Library Cards - Joshler

Week 2

It had been roughly a week since Tyler had seen the guy with bright red hair and at this point he had mostly forgotten about it now.

He had more important things to worry about than some asshole up to no good, like for example: trying to salvage any peace he had left in his apartment.

This morning Tyler had unsuccessfully attempted to avoid the couple that had been constantly occupying the place for god knows how long, seriously couldn't he even eat breakfast without having to deal with their lack of care for each other's' personal space? He tore of a piece of his toast and flung it at Mark's head, he didn't even react.

Tyler emitted a loud groan "Seriously, you guys aren't even eating anything why are you in here!" and he tried to throw yet another piece of his breakfast at them.

Mark and his girlfriend, Sarah, finally paid attention to Tyler just as he got ready to arm himself with another bit of toast.

"I'm sorry Tyler but that's what happens when it's true love." Mark said deadpan, "we just cannot be more than 5 metres apart otherwise we will both cease to exist." He rested the back of his hand on his forehead and pretended to swoon into Sarah's arms. Tyler just decided to eat the toast chunk he was holding instead of wasting it on his ridiculous house mate.

"Well, keep your wonderful and undying true love at least 5 metres away from me then." Tyler retorted, earning himself a high five from Sarah much to Mark's protest.

"Have fun at work Tyler!" Sarah chimed "Maybe you'll see the cute red head." She winked at him.

"Ugh, hopefully I don't. No one comes in and disorganises my library, not on my watch, oh no. Evil would love that wouldn't it?"

Tyler shook his fist at nothing in particular. He picked up his backpack and settled his headphones on his ears for his daily train ride to the library. If he hadn't been so distracted then he might have noticed the small red headed punk on the train desperately hoping Tyler didn't notice him.

As soon as Tyler stepped through the doors of the library he was met by Jenna, who sent him over to the check out and returns desk.

He hadn't bothered to tell Jenna about the book swapping menace from last week as he assumed it was a one off thing.

Tyler had resigned himself to a day of scanning books and helping visitors, he didn't mind it though since it was better than some of the other jobs he had to do. At least in his comfortable seat behinds the desks he could sneak onto his phone sometimes.

In his comfortable seat Tyler also had a direct view of the returns hole, where he would occasionally get a scare whenever books fell through while he was distracted.

Sometimes, however, he would see the tops of people's heads as they walked past. He nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw a flash of red go past the hole.

Tyler decided to wait for a few minutes as he saw the guy hastily run into the adult fiction area and then saw him emerge with a stack of books in his arms, the exact same books.

Jumping up when he saw that the Red-Headed Menace, as Tyler had now dubbed him, he walked out from behind the desk and followed him into the non-fiction section.

Tyler could see him crouched down as he started the same thing he had tried to do last week, pulling each book out and replacing it with one taken from the sci-fi area.

"Halt!" Tyler yelped as he jumped out from behind a bookshelf, there was a loud clatter as the red head dropped a book he was holding in shock and he yelled before realising it was Tyler.

Tyler squinted "Who are you and what are you doing with my books?" he pointed a finger at the boy who was now slowly getting up.

He looked down at the books he had been replacing and then up at Tyler and back down again at the books. "I jus- I uh." He faltered before looking back up to Tyler again. "Aliens are real." He whispered and then turned to leave.

"What? Hey!" Tyler tried to run after him "Aliens are not real and do not belong in non-fiction you menace!" he yelled as he gave up on running after the now sprinting boy. He really needed to get fitter, Tyler noted to himself.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jenna making her way towards him and he quickly backed up.

"Tyler, why are you yelling? Who was that guy?" she put her hands on her hips and Tyler stuttered. "Do you know him?" she tried again.

He shook his head. "Just some asshole that's been coming in to swap books, he's stressing me out. He won't even tell me his name!" Tyler huffed and crossed his arms. Jenna had a smirk playing on her lips.

"He's pretty cute isn't he, I'd want to know his name too." She snickered quietly and interrupted Tyler before he could defend himself. "Go clean the books up though, and tell me if he comes back."

He begrudgingly turned around to go sort the books back to where they were supposed to go. He was going to get the broom out the next time he saw that menace with his goddamn x-files books, trying to mess up his goddamn library.

Goddamn cute punk with his goddamn alien obsession. Not in Tyler's library.