An Average Girl

Caught Between The Shelves

Last night was Valentine’s Day and to celebrate the romantic love-filled holiday, Matt and I had an anti-Valentine’s Day evening. He came over, dressed in grey sweatpants with a tight fitting white v-neck with a loose black tie hanging around his neck for style. He brought a single yellow daisy and a tub of cookies and cream ice cream. We devoured it on my couch together while watching a horror movie marathon.

It was fun to just have a night filled with no pressure, no expectations, and most importantly no romance. At first when Matt suggested hanging out that night I was a little skeptical, I didn’t want to give him any false hope that this could become an actual relationship. Matt was merely a safe sexual convenience in my life.

Once again I was sitting in the library trying to finish some homework during lunch. It had become routine for us now, once a week Matt and I would excuse ourselves to work on a project and meet up between the wooden shelves secretly. Since the new semester began we no longer had the excuse of drama but fortunately for us we had philosophy together with no one else from our friend group.

Absentmindedly tapping my light blue mechanical pencil lightly against my notebook, I waited for Matt to make his appearance. Getting bored I stood up and browsed the many different titles of books before me. The spines were cracked and faded after many years of being handled by careless teens, the small black fonts faded with age but the printed words were still as bold as ever.

Matt kissed me lightly on the shoulder from behind, nuzzling his face in my neck. A smile immediately found a home on my face and I placed the book I was holding back in its proper face. Spinning around so we were facing one another I whispered a hello in his ear, his unmistakable cologne melting my senses. I kissed him passionately, my hands grasping his flimsy green t-shirt. He licked my bottom lip asking for entrance and I allowed him in, his warm tongue tasting every inch of my mouth. His large hands gripped my waist, burning the couple inches of exposed skin between my tank top and jeans, and I had to stifle a moan as he planted butterfly kisses down my neck. I pressed myself against him harder restraining myself from ripping his clothes off right then and there. 

“No way!” came a startled screech from near us. Matt and I jumped apart instantly, tugging our clothes back into their proper place. Quickly scanning around, I spotted Lucy standing before us with a dumb-struck expression on her face and a forgotten notebook that had fallen to the carpeted floor lying by her feet. Her jaw was slack due to shock and her eyes were as wide as saucers. I felt like laughing at how comical she looked but there were more serious pressing matters.

“It’s not what it looks like!” I rushed to explain. My brain was working over-time trying to come up with a plausible excuse that would explain the two of us almost tearing one another’s clothes off while we were supposed to be accomplishing school work. I could lie and say it was for a play we wanted to audition for, but that would just lead to more questions like what they play was about, who was holding the auditions. Things that would not be so easy to make appear out of nowhere.

“I think it’s exactly what it looks like,” Lucy muttered still bewildered. She blinked a couple extra times, as if to be sure what she was seeing was actually real. It crossed my mind to knock her out, drive her home, and somehow convince her it was a dream. It seemed improbable however that we could succeed. Lucy checked over her shoulder to see if anyone else had witnessed the same unexpected scene as she had, but the library was practically dead like usual.

I tried to laugh it all off, waving my hand about as if to dismiss any wild notions that were running through her mind, but it sounded forced even to my own ears. “It was nothing,” I tried to convince her. Maybe if we were extremely lucky Lucy would find this an acceptable answer and be on her merry way like it was just another day. Who was I trying to kid?