Boy From the Library - Phan

Chapter 1 - The Cute Nerd

Dan's Overhead

It wasn't rare that people would come and sit in the library that Dan worked in. They would sip their coffee from the book store's Starbucks that opened up inside on the second floor, or take out books and usual things like that. Dan loved his job – it was quiet, and people didn't bother him. He was free to use the internet as much as he pleased so long as he wasn't in the middle of helping somebody. He still had things to do, like put away the book returns or help people to check out their books. But when the days were slow, much like today, Dan found the best thing to do was catch a bit of shut eye.

“Dan? Dan!” his coworker Brooke shook him awake. “Wake up, before Collin catches you.”

Collin was the manager, and main librarian at the library. He was nice, but always more focused on keeping his librarians in order than minding Dan's laziness. Whenever Dan would 'take a break,' Collin just had to spoil the fun.

“I'm up,” he assured. “We're good.”

“He wants you to go put away these,” she said, handing him a box of returned books. “They go in the romance aisle.”

“Or, you could do it for me,” he suggested. Brooke was his friend from a long time ago, back when they were kids. He teased her all the time, but in good taste.

“Not a chance.” She dropped the heavy box on his lap. “Go.”

He put on a puppy begging face.

She smiled, and brushed her blonde, wavy hair behind her. “No, you big baby.”

“Fine,” he finally sighed. “I'm asking Collin for a raise.”

“What makes you think he'll give you one? You don't do anything.”

“C'mon, Doll-Face.” 'Doll-Face' was Brooke's nickname that Dan had given her back when she used to play with dolls. She used to be obsessed with them, but would never let Dan touch them. “I do things.”

“Like what?”

“I'm about to put these returns away.”

She punched his arm as he got up to leave. He began searching for the correct shelf and started putting the books away. He brushed his brown fringe to the left as always as he moved back and forth to find each spot assigned for each book. He returned back to his desk and sat behind his computer. Brooke had gone about her way.

Dan's bored eye drifted off to some of the people in the place. A mother was suggesting books to read to her small children, and old man was checking out a few books at a time, teens were looking at magazines.... Then Dan's eyes got wide. A boy, in his twenties like himself, was sitting alone with a stack of books. His skin was a flawless pale white and his hair was a dark black and swayed to the opposite side of Dan's in a similar fringe. He had wide, sophisticated glasses that he was using to read. He was looking down at one of the books he must be reading. He wore a cute, small smile, like he was enjoying it. He was beautiful.

“Dan?”

“Ah! Brooke!”

Brooke had appeared behind him with another box of returns. “Collin wants these put away too. Uh, you ok?”

“Yeah, you scared me.”

“What are you doing? You weren't asleep again, were you?”

“No, not at all.”

“Sure.” She shoved the box in his hands. “You're going to get fired if you keep doing that.”

“It's not wrong if you don't get caught, Doll-Face.”

“Well, when you do get caught, don't come crying to me!”

He playfully and sarcastically smiled at her.

“Let's go, we have more returns. That box goes to fiction novels.”

“Yes, my queen.” Dan walked over to the fiction section of the library and began putting away the books. As usual, he read every title, many of which he'd seen before. He knew what most were about too by reading the backs or insides when he would be bored. He lifted “To Kill a Mockingbird” to the higher shelf when someone poked at his side.

“Excuse me?”

It was the boy Dan had been watching. He looked at his face; innocent and cute, maybe a bit skittish.

“Can I have that?” he asked, pointing to the book in his hand. He looked nervous.

“Oh, yeah. Here,” he said, handing him the book.

“Thank you,” he responded, taking it quickly and moving back into his seat. Dan watched as he put the last book on top of the stack and open up the new one.

Did he read all of those? Dan thought. He finished his job and went back to his desk. His eyes went back to the cute black-haired boy. He just sat reading all alone. Dan couldn't help staring at him all the way until his shift was over.