Library Cards - Joshler

Week 1

Working in a library Tyler had surprising grown used to seeing weird things that he had just mostly given up on questioning why anyone would do that.

He distinctly remembered in his first week the fire alarm had been set off due to a couple of teenagers attempting to start a mini bonfire in the erotic romance section, managing to destroy a fairly impressive amount of books before they could be stopped.

There was also the incident where someone had asked Tyler if he worked in the library and then proceeded to explain in detail about a lady they had seen take a single leaf off of one of the potted plants and stuff it in her purse, the lady was still to this day sometimes reportedly seen by various patrons.

One of Tyler's co-workers would constantly tell people about the time she had been approached by a teenage boy with a crumpled dollar bill; he asked if she could make a dollar and then elaborated, when she was understandably confused, that he wanted to photocopy the bill to make more dollar bills.

After cackling for five minutes straight, she then directed him out of the library.

He had even started to enjoy the antics that arose from the colourful cast of characters that he saw around his workplace.

There were however times where he questioned why he even wanted this job and he had been reminded of that the past week every time he looked at the pile of taxes that someone had asked him to look after for a minute and then never came back for.

Tyler could relate to not wanting to do his taxes too but he was bitter that someone had just left theirs for him to deal with.

Jenna interrupted his pessimistic glaring at the paperwork when she walked past pushing a trolley stacked with books.

"Still not sure what to do with those taxes Ty?" she asked him with a cheeky grin; Tyler squinted his eyes at the pile and shook his head.

"Was thinking that I should hunt down the guy that left them here and write him a strongly worded letter about how librarians do not exist to do all your paperwork and then tell him I'll get the broom out if I see him here again." He huffed and placed a stack of books on top of the tax files to hide them from his view.

Jenna could barely contain her snort of laughter "Alright then you little vigilante for overworked librarians everywhere."

She pushed the trolley towards Tyler sitting behind the desk, "I also need you to start putting these returns away it's time for my break."

She patted one of the books and left before Tyler could protest.

He was always left with the annoying jobs since Jenna was technically his boss; Tyler was in a very bitter mood today he realized.

Standing up he put down the pen he had been playing with and made his way to the overflowing trolley. There were return books from nearly every area of the library and Tyler knew he most likely wasn't going to be able to finish sorting them all out by the end of his shift.

He started off in the kids section, meekly trying to avoid having to deal with any questions or shenanigans from the children.

Usually he would be more than happy to entertain the kids and play along with their wild stories but today just was not Tyler's day.

It could be argued that the main reason for Tyler's negative mood wasn't necessarily the orphaned tax forms or the piled up book trolley but probably the fact that he would have to go home after this and be subjected to his room mate, Mark, and his girlfriend yet again.

He was happy for them, of course, but it was hard to show that when he had to constantly be around them and their overuse of PDA and especially when Mark's bedroom was just across the hallway from Tyler's room.

He had always assumed that as he grew older he'd get more comfortable with that side of relationships but he had accepted that he probably wouldn't ever, he didn't mind though.

He was distracted from his thoughts as a lady approached him; he turned to her and tried to give his warmest smile.

"What can I help you with ma'am?" she cleared her throat.

"I was just wondering if you had any books for children still learning to read?" she asked him and he immediately pointed towards the S section of the children's area.

"Dr. Seuss is usually quite good for that, his books are just over there." And the lady immediately shook her head.

"Anything besides his books please, he uses made up words. You shouldn't be reading made up words when you're still learning to read." She said sternly.

Tyler faltered, "Uh, alright." He picked up a random children's book from the trolley and handed it to her, "This one is pretty good too."

She inspected it.

"Hm, haven't heard of this author before, but okay." Tyler breathed a sigh of relief as she wandered off till eyeing the cover of the book.

He was going to have to find another author to recommend for parents like her now, he really didn't know much about kids' books.

It was always slightly anxiety-inducing when he had to talk to patrons older than he was but he did he best to brush off the exchange and continue his way through the sections with his trolley.

Aside from the sparse students with their heads buried in textbooks and their laptop along with parents accompanying their kids it was pretty empty in the library.

He ended up eventually at the non-fiction section which was probably his least favourite place to do returns. Filled with way too heavy books and coffee addled college students, Tyler preferred to avoid it altogether.

Starting from the A section he begrudgingly started putting the books back as he sat on the floor, he was usually not allowed to do that but he couldn't see another person in sight this far back in the library.

After a while he eventually started hearing footsteps coming towards non-fiction, Tyler glanced towards the direction of the noise and turned back to his job when he saw it was just a guy carrying a pile of books.

He was extremely used to seeing people walk out of the library attempting to carry a tower of books with their hands; he assumed the red head was no different.

The boy crouched behind one of the non-fiction shelves and after not getting up for roughly fifteen minutes Tyler started to get suspicious.

Abandoning his trolley and the books he was shelving he stood up and walked around the bookcase to find the boy sitting cross legged on the floor with small mounds of assorted books around him.

He whipped his head up when Tyler rounded the corner.

"Um, do you need any help sir?" Tyler tried to offer but the guy simply stood up, turned around and quickly walked off leaving the books where he left them.

"Why are all the cute ones assholes." He muttered as he walked over to the books that had been ditched.

A lot of the books on the floor were non-fiction and in their place seemed to be a series of sci-fi novels.

Tyler really wished he was on The Office right now so that he could stare into the camera as any patience he had left slowly left his being.

What kind of prick replaces non-fiction books with fiction books in the non-fiction section of the library?

Tyler decided he didn't really want to know.