a slight scoff when the pain finally subsided. "She's very lucky I am feeling magnanimous today, who fights so carelessly on school property? She better hope I don't come across her on Instagram or it'll be a bloodbath."

The ramblings flowed smoothly. Harmony didn't even realize just how wet she had become from the showering rain as she babbled on.

At some point, she felt that the rain had stopped as continued rambling. "It's not as if it's my fault they were fighting, why did the bag come my direction?"

"How ruthless."

The voice came suddenly. It was dropped several degrees in octave and had a raspy edge to it. Alluring to hear yet gravelly.

Only at this moment did Harmony realize for the second time today there was an umbrella over her head and a savory musk in the air.

She didn't want to look to her side, but there was an instant zap around her, like a magnet, compelling her to look over.

Yet again, she was met with pitch-black clothing.

"I reckon she will be in a coffin after all this."