the ballad of him and his brain ∙ van mccann (UNDER EDITING)

1

"oops, I'm sorry," I mumbled, kneeling down to the pile of books I accidentally knocked out of someone's arms. it was my fault for not watching where I was going.

"it's alright," the person, a young male, responded, kneeling down too. we both collected the books from the ground, and I carefully stacked the books that I had into his arms.

"thank you," he said, giving me a friendly grin. "but I think some of the books you had got mixed in with mine." he added, a chuckle escaping his body. he shrugged, lugging them over to the library's checkout. I followed him, the few books that I hadn't dropped still in my arms.

"hey, um... you," I began awkwardly. the boy turned his head, his eyes looking down at me.

"I'll just check-out the books for you, we can sort them out afterwards, if that's okay." he whispered, the grumpy-looking librarian stamping each of his books. I nodded my head, and before I could ask my next question, it was my turn. I piled my books onto the counter, and shyly waited for the woman to finish stamping my books. and once she had finished, I slid them into my arms and wandered outside.

"over here," he mumbled, his voice sounding a bit funny. I turned to his direction, walking over to him. "do you know how many books you had?" he asked, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, bouncing around with each word he spoke. I shook my head,

"not exactly, but I'll recognise the covers." I replied, gaining a laugh from him. we began to dig through the books, and I sat the ones I had picked out beside me.

he straightened his posture from his previous half-bent stance; placing his hands against his back as if he were to 'crack' it. "do you mind if I light this?" he asked, pointing to the unlit cigarette that had been resting between his lips.

"go ahead," I simply replied. I found the last of my books, and they were all in a separate pile from his, so I stood up, leaning against the concrete wall behind us. "I've only known you for about ten minutes and I already know two things about you, but I don't know your name."

he gave me a slightly puzzled look before turning his head in the opposite direction of where I stood, blowing the smoke out of his body. "what do you already know about me?" he asked.

"I know that you, also, read, and that you smoke."

he nodded his head in what I would assume was an agreement to my statement. "people call me Van." he said, taking one last drag of his cigarette before dropping it to the ground, then squishing it beneath his boot. he then proceeded to bend down and pick it up, throwing it in the nearby bin. "and what do people call you?"

the way he worded his question, and the way he answered me, confused me a little, but I didn't bother to prod.

"my name is Rose."

"ah, I've always liked that name. Roses are beautiful. I love them deep-red ones." he spoke, and I nodded. I actually adored deep-red roses. he scooped up his books. I did the same, figuring he was done with me. "Rose?"

"yes?"

"I wanna give you something." he said, placing his books down again. he dug around in the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out his worn wallet. he stuck out a small, crumpled piece of paper. "here, take this." he added, picking his books up one last time. before even seeing what was on the paper I gave him a funny look.

"use it any time you want." he finished, flashing me a smile, and disappearing around the corner.