All the books you recommended

It was cold in the library. Again, she stood there staring at me. I felt my heartbeat rise. Her dark curls gently fell down her shoulders. Her face was still tan from the summer spent outside in the sun and there were little summer freckles on her nose and cheeks. The sun shone in her dark brown eyes and they reminded me of raw honeycomb I used to pick up with my grandpa.

She had said something to me but I wasn't listening. 'What?'

She smiled and walked in my direction. 'I asked you if you already finished the book?'

'Oh... right,' I handed her the book. The story was really cheesy, a girl has to choose between two guys, one bad, one good. Hated it. I never paid much attention to the boys in books and movies like that. They all looked the same, one blonde one brown. But the girls... That was different. But unfortunately, all the movies we watched as kids never showed those stories.

'Did you like it?' She sat next to me; her knee touched mine. I felt a tingle go up to my heart.

'Yes,' I lied. 'Very much, I loved how she went for the bad guy in the end.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'Would you have done the same?' Apparently, one of the guys had a beautiful sister, according to the narrator. Dark brown curls, freckles, brown eyes. I'd go for that one.

I looked at her face, what did she expect me to say?

'Well, maybe not.' I held my head to the side. 'He did steal from a toddler, right?'

'Yeah?' she said with a wondering look, leaning forward to examine the book cover. There was a big muscly guy on the front of the book. My friends who knew me better had laughed me off the cell block. I was pining hard, and oh I knew it. Too shy to say anything, too stubborn to give up.

'You said you read it, didn't you?' I stared at her.

She held her hands up. 'I have never said that.'

I gasped. 'And what about all the other books you gave me to read? You lied to me, you said you read them.'

Her face was still unbothered, a smug smile plastered on which I could not hate for the world, but still, I felt almost like she had taken advantage of me.

She started counting on her hands. 'One... Falling in love with him, two.. a good boy, three... I can't remember three.'

'Falling in love with a stranger?' I interrupted her. I hated that one especially, the boy didn't treat her right but she still went on and fell for him.

'Yeah, that one! Those I did read... when I was 14 maybe? I don't really remember it that well.' She smiled and held the book in her arms, the one I just gave to her.

'I like you... I like you more than the universe and all the stars, and the whole moon.' She stated. When I looked confused, she smiled. 'It's in the third one, falling in love with a stranger.'

'How poetic, it's not like the universe already contains the stars and the moon, it's just iteration.' I rolled my eyes.

'You said you liked it!' she protested. But from her smile, I saw she didn't really mean it. 'You're right though, that book sucked, I even hated that as a young teenager, the girl deserved way better.'

I nodded my head. 'You're finally saying something that makes sense, now what about all the other books, did you just tell me to read them for fun?' I pushed my chair closer to her but she didn't move as I expected. Instead, she started blushing, I had never seen her blushing. She was always really outspoken, but never shy like me.

'Not just for fun.' She pushed a curl behind her ear and gazed her eyes to her hands. They were moving in her lap.

'I was wondering just how far you would go, how many books you would read. How much of those shitty books you would read for me until you found out.'

'Sounds a little bit psycho to me.' I said with a soft smile. I looked at her lips. They were full and dark pink, like freshly picked strawberries or watermelon in the summer or... just lips of a beautiful girl.

'Just until you found out...' she repeated and wandered to my eyes. If she would lean any closer, I don't know if I could contain myself, I touched my lips with my fingers, something in between so I couldn't move any closer. My heart still beat loudly in my chest. Would she hear it?

She smiled shyly. 'I don't read those books... I don't have an awful taste like that,' she looked at me accusingly, 'and I know you don't either.' She chuckled. 'You must really like me, then.'

I bit my lip. Don't think about it, don't think about it. Her eyes were golden and serene, I could just drown in them. How long had I thought about kissing her? More than a year at least. I could ruin it all if I did it now. 'No...' I said, but my voice sounded high and fake, like a little kid denying she ate the last cookie.

She breathed out. I felt the warm air against my lips and the tingles in my stomach wouldn't stop. She raised her head and grabbed my face.

'Prove it then.'

The moment her lips landed on mine I shall never forget; soft and well-I hate to use that word but-... plump. Leaning forward and closing my eyes, it felt like a thousand fireworks went off in my stomach. Just the soft sensation of her hands in my hair and her lips on mine. The minutes after that I wondered if anyone else could even come close to that feeling I had just shared with her in an empty library. The book of the buff boy still laid on the table. He could only dream of kissing someone like her.