Libraries

I skimmed my fingers over the thick, leather-bound spines of the dusty, old history books I was supposed to be researching from. I’d always hated libraries, I mean, who spent more time with books then necessary? Plus, how were you supposed to find anything, anyway? I couldn’t even find any of the books on my list, and I’d been searching for a good half hour now. And there was no way I was asking that creepy old librarian for help.

I sighed and pulled out a book at random, one that looked less thick than the others.

I almost screamed and I did drop my book (painfully) on my foot when I saw someone’s eye peering at me through the shelves. The eye blinked and disappeared.

I was unnerved and more than a little jumpy. Who knew libraries were so creepy?

“Hey! I’m sorry for scaring you!” called a pleasantly deep voice from the end of the aisle, much too loud for a library. The librarian certainly thought so too, by the way she was glaring at him.

“Him” was a tall, friendly looking boy that looked about the same age as her. His dirty blond hair was surprisingly very similar to my own and I was struck by a random thought of ‘how cute would we look together?’ I shook my head and noticed that he was walking towards me. I blushed and realized that I was still standing there like an idiot and quickly bent to pick up the fallen book.

As I straightened, the boy had reached me and I suddenly recognized the creepy blue eye that had been peering at me through the shelves. So it was him...

He grinned ruefully and rubbed a hand through his hair awkwardly. “So, uh, yeah. Sorry about that.”

It took me a second to realize that he was talking to me. Clearly, the jokes about dumb blondes were at least somewhat true. “Oh, yeah, uh, it’s okay.” I blushed deeper at my stuttering and rolled my eyes at myself internally. His eyes crinkle when he smiles and I’m relieved to see that he isn’t totally disgusted by my stupidity.

I stand there and wait for him to say something, not being much of an initiator myself. The grin on his face fades a little and it suddenly resembles like a bit of a smirk. Clearly, this boy had the confidence of twenty and then some.

“So, what were you doing?” he asks easily, sliding his hands into his pockets. My initial shock has worn off and I think to myself wryly about players and overconfident pretty boys.

“Oh, I was just looking for... uh... Canada Through the Ages,” I reply, showing him the scrap of paper which had the book number written on it. He glanced at it and smiled at the book in my hands. The Complete French Revolution. I wondered if he could see the embarrassment written all over my face. “... I’m not that great when it comes to libraries, as you can probably tell.”

He chuckles and he doesn’t look as cocky as he did before. He grabbed my hand and led me further down the aisle. My eyes immediately picked out the cover of Canada Through the Ages, but I was more focused on how warm his hand was around mine.

“You were just looking in the wrong section,” he explains, letting go of my hand to pull out the thick textbook. My hand felt suddenly freezing without his around mine. I held onto the book numbly as he passed it to me.

“Thanks... I need this for a history paper,” I tell him. I immediately want to smack my face on the book. Obviously. I didn’t need to tell him that. He looks at me like he’s thinking the exact same thing. “Though, to be honest, if I had to be reading something, it’d be Maze Runner or something, it’s a really good book, one of the few that I like...” I snap my mouth shut, realizing that I was rambling.

But when I look back at him, his eyes are sparkling with excitement. “Hey, I love that book too!”

A smile lights up my face and I find myself subconsciously leaning towards him. “I know, right?! Have you read the sequel yet?”

“Of course!” he replies, rolling his eyes like obviously. “Can you believe the ending?”

“No! I can’t believe we have to wait for the third book to come out!”

“Exactly, right? It’s like, I need to know!” We burst out in laughter and I can’t see the overconfident jerk I’d suspected him of being anywhere in his face. He was just a regular guy who happened to like the same book as I did... why did that put a huge, goofy smile on my face?

“Shh!” We were snapped back to reality as the librarian glared menacingly at us from her desk, her face a mask of disapproval. We snort and smirk at her until her glare shifts to someone else, making us laugh again.

And as I look back at those piercingly blue eyes that scared me just a few minutes ago, I can’t help but hope that there’d be a sequel to this little story of ours as well.