The Eastwood Archives is not a place to be crying your heart out after a heartbreak.
No, definitely not when the said public library houses endless rumors of a weird Library Ghost that appears at midnight.
But when Ebony Suarez, a graduating college...
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For as long as I can remember, I had to give up a lot of things for River.
However, as you can imagine, our two-year age gap wasn't the only factor separating us since we were kids.
River had always been the extroverted and popular one between us two. The boy always being picked first on their team during P.E. classes. The center of group presentations and intermission numbers. The face everyone deems as "conventionally attractive" by societal standards. The heartbreaker. The charismatic one. The one who always gets what he wants.
I, on the other hand, prefer to stay at home. Alone with my books. The boy was always forced to join the team with the least members because he wasn't picked in the previous ones. The one at the back who is always hidden from the audience's view (I'm taller than my peers so maybe that's also a culprit). The "average" face, lacked the essential features to separate me from the crowd. The book smart one. The silent one. The one who doesn't exactly know what to do with his life after college.
Our parents separated when I was fifteen. River was thirteen. My father, who I can barely remember save from the time he would read us bedtime stories (River would ignore him and play with his tablet while I always waited until the story ended), settled in Germany where he worked as a magazine editor. My mother, now a single parent at this time, worked as a clerk at the municipal office before finally setting as the head librarian at The Eastwood Archives.
People often ask why I'm so mature at my young age. Well, the simplest answer is that I had to be the mature one to keep things together when my father left. I hold no personal grudge towards him, of course. Maybe just a little, but sometimes you have to accept that some couples aren't as compatible as they seem to be. It's a hard pill to swallow, I know. So whenever our mother wasn't at home, I'd step up as the older brother to make sure the house is still a home while River became even more carefree.
Before anything else, I would like to share that there was this one incident in high school when River and I had the same crush.
This happened a few years after our parents got divorced.
She was a classmate of mine in history. Short black hair and a kind smile. We rarely spoke back then, but I remember she was one of the few people who actually paid attention to me whenever I reported in front.
River, who always obligated me to write his essays and do his reading assignments, took a liking to her and started courting her that same academic year. Of course, I had to give way.
Like I had in so many things in my life.
"Don't be like that. There are a lot of girls on campus! Plus you're going to college next year, right? I'm jealous," he would say. "I can't wait to go to ECU and meet people."
"College isn't about meeting people. It's about education and skill development."
"Maybe to you. Come on, why not loosen up a bit? Hey, have you finished my reaction paper? It's due tomorrow."
