Four Years

Chapter 21

"You know, I really shouldn't have told you I was going to the library."

I eyed my best friend in irritation. I was convinced she had finally lost her grip on what was appropriate and what wasn't.

"Oh, come on. I don't give you the permission to abandon me right after my girlfriend left." Savannah nudged me in the side as we entered the library. Kate had left back to her home at dawn.

I rolled my eyes. "How do you not have a hangover?"

"Oh, I do. I just don't want to fixate on it."

We sat down on a corner table in the near empty place. Since it was nine in the morning, there were next to no people present here. I always loved coming here in the morning because of the pleasant atmosphere.

Last night, we weren't drunk enough to get super drunk, but still drunk enough to not drive our car. Savannah, being the weird person she was, had called the one person I didn't want to call. I mean why would I want the boy who my ex-friend had an eye on to come drive me home from a party, even if I liked him as well? That was just plain stupidity.

"Hey, Lyss," Savannah whispered to me after three minutes of silence.

I sighed. "What?"

"You remember how you were totally drooling over Jace last night and then you confessed your love for each other."

"Savannah, we had discussions on life last night and I told you about the internet lady Karen."

She blew out a disappointed breath. "Damn, you remember."

"Of course, I—"

"Hey, girls."

Hello, God, if you are listening right now please let me die immediately.

Looking like a God who had stepped out of the shower of light and grace, Jace appeared next to our table. He gazed down at us from his height, running his hand through his hair, and his lips lifted in a breath–taking smile. I guess when you start to harbor feelings for someone, the adjectives spill out like water.

But why did he know where we were? If it weren't for last night, I had successfully managed to avoid him through this week. My feelings were quite the dilemma and I needed time to process all this. Had he figured everything out and had resorted to stalking me or something? My eyes widened thinking about this.

"Are you stalking me?" I blurted out.

Jace quirked a brow at me, amused. "No, why would I? I'm here to drop off the books my mom borrowed." He pointed his finger behind him where a small stack of books lay on the counter.

My cheeks reddened. "Oh. Um, anyway, I gotta go and see a book in that section. See you guys later!"

I practically skipped out of the chair I was sitting on, rushing to the deepest corners of the library that proved to be quite hard to find considering this place was very small. To my oh-so shining luck, this section was titled romance. Wow, the universe seemed to be against me right now. Every thing was like a beacon for the thoughts I was trying to push away.

I slouched against a shelf and sighed. This was not going well. Sure, I had verbally admitted to my best friend that I liked Jace, and he did induce some butterflies in my stomach, and also, I had always kind of had this attraction towards him, but the biggest dilemmas were not yet solved.

The question was, was my liking him even the right thing to do? Most importantly, did he even have any such feelings towards me? Would he even like me? The thought made me slip against the shelf slightly and a big, fat book fell right over my head from the topmost shelf. Ouch.