Five Steps | Chaelisa

Chapter 23

Lisa's POV

I duck inside the library, completely soaked from head to toe. Nothing like biking down a hill in a torrential downpour to make you feel alive.

As I'm drying my squeaking shoes off on the entryway rug, a hand wraps around my arm, pulling me into a small alcove just next to the front doors.

"Ew," Roseanne says, rubbing her hand against her new Levi's jeans. "You're wet." I roll my eyes, then pretend to squeegee the edge of my shirt onto her. She jumps out of the way, glaring at me. "Yeah, well, I would've waited out the storm in the chem building if it weren't for someone texting me every ten seconds asking when I was getting here."

I crane my neck, looking past her into the main room, my eyes landing on a rectangular table by the café where Abby and Suzy are already sitting, books open in front of them.

"Did you go over yet, or have you just been creepily standing by the front door this whole time?"

"Creepily standing by the front door," Roseanne replies, hoisting up the straps on her enormous backpack.

I give her a once-over. Not only does she clearly own an umbrella, but she looks pretty good. She's got her new jeans on and a cute graphic T-shirt we picked up from H&M, her blonde hair in a messy bun to protect it from the rain.

I nod, slightly impressed. It's a definite improvement from her usual four outfits. "I like your jeans!"

Roseanne's cheeks redden slightly. "Thanks." She glances down at her clothes. "Took me, like, an hour to decide on an outfit. Wanted to save the best stuff for a real date."

"Nice. I like that kind of thinking. Now..." I grab her arm this time, spinning her around to face the main floor of the library. "Let's see what Suzy thinks."

We head over to the table, and Suzy and Abby look up as we arrive.

"Hey!" Suzy says, scooching her books closer to make room for us. Abby follows suit, hoisting her enormous engineering textbook out of the way, a sea of brightly colored highlighters sitting in front of her.

"Hey," Roseanne responds as she... plunks down in the chair farthest from Suzy. "Cute shirt!" Abby says, and Suzy nods in agreement, which... is better than nothing.

"Hey, Roseanne," I say, tapping her chair leg with my foot. "Don't you need to use the outlet?" I nod to the open seat directly across from Suzy, hoping she gets the hint.

Thankfully, she does.

"Oh! Right. Yeah," Roseanne says, her eyes wide with nerves as she switches seats.

Pull it together, kid. The whole team is counting on you.

"You do the reading for Jon's class?" Suzy asks, holding up a copy of 1984. Roseanne and I nod, and I give her a look that screams, Say something.

"Yeah, uh, thought we left that in high school, but I guess not."

Good, finally some progress. The joke hits and Suzy laughs, shaking her head. "Tell me about it. Once was more than enough."

On this particular book, I actually agree with her.

The small talk gives way to studying, and I spend the next hour trying to be interested in ionic and covalent bonds, while Roseanne not-so-casually glances across the table at Suzy a hundred and one times, her pen tapping noisily against her notebook.

I lean back and stretch, my damp clothes squeaking on the chair under me as I eye the bookshelves at the front of the library.

I'm already through the chunky fantasy I got the second week of classes, and I've been itching to grab a couple of books after my fight with Samantha. And with my mom. Especially since I haven't heard from either of them since last night.