key elements // cth

three

Calum's heart rate picks up, the sound of his heart beats drumming in his ears.

"I'm going to re-new it but before I do I'm going to go look for another book," the girl mumbles, looking everywhere but him. "Do you mind putting this to the side for me for a second?"

"Yeah, yeah. I don't mind at all," Calum gives her a polite grin but really he's thinking hell yeah, I'm about to get myself a girl's number.

"Thanks," she looks at him for once and Calum swears his heart stopped the moment they made eye-contact. Albeit being afraid to admit it, he knew he was whipped for a girl he doesn't even have the name of. But, he was determined to getting to know her, even if he ends up in the friend-zone instead of the desired boyfriend-zone. The girl walks away to the rows of books, leaving Calum with a big and sloppy grin on his face.

Quickly, he tears out a small piece of paper from the copy paper in the printer next to him. He grabs a pen and messily scribbles down his digits, signing if off with 'Cal' and a sloppy smiley face. He grabs the book and opens it up to the middle, carefully placing the small piece of paper in it before closing it back up.

The girl comes back with another book in her hand and her library card in the other.

"Why are you re-newing it now? You know you still have a week left." Calum points out, trying to act calm as he scans her books.

"I'm going on a road trip with a friend tomorrow, wanted to bring that along."

Calum nods before giving her back her books, "wait, before I give you these books, you have to answer a question."

"Uh, okay?" She furrows her eyebrows, confused. Usually, they just give her the book(s) and without saying anything, so there must be a new policy going on or something.

"I always see you around here, what's your name?" He asks her, his heart picking up its beats, his mind wandering to the possible and unpleasant outcomes.

"Jayde," she says slowly, her brows furrowing once again as she tilts her head to the side a bit.

"Oh okay, I'm Calum," he replies and hands her the books like nothing happened. Jayde leaves the library with two books in her hands and her wandering everywhere, confused as to what happened.

But wow, Calum thought. Jayde. That's her name. And it was absolutely stunning.

//

Jayde reaches the floor of her apartment unit, grabbing her keys before unlocking the door and going inside. She heads to her room, grabbing her backpack and stuffing both of the books inside. A small piece of paper falls out from one of the books, making Jayde curious as to what it is.

'408-555-2301 -Cal :)' was what the paper read. Not knowing what to do with it since Jayde has never received a guy's number in her life (she was too shy to talk to a boy, how the hell would she ever get a number from one?), she crumples up the paper and throws it in the trash bin a few feet away from her. He wouldn't care, he doesn't even know her.

Jayde grabs the book and puts it back into her backpack before fishing her phone from the back-pocket of her shorts. She quickly types a text to her friend, making sure that they're both ready for tomorrow when they drive down to  Disneyland and camping, a road trip that they've both been planning when they were still teenagers with faces covered in acne and mouths full of wires.

To: karina: I got everything packed, you need anything?

From: karina: yes lmao I need you to check out a book for me since there won't be any service when we go camping. also since you're seeing me today anyways I'm bringing my stuff and sleeping over so you won't have to drive to my place tmrw