Love, Hart [Discontinued]

three

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RUBY

Silence.

Complete, utter, silence.

It wasn't uncomfortable nor was it comfortable. It was just extremely loud and obnoxious.

His eyes were wide as he pieced me together like a puzzle. His eyes darting around my face, never staying in one spot for more than a second.

He knows me, I thought to myself.

I searched his eyes for something; anything that might help me recognize him, but nothing was there.

I didn't remember him.

But he remembered me.

"Hi." I said, pulling my hood over my head. My two braids stuck out and rested on my chest, the ends slightly curled due to my curly hair.

My sudden greeting had pulled him out of whatever trance he was in. He cleared his throat and pursed his lips. "Hi."

No 'how was your day' or 'how are you' was followed after, just the sound of the painful silence.

I stood up from where I sat, tucked my pocket journal into my back pocket and let my arms hang at my sides. Our height difference caused the uplift of both my eyebrows, shock evident on my face.

Me standing at 5'8 beside him made me look shorter than I really was. The top of my head just barley met the bottom of his chin.

"Do you need help finding a book? I'm sorry I just started working here and I don't know where everything is, so my skills to helping you are limited." I smiled sheepishly at the boy in front of me.

"No sweet-" he caught himself. "No."

"Oh okay." I began to turn and walk away, desperately trying to get away from yet another awkward situation. I swear they always find me and I'm never prepared.

As I was about to turn the corner the boy spoke again, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"Wait!" He called.

I shut my eyes tightly and cursed under my breath. Turning around on my heel I gave him a curious look, one in which he noticed.

"My friends. They saw you over here and wanted to know if you wanted to sit with us." He hooked a thumb behind him. I put my weight on my right foot and leaned a little to see the group of kids that had walked in. They were smiling and waving at me.

"We come here often and never see kids our age. They got excited." He said in a bored tone.

"I don't know." I said leaning back to my previous stance. "I have a lot of things to do still."

My lying has never been good and the blank expression on this guys face told me he didn't believe a second of it.

"Okay." He shrugged and began walking back.