CLICHÉ

2.2 Library

'I don't know why people do such a horrible thing.' Rahul
shoved exasperation in his voice.

'Come on, relax. We will find it in no time.' I said.

That's not going to happen, is it? A voice whispered in my head. I know it was true.

'How? We aren't able to find it in the past 25 minutes.' Rahul said. Although Rahul is an amiable guy, he tends to flare up in an instance.

'Don't give up! take a look at the lower shelf.' I suggested. His 5-foot 6-inch stature won't be helpful in checking the upper shelves.

'Library is a temple of knowledge.' Our college begs to differ. The 3 store, green building of St. Lauren's college might have the worst library of all time. A gigantic room divided in 3 sections, arts, commerce and science. Comprising of 80+ cupboards. Books strewn all across random shelves. Yellowing pages fanned out, lacerated apart. Covers scratched up and having a veneer of dust. It was an eyesore. But the worst thing of them all is people's names and drawings drawn on those pages of notebooks that carries important notes. Finding the one book is comparable to finding your soulmate.

'Deb, mind me asking something?' Rahul said. His hands surfing on the books.
'Go ahead.' I said as I pulled out a book. 'Indian Democracy' the title read.

'What's the deal between you and Kiara?' he said. Small pang of loneliness stuck me with his question.
'How many times do I have to tell you. Everything is good. We are just friends now. That's it.' I refuse to take the bait. Don't want to elucidate on that topic.

'You two sure don't act like friends.' he said eyes still fixed on the books.'
'Will you stop? 3 months has passed to that thing. And we have agreed to stay friends since then. How hard is it to understand?' I got a little ruffled.

'Okay. I understand.' he said pulling out a tattered, dusty book. 'Or maybe I think, I understand.' he added as an afterthought.

'By the way, there's nothing here.' Rahul stood up.
'Ok, let's find it in the other section.' I declared.
'Why the hell will someone place the 'the evolution of non-chordates' in arts or commerce section.'
'Well because of this I guess.' I said showing him the book 'Indian democracy' it clearly belonged to the arts section.

'I don't know why people mislay books. I mean what's the point? Are people that lazy?'
'You talk about lazy. The guy who takes shower once week.'
'screw you!! It's not the same. Delayed shower doesn't harm anybody. This mess clearly does.' he said, rolling his eyes towards the shelves.
Grabbing another book, Rahul's eyes started scrolling through the pages.

'Ok. How about we do as I mentioned earlier.' I said.
'Look in the arts and commerce section?' He seemed annoyed by the suggestion.
'Yes.'
'Won't it take a large amount of time.'
'Yeah like checking our own science crap took us a couple of seconds.' I said, little frustrated this time.

'Ok, if you say so, might as well give that a chance.'
'Good, I will go that way.' I pointed towards a broken cupboard at the left corner in the arts section.

'Take a look at this one though' Suddenly Rahul flashed a page in front of me.

Someone had scribbled 'I love you Sunaina' on the last page of the book.

'Really!' I blurted out. 'Who writes such stuff anyway? Why would someone write that? That's too on a library book. And why didn't he mention his stupid name. How will the girl know who likes her if the guy didn't write his name?' I continued

'That was sexist.' Rahul said.
'What was?'
'Why do you think a boy wrote that? It can be a girl.'
'You mean she wrote she loves herself?'
'Can be but also...' Rahul shot me a dirty look. 'That a girl likes her. If you know what I mean.'
'Wow, We are just 1 month away from our exams. We have literally no notes. We can't find even the book and after all those things; this is what you are thinking.'
'Hey, I'm very open minded, all right?' Rahul said with a smirk.
'Yeah, shows on your google search history, how open minded you are.'
'Come on' he threw his arms in the air. 'But seriously though, do you think there really is a lesbian in our college?'
'I don't want to have this conversation, now. Please go check the commerce section.' I stated, heading towards the arts section.