Chapter 1

The club was hot and sticky. Only an hour ago it changed from a decent pub into a nightclub. Usually I'm out of here before the switch happens but with my thesis turned in, I had to celebrate.

  

 Oxford, England has been my home for the last few months. I was ending my educational chapter with a bang. How many students from the USA get to say they had graduated from Oxford?!

  

Graduating with a degree from Oxford University is crucial for me to get the high paying, eventually C-suite, job in New York City.

  

I would miss the amount of nature and history that surrounded this place, the Harry Potter fanatics touring the different colleges that make up Oxford University, but most of all I would miss the people I met here.  

  

Okay, so I won’t miss the tourists when I move back to New York City.

  

 This place is eerie, almost magical. It felt like the spirits were ethereal and all around. It held secrets, invited writers and mystics alike, calling out to them. 

  

I don't believe in ghosts, but if there were any, I would have seen them here. From professors to students to staff, I'd heard tales of the magic that lives in a kind of middle world. 

  

Most students already completed after presenting their thesis. I was done but I requested to stay in my dorm for a few extra days before going back to the states. 

  

Luckily, I had a campus full of empty dorm rooms and was on a first name basis with a majority of the cleaning and cooking staff. I had gone exploring and the cameras are everywhere! But Leonard, the security guard, or Molly who managed the all the housekeepers, let me slip on by. There's just so much history and mystery inside these walls! I could see why it became Hogwarts. 

  

But tonight, tonight I had been dragged out by my only off campus friend Liv. She was a genius and gorgeous. Apparently she didn't have many girls as friends so I felt special and did whatever she wanted to do.

  

Liv had dragged me out to celebrate my thesis and introduce me to her latest fuckboy. Which is how I found myself in this hot, sticky, smelly club that I usually try to avoid.

  

Liv was born in London and every time she visited home, which was often, she stopped by to say hi to me. Each time I met up with her she had a new GQ model boy toy drooling over her. It didn't matter if it was a day or a week, she adored having something new whenever she could. Honestly, I don't know how we're still friends. She wasn't particularly nice and most people said I was "too nice" like it was a bad thing. 

  

  "3 blowjob shots and a round of vodka and tonic with limes please!" Liv has paid for every drink tonight.

  

  "Let me get this round!" We had to shout to hear one another over the music. 

  

  "Not a chance love! You only graduate from Oxford once!" She laughed, "or twice in my case. Zero in his." She was looking back at the tall, dark and handsome hazel eyed Italian man that was holding her waist.

  

  "Cheers! Here's to good...head!" Liv winked as we took our shots.

  

  "Cheers loves!" The bartender, Ian, pushed our next round our way. "I'm sure gonna miss this one!" He loved to make me blush. "Plus it's nice having a girl here that reminds me of home." He winked and started helping out another person. Ian said that my face looks like the map Ireland. Many people in fact had said this to me while I was here. Luckily the Brits and Irish are on ok terms. 

  

  "You can't stand around and wait for Ian's cock all night! He hasn't made a move on your since you got here. Fucking arsehole." Liv was trying to kill him with her bitchy stare. 

  

  "For the last time I am not interested in Ian!" I don't know who I am trying to convince more, me or Liv?

  

  "Can I help you?" Ian was back in-front of us.

  

  "Yeah you can fuck my friend here." Liv had not just said that. "You Irish boys love dragging pretty girls around without any action. All talk, no balls." 

  

She was small but savage. Her dirty mouth wasn't the only thing that made girls hate her and men fall head over heels for her. One hand on her hip, she takes the other to gesture jacking off at him.

  

I spat up my drink getting some of Liv's clothes wet.

  

  "Stop being such a cunt and go back to your boy of the week!" 

  

I was embarrassed enough for everyone, including Liv's non English speaking male friend. And then they both started laughing. As per usual. 

  

The sexual tension between Ian and Liv was thick. I rolled my eyes and finished my drink quickly. Finally growing a paid of my own balls, "How about this brilliant idea: why don't you 2 just fuck already!? And stop saying the "c" word! How many times do I have to tell you it's not a word that should be used as often as your whole lot does." Giving them the a glare I turned around to call it a night. I had a long flight back to the real world tomorrow and I basically had packed maybe a handful of winter clothes and shoes.

  

Walking back onto each campus you have to show ID and be signed in by the guard, usually Leonard, at the front gate. State side wasn't as safely guarded. People coming and going all day long for whatever reason: potential student tours, family or friends visiting, an event being hosted by the school, and so on. 

  

Here I had a maid and a full kitchen staff. I would miss them most of all. These people had become my family. The same few people everyday doing my laundry, making my bed, bringing me tea and biscuits, all my meals prepped in the dining hall. Oxford is truly a nerdy girls paradise. I sighed loudly thinking about how much I'd miss this place.

  

With my ID ready to go, Leonard stands at the gate for me. It must be near 2am when I greeted him.

  

  "Home safe and sound I see." Tipping his hat to me.

  

  "Have a wonderful nigh-morning? Leonard."  Was it AM or PM. Wow I am drunk. I'm glad my feet knew the way.

  

  "What about your friend miss?"

  

I took a step into the first of 3 locked gates and shivered. It wasn't cold but the temperature dropped as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and a chill shivered down my spine. 

  

Uhh Liv didn’t come home with me...