How To Get Banned From A Library

Stick Your Gum In A Book

How To Get Banned From A Library

•Stick Your Gum In A Book•

Lilia's mother used the same calm, soft tone that Ms. Anderson had used moments earlier when she worked out a deal with the librarian.

Rolling her eyes, Lilia backed away from the desk with her bag in tow, all thoughts of the burnt book seeming to be clear of everyone's minds now. Except for a glaring tween over in the corner, looking Lilia up and down before Lilia showed her teeth and let out a warning growl, causing the young girl to hide her face behind her hands. 

Glancing around the room as she bit at her lip, Lilia noticed someone sitting near a table toward the back of the library. And as her teeth grabbed a hold of a loose fleck of skin and peeled it from its place, a stinging sensation marking that very spot, she walked over to them.

The first thing Lilia noticed was his outrageously natural curly red locks barely hidden under a cap he was wearing. Next, she discovered the book open before him was one she already had the pleasure of reading herself, plus destroy in an awful fashion as well. 

Without being able to stop herself, Lilia reached forward, her fingers brushing against the boy's shirt sleeve and grabbing his attention. When he turned, she saw an array of freckles splattered along his cheeks and dull brown eyes replacing the bright ones she thought she would see.

"You reading?" She asked dumbly, already crossing her arms and eyeing him.

"Well, I was." He answered, soon after followed by a mumbled, "Then, you showed up."

Any sign of Lilia possibly being friendly disappeared after his comment, replaced with a plan forming in her head. "Yeah, i've read the entire series. It's pretty good." She started, earning a questioning look from the guy. "Personally, I love the main character. But his girlfriend is pretty cool too. And don't even get me started on how awesome the villain is." Lilia paused just then, biting at one of her nails. Examining once she was done, she asked, "But who's your favorite?"

Warily, or maybe just a bit annoyed sounding, he slowly answered her. "Um, I actually really like the main character's brother, despite him being an evil twin and all, and the fact that he sometimes works with the villain. Which, for the record, i'm not a fan of." He made a disgusted face at Lilia's nail biting habit, quirking his lips in a downward motion and averting his eyes slightly. "But i'm only on the first book, so my opinion could differ from the one I currently have somewhere down the line. Right now though, I have faith that the evil twin could change."

Wanting to smile at how easy it would be to crush this poor person's heart, Lilia opened her mouth, and in all seriousness said, "You know he dies, right?"

The amount his eyes grew was priceless, the slightest breath of air escaping his mouth as he swallowed hard and did all he could to not burst into a frenzy of emotions, and saying, "No, I didn't." Placing a bookmark in his spot in the book, he closed it. "But thank you for crushing my soul, kind stranger."

"No problem." Lilia smiled, pulling out a chair next to him, hanging her bag on it and sitting down at the table.

"This is normally the time when the heartless bad girl leaves the innocent bookworm alone to mourn the loss of a beloved character." He pointed out in all seriousness.

But Lilia only laughed, grabbing the book from its place on the wooden piece of furniture and running her freshly painted black this morning nails over the hard back. "Nah, i'm good. This is the most fun i've had all day." Then, she paused, thinking over her words, adding as an afterthought, "And i've already burnt a library book today, so that's saying something."

The speed of which the book was taken from her was unreal, the object now safely in his hands and guarded by his arms. "Could you leave me alone, maybe?" He looked her over again, no doubt taking in her easily noticeable bad girl appearance. "Don't you have anything else you could be doing right now, a reckless hobby perhaps?"

"I like to read." Lilia told him, chewing louder on the gum that was still in her mouth and randomly picking out a book from a shelf.

"But you just said that you burn books." He spoke, Lilia hearing the slightest bit of stuttering filling his words.

Again, Lilia chuckled. "That's the reckless part." Then, taking the now unflavored gum from her mouth and opening the book she was holding, she stuck it to the page, the sticky pink glob covered in spit, and then Lilia slammed it shut. It didn't look like a book she had read before, and she didn't plan on doing so now. "I'm Lilia by the way." She introduced herself, not bothering to extend her hand, instead reaching in her bag and pulling out another piece of gum.

"Yeah, I know." He grumbled. "It's kinda hard not to hear about a girl like you." He scoffed. Lilia ignored his tone and kicked her legs up on the table, leaning back in her chair.

"Well, nice to hear that i'm talked about. All good things I hope." She smirked, letting her hair hang back as her chair did as well. It could fall over at any moment due to the angle Lilia had it at, plus the weight of herself and her bag. But really, she could care less as that moment. "What about you? Everyone's got a name, so you might as well say yours."

"If I tell you, will you leave me alone?" He asked.

Lilia shook her head, the chair wobbling with the motion as she stared up at the ceiling. "It would be a dang miracle if I did. But there might be a stick of gum in your future if you do."

"Gum chewing isn't even allowed in here." He stated. "You're breaking the rules."

Springing forward in the chair, Lilia looked at him. "Yeah, what else is new?"

——

Question: Who's your favorite male book character ever?

My answer: This answer actually changes a lot. I want to say that it's Caine Soren from GONE by Michael Grant, but he only started being my favorite character sometime around book five in that series. But i'm going to go with Daniel (Day) Wing from Legend by Marie Lu because he's awesome. Duh!