Life, Love & The Forbidden

Library Privileges

The cafeteria of Sara's school bustled with life. Teenage life to be precise, complete with the occasional food fight, flipped tray and a whole table of geeks and misfits. Sara sat with her friend, the same as she did every lunchtime and ate her bland food. However, today the normally cardboard texture of her Tuesday taco was uplifted by the thought of Michael.

"So," Her friend chimed whilst munching open mouthed on her meaty snack. "What did you do over the weekend?" She didn't even look at Sara. She figured she just spent the weekend with her father. Sara pretty much always did.

"I went shopping with my father on Saturday," Sara started with the boring stuff. Her friend rolled her eyes, knowing and expecting that answer. The Governor's daughter always got what she wanted. "And I met a guy," Sara quickly filled her mouth with more taco.

Her friend swallowed hard, the crunchy maize shell scratching her throat. Her eyes were wide with excitement and she dropped her remaining taco, meat spilling from the shell onto her plate. She shot a few glances around her as if on some covert mission of secrecy before she said calmly, "A guy?"

Sara blushed. It wasn't really a question on her friend's part, rather the girl's code for "tell me everything you know now". Sara swallowed her mouth full of tangy food and smiled at her friend. "He's in college too," she boasted. Her friend practically threw her food off the table as she slid her tray out of her way and dived across the table.

"Is it someone from that party?" she pried, her face twisting in thought as she tried to recall faces. Sara just smiled and lower her eyes. Her friend fell back in her chair and squealed. Heads turned towards their table and the word "loser" was exchanged between peers.

"Tara! Shhh!" Sara hushed her friend but couldn't help but giggle. Tara raised her arms above her head and waved them around wildly, pointing fingers towards Sara.

"College girlfriend right here!" she bellowed. Sara reached up and grabbed her arms, yanking them down with a thud on the table. Her friend grinned mischievously, biting her tongue mockingly.

"Tara, shut up," Sara tried to hide her head by bobbing it lower to the table. "It can't get to my father," she whispered across the surface of the table, her breath making a damp trail of condensation. A teacher sprung up in the corner of the vast hall and narrowed his eyes through his thin-rimmed glasses towards them. Sara caught his eyes briefly before staring straight at Tara.

"What?" Tara asked, her grin fading. Sara's eyes shot over her shoulder and Tara spun around, following her gaze. Tara's eyes met with the teacher's and she turned back to Sara with a giggle. "Relax," she tapped Sara's shoulder playfully. "My dad never believes a word I say," she stuffed a forkful of cold, oily salad into her mouth.

Sara smiled weakly. "Let's hope so," she sighed.

Once a week Sara's math class had the privilege of using the campus library and it's resources at the local college. It just so happened to be the college Michael attended but she wasn't worried about running into him. She had been coming here for months with her math class and had never seen him.

Tara had teased her on the drive over and because they were in a cramped mini van, the school's logo and name printed on the side in blue italics, she couldn't do anything but ignore her and hope that she disappeared. The library building was as impressive as the campus. It looked like a government building with large stone columns holding up a balcony that students could study on in the summer.

Inside it was silent. Every once in a while a cough pierced the air and a librarian's head shot up from a computer screen, glaring at whoever had ruined her silence. Sara's math class followed their teacher in single file towards the main desk and another librarian, glasses poised on the end of her nose glared down the line of students when the teacher said something to her.

The librarian pointed an elderly finger towards a group of tables situated between two huge rows of heavy leather bound books. Sara followed her finger with her gaze and rested her eye on the back on a fuzzy shaven head. Her stomach tingled and she felt blood surge through her body, the hairs on her arms standing to attention.

As the rest of her group made their way to the group of table's she kept her eyes firmly on the broad shoulders. The muscles beneath the shirt that covered them flexed as the owner's hands busily flipped through what looked like blueprints and artistic sketches of buildings. Sara went deaf and all she could hear was her heartbeat as their group breezed past him.

Michael suddenly felt very watched as he researched past architectural techniques by himself. Tracing paper and blueprints were spread out before him and he had a short pencil tucked behind one ear. He tried to shrug off the sound of high school students filling the reception behind him and was thankful when they went quiet. But he still felt watched.

He heard them approaching his set of tables and as they did so his skin prickled with heat and he looked up from his paperwork. At the back of the group was Sara, her red hair bouncing on her shoulders. She didn't turn but her hand by her side twitched and her fingers curled into an upside down wave. Michael was taken back for a second before he smiled and returned to his paper work.

"What are you up to?" Sara's voice echoed into Michael's soul. She sat opposite him, a heavy math book opened before her. Michael folded his large tracing pages back to their original position and laid his hands flat upon them.

"Nothing now," he smiled at her, their eyes meeting once more. "You?" he peered into her book and Sara followed his gaze to the book's pages.

"Geometry," she scrunched her nose up and it turned white where it wrinkled.

"Ah," Michael pulled his eyes from the pages to meet hers once more, "Easy," he beamed. The corners of his mouth turned up and his mouth fell open a smidge to reveal his perfect white teeth. Sara pushed air out between her lips audibly.

"Maybe for you," she pouted slamming her hand on the book, the noise gaining a glance from the nearby librarian. Sara's eyes dropped to the book as she pretended to read and waited for the attention to shift to another noisy library goer. She rested her hand on her head and it titled to the side, her rosy locks spilling onto the page.

"I can help you if you like," Michael offered noticing her frustration. Sara's mouth turned up at the corners and she blinked at him.

"Seriously?" she asked, not believing him for a second but wishing his proposal was genuine. He nodded and began to pack up his paperwork, rolling the huge blueprints into a tight roll and pushing them into a black cylindrical tube.

"Sure," he capped the tube off with a dark blue screw on lid. He gathered a book in his arms and replaced it on the shelf behind him, turning and throwing his shoulder bag across his chest where it rested at a diagonal line. Sara's eyes watched him intently until he towered over her ready to leave. "I'll see you back here..." he poked his blunt finger into the desk. "...at four thirty"

Sara grinned childishly at him, a smile that was without shame but full of thanks gracing her face. "See you then," she told him as he backed away from her, extending his hand to wave at her one last time before escaping her sight around one of the heavy book cases.