Rose's Rush Hour.

Chapter Five.

I do not know why a simple statement made my heart go da-dum yet again. Nor why this da-dum thing only happened with Callum. But I wasn’t about to find out since my mind spaced out, preventing me from continuing with the conversation.

Instead, I nodded at the book in his hand and asked, “What’s that?” and noticing how high-pitched my voice sounded, cleared my throat and repeated in a bass, “What’s that?”

He glanced at it and replied, “Just a Geography book.”

I didn’t know what that meant, so I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “Geography? What is that?”

“It’s...” He bit his bottom lip and shifted his weight from one foot to another. “May we sit down? I think the librarian’s gone, and I doubt he’ll be chasing after you.”

I nodded in agreement and stepped back. What’s the worst he could do, ban me from the library? Wouldn’t be the first time I’d been banned from a place for picking an argument with the owner or occupier.

Thank God for Inspector Raphael, who somehow always managed to resolve the issue in my favour and educate people on a thing or two about discrimination. It didn’t stop him from scolding me though, yet he still kept my misadventures a secret from my mother.

He kept plenty of my and Ed’s secrets, actually. It probably wouldn’t be long until he figured out why we needed Callum.

Callum and I sat down at one of the tables, and he explained to me what Geography was. He spoke of physical features and the environment, and countries and maps. He spoke mostly about other places besides Richard Town, how every single place had its own unique attributes and lifestyles, and how there were places yet to be discovered that could even be more beautiful than the ones he’d read and heard about.

I listened to him with wide-eyed amazement, and couldn’t get over how animated and happy he was while he talked. It was contagious and made me smile. He talked so much, I was almost sure he’d forgotten to breathe. I even noticed the goose bumps form on his skin when he talked about a particular place he liked – Harkfeld, it was called.

“Wow,” I breathed when some silence finally passed between us.

At once, his face flushed pink and he brought his fingers under his bangs, lightly massaging his forehead. “I’m sorry, I talked too much.”

I let out a tiny giggle. “I didn’t think you were capable.”

His ears looked like they were on fire. I must’ve been right, because his fingers touched the tips of one of his ears. “I am so embarrassed. I didn’t even let you speak.”

“I was listening and enjoying you talk,” I said with a grin. “Geography sounds interesting. I like that you have something you’re passionate about.” I propped my elbow on the table and rested my head in my hand as I watched him. “You really wish to travel, huh?”

He nodded sheepishly and flipped a page of the book, running his hand over the colourful page. “I’ll go to Harkfeld one day. I don’t know how, since it’s halfway across the world, but I will.”

I simply smiled, and thought about how nice it would be if I went with him.

Out of the blue, he asked, “Why do you look at me like that?”

“Like how?”

He lifted his eyes to me then quickly looked away. “Like that.”

“How am I looking at you?” I laughed, leaning both my arms on the table.

“You know how,” he murmured.

“No, I don’t.” I argued, amused.

“It’s...” he said, and used his index finger to scratch his eyebrow. “The look is...it’s piercing.”