The Book Nook

26

 The library began to feel like a distant dream.

Whatever my life was like before visiting the Public Library for the very first time earlier, it was now no longer the same. This I knew for sure. That life was like an old home and a warm bed that I could no longer return to. I had been swept up in this girl's wake and into her wild sheep chase - even though I knew nothing of what I'd be in for in the future.

When I had stepped out from the end of the aisle, never before had I felt more insecure than I did right then. I had expected to find Alexandria alone, perhaps with a boom box, spinning her own collection of albums, creating a different atmosphere than one that a darkened library would usually provide.

That's not at all what I was met with.

I saw older men and women - some of the men with noticeably younger women - holding cocktails and chatting amicably like it was just another classy charity fundraiser event for wealthy donors.

It was difficult to be anything but vastly confused as to how this could be occurring. The timeframe didn't make sense and we had heard nothing earlier. All the lights had been completely shut off the moment the library shut for the night. Although to be fair, the lights were still off now, the only ambient lighting coming from candles in the middle of small, circular bar tables, the kind of ones people stood around. There were several of them scattered around the edges of the circular area, the middle free of clutter save for small clusters of people milling about and talking in groups. I could see no dancing even though the space was primed for it.

None of them seemed to have noticed me, or at least none payed me any attention.

That was fair though; I was quite out of place and it would likely be best to ignore someone like me so that perhaps I would just leave instead. But Alexandria must be there somewhere. Wouldn't see have mentioned me?

I scanned the length of the library's central area. I saw gentlemen in older suits, women in formal dresses, long and wavy; the younger ones more short-cut and revealing. Alexandria would have been easy to spot but I didn't see her. Perhaps she was out of view on the other side of the circle where more people lingered and where it was harder to see across the room from.

I refrained from moving across the room as I was immediately hesitant to intrude on the party. But surely many, if not most, of these people had seen a black and blue haired girl wearing torn-knee jeans and a black long-sleeved top. Noticeably casual in a sea of dignified. I weighed the option of asking around.

Even for what I had seen so far, this was strange. Alexandria had not so much as even mentioned an after-hours party, let alone hinted at one to me. Had she?

Thinking again, however, why would she anyhow? Perhaps my nodding off gave her the perfect opportunity to duck out and get in on the surprise.

It was odd how they had kept it so quiet the whole time.

Perhaps as the central area was getting set up and guests were arriving, Alexandria had strategically kept me away from the middle of the library. That's why we had went and hung out in the children's section and then she had taken me from there to the staff break room, likely to be sure I wouldn't hear any noises or voices from elsewhere in the library as to keep me entirely unsuspecting. Now it all was making clearer sense. Somewhat.

The feeling that remained unshakeable was the sense that none of this was quite real. It was a strange feeling, akin to being in a dreamlike state where events are so real that you've confused yourself as to whether or not you're even dreaming at all and perhaps the world had merely tilted and shifted its reality, causing an altering to the existing world as you knew it.