novacane | griezmann

7 // ELLIOTT

I didn't see Antoine the next day, leaving me to bathe myself in regret practically every waking moment of it. On Saturdays, because I had no classes, I worked; I was an assistant librarian for the campus library/bookstore—which was, believe it or not, an extremely hard job.

I had to deal with plenty of people. The purposefully loud ones, the ones who constantly asked questions just to bother me, the couples I stumbled upon having sex in the aisles no one really cared about (because the library was definitely the best place to do it)—and those were just a few to mention.

As I sat behind the main desk, my feet kicked up onto it while I read 50 Shades—which, yes, I was smart enough to use a different book covering for in order to avoid what happened with Antoine happening again—I listened as a group of guys entered the library, loudly.

I hated being the stereotypical pesky librarian, so I figured I would give them a few moments to quiet down—or some other hard-working and focused students would do the job themselves.

"Hey, Valentine." Julian's voice sounded, leaving me to sit up and bring my feet to the ground.

"Hi, Julian." I smiled. Our date last night had been fine; we went to dinner and then he took me dancing, but we soon realized that was a bad idea so we went to the movies instead.

"I didn't know you worked here." He spoke, with a smile.

"Surprise," I responded. "What are you doing here?"

"Robert and Marco paid me to do their group project, but they had their own ideas, so we're going to go work in the group study room."

Of course, those were the two men being loud enough for me to think the were a group.

"Oh, and Antoine is coming, too." Julian spoke, suddenly. I felt my stomach churn. "So if you see him, just let him know where we are."

"Sure thing."

"Thanks, liebe." Julian used a word that must've been German before he winked and sauntered off to the back of the library, leaving me to let out a shaky sigh. Antoine was coming. Why didn't he just ask me to do his work?

My thoughts were interrupted by his familiarly accented voice, however this time I didn't make it obvious how shocked I was as he spoke. "I'm looking for three assholes, have you seen them anywhere?"

"Not unless I'm currently seeing triple."

Antoine tilted his head to the side. "Cheeky," he spoke, and I rose my eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to say that."

"It was hot, up until you apologized."

I looked down at my nails and sighed.

"So, you do this for fun, or something?" Antoine inquired, glancing around the library. I loved Antoine, but I knew the feeling wasn't mutual—so why was he even wasting his time by speaking to me, especially when people were waiting for him?

"It's my job. Until I graduate, that is." I shrugged and glanced up at him. "You know, we can't all be rich football players."

"I never said that." Antoine responded, with a frown. "Anyways, where are they?"

I sighed. "In the group study room."

"I don't come here often, Elliott. Can you show me?"

I stood up, set my book down, and led him to the back of the library. There sat a glass-walled room with plenty of chatty people inside of it, most of which weren't even working. I didn't know why—there were plenty of other places to be on a Saturday night, especially at a university like this one.