Excuse my French

vingt-et-un. vis-à-vis

I wished the school library had a coffee machine. Like seriously. But again, that would cause irreparable damage to the books (which, surely, were ancient and therefore priceless) by the giddy freshmen, careless sophomores, and tired upperclassmen. Pushing my head up with my palm, I sighed as I slouched even more on my armchair next to the window that looked out to Excelsior sports field. The things I'd do for a cappuccino...

Someone sat down on the armchair across from me with a thermos, which he placed so close to my hand that I could feel its warmth. Ugh, that'd better not be coffee. "Long night?"

"Yeah, something like that." I poked the thermos. "What's in there?"

Nolan shrugged, pulling it back closer to him. I let out a long breath—that was way too close. Hell, I'd even murder someone (the scary librarian was definitely a likely target) for some tea—or just anything with caffeine in it, in fact. "It's only hot chocolate," he said, shrugging again apologetically.

Damn, I wanted hot chocolate. "Where'd you get it?" I whispered, glancing up to find that very scary librarian standing a couple tables away from our little table. "Like, I'll love you forever if you could get me some. I'll give you anything." I paused to rub my eyes a little—my contacts were definitely starting to dry out.

Shit, I didn't bring my glasses today.

Nolan smirked and leaned in, like he was going to whisper a secret in my ear. I sat up in my chair as well—it was only polite. My back was killing me though (at the tender age of sixteen...I hoped it wasn't from all this studying). I squeezed my eyes shut, leaned back a little, and felt the satisfying cracks in my back. That felt amazing.

"What?" I said, blinking a little furiously since my vision was currently out of focus at the same moment I realized Nolan wasn't saying anything (and that he probably had no intention of doing so since he was rather intensely staring into my eyes like we were in some sad soap opera). "Spit it out, Hottell."

"I went to lunch out of campus today," he said after a pause. His eyes, which were these astonishingly cornflower blue, stayed on me a little longer than they should have. "Something about my custody issues."

Well, I didn't ask about it.

I nodded as sympathetically as I could and started to lean back into my chair slowly. I still had no idea what the hell Nolan wanted to do with me (both in this odd chance meeting as well as in general) aside from both our involvements in The Aquiline, but there were still the rules of propriety that I liked to follow, unlike someone I knew. "Right. I, uh, hope you'll get over whatever you're going through."

He got the hint and leaned back. "Thanks." There was an awkward pause. "It always looks like you're waiting for someone whenever I catch you."

I totally betted that he expected me to be waiting for Luc. Ugh, why did he have to use his relationship with me in The Aquiline staff to deal with rugby stuff? That wasn't cool. "Actually, yeah. I'm waiting for Olivia." I didn't really need to mention that I was going to hang out with Luc for a couple minutes later, did I?

"Olivia, yeah." Nolan nodded. He looked pretty nonplussed. Then maybe it wasn't about rugby. I needed to get better at this people guessing game (which, my dad always said, could always be improved through chess, which I rejected upon seeing about three different pieces). "I actually need to check out something before I head off. Thought I'd say hello. How are the poems going, by the way?"

That alone was enough to induce another headache. "Well, I'm really rushing to get everything organized before the finals, which you know are in, like, a couple weeks. Some of the staff members aren't, um, completing their jobs, so I have to cover for them. The usual."