Fire

Metal

The next day at school is a blur until lunchtime when you hang back across the way from the library with your Walkman on.

You must have walked up to the door and back several times. It's not until you realise the Librarian is staring at your weird behaviour that you actually bite the bullet, turn off your Walkman and go in.

As you walk in, she eyes you. You offer a small awkward wave and head over to your regular seat, only to be hit by a piece of crumpled paper.

You pick up the paper and look around to see Eddie's grinning face in a gap in the bookshelf. He beckons you over to his table. You oblige and walk around.

Eddie's table is strewn with notes, drawings and some basic geometric map-type things.

On your approach, he quickly pushes them to the side, pushing the chair opposite him out with his foot. His eyes and smile are wide and welcoming.

"I knew you'd turn up eventually." He whispers, locking your gaze to his.

"Well yeah, I have a few questions," you say in hushed library-level tones.

"For lil' ol' me?" He smirks at you.

"No, for everyone else at this table," you say sarcastically, looking at the empty seats.

"Ok, well, you can ask me questions as long as I can ask you some back." He says, looking down at the pencil he is twiddling on the table, then raising his soft brown eyes to yours, "A fair deal, right?"

"Right." You muster, looking at some marks on the table that have suddenly become very interesting.

"Ladies first." He looks over at the Librarian, looks back at you, puts his finger to his lips, and pushes you a pencil and a notepad.

You look at him, confused. He taps the paper a few times and smiles, blinking at you.

You take the pencil and tap it on your temple a few times. He reclines in his chair opposite you. His legs extend, brushing slightly on either side of your own.

You write on the paper, 'Why did you tell George to buy me that particular gift?' and push the pencil and paper back to him.

"Straight to the point, huh?" He says and is immediately shushed by the Librarian. He purses his lips for a second, annoyed at being silenced and then dives at the notepad with the pencil. His long hair spilt all over the table, his face close to the paper. He raises an eyebrow at you and pushes the notepad and pencil back.

It says, 'Because the stuff you had was dry as hell, and it got me in the right place at the right time.'

You furrow your brow. How could Eddie know that, and what did he mean, right place and right time for what?

You read further down, 'What was the last song you listened to?'

Grabbing the pencil, you write, 'What do you mean right place, right time? For what? How did you know I had any, dry or otherwise? Airlane - Gary Numan'

You push the pad back over.

He scrawls intensely on the pad again, and after some time, it gets spun around back to you.

'That's 3 questions!! To meet you, but you turned up sooner, and it worked out better than I anticipated.'

Then there is a drawing of a weird rodent.

'Favourite dessert? Why defend me? Do you have a hairpin?'

You clap your hand over your mouth and quickly write 'Bruce???' and pick it up, showing it to him.